Finally, another Veteran gets some help.

I received a phone call this morning from one of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment pilots I flew with in Vietnam. He was excited to announce that he has finally managed to get in the VA system and get some help. He had to drive from the Gulf Coast of Alabama all the way to Birmingham to seek help but despite that, he stayed with it and after more than a year, he's managed to get enrolled and begin the long, drawn out program of receiving the kind of care that is deserved, especially when the bullets come through the chin bubble and, in a sense, knock your sox off. Cambodia was hell on earth and he lived in hell for at least 7 months that I remember.

The point I want to make has to do with attitude and perseverance.

Despite the fact that Vietnam Veterans received the shitty end of the stick when they returned, many of them went on to a productive life at work and re-entered civilian life as model citizens. As an unfortunate part of that, so too was Agent Orange doing it's work. Most of us managed to have immune systems that were good enough to fight off the effects until later in life when our immune systems aren't what they once were.

In the same sense that Mustard Gas had it's effects, just like Agent Orange, the Government had to do its duty in dealing with that. It cost a lot of money but it wasn't nearly as costly as having foreigners invade our Country to enslave us.

Over time, something happened to the process where the representatives within the government, had a change in "attitude". I think that comparing the amounts of money spent on foreign gifts, sometimes referred to as foreign aide, when compared to the budget approved for VA operations, should be enough evidence to demonstrate that to be true.

Any way you look at it, I think it's a shame that any combat veteran that suffers from any wound, shouldn't have to take a back seat to some multi billion dollar "foreign aide" package. I believe that it should be against the law and that anyone who votes to do that should be guilty of treason or aiding and abetting. This is certainly true about the most recent sore spot where a gazillion dollars worth of equipment was given to a Country in the Middle East.

As I see it, sending billions of dollars worth of tanks and jets to the enemies of our Country AND our allies and thereby, robbing the Nation's heroes, should be a capitol offense punishable by immediate deportation. Appeasement my ass! That's aiding and abetting.

The same can be said of allowing social security payments to those who don't own a penny of the funds there and never contributed anything to the fund. You vote to let them have it, you get deported too. If we do that, our Veterans will finally be able to get their just due.

I will close this by giving you a quote that Margret Thatcher made during the decision process of sending the fleet to take back the Falklands from Argentina.

Amidst all the nay sayers that claimed it was too small to make any difference and too far away from England to matter, Margret Thatcher asked the Ambassador from the Unites States if they felt the same way about Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941. Good point!

Eventually, after she tired of the punks who were afraid to defend themselves and didn't feel it was right to go after them or the British citizens who lived there, she asked them to do one thing.

"Stop FEELING and start THINKING".