President Obama and the VFW

August 18, 2009 — Yesterday August 17th President Obama addressed the VFW National Convention being held in Phoenix, Arizona. I just finished listening to his remarks as the VFW is providing a live streaming video/audio feed of the convention via the VFW National web site and of course there is an archive also available and that is how I could view and hear the President's remarks at 0200 this morning. I must say I was a bit impressed and also a bit concerned.

I was concerned about his remarks in reference to what is going on right now in DoD with a top-to-bottom review of current and projected defense programs and the spending associated with those programs. He is looking to cut out all waste and pork in defense spending and I applaud that as long as he listens to his military commanders and, in the case of his current Sec of Defense Robert Gates, those civilians that know what they are talking about. He told the convention he intends to provide what the troops need to when in battle and to take care of them and their families. All of this is well and good as long he follows sound advice and that best comes from his field commanders. One has to be careful there also because there is a tendency by some military commanders to "protect their six" so to speak. That means the individual services are always in contention with each other for funding and asking for priority on some program whether it is needed or not. That's where the Sec Def needs to be a good and intelligent referee.

I was absolutely impressed with the President's remarks concerning the VA. There were the obligatory remarks of course, but I believe he meant what he said that 1) Concurrent receipt would continue (concurrent receipt means that certain disabled vets do not have military retirement pay reduced by the amount they receive from the VA), 2) the VA will receive advance appropriations (this means that while Congress rankles with the Appropriations bill every year, the VA will get it's funding by Oct 1st when it should...as it should for all other appropriations), 3) has directed that VA Sec Shinseki develop programs to reduce the number of homeless vets, 4) the VA will cut red tape in claims processing to eliminate a huge claims backlog (no one has been successful at this yet), 5) has directed DoD and the VA to work together to develop a lifetime electronic record system that will help eliminate delays vets encounter in eligibility and claims issues. He also mentioned the new GI Bill that just went to into affect. His administration was not responsible for this...it was the Bush administration.

There was much more and the above are just the highlights in my opinion. In the past few years, the government has started to wake up to the fact that it must keep its promises to America's vets. It is less than 1% of the countries population that serve in the military at any one time. That less than 1% carries the fight forward and pays the price for our freedom. We must never break or turn away from the sacred trusts we have with our military and our veterans...it's what really matters!