Home of the Free… Forget the Brave – Brainiac On Banjo #366 | @MDWorld

June 2, 2014 Mike Gold 1 Comment

I met a young soldier named Travis Miller at a comics convention about a year ago. He had a very strong desire to get into the comics racket, and he had equally strong concepts to backup that desire. I see that from time to time, so as usual I set up a structure that required him to follow-through to give me an indication of his professionalism and aspiration. He passed with flying colors and we quickly became good friends. Which means, from time to time, we’ve talked politics. And Travis impressed me all the more.

Of course, one of our more recent topics has been the 60 year mess at the Veterans’ Administration. Personally, I feel our outrage is long, long overdue: we American citizens bear a certain about of responsibility for this travesty because we have not been listening to our vets. A few days ago, Travis sent me the following with a “I had to get this off my chest” note.

Indeed. And, I had to get this in print. Therefore, I am yielding my space here to Travis Miller. We are going to hear more from this talented, dedicated young man.

– Mike Gold, on Banjo

Home of the Free… Forget the Brave, by Travis Miller

I am still an Active Duty Soldier for a while longer. Currently I am looking down the long, unfriendly barrel of medical retirement and disability due to brain, neck and back injuries i sustained while fighting in the Iraq War. I’m not writing this to make a political statement. Far from it. If I were to tell you my politics, I would tell you that I am a left-leaning independent, and I would think that is all you need to know. I didn’t vote for President Obama either time he ran for office, nor did I vote for his Republican opponents. It doesn’t matter. I swore an oath to obey the President, and I’m not here to disparage him in any way shape or form or to make any political statement. I want to talk to you about the current fiasco involving the Department of Veterans Affairs. This transcends all politics… or at least it should.

I have been following the story of “secret waiting lists” at the Phoenix VA hospital with growing horror since the story broke.

Now, I’m not naïve. Everyone knows that VA hospitals aren’t the greatest in the world. It’s not even an open national secret. The state of our Veteran’s Affairs and how we, as a nation, take care of our retired and disabled service members is something of an unspoken national disgrace. There are jokes about it in 80s movies; hell, its a major plot point in Return of the Living Dead for Pete’s sake. We have homeless vets all over our country and have since at least the end of the Vietnam Conflict. Nationally, we turn a blind eye or blame the vet for “drinking problems” or “substance abuse” and even worse walk right on by and don’t even think about them. I’m not going to say I’m without sin on this but, I learned years ago that this could be me if I didn’t play my cards just right. The one place left for our veterans, our revered warriors who have fought for our great nation, our freedoms that we hold so dear; the ones that bleed for us, lose limbs, suffer internal physical and mental injuries, the ones lucky enough to make it home from far flung foreign battlefields are VA hospitals and regional offices to collect on the benefits promised to them in their contracts.

I, the Service Member, promise you, The People and Government of The United States of America, X number years of my life which may include me giving up life, limb or eyesight, and my mental or physical well being for the rest of my days; in exchange You, The People and Government back up the promise to help with my healthcare, specifically what I break defending you or following the orders given, some money for college and a small salary that in most cases isn’t even above the poverty line while I am serving those X years.

Seems pretty simple, right?

Then why is it so hard for the government to hold up their end of the bargain? If the Soldier, Sailor, Marine or Airman doesn’t hold up their end, say by AWOL or desertion, that individual goes to prison. Drug use isn’t tolerated and those individuals are released from service with no benefits because they didn’t hold up their end of the deal, of the contract.

Now, in Phoenix we have 42 dead veterans waiting for care they never received because they were on a “secret list” waiting for treatment. 1,700 more at the same facility not even being treated because they didn’t even make it to the “secret waiting list.” 1,138 more veterans had been waiting more than six months to see their primary care doctors. At just one facility?

The Inspector General of the VA doesn’t think it’s just one facility. Over the past few weeks the scope of allegations of hiding the numbers of patients waiting to see doctors, whether it be primary care or specialist, has gone form one facility in Phoenix to ten, to 26 to now 42. Fourty-two.

Let that sink in for a minute.

And, on top of that, these allegations, which are now no longer just allegations of hiding patient wait times so that administrators could receive regular $9,000 bonuses and salary increase by Dr. Sam Foote, are not new. Oh, no. These are well documented. By the Inspector General of the Department of Veteran’s Affairs Office dating back to 2005 in 18 different reports on some of the 150 hospitals and 820 clinics nation wide.

What draconian and unrealistic standards are the VA hospitals and clinics being held to when it comes to patient wait times to see a doctor?

14 Days. Two weeks. From the time a complaint is either called in or seen in an emergency room to the time the veteran is to be seen by the primary care or referred specialist.

14 days.

Two weeks.

This is how we treat our vaunted heroes? Really? If you’re reading this and you aren’t as sickened by that notion as I am by typing it, I don’t know what to do for you.

It wasn’t long ago that I was a detailed recruiter, meaning that the Army chose me to be a Recruiter, in my hometown for three years. This was right after I had come back from Iraq. Again.

I would routinely go to the local malls or areas would people would be gathered, sports rallies were always a big one, or just walk the streets and talk to young people in the age range of 18 – 25 and see if they had any interest in joining the Army. I tell you, I couldn’t walk 15 feet most of the time without some stopping me and shaking my hand and giving me the old platitude “thank you for your service,” or, my personal favorite, “thanks for defending my freedom.” I had to be polite. Had to. I was at work and it was my job to represent the Army in my assigned area.

Want to know something? It bothered me. A lot. It irritated and aggravated me to no end. My ex-wife thought it was just me coming down from being deployed to combat and readjusting to being home in the US of A. My friends, the civilian ones, just thought I was busy trying to work the kids and do my job: “put ‘em in boots.”

Finally, I had to explain it to someone. It took a long time to get it through to my ex, who is still a good friend; the disingenuous hypocrisy of it all, of being thanked for “my service” and “their freedoms.” People didn’t mean it. Well, maybe they thought that they did. That’s the great thing about propaganda. Create a slogan no one can rationally be against, make it into a motto, and then it becomes a national way of thinking, even though no one knows what it means or what it costs.

See, during the Vietnam Conflict and after, as a nation we treated our returning servicemen and women like crap, most were draftees, and they didn’t deserve it at all. Nationally we did two things to correct that grievous error.

First, we created a warrior class by instating an all volunteer force, completely separate from the rest of society that had to be incentivized to be there and filled it with poor kids and patriots; then we told the great national lie: that the military was only for people who couldn’t make it in the “real world” even though it’s harder to get into the Army than into most colleges. No university cares about how many tattoos you have, if you ever had a minor possession of marijuana charge (which in a growing number of states is considered a “moving violation” but to the Army that’s a permanent disqualification for life) or how much you weigh. Yeah the military does. The ASVAB is just as hard as a college entrance exam, and there is no studying for it.

Secondly, we created propaganda, slogans, so that those that did go and fight for the USA never got spat on while coming off a plane again. “We support our troops.” Sure. Who isn’t going to support Joe Schmoe digging a foxhole in the poring rain so he has somewhere to hide when SCUD missiles come flying in? He’s not the guy making decisions, he’s just doing a job, trying to put food on the table for his wife and kids, earn money for college or maybe he’s that guy in the Reserves that got called up out of the blue. It’s the politicians that got us into this INSERT NAME OF WAR HERE. I support the troops, just not the war. Have the kids in third grade make some colorful cards, pack it in a box with some candy, mail it off to some random APO.  Tie a yellow ribbon on a tree, slap a magnet on your car, BAM! instant patriot! Propaganda is an amazing thing. No Serviceman or woman ever has to feel like the Vietnam generation did ever again. Hell, the Vietnam guys are getting love now, too.

“We support the Troops.” “Thanks for your service.” “Thanks for defending our freedoms.”

Propaganda has to be paid for. Your empty slogans, emptier platitudes and yellow ribbon magnets that left those stupid discolored marks on your car cost something.

The promise that We, The People; The Government of The United States has broken. Again. We, The Veterans held up our end of the bargain. Some of us lost limbs. Some of us have spinal damage, or brain injuries, maybe PTSD. Some wounds go back even further to Desert Storm, remember that one? Vietnam. Korea. Yeah. We fought a war there. WWII, though we are losing more and more of The Greatest Generation every day.

It doesn’t matter who the blame falls on right now. President Obama, Secretary General (Ret.) Shinseki, the completely inept combined efforts of Congress (of which around 20% have actually served in the military; maybe there is a lesson there), certainly the management of the VA Hospitals and clinics, specially Phoenix; now the IG is receiving rampant complaints of sexual harassment, bullying and unfair hiring practices by the same mid and senior level managers.

What matters is that this gets fixed. Immediately and permanently. These veterans; that America, her people and most certainly her politicians thump their chests and proclaim to have so much respect and honor for, the very best among us, brave men and women are so easily discarded and forgotten. It’s not until a retired doctor calls CNN about one hospital that something happens.

Nobody blinked when in Sony Picture’s The Amazing Spider-Man, which grossed $262 million on its opening weekend so a lot of people saw this reference, one of the bad guys said he was going to go to the local VA hospital to test an experimental and possibly lethal drug.

Because, there no one cared.

Travis Miller can be reached on Facebook. Feel free to comment here; he’ll read it.

And, because I already wrote the boilerplate: Mike Gold performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking rock, blues and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com and on iNetRadio, www.iNetRadio.com as part of “Hit Oldies” every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, rebroadcast three times during the week – check www.getthepointradio.com above for times and on-demand streaming information. Gold also joins MDW’s Marc Alan Fishman, Martha Thomases and Michael Davis as a weekly columnist at www.comicmix.com where he pontificates on matters of four-color.