President-elect Barack Obama!

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1. J Sapp
   Posted December 19, 2008 at 5:54 am | Permalink

   I hope President-Elect Barack Obama and his new Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki can find some time to take care of this long overdue problem:

   LOST HOPE FOR FAIR & EQUAL TREATMENT FOR VIETNAM VETERANS LIVING IN MAINLAND SOUTEAST ASIA

   I am a Vietnam veteran suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among other things. Some adjudicated and service-connected and some not. I have no more hope that our government or those in power that can would correct their erroneous policy towards us Vietnam veterans living in Mainland Southeast Asia. I have been confronting the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) about this issue over the last seven (7) years to no avail. We have been written off as a casualty of war when it comes to receiving our earned medical benefits. Some consider us as a small group that they do not have to care about. The VA tells us, we do not deserve these medical benefits beyond the Foreign Medical Program (FMP) because we “chose to live there.” Outside our country and in a place where we fought a war and feel drawn to. Even if the prior statement was so as they put it we still deserve our medical treatment here at the expense of the VA. This is a place where we feel comfortable and at home. This is not taking anything away from our country. I love my country; I just feel that I have to be here. They, the VA, do not care that we are uninsurable in the private market, both locally here in Thailand and internationally, because of our service-connected disabilities.

   We would like some to understand that we are just like them. We are the one that was in the foxhole beside you that was the reason you walked out of there. We were the brother that went so you would not have to go. We were the one who willingly risked our life to pull you out of that rice paddy and put you on a Medivac. We were the one who fought our fear and took that stand when we had to. We were the one who stared death in the face, laughed to protect our sanity and went on to perform our duty. Some of us find ourselves mentally still there in the bush. We were in the bush, we have never left the bush and at this age we never will. I am not saying or insinuating we are living in corrugated steel & plywood shacks here in the middle of rice paddies with no running water or electricity and using outhouses to do our business. Though I have heard of that on an occasion or two. The majority of us are living in contemporary housing and feed ourselves well. All we ask is that you take care of us medically, as you would have on those long ago battlefields, which we seem to be stuck in, as we would take care of you.

   Here I am standing on the edge of an enigma. I need my medical coverage and I need the comfort of being here. I have always been, I am and will always be proud to have served my country. So why cannot my country be proud to take care of me here and now?

   Some of us have joined the local VFW posts; that in a way helps us cope. Others want to be as far away from any structured organization as possible. Veterans have suffered and died here due to lack of proper and sufficient medical care. The facilities are available but sometimes our funds are not. What is the VA waiting for, us to reach the suicidal status before they wake up and admit that we truly have a problem here? And how many will it take before the VA admits that it has erred? I dread to count. Some VA representatives may be happy because there is one or some less left to complain. We are the residual of the Indo-China War here. And just because tourist come to Thailand and some places in Indo-China to vacation does not change that fact.

   I fret to think what will happen to me with a catastrophic illness or injury, faced with a 500,000 or one million Baht medical bill and it can not immediately be determined as or is not service-connected. I can no longer afford to do as I have done over the years, and other veterans can not afford too, to go to Honolulu at an average cost of U.S.$5,000 annually to get my medical treatment from the VA and get my life preserving prescriptions renewed. They, the VA representatives, in essence, tell us, if we stay here in Mainland Southeast Asia we can continue to suffer from the lack of proper medical treatment related to issues outside of FMP and die but it is not their problem and we are not “ABANDONED.”

   This is all besides the fact that we are not asking the VA to requisition additional funds from Congress to take care of us. We are aware that every fiscal budget approved by Congress contains funds for us, beyond FMP, since we are part of the headcount the VA uses in calculating and requesting funds. We are hoping to be allowed to use those funds here at qualified medical facilities for our necessary and critical treatment. Possibly, on a “Fee Basis.” And, it would be at a substantial cost savings to our Government. Why is it costing us in both our physical well-being and anguish when it would cost our Government in essence nothing to take care of us here in Mainland Southeast Asia?