PROLIFERATION OF MILITARY VETERAN HELP GROUPS

PROLIFERATION OF MILITARY VETERAN HELP GROUPS

FRAZER CHRONICLE

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

There are several hundred military veteran help groups in the United States today, each soliciting funds so that they can aid returning soldiers from the different war zones that the United States military maintains. Military intervention throughout many parts of the world today is big business…unless you figure that the Pentagon makes war with sticks and stones, and soldiers fight for free.

 

I have long struggled with this topic, whether to write about it or not; for several reasons, but readers can rest assured that I am not pointing a finger at the soldiers that are serving in the military.  I do not blame them for the seeming endless military insurgencies that the United States carries out in a vast portion of the world today.

 

My old man used to say “what the world needs is wars to thin the herd,” and sadly I guess that he might have been right. Between 1901 and 2015 more than a 10^th of a billion have succumbed to the grim reapers military sword. Almost without exception every country on the face of the planet has been guilty of some sort of organized military skirmish.

 

In the sanctity of my basement man cave I regularly watch American Hero’s Channel, the History Channel and the Military Channel, and I basically begin a slow burn by the first commercial, and by the last commercial and past anger, I’m right into being flabbergasted. The stupidity that our fellow human beings have wrought on their fellow man is simply unbelievable.

 

Usually there are two or three veteran commercials that advertise helping a returning warrior, or how veterans can get a loan to purchase a house…and it’s almost guaranteed by some retired military mucky-muck. These ads usually put me over the top, and I turn my television to Tru-TV to catch up on a bit of some sanity.

 

WHAT DOES WAR TEACH US

I used to visit an old timer when I was a kid, Walt was his name, and he wasn’t my mentor or my teacher, he had a knack of telling really interesting stories, and I just loved to listen to him. Walt had been in World War I, and wasn’t a hero, a sergeant, or a leader, nope not Walt, like he’d say, “I was a follower.”

 

One story he told me was that he and four other soldiers were ordered by a lieutenant to go up a hill and see what was on the other side. Walt looks at his buddies, looks back at the lieutenant and says, “if you’re so interested in knowing what’s on the other side of that hill…you go.”  Obviously nothing happened, because Walt came home in one piece, and also with a handful of medals that he showed me.

 

The thing that Walt took away from his time in the European arena of the war was that war solved absolutely nothing, not when one considers the cost in human lives. I don’t recall him ever talking about the financial cost, or that war industry was profiteering from the calamity and carnage that the war was.

 

What has stuck with me all of these years from old Walt was the fact politicians make war, and then the populations fight the wars. Another thing that he told me was “once a war is over…never make war again.” Some of this stuff I’m paraphrasing, after all its 55 to 60 years since I had the privilege to sit and listen to the old stone cutter.

 

The average guy on the street doesn’t think about making war…trust me, I know, I study these things. The guy on the street is worried about his house payment, car payment, and the fact that he forgot the list that his wife wrote and left on the kitchen counter. With little exception citizens walking on America’s streets figure that living day to day is a full time job, and they don’t know the issues of…whatever, they don’t want to be bothered.

 

I also know that with little exception Americans detest military confrontation, not so much for what harm it’ll do, but because they don’t want to be bothered. Self-absorbed, you betcha, blissfully ignorant to the issues of the day, absolutely, patriotic, wildly, just about the same as anybody who doesn’t really know the issues, and doesn’t have a qualified answer.

 

Down through the annals of world history men have fought men for a variety of reasons, usually with little or no justification. Also the casualty list of worlds wars…of all times numbers in the millions, and yet man continues to fight man…are we really that dumb a species?

 

TO MY POINT

Vary simple, war is to be avoided at all costs, without conscription (a draft) there is a percentage of people in the United States who are of the mind-set necessary to serve in a military atmosphere. Their comfortable doing the bidding of their superiors…and the president, and Congress, depending on who occupies the White House, the president may simply circumvent Congress.

 

The 2015 fiscal defense budget is $496.1 billion and includes all sorts of listed expenditures, and can be read in its entirety online. The proposed 2016 defense budget will increase by $38.2 billion dollars to $534.3 billion. According to the printed information the Management of the Military Health System will be $47.8 billion, with some 9.2 million military personal, their family members and retirees.

 

Of course this Management of the Military Health System will be contingent on how many military operations that the United States might be involved in. Another serious military confrontation will drastically alter the $47.8 billion price-tag on what returning wounded soldiers need for medical care.

 

There is Tricare which was formerly known as the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS). Tricare is simply an insurance company that specializes in civilian health care for military dependents, military retirees and their dependents. 

 

Initially Tricare, which came into existence in 1997, was managed by Tricare Management Activity (TMC), under the authority of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs). In 2013 TMA disestablished and Tricare responsibility was transferred to the Defense Health Agency.

 

Confused yet…let’s try the Military Health System with Doctor Jonathan Woodson as agency boss, and the Executive Director, the Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. I guess between these two people, and some department heads, the collectively oversee 137,000 employees and administer a $50 billion dollar budget that is not included within the Department of Defense (DOD) budget.

 

Did you ever wonder how many military bases were located in the continental United States…well I did, and the number is 117 in 49 states around the nation. In addition there are 151 military installations that have been closed for one reason or another. The active bases serve as billeting for soldiers, training centers, and medical clinics for medical treatment.

 

There are, at the present time 142 military hospitals that are scattered around the country that are in every state except Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, and the Virgin Islands.

 

The costs to operate, maintain and keep secure these installations can’t be found on the DOD 2015 budget, or the proposed 2016 budget. Possibly I’m missing something, I’m only human, and as such am prone to making a mistake here and there. But in the light of day, in 100% transparency, these facilities and related maintenance costs have to run into the billions.

 

IN CLOSING

I have guarded respect for the country’s military personal, I use the word guarded because frankly I think some of our service men and women are psychopathic, and needed care way before they enter the military.

 

Possibly I’m way off base, but I think that we need to go back to the draft, believe you me, 50% of our military skirmishes would cease, and the other 50% would be diligently debated out from behind closed doors, and those smoke filled rooms that meet late at night.

 

The country’s military members should have every ounce of care that they need or desire, their dependents need access to the same care and transportation to and from any health appointments should be provided whenever necessary. All travel expenses incurred of any kind should be covered, and child care also provided at no cost.

 

There should be no need for Wounded Warriors or any of the dozens of other help organizations that advertise for civilians to individually aid returning veterans. To my way of thinking that financial burden should be shouldered by the taxpayers of the United States. Some of our elected officials and the vast majority of the military industrial complex throughout the world initiated the war, or military skirmish…and for electing these fools to office, and than sitting back while they wage wars throughout the world, for that transgression, we should all pay in spades.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!