Honoring our Veterans
Restaurants Offer Vets Free Dining
Week of October 22, 2007Golden Corral Restaurants are conducting their seventh annual Military Appreciation Monday on Nov. 12, 2007. On this day, all 485 restaurants across the country will offer a free "thank you" dinner buffet and beverage from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. to any person who has served in the U.S. military. A new component of this year's event is an essay contest open to anyone who has served or has a parent who has served in the military. Essays of 1,000 words or less should explain why the entrant is proud of their service or that of their parents. Three prizes, starting at $1,000, will be awarded to further the winners' educations. For more information, visit the Golden Corral Restaurants website.
Note that the validity of this offer has been checked with Golden Corral by Hixnews editors.
Race for Heroes
Hi folks,
The father of a young man who went to Our Lady of Mercy, Hicksville, when I was there sent this email to me today. After "Little Mercy Mike" attended Chaminade, a year at Holy Cross, he went to West Point.
The father, Mike Keilty had two daughters, Suzanne and Katie, attended OLMA, so I kept up with them there.
His youngest son, Timmy, is now a 2nd year student at West Point.
The son, Michael, has already completed two tours - once in Afghanistan, then in Iraq. He had been discharged and applied for law school and I do believe he had begun school when he was called back to active duty and now is serving again in Iraq.
I guess I am sending this along because the family normally attends 7 p.m. Mass here at St. Edwards. The last time I saw the whole family was Christmas '06 - midnight Mass and Michael was getting ready to be redeployed. I always promise the parents, Lorraine and Mike, that I will keep Michael in my prayers.
When you see the attachment, at the very least, it is an inspiring story.
Peace - Sr. Jackie
Hi Sister Jackie,
Hope all is well with you. I thought you might be interested in what Michael is up to. Please see below and forward to anyone you think is appropriate. He is running for 2 great charities. The Wounded Warrior Project and a fund set up for the 3 Chaminade boys killed in action in Iraq. When you go on www.takepride.com and go to Special Edition check out the meaning of the shirt.
Thanks
Mike Keilty Sr.
5:15 am. Lap 2, mile 6 around Camp Darulaman outside Kabul. The stray dogs have finally tired of chasing him; Captain Mike Keilty, a class of 2000 West Point graduate, now runs alone in the cool, dark Afghan morning. In all, he'll fight his mind and body to run another 5 laps; 21 miles total. All before his real day begins and he heads out into the field to train Afghan soldiers on warfare tactics that will enable them to defend their own country against Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists.
The obvious question is why anyone who's fighting a war would get out of bed at 4:30 am to run 21 miles? The answer is as inspiring as it unbelievable: Mike is training to run the Philadelphia Marathon this November 18th while home on an 8-day leave to raise money for Americans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan and to honor the memories of soldiers killed in action.
Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission ("VDBC") Report 10/03/2007
Honoring The Call To Duty: Veterans' Disability Benefits
In The 21st Century It took two and a half years, and at first glance it reads veterans-favorable... IF the funding for the recommendations can be found.
And that is a BIG IF!
That said...
The VDBC
The VDBC was established by Public Law 108-136, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2004. Between May 2005 and October 2007, the Commission conducted an in-depth analysis of the benefits and services available to veterans, service members, their survivors, and their families to compensate and provide assistance for the effects of disabilities and deaths attributable to military service. The Department of Veterans Affairs expended $40.5 billion on the wide array of these benefits and services in fiscal year 2006. The Commission addressed the appropriateness and purpose of benefits, benefit levels and payment rates, and the processes and procedures used to determine eligibility. The Commission reviewed past studies on these subjects, the legislative history of the benefit programs, and related issues that have been debated repeatedly over many decades.
Congress created the Commission out of concern for a variety of issues pertinent to disabled veterans, disabled service members, their survivors, and their families. Those matters included care for severely injured service members, treatment and compensation for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the concurrent receipt of military retired pay and disability compensation, the timeliness of processing disabled veterans' claims for benefits, and the size of the backlog of those claims. Another area of concern was the program known as Individual Unemployability, which allows veterans with severe service-connected disabilities to receive benefits at the highest possible rate if their disabilities prevent them from working. The Commission gave these issues special attention.
Guiding Principles
The Commission wrestled with philosophical and moral questions about how a nation cares for disabled veterans and their survivors and how it expresses its gratitude for their sacrifices. The Commission agreed that the United States has a solemn obligation, expressed so eloquently by President Lincoln, "to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan...."
In going about its work, the Commission has been mindful of the 1956 Bradley Commission principles, which have provided a valuable and historic baseline. This Commission's report addresses what has changed and what has endured over those five decades and throughout our nation's wars and conflicts since the Bradley report. Many of the changes—social, technological, cultural, medical, and economic—that have taken place during that time span are significant and must be carefully considered as our nation renews its compact with our disabled veterans and their families. This long-term context, a history of both significant change and key elements of constancy from the 1950s to the 21st century, provides the solid basis for this Commission's principles, conclusions, and recommendations.
This Commission identified eight principles that it believes should guide the development and delivery of future benefits for veterans and their families:
- Benefits should recognize the often enormous sacrifices of military service as a continuing cost of war, and commend military service as the highest obligation of citizenship.
- The goal of disability benefits should be rehabilitation and reintegration into civilian life to the maximum extent possible and preservation of the veterans' dignity.
- Benefits should be uniformly based on severity of service-connected disability without regard to the circumstances of the disability (wartime v. peacetime, combat v. training, or geographical location.)
- Benefits and services should be provided that collectively compensate for the consequence of service-connected disability on the average impairment of earnings capacity, the ability to engage in usual life activities, and quality of life.
- Benefits and standards for determining benefits should be updated or adapted frequently based on changes in the economic and social impact of disability and impairment, advances in medical knowledge and technology, and the evolving nature of warfare and military service.
- Benefits should include access to a full range of health care provided at no cost to service-disabled veterans. Priority for care must be based on service connection and degree of disability.
- Funding and resources to adequately meet the needs of service-disabled veterans and their families must be fully provided while being aware of the burden on current and future generations.
- Benefits to our nation's service-disabled veterans must be delivered in a consistent, fair, equitable, and timely manner.
With these principles clearly in mind, the nation must set the firm foundation upon which to shape and evolve a system of appropriate, and generous, benefits for the disabled veterans of tomorrow.
The Commission believes that just as citizens have a duty to serve in the military, the Federal government has a duty to preserve the well-being and dignity of disabled veterans by facilitating their rehabilitation and reintegration into civilian life. The Commission believes that compensation should be based on the nature and severity of disability, not whether the disability occurred during wartime, combat, training, or overseas. It is virtually impossible to accurately determine a disease's origin or to differentiate the value of sacrifice among veterans whose disabilities are of similar type and severity. Setting different rates of compensation for the same degree of severity would be both impractical and inequitable.
Disabled veterans require a range of services and benefits, including compensation, health care, specially adapted housing and vehicles, insurance, and other services tailored to their special needs. Compensation must help service-disabled veterans achieve parity in earnings with nonservice-disabled veterans. Compensation must also address the impact of disability on quality of life. Money alone is a poor substitute for the consequences of the injuries and disabilities faced by veterans, but it is essential to ease the burdens they experience.
It is the duty of Congress and VA to ensure that the benefits and services for disabled veterans and survivors are adequate and meet their intended outcomes. IOM concluded that the VA Rating Schedule has not been adequately revised since 1945.
This situation should not be allowed to continue. Systematic updates to the Rating Schedule and assessments of the appropriateness of the level of benefits should be made on a frequent basis.
Excellent health care should be provided in a timely manner at no cost to veterans with service-connected disabilities (i.e., service-disabled veterans) and, in the case of severely injured veterans, to their families and caregivers.
The funding and resources necessary to fully support programs for service-disabled veterans must be sufficient while ensuring that the burden on the nation is reasonable.
Care and benefits for service-disabled veterans are a cost of maintaining a military force during peacetime and of fighting wars. Benefits and services must be provided promptly and equitably.
Results of the Commission's Analysis
The analyses conducted by the Commission provide a consistent and complementary picture of many aspects of veterans' disability compensation.
The Commission made 113 recommendations. All are important and should receive attention from Congress, DoD, and VA. The Commission suggests that the following recommendations receive immediate consideration. Congress should establish an executive oversight group to ensure timely and effective implementation of the Commission recommendations.
For those so inclined, the VDBC Report summary can be found here (in PDF, 18 pages - http://www.vetscommission.org/pdf/ExecutiveSummary_eV_9-27.pdf). The full Report here (in PDF, 562-pages - http://www.vetscommission.org/pdf/eReport_prepub_9-27.pdf)
Hicksville Trivia
During the Senior Trip of '65, one group of seniors got left at the motel the morning after the first night. This group included Gerry Baldwin, and yours truly. Funny thing, when we showed up at the third stop of the day -- we took a public bus to catch up -- the school's bus teacher/chaperon had not missed us?!?Lest We Forget: Currently there are (at least) 4,659 Veterans of Modern Warfare who no longer will be "asking" our government for a dime . . . Till next month be well... and remember, "Let No Veteran Ever Stand Alone!"
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--- --- Walt Schmidt Veteran Services Officer
- - --- TOBay's Veteran Services Division
- - - - "Let No Veteran Ever Stand Alone!"
--- --- WorkDayTime: 516.733.8414 & 24/7 Voice Mail
- - --- Anytime: 24/7 Voice Mail 516.799.8300
- - - - Website: http://www.waltsdorsai.net/
Ken Sun - Weekly Column: http://experts.longisland.com/veterans
"To know yet to think that one does not know is best;
Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty."
- Lao-Tzu 71:1
Vietnam Era Update-October 2007
You know, people can read and listen and that is great. What am I talking about? Email responses to our call for information on people who served in the uniformed military services from Hicksville during the Vietnam Era which are on an upswing. That is from 1960 to 1973 anywhere in the world; anywhere folks!
Why and excited? We went above 125 names and we know of more names out there and just need someone to verify them and send it to the project email. Now 125 is not a lot of names, but the pace picked up in September with some folks sending in three and four names to us; that's great.
Please search your minds and see if you can recall someone you know being drafted or signing up for the military service. Please also consider finding a contact for some of the private schools in the area like Chaminade High School or other private schools as long as the person lived in Hicksville.
Please keep those cards, letters, and emails coming. I'd like to report more than 200 by January 2008.
