******* Veterans' Issues Newstand

UNITED STATES NAVY VETERANS ASSOCIATION

******* Veterans' Issues Newstand : Obtaining Your Benefits *******************************

"Let our object be our country, and nothing but our country."

Address at the Bunker Hill Monument

President Franklin Roosevelt said in July, 1942, in the midst of World War II, that our soldiers were fighting for the cause of America, the cause of "liberty under God," and that that cause was good for all people, all nations, everywhere.

The word "patriotism" is not, other than vaguely, defined in Webster's Dictionary.

This Association cannot think of a finer defintion than FDR's.

"The E-Magazine of Capitol Hill

Navy Insiders Since 1999:"

We'll give you patriotism here, but we'll report the bad news right along with the good.

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This online edition of your favorite publication is your gateway to a world of late-breaking news and special Web-only features. It is a Newstand presenting news on veterans' issues, magazine style, in the vernacular.

Generic and specific reference information on your veterans' benefits is contained at the bottom of this Page, after the news. For more links on your benefits, go to the Links We Mentioned Page.

Our Legislation and Policy Page, on the other hand, details and itemizes, many times using language approaching legalese, specific proposals or legislative enactments. The latter Page also presents in itemized fashion, United States Navy Veterans Association positions and accomplishments in the areas of legislation and policy. For a thorough understanding of general news on veterans' issues, and also specific legislation, you should read both this Newstand and the Legislation and Policy Page.

Newspaper Attacks Florida, the Country and Veterans!

Our Response:

WHOA MOMMA!

WHAT A PACK OF LIES AND POPPYCOCK!

ATTEMPTS TO POLITICIZE THE LAW ENFORCEMENT PROCESS AGAINST REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES AND THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT.

A constitutional coup d’etat against all our freedoms.

AN ATTACK ON AN INNOCENT NAVAL GROUP FOR JUST DOING ITS JOB, FOLLOWING THE LAW TO THE LETTER, AND HELPING VETERANS

by: Hope Merrell

Veterans Issues Newstand Money and Finance Newsdesk

and Newstand Staff

For the Times and the Newstand:

The St. Petersburg Times ("SPT"), in a series of articles published in March, 2010, written and researched primarily by Jeffrey Mill Testerman, accredited by the SPT as an “authority” on public records and non-profit finances, launched what can only be described as a massive attack written almost entirely in the manner of opinion and subterfuge designed to create the impression actual facts were being presented, with as many cans of black spray paint they could carry, covering close to 80% of two days’ worth of newsprint, and drawing in the same two days, approximately 17, that’s, let us repeat, 17 individual responses in favor of the SPT nationwide, most of whom, based on their email addresses, were either fanatical followers of this peripatetically leftist, more big government regulation propaganda newspaper, or individuals who could not spell straight or, third category, individuals who deal in profanity and hate-talk ('kill them," "hang them," "shoot them") as a commonplace in their lives, on the legitimacy of the US Navy Veterans Association, an Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(19) war veterans’ organization (and not what the IRS calls a “true charity”) and one of its former directors for development, Bobby Thompson. The Association knew the attack was coming as early as August, 2009, when Testerman verbally assaulted Thompson by name in front of his former residence in Tampa, Florida, on a warm and sunny afternoon.

The Start:

Jeffrey Mill Testerman, a 30 year veteran of Times reporting

Initial Undertones of Racism against

African and Native Americans

According to Thompson, Testerman,

a burly man with a Machiavellian look to his eyes,

called Thompson out by his name, who was speaking

on his cell phone in front of his concrete house for

better reception. Thompson didn’t know the man, and he was clearly an uninvited guest,

but the man acted like he knew Thompson. (Acting like they know you is often a method of operation of fraudsters who want something out of you.)

Thompson, who has a naval intelligence background, deciphered the man had researched Thompson’s photo from somewhere. OK.

After identifications, Thompson, who feared and does fear nothing, and had given interviews to numerous reporters previously, and who had nothing to hide, determined he would talk to Testerman as long as Testerman wanted and about anything Testerman wanted to talk about. He invited Testerman inside; Testerman declined. (To this day, Testerman has never been inside this former Thompson residence and has no personal or direct knowledge whatsoever as to what was or was not going on inside.)

Although Thompson, as one of five members of the Board of Directors of the National Association at the time and the appointed Director at the time (one of three) of the Florida Chapter of the Association, continued to talk to Testerman for about 45 minutes, Thompson quickly ascertained that that was a mistake:

Testerman shortly became agitated as Thompson quietly and forthrightly denied accusation after accusation Testerman was putting forth as part of his “newsgathering.” Q: Did Thompson conspire with Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White, an African-American man, to start a fake Navy group to support White (White had run in political campaigns in Tampa since 2003, and was running at the time for re-election in the November, 2010 election.)? A: No. Q: Did Thompson know White was never in the Navy? A: White was in the Navy and served honorably. Q: How did Thompson know White? A: The St. Petersburg Times glowingly endorsed him in his first race in 2003, and he is a Navy man. (Testerman’s face turned beet red.) Q: Did the Association make an illegal $500 contribution to one of White’s political campaigns in March 2009 (over four months prior to the August “interview”) (Testerman had briefly interviewed Thompson on his publicly listed telephone number the day before, merely asking the same question)? A: (Fearlessly, from Thompson’s memory) No, it doesn’t make contributions, although being an Internal Revenue Service regulated § 501(c)(19) organization, (unlike a § 501(c)(3)), it probably could; the contribution Testerman was referring to was made from Thompson’s personal funds, and Thompson made it a habit to enclose a note in writing with all his political contributions that they were made out of personal funds. (Thompson found Testerman’s question fishy since, for a reporter of a certain age, he did not seem to have any comprehension of the different requirements for a 501(c)(3) versus a 501(c)(19), a subject on which Thompson was very fluent.) Q: Why did White list the contribution as coming from the Association? A: Thompson didn’t know; probably a clerical mistake; Thompson frequently enclosed his business card with his personal contributions, political, charitable or otherwise. Q: Was the contribution made in cash or by check? A: Thompson said he made it a practice not to make cash contributions to politicians, so it was either by check or, if Thompson had insufficient funds in his checking account and had cash available, he would have purchased a money order. (Thompson later checked, found out the latter was the case and notified Testerman of the same the next day). Where did the money come from? A: From Thompson’s personal funds, his personal income and his personal assets. (Thompson is what is loosely referred to as a "trust fund baby," and also has his own independent sources of income.) Thompson then asked: What are you implying? Testerman: No response.

It got worse from there. Testerman was clearly veering almost exclusively into ad hominem attacks on White and Thompson. Thompson: 'Where is your evidence for all these accusations?' Testerman: No response (There never was one, according to Newstand sources.)

Testerman continued with more and more belligerent questions, dealing with Thompson’s naval background, White’s naval background, Thompson’s and White’s children, ( Later Testerman would call all over the United States and England asking questions about Thompson's handicapped daughter, and also write a story accusing White's minor children (c. 16 and 10 years old) of taking money illegally from White; to this day nobody in their right mind knows what would possess anybody to do these things other than sheer mean-spiritedness or racial vindictiveness.) (Thompson found these latter inquiries to be personal, intrusive and abnormal for a reasonable reporter, but Thompson knew he was not an expert on what passed for reasonableness by modern American reporters), White’s previous campaign finance reports, campaign finance law, the history of the US Navy Veterans Association, and other matters. All the questions seemed to Thompson not only to be accusatory, but also to specifically reflect a mindset of someone out to prove a pre-conceived hypothesis, as opposed to someone merely neutrally gathering facts. As an American who found himself by chance in these circumstances, Thompson’s overall opinion was this just was not right. To fight against foreign murderers like the Viet Cong, cold-blooded killers who had shot dead Thompson's buddies in Vietnam, who also believed in a one-party press; the same idealogues who killed his fellow Americans on 9/11, was exactly why he had become one of the founding members of the "new" Association in the first place.

Then Testerman approached Thompson menacingly, according to Thompson, eyeball to eyeball. Q: You’re Choctaw Indian, aren’t you, and you worked for the Choctaw Gaming Commission? A: Thompson: I’m one –sixteenth Choctaw and never worked for the Gaming Commission; that’s probably a relative you’re confusing me with. Q: So you never bribed White to bring Choctaw Gaming to Tampa, correct? A: Thompson: I never bribed White to do anything and never asked him for a favor in my life. (Thompson was also, at the time, a voting member of the NAACP, a group the US Navy Veterans Association had also made a previous grant to.)

Testerman: “You could have fooled me.” (According to reported stories in the press, the SPT, it turned out subsequent to this interview with Thompson, had a history demonstrated in numerous Times’ articles as far back as 1997 of going after the Seminole Tribe of Florida, trying to prove they were guilty of theft and misrepresentation, and making similar charges personally against then Seminole Chief James Billie. These articles also alleged that the SPT had tried to invade the privacy of the Tribe (unsuccessfully) to get illegally, according to the stories, confidential tribal budget and medical information dealing with tribal members. www.freedommag.org, December 2009 edition.)

Thompson: “Have a good day.” Entered his house, shut and locked the door.

Remembering the words of the great Spanish writer George Santayana that those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it, Thompson recalled that a press pretending to be neutral while promoting its own agenda was straight out of the early days of Hitler’s Der Sturmer and Lenin’s Pravda (aka the”Truth”).

As stated, Thompson talked to Testerman the next day on the phone. Testerman ended that conversation with a question: Q: One more question, then I’ll leave you alone…: A. Thompson cutting him off, “Sure you will,” and hung up.

The above are just basic facts. How would you feel if they had happened to you? This all sounds pretty personal to this reporter. What do you think? I can be reached at merrell@navyvets.org.

Thompson’s version of this so-called interview, once disseminated within the organization, laid the groundwork for almost all Association policies toward the SPT and Testerman thereafter, including the personal refusal of four out of five National Association directors, as well as many, but not all, of Association officers at the State Chapter level, to “talk with” Testerman, and the decision to make the Association’s General Counsel the exclusive point of reference for all of the legalistically worded accusations it did not take a rocket scientist to figure out were likely to come. The SPT’s idiotic response: because they refused to submit to this waterboarding technique of fruitless and wife-beating “questions” by Testerman and Company, they didn’t exist. (See future stories, Privacy Policies of the US Navy Veterans Association on our background facts, as to our members, officers, donors and beneficiaries.)

A "wife-beating question" is like "How many times today did you beat your wife?" If you answer, 'I didn't beat my wife,' you are dignifying the questioner with an answer, and he will say, he tried to deny it, see, he's guilty. If you refuse to answer, he will say, he refuses to answer, see, he's guilty. No matter what the questionee says or does, he's guilty. It is a technique used by fraudsters, especially fraudsters masquerading as real newsmen.

The Association was right in August, 2009. And it is right today. One does not voluntarily subject oneself to trickery, artifice, wife-beating questions or waterboarding as an “interview” technique from a hostile or biased source, and anybody who says otherwise is, in plain language, nuts. Privacy of the individual, and of private groups, in this country, the right of the individual or such a group to protect himself, herself or itself against harassment, verbal or physical, from the state, or from a press agent asserting state-powers or the threat of state-powers, trumps “transparency” every time. That’s this Newstand's position. That's what the Association promised its members and donors at the outset; and that's what they told the association they expected. And we’re both sticking to it. And we are certain every newspaper in this country asserts exactly those same rights for themselves. Poynter Institute, the owner of the SPT, has refused to let Association lawyers interview the Chair of the SPT; Poynter Institute and SPT officials never returned telephone calls from this Newstand's reporters; Testerman first provided Poynter Institute tax documents with blank spaces and missing data throughout, to the Association; and then subsequently said he was not working for Poynter Institute and would provide no further information; this Newstand's requests for the tax returns of the SPT, and for an audit of the financials for both the Poynter institute and the SPT were all denied.

The Immediate Aftermath: The SPT did a series of articles on a sexual harassment civil lawsuit against White and the Hillsborough County Commissioners, the allegations of which, by comparison to Bill Clinton, in the Monica Lewinsky incident, would have made Clinton look like the monster from the blue lagoon. Liability was established by a jury in the amount of $75,000, a sum more than quadrupled by the trial judge by adding in the plaintiff’s lawyer’s attorney’s fees. (The judgment would later be called a finding of “guilt” by an SPT reporter, a term reserved exclusively for criminal trials.)

In the SPT’s articles, according to Thompson, black people were made to look like fools who attacked each other on demand. Immediately after the trial, Testerman’s story on White and Thompson came out with blaring headlines on the first page, based on the Thompson interviews. The story made it sound like White was just another black person lying about serving in the Navy.

A six-month long investigation by the Association of Testerman and SPT previous reporting substance and style turned up later the fact that Testerman apparently sat out the Vietnam War with an entitlement to a 2-S student deferment, and left his university without a degree almost identical to the time the draft ended. Thompson, on the other hand, joined the Navy underage, in the '60s, over 40 years ago, as his great-grandfather had done before him. To do that, he had to use a relative's I.D. While he did join for patriotic reasons, the fact is he did that, and it's done; Thompson does not regret joining; he does regret the fact he may have broken the law to do so, and apologizes to any family member who might hold it against him.

In Thompson’s opinion, Testerman’s article slandered White and deliberately created the misimpression Thompson, who supported White, and does support him to this day, was attacking or denouncing White, when nothing in fact could be further from the truth.

Testerman also blew up three signature samples (one from Thompson) from those out of hundreds he had before him, to show similiarities in large circle type handwriting examplars. He omitted to show the remainder. this is childish manipulation of data, ax-to-grind-libel-by-omission reporting, and it disgusts, at least, this reporter.

If I want, I can take your handwriting sample and compare it ludicrously with samples from the other 8 billion people who live on the earth today, and the other 8 billion who have predeceased us, and find similiarities. Anybody who says that beyond a reasonable doubt two of those similiarities mean it is the same person who wrote them, so-called expert or not, will be viewed by many as, quite simply, a pants-on-fire liar who probably also believes in ouija-boards or truth-o-meters.

Buried at the bottom of a secondary page in the SPT the same day, August 28^th 2009, was a story that a hometown jury that same week had awarded a $5 million punitive liability judgment against the St. Petersburg Times for libeling a VA official at the Bay Pines facility in 2003. It was coupled with a $5.5 million compensation award for the SPT victim. The VA official had been accused by the SPT in multiple articles of theft, skimming funds, malfeasance and sexual harassment. The SPT had used an internal VA investigation of the official to buttress its accusations against the doctor.

Shortly after August 28th, Testerman did another story on White in which Testerman and the SPT implied the SPT's major black competitor newspaper in Tampa was guilty of fraud because it used a photo shopped cropped photo of African-American officeholders. (The March 2010 SPT story on Thompson prominently displayed a photocropped picture of Thompson.)

The Association began preparing for what a 3^rd grader could have told everybody was about to come.

It shortly did.

It was vicious. It was accusatory as a matter of preconception. It was argumentative. It was racist. It was politically motivated. It involved an Internal Revenue Code §

501(c)(3) charity, the Poynter Institute (the 100% owner of the SPT, the only such arrangement of its kind in the United States) being heavily involved in political endorsements, lobbying, making dollar payments to influence others as to their positions, e.g., by making unheard of contributions to the City of Tampa to pull a financially hard-strapped ice-hockey oriented venue out of its difficulties (and getting both the arena and a street named after the SPT in the process), actively advising political candidates at the local school board level as to what to say and think, and other campaign activities. It involved tax evasion by the Times and its owner, and it involved repeated attempts to get licensed attorneys to violate bar rules pertaining to attorney-client privilege, numerous allegations of fact which were later dropped or redacted as clearly being false, the fraudulent filing of, and failure to file, income tax and other regulatory filings by both the Poynter Institute and its wholly-owned subsidiary companies, in the opinion of the Association.

And now, this reporter has learned, it may have involved a surreptitious attempt by the SPT to get Florida county charges of voter fraud brought against Thompson and, even worse, to get him disenfranchised as a voter. Attempting to interfere with someone's right to vote on racial or ethnic grounds (see the Thompson interview above) is prohibited by the 1965 Voting Rights Act. This deliberate blurring of the lines between a newspaper and law enforcement in this country is one reason this reporter wrote this headline: A Constitutional Coup d'Etat, for this story.

The one thing all this did not involve, however, was “newsgathering.”

In six months of Association non-stop written and telephonic exchanges (over 10,000 pages worth) with the SPT and its people, something almost nobody else would have bent over backwards to do, the SPT's positions were, no matter what the evidence presented was, (a) you’re lying as to everything and (b) whatever you are counter-accusing the SPT of doing, it applies to you and not ever to us, and we don’t have to answer any of your questions, or anybody else’s, for that matter.

Sounded like, excuse us, exactly what Dick Cheney said when Saddam Hussein said he didn't have any weapons of mass destruction. It turned out he didn't.

In those thousands of pages of written and email correspondence, by the way, Testerman, the expert on military and veterans' affairs, rank and service, the "authority" on public records and non-profits, the man who wrote article after article about public figures misspelling and misentering names and data on government and bank forms (accusing them of fraud), and the Times' nominee for the Pulitzer Prize, repeatedly spelled:

"Communication" as "comminication;"

"Generally" as "generaly,"

"Statements" as "stataements,"

"Officials" as "offcials,"

"Characterization" as "characaterization,"

and, top this one,

"Florida" as "Floirida."

We're not making this up. Some expert! Some Pulitzer!

The man can't even spell.

We're glad they got that hopey changey abc gadget working again for the final print!

Here is Thompson's Op Ed piece in full on the Testerman stories, as of the date of the piece:

April 29, 2010

Op Ed Editor

Joe Guidry

Tampa Tribune

200 South Parker St.

Tampa FL 33606

The Florida Chapter of the US Navy Veterans Association is submitting the following as an op ed piece relating to some recent news stories:

There is an attack dog on the loose in Tampa/St. Petersburg.

It’s not a pit bull or Rottweiler.

It’s the St. Petersburg Times.

For example, the newspaper recently ran a series about the Church of Scientology and accused its leader of violent behavior.

The paper, however, according to sources close to the Church, never bothered to interview the target of its three-month long investigation, a violation of the most basic ethics outlined by the Society of Professional Journalists. The church leader had agreed to the interview but the paper simply ignored the opportunity.

Then the paper turned its focus on the Republican Party of Florida and its key people, and others, including the U.S. Navy Veterans Association, a Tampa and Washington, D.C. based veterans’ organization with 40 separate chapters across the country, which raises funds across the nation to benefit all those who have served our country, and speaks out as to its members’ mission for American patriotism and national security.

And, like a rabid dog, the newspaper’s reporter tried to strong-arm the Association’s leader and its board of directors into talking about their non-profit work.

Instead of calling the Association’s leaders to request an interview as most reporters would normally do, the Times reporter, Jeff Testerman, simply showed up on the doorstep of one leader’s home and started firing off questions, raising his voice at times and verbally assaulting this Navy association leader.

Like a salivating Rottweiler, the reporter blasted off one question after another, displaying that he had clearly had his mind made up about the Association. As a result of the reporter’s clear-cut bias, the board of directors of the Association declined to show up on demand and answer any of his nonsensical and hostile questions. This was a blatant attempt to bully and intimidate, to cause people to lose their right of speech and expression and association, and has absolutely nothing to do with legitimate newsgathering.

Then the Times, in late April, did a story on their rival, the Tampa Tribune, making it sound like they were going out of business.

The U.S. Navy Veterans Association has a long history of giving support to veterans, ranging from donating vans to those who are paralyzed from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to sponsoring July 4^th celebrations.

Instead of giving the Association credit for its good works in his March 2010 series, Testerman buried examples of its good works as far down in his stories as possible. Once again, the Times violated the most basic tenants of journalism by failing to balance its reporting.

In its quest for a Pulitzer Prize, the Times published a hack job.

One reason there are no restraints on this news organization is that it has no ombudsman, a person on the inside who investigates complaints from its readers and members of the public, and who examines issues about fairness, accuracy, balance and precision. Many major papers, including the New York Times, have ombudsman and give them the freedom to examine journalistic issues.

Like much of it’s so called “investigative reporting,” which did not garner a Pulitzer Prize this year despite it’s futile efforts, and in the face of what some say is over-representation and influence on the Pulitzer Committee, the Times’ report on the Association failed to uncover any substantial issues or specific proofs of wrongdoing and was based, instead, almost entirely on insinuations.

Whenever those who believe in the regulation of man by man want to chill others’ freedoms of speech, expression and association, the first thing they immediately yell is “fraud,” in a political effort to shut their enemies up. Testerman is on record calling the all the candidates supported by individual members of the Association “starkly conservative.” These included political figures such as the current Mayor of Tampa, Florida Democratic House member, and former General Counsel to the Association Daryl Rouson and Hillsborough County Commissioner, and Obama supporter Kevin White.

Testerman himself sat out the Vietnam war in college and university.

The Association is an Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(19) war veterans’ organization. It has been in good standing with state and federal authorities across the United States and it is continuing to raise funds despite the Times’ massive attack. But some of these authorities have at least read Testerman’s hatchet job, and those that have asked the Association questions solely as a result of it, and not because of any complaint from a donor or member, have been and will be responded to politely and in accordance with law. None of that changes what we have to say here.

To assure the public that the Association is complying with all of the state and federal laws governing 501 (c)(19) organizations, it has also retained an eminently credentialed independent auditor who will go over all the organization’s records, books and financial accounting. The Association is confident the auditor’s report will result in a clean bill of health.

The question that remains unanswered is the motive behind the St. Petersburg Times’ rabid attacks against charitable organizations like the U.S. Navy Veterans Association.

Could it be that the St. Petersburg Times is guilty of the very fraud that it claims to be uncovering? The Times is owned and operated by the Poynter Institute, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that must comply with federal laws.

The Chairman of the Poynter Institute Board, Paul C. Tash is also the Editor, Chairman and CEO of the St. Petersburg Times. The St. Petersburg Times is owned and operated by a wholly owned subsidiary corporation of Poynter, the Times Publishing Company.

The Times engages in, and has engaged in, substantial political activities, including, but not limited to, overt political endorsements for candidates running for elective office, as well as lobbying activities far in excess of what are permitted activities for 501(c)(3) organizations.

The profits of the St. Petersburg Times are believed to provide the overwhelming means of support for Poynter, according to published financial analyses.

Mr. Tash has complete control of Poynter and Poynter has complete control of the St. Petersburg Times. The fact of this total control is substantiated by former Poynter Chairman, and Times CEO Andrew Barnes, who said in a 1999 www.tampabay.com piece posted on the Poynter website, that the Poynter Chairman (who is also always the Times CEO) is the “one person” who has total “command” of both Poynter and the Times.

Mr. Barnes says in the same article that the Poynter Chairman, by reason of the sole fact that he is the Poynter Chairman, sets his own pay and compensation, appoints everybody else in both organizations, and has the sole power to, and does, appoint his own successor.

Today, in effect, Mr. Tash, who earns slightly less than $600,000 a year, has top-down control of both the Poynter Institute and the St. Petersburg Times.

The bottom line is that there may be more than meets the eye when it comes to the Times attacks on other charities and non-profit organizations. State and federal regulatory authorities should investigate the Times’ relationship to the Poynter Institute.

And people who live in glass houses should not cast stones.

The outcome of the Times’ attack on the U.S. Navy Veterans Association has overtly been to try to get members and donors, state regulators and even beneficiaries to shun or attack the Association. This is not law, folks, this is politics. Bill Clinton may have coined the term “policy wonk,” but the fact is Tash & Co. have taken it to a whole new level in Florida. As we’ve said here, the Times does not write newspaper stories. Instead, it conducts campaigns designed to influence the outcome of political, legal and social events to the liking of its leadership and to further the outcome of itself and the Poynter Institute having near exclusive control over news and editorial related information, at a minimum, in south central Florida.

In their openly bragged about quest to take over “news” dissemination as we know it, their website and newspaper lectures and hectors and self-righteously commands the public and policymakers to obey daily, on every conceivable moral, policy and political issue known to man. As Testerman said to one of our members who did elect, on April 27, 2010, to ask him not to print personal information about him, and I quote, “You don’t have any choice when you’re speaking to me.”

And everything is argument. Argument that someone is stealing; argument that someone is supporting political candidates Testerman & Co. don’t like; argument that business expenses are income; argument that people don’t exist because they won’t speak to people like this reporter; etc., on and on, ad infinitum and ad nauseam. This is not “research;” it’s the creation of a laundry list of everybody else’s faults, “everybody” being defined as people we don’t like, but never us. The entire newspaper is editorial.

The Times’ organization is not a “news” group, folks. It is a political party. And it’s controlled, despite their misrepresentations on the subject, by one man, and only one man, who “commands” solely because he is the head of the “charity” which runs the Times. In the old Soviet Union, guilty of trampling on the rights of man, their newspaper was called Pravda (the “Truth”).

One of the major purposes of the Association, registered with the IRS and state authorities without objection since at least 2004, is to provide “…news and analysis pertaining to the value of [Association] goals, and other issues of interest to veterans, service members and the patriotic public.”

The real story, of course, is something that the Times will ignore as its pit bulls move on to maul their next innocent victims. We’re pretty sure they have already got them picked out.

/s/

Bobby Thompson

Director, US Navy Veterans Association

Florida Chapter

Further stories to follow:

(2) Backgound on the US Navy Veterans Association,

(3) Background on the St. Petersburg Times and Its One-Person Owner, the Poynter Institute and Paul C. Tash, a true one-man Charity; and then

(4) A Parsing Refutation of our Opponent's Arguments: There is Nothing Wrong with Us: Your Money Goes Exactly Where We Promised; We Need to Turn the Spotlight on Their Scam Instead.

The war on the individual in this country is coming, folks, and it's exploding right before all the eyes of the world in St. Petersburg. It's a war already organized by people who believe that the regulation of man by man is a good policy idea. Here's a direct quote to that notion from the Association's Homeport page posted originally there in 2002. It is still there:

"Ten Americans once set sail upon a great sea. Their common purpose was to reach a shining city on a hill they could see, far away, on the other side of the sea.
But, as they were sailing a great storm, a great tempest, came up, and their ship began to circle itself and drift. The Americans became angry with themselves, and started to blame it on each other. They did silly things, like tweak each other's noses, and post bumperstickers on their foreheads denouncing each other.
Then two of them, one black, one white, two big women, let's call them Marian and Kate, stood up in the boat and , in a loud and magnificent voice, a capella, began to sing the most beautiful rendition of "God Bless America" you ever have heard. The other eight suddenly stopped their feuding, stood up, placed their hands on their hearts, and listened to the words. When the song was over, all of them...all of them, began rowing as one toward the shore of their dreams....
They haven't got there yet, but they are still trying, and we'll keep you informed on their progress.

To us here at the United States Navy Veterans Association, it does not matter whether your mother came here on the Mayflower, or on a slave ship from Africa.

We're all in the same boat now.

Update, and it's pretty clear: As of January 2009, this country pretty much returned to its pre-9/11 state of mind, the bumperstickers, attacking and vilifying each others, treating foreigners who hate the U.S. as if they have the same rights as us, giving our largesse to foreign blackmailers who say if we don't they will overcome us, ignoring their crimes in their countries, while throwing our own people, as the new enemy #1, in jail, for far, far less. We believe that we may all need enemies; the problem with many Americans is that they think the enemy is us."

This Newstand believes that the freedom of man is the idea that makes this country a shining city on a hill, and that our calling is to light that lamp of liberty everywhere, for all the world to see; to spread and preach that mission, that policy message worldwide, as our foreign policy. In that positive and universal message lies our real national security. Not merely killing Usama bin Laden or 'preventing the Taliban from re-establishing a foothold in Afghanistan.' Not in Real I.D., the Patriot Act or more cops in the New York City subways searching bags. In that message, and in the global spread of that message, lies our real hope.

The SPT believes otherwise. they have mocked the Association , made false financial claims against it, made politicized accusations against it to get back at the "Right" for the "ACORN" Scandal, and allegations against the above message of Association members in print, implying those members are violent criminals or fraudsters. Those people are not, and never have been. It is the SPT's message about the Association, and not the Association's about them which is, to use President Obama's word, "false."

Nothing about this is new. It is exactly what the thug press of Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy did to the domestic policy enemies of their regimes, and exactly the same accusations being made, fraud, etc., designed to censor their ability to talk, to live and to engage in their primary purpose, to spread the legitimate ideas of patriots in the free marketplace of thought and speech. These are notions of freedom this Newstand or Association never denied them, or asserted should be denied them, in ten years of 'operating under their radar.'

When politicized elites yell "Fraud" at the top of their lungs against others who disagree with their substantive viewpoints, it is time for all of us to say, "Whoa, Momma!" On either side.

Beware of the one-party state, America! Obesity is not in the interests of our national security, as First Lady Michelle Obama says. Neither is internet censorship, as Secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton has said. And neither is yelling "fraud" at your fellow Americans with a primary speech mission because they oppose your ideas.

Part 2 of 4:

April 5, 2010:

Facts about the US Navy Veterans Association:

- Its five originating predecessor organizations were founded in 1927. That fact was registered with the IRS in 2001 and again in 2003 without demurral. Its long and detailed history has been publicly available on www.navyvets.org (over 8,000 pages long if printed out), or its predecessor sites, for over ten years, and was easily accessed by using any one of a number of recognized search engines, including Google, during that time . If Lexis-Nexis has not recorded that history, that’s a problem with Lexis-Nexis, and not with us. That history reflects a membership of approximately 66,000 individuals today, with perhaps another 66,000 others going back to 1927. All those individuals are, or were, real people and not fictional people. Most of them took, or take today, the position that a “liberal” press is a slanted press out of touch with the average American and not somebody they would want to, or would, talk to under any circumstances. They take the position that their forefathers who died in combat to keep us free also died to keep our individual privacy intact as part of our fundamental freedoms. Most of those loyal, non-violent Americans also take that same attitude toward big, over-regulatory government. These are the same people represented in districts of Texas where only 5% of the population will fill out census forms in 2010. Their loyalty and patriotism, however, is not in doubt, at least not to the Association.

- The same website contains over 200 thank you notes from around the country and the world, with photo after photo, from recipients of largesse from the Association, and other beneficiaries and friends, including veterans, active-duty members of the U.S. Armed Forces, their families, government leaders, heads of state and recognized institutions. Our “In the News” page, which can be accessed from the Site index page, as well as the State Chapters page, and the “Thank You” page, contain recent news article after article on our mission statement activities, including news articles from “People” magazine, “Navy 230,” one television channel and others. We regret that a self-proclaimed authority on public records in Tampa was not able to access any of these.

- The same website contains a Homepage Forum where any member of the public can criticize us as they choose. The Association has never ever deleted any such criticism on the Forum other than for profanity. The website also contains a prominently displayed Governmental Disclosures page where the regulation of non-profits in the U.S. is briefly and accurately explained, and where the public is invited, state-by-state, and jurisdiction by jurisdiction, to click on the particular identified law enforcement agency for that jurisdiction if they have any complaint about the Association. No other charitable organization in the United States, to our knowledge, does this. You might excuse us, but this hardly sounds to us like a charity which is shrouded in secrecy or attempting to fly under the radar.

- It is a private membership organization, and not a government body or public officeholder, with over 66,000 members today (an average “state” membership of about 1,200) composed 97.5% of war veterans, as that term is defined by Act of Congress. It has places within its ranks for patriotic non-veterans, as authorized by Congress, and finds it disgusting when any American, veteran or not, tries to pit American non-veterans against veterans, or vice-versa. Evey American who died on 9/11/2001 wore the cloth of their countrty. The privacy of Association members, and Association donors, is protected by the Privacy Policies of the Association, which can also be found prominently displayed on www.navyvets.org. The Association does not, for example, release the names or identities of either our members or our donors to anybody without their explicit permission and direction, or as required by law. We do not see how we could keep the confidence or trust of either our membership or our public donors by doing otherwise on the demand of a newspaper which said they were going to “expose” us if we refused their demand. These privacy policies are like the ones recommended, but not required, in writing, by both the IRS and the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance. The latter two recommendations are the sources for our privacy policies. We believe that the privacy of the individual, a right recognized in our Constitution in cases as disparate as those dealing with charitable solicitations and a woman’s right to choose, trumps any phony demand for “transparency” put forward by a newspaper.

- Primarily it operates out of the home-offices of its officers and members. The donations of these facilities to Association operations is without any tax-deduction claimed by anyone. It does so to save on administrative expenses, so that more of it's donors' and members' dollars can go where they want: to program services as opposed to admistrative fees. It has an approximately 80% "pie-chart" analysis of program expenses from Guidestar as a result.

- It does not exist to acquire assets, or build large monumental buildings to house its staffs. It considers those to be a fraudulent expenditure and a waste of its donors' amd members' dollars. Not one of its officers lives a "lavish" lifestyle, or lives in a mansion. Most live in rental housing. None drives a "luxury" car. None owns a boat or yacht. The American Institute of Philanthrophy gives an automatic "F" rating to any charity which has amassed more than 5 years' worth of annual income reserves in assets. The Association is far, far, far under that figure. The Poynter Institute, by itself, on the other hand, the 100% charity owner of the SPT, has 7.25 years worth; counting the assets of the SPT conservatively, it has 26 years' worth.

- We have 41 state chapters, all of them separate legal organizations from the National Association, with their own boards of directors, plus a legally separate Support Group, the majority owner of the publishing company for the Times. They file, combined, over 5,000 pages of regulatory documents with over 30 government agencies in the United States each and every year, calling for, among other things, a ridiculously detailed scrutiny of the lives, persons and backgrounds of its officers, directors and key employees, their finances and their policies ranging from everything from racial discrimination, grants, grant refunds, documents and document retention, political activities, employee and former employee compensation, self-dealing, and on up to whistleblower policies. The charitable sector in the United States is by far the most over-regulated sector of the American economy. The National Association by law provides general supervision to its state chapters. If this was all the work of one man living in a little house in a low income neighborhood in Tampa, Florida, which is theoretically possible, then he was clearly working overtime. And regardless of whether he was working undertime, overtime or otherwise, he could have been compensated a lot. But he wasn’t compensated anything. All staffers with the Association are volunteers.

- Those regulatory documents require full disclosures of our leadership, their identities, and their street and mailing addresses, our contracts, and our finances, just like they do for all registered charities. Just one of our IRS Forms, for example, is approximately 80 pages long. All these current forms are a matter of public record, easily accessible by any newspaper in the land, or member of the public. Any statement to the contrary is false. Any statement that officers required to be listed as a matter of law do not exist, or are fictional, is false.

- Our primary, and IRS approved mission, is educational and not the making of gifts to individual veterans or members of their families, although the latter is certainly also included in our mission statement as a program activity, as are the social and recreational activities of our members. (All of this has also been prominently displayed online on www.navy vets.org on a page prominently labeled “Mission Statement, Who We Are and What We Do,” for over ten years.):

The Mission of the Association, which is an activity-oriented description of its goals, and the goals of its State Chapters, as currently approved by its voting membership, includes:

The support, as the Association's primary and encompassing mission, of educational communication for policies and public support enhancing the cause of the United States of America, and of Liberty, in the world, the cause of naval power, a strong national defense vulnerable to none, the Navy mission as a keystone of that defense, and the remembrance of the service of the American Veteran;

The support of the needs of the U.S. Navy;

The provision of assistance to disabled and needy war veterans and members of the U.S. Armed Forces from all service branches and to their dependents and to the widows and orphans of deceased veterans*;

The provision of entertainment, care and assistance to hospitalized veterans or members of the U.S. Armed Forces from all service branches*;

The provision of programs to perpetuate the memory of deceased veterans and members of the U.S. Armed Forces from all service branches, and to comfort their survivors*;

The sponsorship of, or participation in, activities of a patriotic nature;

The support of legislative action to provide to our service personnel, veterans, and their dependents, widows and orphans, the remuneration and benefits they truly deserve;

The provision of social and recreational activities for Association members;

and

The provision of nonpartisan education, news and analysis pertaining to the value of these goals, and other issues of interest to veterans, service members and the patriotic public.

*For a more complete description of the Association's Veterans Outreach Programs, go to the Veterans Outreach Programs Page of www.NavyVets.org.

The Executive Board of the Association, by unanimous public resolution January 21, 2005 has added the following quotation to the current Mission Statement as a fundamental part of its First Article:

"From the day of our founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the maker of heaven and earth. Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave. Advancing these ideals is the mission that created our nation. It is the honorable achievement of our fathers. Now it is the urgent requirement of our nation's security, and the calling of our time."

- President George W. Bush

Inaugural Address

January 20, 2005

The United States Navy Veterans Association, while officially supporting the mission of the United States Navy since 1927, is not an official part of any United States Government agency.

It is a U.S. Government qualified tax-exempt, tax-deductible veterans' organization.

The Association mission is “Educational,” not in the sense that it teaches geometry, but that it promotes patriotism and American national security, to both members of the national and international public, and to policymakers concerned with the same, and brings them both news and its analyses about the same. The best definition of patriotism is simply “love of country.” Association members and donors, many of whom shed their own blood for this ( and it wouldn’t make any difference whether we had a membership or donor base of one person or three million persons on this subject) believe that love of America means love for Freedom, and not the love of the regulation of the non-violent thoughts or activities of man by other men. If we differ from the editorialists for a newspaper on this as policy; even if we disagree with the President of the United States on this, the law, our law, protects the right of our membership (and our donors) to that disagreement, and protects our rights to determine our mission against either a government or a newspaper which wants to determine our mission for us, or to tell us what policies to support or oppose, or to tell our individual members what political candidates they should or should not personally support or oppose.

The Association, on average, spends roughly 80% of its total budget on these Mission Statement purposes. Any statement that we only spend 1% of our budget on true program service activities, or that the Association “said” it spent only 1% of its budget on true program service activities is not only false, but also, just based on the real facts we have presented in this brief Association background piece, appears on its face to be maliciously made by one particular reporter with a personal disdain of one of the Association’s former directors.

The detailed Disclosure Statements on the back of all our donor receipts, reviewed and approved by three separate, and independent law offices, before dissemination, the access to which copy has also been prominently displayed on the Governmental Disclosures page of www.navyvets.org, clearly tells each donor how their donation is and can be spent. If, however, a particular campaign representative verbally asserts as part of a solicitation, that the solicitation is for a particular program service activity, then 100% of the net funds from that solicitation are spent on that purpose.

- The organization, and all its separate parts, are Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(19) veterans’ organizations. That section of the Internal Revenue Code places no restrictions on such organizations from engaging in either lobbying or political activities, as opposed to § 501(c)(3) charities such as the Poynter Institute, the owner of a newspaper calling itself the St. Petersburg Times. Any statement to the contrary is both false and misleading. The United States Supreme Court has said on two separate occasions that Congress intended to give special benefits and privileges to veterans’ organizations as opposed to groups like Poynter. The statements contained in the March 2010 St. Petersburg Times article on the Association’s operations being in conflict with the express provisions of the Internal Revenue Code were false, and appear to be maliciously made.

Part 3 of 4 April 17, 2010

Facts About the Poynter Institute:

Commentators have alleged that the Poynter Institute (Poynter) abuses of its Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) status. The basis of these complaints is that the effective control of Poynter and its subsidiaries rests with a single individual, Paul C. Tash. Mr. Tash is the Chairman of the Poynter Institute Board. Mr. Tash is also the Editor, Chairman and CEO of the St. Petersburg Times. TheSt. Petersburg Times is owned and operated by a wholly owned subsidiary corporation of Poynter, the Times Publishing Company. The Times engages in, and has engaged in since Poynter first acquired it in 1978, substantial political activities, including, but not limited to, overt political endorsements for candidates running for elective office, as well as lobbying activities far in excess of what are permitted activities for 501(c)(3) organizations.

The profits of the St. Petersburg Times are believed to provide the sole means of support for Poynter, or the overwhelming majority means of support for Poynter, according to published financial analyses.

Mr. Tash has complete control of Poynter and Poynter has complete control of the St. Petersburg Times. The fact of this total control is substantiated by former Poynter Chairman, and Times CEO Andrew Barnes, who said in a 1999 www.tampabay.com piece posted on the Poynter website, that the Poynter Chairman (who is also always the Times CEO) is the “one person” who has total “command” of both Poynter and the Times. Mr. Barnes says in the same article that the Poynter Chairman, by reason of the sole fact that he is the Poynter Chairman, sets his own pay and compensation (regardless of where that compensation comes from), appoints everybody else in both organizations, and has the sole power to, and does, appoint his own successor. In effect, Mr. Tash has top-down control of the Poynter and the St. Peterburg Times. This control legally stems, commentators opine, from the Last Will and Testament of the owner of the St. Petersburg Times, Nelson Poynter, Jr., bequeathing the newspaper to Poynter at his death in 1978, and the original and amended Articles of Incorporation for Poynter.

Poynter refused to provide a full copy of its Form 1023 as originally filed with the Service in 1975 (using the later-changed name, Modern Media Institute, Inc.), it Articles of Incorporation, or the amendments to its Articles of Incorporation, when requested. The IRS said it did not have a copy. The redacted copy provided by Poynter failed to provide any reference to the activities of theSt. Petersburg Times.

While Mr. Tash controls the operations of the Poynter, records indicate that Mr. Tash receives 100% of his compensation (currently listed at around $600,000 per year) from the St. Petersburg Times, thus permitting theTimes company to deduct that amount as a business expense from its annual for-profit corporate income tax return. Poynter’s latest filed 990 (for CY 2008) claims Mr. Tash worked -0- hours as the Poynter Chairman.

Based on the above analysis, the following answers on that Annual Information Return, the full version of which can be found on www.guidestar.org, might appear to be falsely or inaccurately made:

Checklist of Required Schedules: 3,4,16,28a, 28c and 33.

Governance, Management and Disclosure: A1b, A2, A10, B16a and C19.

Part IX, Line 7 ("Salaries and Wages"), Columns A, B and D do not add up.

Guidestar gives Poynter's 2008 990 and Poynter's other information a measly two blocks out of four for depth of data provided. The US Navy Veterans Association gets four blocks out of four.

At a minimum, there should be a full investigation for fraud in the filing of Poynter’s original Form 1023, continuing fraud in the filing of Poynter’s Form 990’s for every year thereafter, income tax evasion by both organizations, and a charitable organization scheme for the private inurement of one person, the Poynter Chairman. Since this information is also filed with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer services, Florida should lead the way in investigating this enormous and continuing scam.

Part 4: A Parsing Refutation of our Opponent's Arguments: There is Nothing Wrong with Us: Your Money Goes Exactly Where We Promised; We Need to Turn the Spotlight on Their Scam Instead

When this reporter first started composing this piece, I soon realized that the bodies of Testerman's hatchet jobs on the Association contained so many lies and misrepresenations usually placed in the form of argumenation designed to make it look like a factual presentation, that I did not know where to begin.

Then Testerman sent an email to the Association's General Counsel saying that he and the SPT intended to continue to write negative and accusatory stories against the Association indefinitely. While this merely corroborated the feelings of many within the Association that this was no reporter or legitimate news outlet speaking, but rather an animose campaign machine with no normal regard for journalistic ethics, it readied this reporter to use what Testerman threatened was going to be his next attack article, which actually appeared May 15, 2010, about the Association's palpably good work in Haiti and some light level lobbying the Association recently carried out in Tampa, Florida, as an example. What I intend to do here is to parse this Testerman's story for its outright falsehoods and then move on to an analysis of how the remainder of the piece is nothing more than animose argument structured around those lies, and some minor truths thrown in for good measure. After that, we'll move on to some generalized analysis of his other articles in summary fashion.

But first, the true story of what the Association did in Haiti, dated and bylined, from one of the National Security Affairs Newstand's reporters:

"In the News: The Association in Haiti

March 10, 2010

By: Heather Phillips, Americas Newsdesk

National Security Affairs Newstand

On February 19, 2010, the Association sponsored and accompanied a relief organization led by the Mayor of Coral Gables, Florida, Don Slesnick, to Haiti to help rebuild an orphanage which was devastated by a catastrophic earthquake which impacted the region in January, 2010. This relief mission was comprised, in part, of Association members, volunteers and representatives, graduate students and professionals hailing from many parts of the U.S., including Florida, Washington DC, Oregon, California and New Mexico, as well as a strong medical contingent from the University of Miami (Florida) Health Center.

On one occasion on February 20th, a mini-van was packed so full with donations that relief mission volunteers had to sit with boxes in their laps, until volunteers could hand out everything. On that date, they drove around for 4 hours handing out food, water, clothes, and eventually money to mothers with kids in tent camps. Also, everyone bought food items in the market and intentionally overpaid; $10 for a coke, $30 for a 6 pack of soft drinks, $20 for a bag of fruit. Then they gave everything they bought to Haitians in need on the street as they were looking for the next thing to buy. The children were especially pleased with the presence of the US Navy Veterans Association, as depicted by the expressions on their faces.

Later that same day, the Association was part of a team which hired Haitian guides to drive them throughout Port au Prince, Haiti, to view the devastation inflicted on the surrounding areas first-hand. The National Palace, established in the late 1700’s, and where the Haitian President resided, was in ruins. Other popular monuments throughout the city were also damaged. Association representatives were welcomed by, and had the pleasure of meeting, and talking with, the Mayor of Delmas province, Jean Gael, at his villa for 2 hours. The Mayor expressed extreme concern for his people, and described them as hard-working seeking opportunity. Job creation was the underlying theme expressed by the Mayor. Further, Mayor Gael stated that job creation was his number one priority. The Mayor expressed the desire for the Haitian people to understand new industry concepts, so that the people can become proficient enough to export their talents to new markets. The Association strongly supports national legislation and policy here easing the way for the importation of more Haitian products into the United States.

On Sunday February 21st, the Association took part in rebuilding a concrete wall surrounding the New Life Children’s Orphanage. The breaches in the wall resulted in mounds of concrete shards and harmful rebar protruding recklessly which could potentially harm the children of the orphanage. Several volunteers collected and transported the rubble to dump trucks for disposal. This event gave the volunteers the opportunity to bond with the children of the orphanage, who were grateful to have new companions to spend time with. Also, the New Life Children’s Orphanage had many child victims of the earthquake within the compound, some of whom held devastating injuries which required many surgeries to repair. The team members were able to comfort these victims, by cleaning up wounds and spending substantial time entertaining them.

In the afternoon of February 21st, the Association was part of a leadership team which picked up designated supplies of food and water with a truck at Operation Blessings Warehouse near the U.S. Embassy. Operation Blessing agreed to provide the supplies based on a long-term relationship with Pastor Frank Amedia of Touch Heaven Ministries. The truck traveled through the disaster area Port au Prince south to Carrefour (ground zero) and to Campe de David Compound operated by the Church of Jesus Christ. The compound is located at 30 Mahotiere 75 Thorland, Carrefour, Haiti. Approximately 15,000 tons of baby food, rice, peanut butter, MRE’s, and water was delivered, unloaded, and distributed in the camp.

Relief mission members were scheduled to depart Port au Prince International Airport February 22ndbut due to electronic malfunctions associated with runway lighting, all flights were canceled for the day. The U.S. Air Force controlled the airport, and provided team members with food, water, and cots to sleep on. They were especially cordial and congratulatory to Association members. That night, while volunteers slept on the runway tarmac, a 4.7 earthquake struck at 1:26am EST, which created temporary panic and confusion for all involved. The following day, mission members departed for Miami International Airport.

As part of the mission, Association representatives had the privilege of meeting, and speaking with, the Prime Minister of Haiti, Jean-Max Bellerive. The Association actively carries out advocacy on behalf of its Mission Statement both domestically and internationally.

It is important to the national security interests of the United States that we prevent, through positive American activism for the sake of good, the rise in this Hemisphere of foreign notions of foreign interests, their power, their philosophies and their influence from spreading here. This policy position of the Association is directly contradictory to the foreign policy positions of former President Clinton speaking as to Haitian relief, when he said he welcomed foreign nations there which wanted to become ‘partners’ in the rebuilding of a new Haiti.

In our opinion, that is why our Navy is in Haiti, and should be in Haiti; it is why our Southern Command is in Haiti, and should be in Haiti; and it is certainly why the Association was in Haiti, and should be in Haiti.

We also note that American movie star Sean Penn, who disagrees with almost every national security policy position of the Association we can think of, was also in Haiti at approximately the same time the Association was, with his out-of-his-own-pocket relief mission. He is to be congratulated, and featured, and showcased, for that generosity, and his mission, as he has been by many national news outlets, including CBS-TV and CNN.

The 25th largest newspaper in the U.S., the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times, on the other hand, took this occasion to headline a story lauding Penn’s scheduled arraignment on battery charges for simply asserting, in our opinion, his American right of self defense against a “reporter” who was stalking him, and trying to get pictures of him. This reporter believes that tabloid newspapers which deal in trash stories in order to promote the egos of their editors and reporters, and to sell their own papers, are not newspapers at all, but are part, instead, of a larger movement which hates America itself, and whose reporting has the consequence and likelihood of bringing down our Republic, and the values of our America which our founding fathers held dear. "

It is probable, in this reporter's mind at least, that Testerman's newest hatchet job on the Association appearing May 15, 2010, was motivated by the last paragraph in Ms. Phillips' story.

Contrary to what Testerman asserts, the relief mission the Association supported was actually not just one mission, but a series of missions around the same time, to Haiti. These missions were done, in part, under the aegis of certain church leaders and missonaries from the United States, including Pastor Frank Amedia, and American government representatives, and others. The underlying purpose, the real purpose, of Association sponsorship and participation in these missions, from the Association's standpoint, was to show the American flag as part of the relief effort, and the Association believes it did just that. This reporter personally saw two checks the Association wrote for this good work, one for $1,000 and one for $5,000. These dolllars went to underwrite the travel costs and arrangements for all mission members. Contrary to what Testerman wrote, Thompson did not personally "pay for" or underwite anybody's trip to Haiti; the Association and certain of its respective state chapters did. The Association also provided approximately $5,000 in actual dollar costs to Chapter members from New Mexico, Florida, Washington, D.C., California and Oregon, members this reporter met with. There was no real ability at the time for charitable representatives to buy needed foodstuffs and other necessaries for the peole of Haiti in Haiti with credit cards or checks. In Ms. Phillips' story above, Mr. Berger, who is wearing his Association tee shirt in the photos shown, presents some of the details of the kind of the distributions, along with photos, to the Haitian people which took place. Mr. Ciftci was not reimbursed or underwritten directly by the Association for his participation on the one trip he made.

Testerman's story: the Association did all this, spent all this money on aid and grass-roots lobbying, because it "knew" on or around February 19, 2010, that Testerman was going to write a hatchet job on the Association commencing March 20, 2010. The timeline proves him wrong because in fact, not having powers of clairvoyance, neither the Association nor any of its key people, had any such knowledge. In fact, whenever the Association does some spectacular piece of work within its Mission Statement, Testerman immediately, and always, writes that it's all a scam done because of something he has published, or intends to publish. Not only is this reflective of Testerman's God complex, in this reporter's opinion, but all this is also designed to chill the good works the Association has carried out, and continues to carry out, and to deny to the potential recipients of assistance of the Association the donations the donors to the Association wish to make. This reporter is dubious Testerman will actually be able to accomplish all that; but is certain he will continue to try.

Testerman's story: One of the Association's directors, Bobby Thompson, "recruited" "stand-ins" Michael Ciftci, Josh Berger and Patrick Thacker, to go to Haiti; and to meet with one Congresswoman from North Carolina in Tampa, and a former Assistant State's Attorney from hillsborough County, Florida. All lies: the Association was considering a relief mission or missions to Haiti, quite naturally, from the time of the first Haiti earthquake and a number of other Association members, other than these three, actually attended on these missions, contrary to a key presentation Testerman makes in this story. Mr. Berger and Mr. Thacker, both of whom did excellent representative work for the Association during their memberships, both of which began prior to the Haiti earthquake, were mentioned to Thompson by Ciftci as potential members who had credible backgrounds for representative work in Florida, the type of people the Association is always looking for, and not the other way around, as Testerman makes it sound. Thompson knew Ciftci at least since 2006, according to Thompson, and it was always Ciftci who asked Thompson how he (Ciftci) could help; not Thompson asking Ciftci for help. Both Berger and Thacker applied, and both were accepted. Thacker was going back on active-duty, and it is established Association policy as to dues that all dues for voting members are waived for the entire year they are on, or will be on, active-duty; the $50 dues for associate members are likewise waived in any case of unemployment; as usual testerman (a) points none of this out; and (b) constructs the story to argue that since dues were waived this is circumstantial evidence these two were not real members; he could likewise argue the same in every case dues are waived, and probably will, simply because it fits his overall thesis of vilification. According to Thompson, Berger specifically asked Thompson for rank, not the other way around, as Testerman makes it sound, and was, based on his credentials, granted volunteer status as an Intern in the Association's Public Information Office, a post similiar to in certain responsibilities, but not identical with, Ciftci's within Don Phillips' development company. At his request, Thacker was granted the same status. According to Thompson, the trip to Haiti Ciftci was making was mentioned to Thompson by Ciftci, not the other way around, as Testerman makes it sound. Given Ciftci's prior relationship with Berger, Thompson thought it natural Berger, an Association member, could attend with Ciftci on that particular mission as an Association representative, and all were agreed that would take place, and did take place.

Berger is wearing his Association tee-shirt in his photos. It's kind of hard to believe Testerman is arguing that Berger was not a member.

Here is the Affidavit of the Association volunteer who delivered Ciftci his membership business card and, pictured below that, Ciftci's, Berger's and Thacker's business and identification cards:

In sum, Berger and Ciftci were two Association members who represented the Association well on one mission to Haiti. All the statements in Ms. Phillips' article were true, and the Association stands behind them, as well as all of its good works. The SPT was no where to be found, on the other hand, with its reportedly hundreds of millions of dollars in gross income, on either this mission to Haiti, or any other mission heretofore.

Thacker: more lies. It is obvious Thacker is stating in the Testerman article that he was a member at all pertinent times, certainly accurate statements. It would be hard to believe he wasn't since he seems to be proudly having had his picture taken in public representing the Association at some very important functions, pictures he provided the Association. One can call his application, and Berger's as well, a "recruitment" if one wishes, in the sense the Association recruits members and officers all the time, but to do so in a slanted way merely to impugn the act, is wrong to the point of showing an extreme amount of hostility and bias.

Moreover, the Association lobbies all the time for policies it believes in, just like the SPT does; they just happen to be diametrically opposed policies. The Association is proud to have its newer, and youngest members, sometimes the most articulate, specially selected to be involved as part of that, as an exercise which is good for both them, as well as for the Association. As part of that, it is commonplace for people introduced to each other at meetings, who want to build a long-term relationship with each other, to utter the words, 'If there is anything I can do for you, just let me know.' These are friendly and usual words, something Testerman probably knows, yet he leaves his readers with the impression something sinister or illegal is going on.

Thompson never contributed Association treasury funds to any political candidate, something Testerman apparently says he never said in the first place. Yet his articles left that impression, and Berger told Testerman that he had resigned from the Association because of that impression left, which is exactly what Testerman wanted to hear, so he could print it. Berger, the same day, told Association Special Counsel Karmika Rubin, that he was concerned out of fear by what Testerman might say about him and that Testerman had told him, 'you have to talk to me; you don't have any choice.' This is not normal newsgathering, at least in this reporter's opinion; what it is, instead, is verbal waterboarding, and what it produces, for the real reporters still out there, is not the truth, but rather simply what the questioner wants to hear.

This is why, this reporter believes, the Association really did lose both Berger and Thacker as officers and members, as well as a substantial number of others now nationwide, as members and officers. If Testerman attacks an officer, as this reporter has laid out in this story, than it is natural for Association officers not to want to talk to this so-called Pulitzer Prize nominee. Nevertheless, the Association has never ordered anyone not to talk to Testerman.

Here is Berger's "resignation" email to Association Special Counsel Karmika Rubin, verbatim:

“Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:46:32 -0400
Subject: Re: USNVA request
From: joshberger3@gmail.com
To: karmikar@hotmail.com

Hi Karmika,

Thank you so much for your invitation to last Friday's event. I was so proud and happy for your achievement.

It was an honor meeting members of your family.

Per photos - all were taken with USNVA camera.

I am sorry for this issue. I adore you, Blanca and Commander. And appreciate Michael's [Ciftci] role in this relationship/venture; the last thing I want to do is make anyone feel/look bad.

I want to continue with USNVA; but am scared for potential outcomes which could appear in the coming days/weeks.

Maybe this liberal reporter is the issue. He broached a lot of points, but w/o backing them up fully. Which is why my feeling are wavering.

Please call anytime if you would like to speak.

Respectfully,
Josh”

In sum, Ciftci, Berger and Thacker, were real, albeit new, members of the Association, and not "stand-ins." Testerman's statement to the contrary is a lie.

He also repeats his lie over and over again that he hasn't "talked to" or been able to personally identify any officer of the Association other than Thompson, while in the very same articles mentions the names of the "real" officers he has identified! By my count, these now number at least nine. Every time he "meets" one of them, though, we can all be rest assured Testerman will make up some argument that they are not "real," including, but not limited to, attempting to intimidate the officer or member spoken to, to leave or resign from the Association.

He also repeats over and over again his lie that the Association operates out of mere maildrops. The Association prides itself on operating out of the home offices voluntarily provided its member and officers, without any tax deduction being taken by any of them, something Testerman never mentions. The UPS Stores utilized, moreover, are real street addresses, with keys to the front door provided, Association workers can, and do, access and work in with real, albeit sparse, business furnishings and equipment and paid staff assistance, 24-7-365. To simply take picture of the box number is meaningless, at least to this reporter.

And now he's personally attacking Association member and volunteer Blanca Contreras, a single mom who raised five wonderful children, including a severely mentally challenged paraplegic son; as well as another son, also a member of the Association, who serves proudly as an enlisted member with the Army. Blanca has every reason to be proud of what she's done, and the Association is proud of her.

These attacks are why a number of Association members said they felt they were being stalked by Testerman; it is why one said she thought it might have been Testerman following her in her vehicle. It is why most members will not talk to him, and the Association has no way to force them to chage their minds, and has no intention of doing so. Quite the opposite: the Association will maintain, as a matter of our Constitution, that it has every right to protect both the privacy and identities and the freedom of association of all its members from the demands either of Testerman, or of state action interrogatories Testerman induced. A number of Testerman's readers have also written in threatening Association members, as well as others among his targets, with violence, and those same verbal threats have been made to many Association members throughout the country, as well as threats of "legal lynchings" Testerman is promoting.

In sum, the Association did good work in Haiti; did good work in its educational efforts among policymakers. It continues to struggle, however, against the nationwide effort Testerman is making, through lies and distortions, misrepresentations of both law and fact, to obtain state action for a legal lynching, as well as personal acts of violence, as well as chilling Association members into leaving the Association.

That is why the Association has stopped printing the names of its members on its website. When those names are released, it has been shown that the members are attacked or threatened by those who believe in what Testerman is doing. The Association respects their privacy and their right of free association; Testerman and his minions do not.

Finally, Testerman told his readers, flat out in this cited article, that the "only" item the New Mexico Chapter of the Association presented to the New Mexico Attorney General in evidence of its Chapter activities, was the Phillips' piece.

He neglected to mention to all of you that, instead, the Chapter also presented thousands of dollars of actual receipts for care kits bought for a USAF HBAC unit from New Mexico stationed in Iraq, as well as sample copies of its educational and advocacy newsletters distributed within New Mexico (the latter containing advocacy positions the SPT apparently would prefer the public not hear about).

Stay tuned for more of Part 4:

For more than ten years, the U.S. Navy Veterans Association has been assisting active military personnel and veterans like Lon Henke. The Vietnam veteran suffered a debilitating stroke and needed to get home from Florida to Illinois for rehabilitation right away.

But the Veterans Administration and others would not provide funds for his emergency air lift. That's when the Association stepped in with a $10,000 payment to pay for an air ambulance to take him home. The Association has helped countless other veterans like Mr. Henke.

But all the charitable good works of the Association were buried in a recent series of articles that appeared in the St. Petersburg Times. Instead, the newspaper slanted it's coverage, focusing on whatever dirt it could try to dig up. They went so far as to claim that pretty much all of the good work the Association did was because of the fear of their lead reporter, Jeff Testerman, who none in the Association had even met until August, 2009. Testerman claimed he could not find any members of the Association's board of directors other than Bobby Thompson.

That's because the board of directors have chosen to go to great lengths to protect their privacy, as well as the privacy and rights to free speech and freedom of association of all Association members. The board decided a long time ago that they would release their phone numbers and addresses only when required by law. Over the years, some members of the public have verbally threatened board members and rank and file members alike, while others who disagreed with the Association's policies and philosophies as to subjects of interest to veterans and the public have threatened to destroy the organization.

As part of its policy and philosophical policies, the Association has supported a strong national security stance and it has endorsed President Reagan’s position that “government is not the solution; government is the problem” as a cornerstone philosophy of our American Freedoms, which hold forth the promise, coming from no where else, of the light of liberty for all the world to see, that lamp which creates real hope in the hearts of billions throughout our planet every day .

The Association's support for America's independence and strength have not always been greeted with open arms. In addition, members of terrorist organizations have personally attacked the Association, its website has been banned by one Communist government; and therefore the board members have done everything possible to protect their privacy, the privacy of all Association members and that of their families.

The Association's board believes they have met the requirements for listing their addresses and phone numbers on state and registration papers throughout the country. The newspaper also attacked the Association's financial accountability. In that regard, the Association has never crossed the line of impropriety.

Each one of the political contributions described by the newspaper were made by Thompson from his personal funds, not from the coffers of the Association. There is no explicit prohibition against Thompson or even the Association itself from making political contributions if it chose to do so. The latter has never even been tested in a court of law.

Thompson has given donations to some political candidates and other public servants around the nation in keeping with the Association's endorsement of a strong national defense and homeland security. He is entitled to make personal political contributions from his private funds as he sees fit.

Thompson joined the Navy at the age of 15, using the name of another, so he could get into the military. He served in Vietnam on the ground, and elsewhere, and on Navy ships. He was discharged honorably. The Times and its reporters flailed around trying to verify Thompson's service and could not find his military records because of how he served. Then their reporter threatened Thompson with lying to the government in the 1960’s because of his desire to serve. The same reporter sat out the Vietnam War (which the Association’s predecessor organization endorsed, and which the Association still endorses today) while in college and one year of graduate school, which he left abruptly at almost exactly the time the last man was drafted into the Army.

During the reporting stage of his story, Testerman demanded to see the Association's financial books. But the Association's general counsel, Helen Mac Murray, made it clear that the organization's records, including those of its state chapters, are not kept centrally in one location. And the Association does not have the resources to spend countless hours making copies. The SPT refused to pay for the hundreds of thousands of dollars this search and marshalling effort would have cost, instead demanding that the Association ‘order’ its volunteers to do the work.

The Association has appointed an independent auditor to examine its financial records, and the organization will make the results public when the audit is done. In the meantime, the Association has asked the Times' non profit arm, the Poynter Institue, to provide all of its financial documents to the organization for review as well. They, of course, refused to comply.

The Association has the right to hire outside agencies to help it raise funds for its charitable purposes. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Riley vs. Federation of the Blind that charitable organizations have the freedom to do that. The agencies that raise funds for the Association have complied with all of the state and federal laws governing their activities. Testerman ignored that in his articles and misrepresented the truth.

The Association is committed to continue to support veterans in their time of need. Lon Henke knows that, as do the countless other veterans the Association has helped. And just as Henke served his country in the Navy in Vietnam with pride, so will the Association continue to do its job, despite the attacks from outsiders who do not believe in its mission.

"Our wars have won for us every hour we live in Freedom.

...And our wars have taken from us the young men and women who died to keep us free."

-President George W. Bush, at Normandy D-Day Cemetery, Memorial Day, 2002

Between 1800 and 1900 this Nation, largely a rural people without amenities of electricity or even indoor plumbing, a tough bunch from all over the globe ( in 1900, almost one-half of New York's population was foreign born, compared with 11% of the American population in 2000), became the most prosperous nation on earth. Some countries have exceeded us since in per capita wealth, but these were all anomalies whose prosperity was dependent, not on intellect, industry, skill and hard work, but on, instead, a windfall of finding a resource on their soil we, as Americans, for some odd reason, were willing to pay them extortion for.

As to the underlying and varied substance of Americans and our economy, we are still the most prosperous nation on earth, as we have been since 1900. And we did this...WE did this...in less than 200 years, a fact no nation...no nation including Rome, has ever accomplished.

By 1945, again in less than 200 years, and by the Grace of Nature and of Nature's God, we were the most powerful nation on earth, and still are.

And we believed then, and believe now, unlike many others, in the Freedom and Dignity of Man, of all People everywhere, which is the ongoing strength of both our prosperity and our power.

The United States Navy Veterans Association current Mission Statement, as it relates to this Newstand, says that the purposes of the Association shall include:

"The provision of nonpartisan education, news and analysis pertaining to the value of the goals of the Association, and other issues of interest to veterans, service members and the patriotic public."

**************

After the Civil War, crippled war veterans who wanted their benefits had to personally come to Wahington to collect them. They had to sit in an office there sometimes for days on end as part of the application process, while clerks poured through the records to verify their status. Those records were bound with red tape. That's where the phrase came from.

****************

"In time of war, God and the soldier we adore,

When war is over, and all things righted,

God and the soldier we ignore."

- Rudyard Kipling, 1876

USN@NavyVets.org

VETERANS' ISSUES NEWSTAND
[VI]

VI picks up here chronologically immediately after the last entry on the introductory VI on the

Homeport Page.

1-11-02:
The Bush Administration needs to be congratulated for proposing to spend $1 billion over the next five years to rehabilitate the country's 250,000 homeless veterans. It remains to be seen, however, if this money will actually be spent and, if it is spent, whether it will be spent on local programs which are truly effective.
Florida alone has over 17,000 homeless veterans.

1-12-02:
The Association has learned that the VA hospital system is reverting to a rationing of hospital access which is leaving more and more veterans out in the cold. As many as 4,000 veterans a month are being added to the waiting lists to see a doctor or for hospital care at many VA hospitals. In 1996, Congress opened VA hospital care to all veterans, not just those with service-related injuries or illnesses. But, truthfully claiming lack of facilities and resources, the VA has effectively overturned the law. Across the Nation, veterans are being told they must still prove that their condition is service-related (still as hard to do as it ever was, in our opinion) or there will be no room for them at the inn. Our prediction is even more dire: that in short order the VA will quietly begin adding another qualification to its triage system for care: that the veteran be able to prove indigency.
To be fair to the VA, this is a "What else can we do?" situation.

1-24-02:
President Bush proposes more than $48 billion in new military spending, the largest annual increase in 20 years, out of a total proposed Pentagon budget of $379 billion. Good job, Mr. President. This will be money well spent and, actually, is not a lot (and is light on the Navy, in our opinion), even with the Administration's projections that the military budget will grow gradually to a total of $451.4 billion in 2007. This still only amounts to about 3% of our GNP spent on defense versus 5% in the Ford Administration and 10% during both the Eisenhower and Kennedy Administrations. The War in Afghanistan alone, annualized, as of date (with about 5,000 troops on the ground in that and nearby countries and about 2,000 sailors offshore) is costing us $12 billion per year, so a $48 billion military increase would permit us to fight 4 Afghanistans simultaneously, for one year, but
in fact, $19 billion of the increase, if passed, has been officially earmarked for the War in Afghanistan, according to Administration sources. Since we're spending about $1 billion per month now in Afghanistan, and since all new federal budgets go into effect October 1, a reasonable prognostication is that, currently, and given current circumstances, the Administration expects our troops to be in Afghanistan (and the region) through, at a minimum, April 2004.
Other line items in the proposed military budget include:
$10 billion for a military operations contingency fund;
$1.2 billion for air patrols over the U.S.;
$68.7 billion for weapons and equipment;
$53.9 billion for research and development;
$7.8 billion for national missile defense research and testing;
A 4.1% increase in basic military pay; and
A cut in troops' out-of-pocket costs for private housing, from 11.3% to 7.5%.

The Association predicts that Congress will actually pass a larger Defense Budget than President Bush has requested, and the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has already testified to Congress that this proposed budget is underfunded by about $40 billion with major shortfalls, according to him, occurring in lack of new ship production for the Navy, and lack of new aircraft production for all branches.

It is also the firm opinion of the Association that every Service Branch should fight for every dollar it can get in any national budget; but that no Branch should perceive itself in a zero-sum game for those dollars with any other Branch being perceived as the enemy; and that it is wrong for any elected official to put, or to try to put, any of those Branches in the latter position.

2-9-02:
A step in the direction of our 1-12-02 prediction on new triage for the VA was taken by the Bush Administration, when they proposed in their new budget, a $1500 annual deductible for VA care for "Priority 7" category veterans. "Priority 7" category veterans are veterans with higher incomes than average ($24,000 if single or $28,000 if married), no service related disabilities, and no other qualifications such as Agent Orange or Gulf War syndrome illnesses, exposure to atomic tests, or a Purple Heart.
At first glance you may think that this proposal is simply a way to keep the deficit down, or to make more money for the VA. You'd be wrong. The proposers know that the addition of the deductible will simply diminish the numbers of Priority 7s applying for VA care, which is the desired result. 121,000 less, is our estimate.
The VA accurately claims there has been an explosion in its workload since 1997.
Like all legitimate veteran groups in the U.S., the Association opposes this deductible.

2-21-02:
The VA has announced that nearly 199,000 veterans, or nearly one in four, who served in the Gulf War, have filed disability claims as of date. Most are complaining of ailments which have collectively been called Gulf War syndrome.
This is a stunning figure.
The official position of the VA is still that there is no conclusive proof that any Gulf War syndrome illness was directly caused by the war.

5-1-02:
The average veteran (perhaps the average American as well) in this country can't afford a new fee simple purchased house.
This is wrong.
This problem has been going on for a long while. We need a new Veterans' Bill of Rights in America. The problem, fundamentally, lies with the huge profit margins local developers are permitted to make on local real estate developments by the local governments which grant them that authority; but since that is taking place nationwide, it is a national, and a federal, problem. Local governments should step in and require lower buying prices as a condition of permitting these real estate developments, while at the same time requiring the quality of the development. Restrictions on the new-home prices set by local developers will simply mean that, instead of becoming overnight billionaires, they will have to settle for becoming overnight millionaires and, if that means more veterans can buy their own homes, that is something these American developers should accept as part of their patriotism.

5-14-02:
The Navy announces it is slowing down new enlistments (although this Association continues to promote them anyway) because re-up rates have jumped across the board.
The benefit to the Nation in retaining veteran sailors, reversing the trend of the Clinton Administration, is directly linked, in our opinion, to the Bush policies of trying to get pay and benefits for active duty up to where they should be, a part of the Association's Mission Statement, and something we lobbied hard for during the desert of the Clinton years, and continue to advocate today.

6-12-02:

The World War II Memorial on the National Mall, which this Association and its members fought long and hard for against so-called "veterans" groups which opposed the project, is now expected to be completed in the Spring of 2004.

The Registry of Remembrances, which will be run by the Parks Service, is now expected to be available on the Internet and not just at the Memorial site itself, as was previously worried about by many.

Congress is expected shortly, if they have not done so today, to pass legislation forbidding any more memorials on over 90% of the remaining open footage on the Mall.

7-3-02:

We have commented previously in our Newstands on the refusal of the Bush Administration to accept the jurisdiction of the new U.N. International Criminal Court of Justice (ICCJ), which refusal we support.

On this date, the USG proposed a compromise whereby there would be total immunity from ICCJ jurisdiction for peacekeeping forces and government officials from governments providing troops for peacekeeping missions.

This is a compromise this Association can also accept, and one the U.N., if it's wise (which we doubt) should also accept.

The United States, and the United States alone, has the moral responsibility for bringing our errant service personnel, if any there be, to justice for war crimes, or crimes against humanity. No foreigner should arrogate that jurisdiction to himself or herself, ever. Period.

8-17-02:

The Bush Administration asks all countries receiving U.S. military aid for an assurance of immunity from ICCJ jurisdiction for all U.S. military advisors, under the explicit threat of withdrawing that aid otherwise.

9-17-02:

As of date the VA hospital with the most medical appointments in one year, 600,000, is James A. Haley Hospital in Tampa, Florida. There, currently, there is a three month to one year wait for an appointment for non-emergency room, non-life threatening conditions. 15,000 veterans in Central Florida alone are on such waiting lists.

***************************************

STAY TUNED BELOW THE GULF WAR SYNDROME UPDATE.

*****************************************************************


		GULF WAR SYNDROME - AN UPDATE Some call it Gulf War Syndrome, others call it Gulf War Illness. Some even call it the new Agent Orange. Call it what you will, lots of Gulf War Veterans are suffering from it, and finally, more than a decade after the end of the war, some help arrives. Nearly a decade ago, a woman who was an officer during the Gulf War was traveling across the country presenting information about adverse health conditions that a large group of our most recent veterans were experiencing. Her verbal allegations about the problems that Gulf War Veterans were experiencing were supported by written documentation that served as hand-outs for her seminars. She pointed out that there was a larger percentage of illnesses in these veterans as compared to a similar group of veterans who did not serve in the Persian Gulf or of non-veterans; that these symptoms tended to vary from veteran to veteran but did fit a pattern; and that the VA denied that these illnesses could be a result of military service (therefore, denial of any treatment). At her seminars a show of hands was asked for from anyone who might be experiencing specific symptoms. As the list was read, a sprinkling of hands started to apppear. These twenty-something veterans were too young to be experiencing joint pains, night sweats, fatigue, and depression. Fast forward to 6-7-02, when a group of Gulf War veterans meeting with VA officials in Bartow, Florida on VA benefit issues, rose up and threatened those officials over the failure of VA to recognize their Gulf War Syndrome as a service-related disability. No arrests were made. There was a scene, however, and albeit indoors, it was reminiscent of the riot during the Veterans' Bonus March on Washington in 1932. There are a number of veterans'groups seeking political favor, who compliment their local politicians for passing legislation making it easier to get a service-related disability for Gulf War Syndrome. In fact, as we've pointed out on our Homepage, as of 2002, nothing real has been done on this issue to date. The reason nothing has been done, as we've also pointed out on this Newstand, is the dollar cost of doing something real, quantified by the number of Gulf War vets currently making claims, a number that will grow geometrically in any new attack on Saddam, because he will most certainly use biochem against our troops. The VA will not act alone. Congress isn't currently willing to pay that dollar price. But freedom isn't free. It comes at a cost, and Congress should be told that's true, by you, now. We would also, by the way, like to laud people in government for action benefitting the American veteran. And we have. And we will continue to do so on this Site. But not for phony action. We Are the Ones Who Can Help You don't have to wait for Congress to act to help, however. For more information on how you can start helping today, click onto our Veterans' Outreach Programs Page. ****************************************

SPECIAL FEATURE

WHAT WAS THE "BONUS ARMY?"

On June 7,1932, 25,000 veterans who called themselves

the Bonus Expeditionary Force,

paraded up Pennsylvania Avenue

in D.C., demanding a bonus payment

for their service in World War I.

They carried signs that read,

"Food Now, Not a Tombstone Later."

The House of Representatives voted them a bill;

the Senate voted it down.

On July 28, D.C. police

attacked them, and killed two.

President Herbert Hoover called out

placing them under the command

of General Douglas MacArthur

(his ADC was Dwight Eisenhower).

MacArthur routed the veterans,

and then burned down

their homemade shacks.

10-7-02:

The Department of Veterans Affairs
is
establishing priority access to health care for severely disabled
veterans
under new regulations recently announced.

        "It is unacceptable to keep veterans with service-connected
medical
problems waiting for care," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony
J.
Principi. "These veterans are the very reason we exist, and everything
we do
should focus first on their needs."

        The new regulation is being implemented in two phases. Under
the
first phase, which is being implemented immediately, VA will provide
priority access to health care for veterans with service-connected
disabilities rated 50 percent or greater. This new priority includes
hospitalization and outpatient care for both service-connected and
non-service-connected treatment. VA will continue to treat immediately
any
veteran needing emergency care.

        In the second phase, which will be implemented next year, VA
will
provide priority access to other service-connected veterans for their
service-connected conditions.

        The number of veterans using VA's health care system has risen
dramatically in recent years, increasing from 2.9 million in 1995 to a
projected 4.4 million in 2002. An additional 600,000 veterans are
projected
to enroll in VA health care in 2003. Unable to absorb this increase,
VA has
more than 280,000 veterans on waiting lists to receive medical care.

        Although VA operates more than 1,300 sites of care, including
163
hospitals and more than 800 outpatient clinics, the increase in
veterans
seeking care outstrips VA's capacity to treat them.

        "VA provides the finest health care in the country, but if a
veteran
cannot see a doctor in a timely manner, then we have failed that
veteran,"
said Principi.

         "I will work to honor our commitment to veterans," he added.
"But
when it comes to non-emergency health care, we must give the priority
to
veterans with severe service-connected disabilities."

At a morning press conference on the campus of Thomas
Edison
State College in New Jersey, Congressman Chris Smith (NJ) today
announced
that a second major increase in the G.I. Bill college education benefit
authorized by his legislation took effect October 1st,
raising the monthly benefit from $800 to $900. The final increase
raising
the monthly benefit to $985 will take effect next October 1st.

Smith, who was joined by officials from Thomas Edison State College and
New
Jersey veterans leaders, said he organized the event to, "get the word
out
that the GI Bill is an unbeatable value for servicemembers looking to
pursue
higher education or specialized training."

Smith's GI Bill legislation, the Veterans Education and Benefits
Expansion
Act of 2001 (P.L. 107-103), authorized three increases to the
Montgomery GI
Bill program that will eventually raise the lifetime benefit by 46%
from
$24,192 (prior to October 1, 2001) to $35,460 on October 1, 2003.

"The GI Bill is one of the most successful government programs ever
developed, having benefited over 21 million military veterans and
helping to
create the modern middle class," said Smith, who chairs the House
Committee
on Veterans' Affairs. "However in recent years, inflation and
escalating
college tuition rates had seriously eroded the value of the GI Bill,
causing
fewer veterans to participate in the program," he said. The latest
statistics show that only about half of all eligible veterans
participate.

"Last year, we made modernization of the GI Bill program a top priority
of
the Veterans' Affairs Committee, and with enactment of my legislation
we
have taken a major step forward to enhance the educational
opportunities for
America's veterans," Smith said. "With these record increases, many
more
veterans will find that they can now afford higher education or
advanced
career training," he said.

Under the GI Bill program, a military servicemember who elects to
participate in the program pays $100 a month for 12 months while on
active
duty. Upon separation, a veteran who served for three years would be
eligible for 36 months of educational assistance benefits at a
qualified
education institution, including vocational and other professional
training
courses. The monthly benefit, $900 beginning October 1st, can be used
to
pay for tuition, books, college fees, room and board, and other living
expenses while attending school. For veterans who served for two years
on
active duty, the monthly benefit is slightly lower, rising to $732
beginning
on October 1st, and then to $800 next October 1st.

"The GI Bill not only helps our veterans and our educational
institutions,
it is also the military's top recruitment and retention tool," said
Smith.
"With our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines embarked upon a war to
defend our nation against terrorism, we must ensure that these brave
men and
women get all of the assistance they need to help them in their
transition
back to civilian life. The GI Bill is and will remain a cornerstone of
that
effort," he said.

10-7-02:

"With our country at war, and with nearly 20% of our
current
active duty soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines being servicewomen,
the VA
must improve their services and facilities to accommodate even more
women
veterans in the coming years," Congressional Subcommittee Chairman Jerry Moran (KS)
said
at a Veterans' Affairs Health Subcommittee hearing last week.

"Women are taking on new responsibilities in the Armed Forces. They
are
becoming a vital link in the success of our military today, and will be
even
more crucial in the future," said Chairman Moran. "VA must actively
re-position itself to welcome and outreach to women veterans, be
sensitive
to their needs, and ensure their health needs are being met with high
quality programs," he said.

Testifying before the Health Subcommittee was Congresswoman Heather
Wilson
(NM), the only woman veteran serving in Congress.

Chairman Moran urged VA to "smash any perceived 'glass ceiling' or
other
limitations preventing women veterans from seeking or receiving quality
VA
primary health care. Furthermore, VA must ensure that there are
sufficient
specialized care facilities targeted to women veterans, including
counseling
for sexual trauma, mental health services, and safe domiciliaries for
homeless women veterans and their children."

"Every veteran has a right to personal privacy, and for women that
includes
private bed accommodations away from other patients, and even simple
things
like privacy curtains and separate women's restrooms," said Moran.

"Throughout most of its history, VA has been a men's health and medical
program - almost by design," Moran said. "And while there has been
progress
in serving female veterans, more needs to be done. Women are defending
our
Nation in the Armed Services. They serve our country with distinction
today, and women deserve our nation's thanks as veterans today -- and
tomorrow," he said.

Congress authorizes a 4.7% increase in military spending for next year, with key increases going to non-pay active-duty benefit enhancements, further research on employment of low-yield tactical nuclear weapons, and homeland security. Other major provisions exempt military bases from environmental protection laws. The House bill also restricted military base closings, a provision which will, we predict, be taken out.

House Democrats complained they were not allowed to water down the increases.

This is an authorization, not an appropriation, which won't happen until the fall We explain the difference at the bottom of our Legislation Page.

Increases in spending on the War in Iraq can be expected via supplemental requests on an on-going basis from the White House.

500 new physicians and nurses have been hired in Florida for the VA system over the past 6 months. Florida is the state with the highest demand for VA facilities and services.

The number of veterans nationwide who have signed up on the VA waiting list for a first visit to a VA doctor is now about 7,500. The numbers on this waiting list were close to 60,000 at the start of the Bush administration.

Many veterans refuse to even sign up for the list because they don't qualify or because of perceived problems with the adequacy of VA care.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in two University of Michigan cases, ruled that affirmative action may be used in determining admissions to the Nation's service academies, providing that numerical preference points are not assigned to an applicant on the basis of race alone.

The Florida State Legislature, in its most recent session, has added a number of laws benefitting active-duty service personnel other states would be wise to take note of: Most importantly, the new legislation, signed into law by Florida Governor Jeb Bush, permits an active-duty service member, for military reasons, to break any home or household rental lease upon 30 days notice. The new laws also prohibit rental discrimination against veterans or active-duty service persons because of their status, and permit homeowners to fly flags on patriotic holidays regardless of condominium or restricted deed rules to the contrary.

The legislation was strongly sponsored by State Senator Mike Fasano, Chair of the State Senate Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee.

The Governor's Office also announced Florida would strongly welcome the transfer there of units from other states about to be relocated because of base closings.

Florida State spending on veterans, though, we have to say, is one of the lowest per capita in the country, in large part because of the substantial number of retiree veterans living there. So Florida still has a long way to go. But, on matters which do not involve brand new large expenses to the State treasury, which matters are still important in an era where all state treasuries are strapped, Florida is known, not as one of, but as, THE state which is currently the most military-base, and veteran, friendly.

(During World War II, we also point out as a sidebar to this story, many Americans, landlords and non-landlords alike, offered free rooms to our servicemen. How times have changed! Don't despair, though, Patriot. In lieu of a money contribution to a veterans' group, you can still do more than just throwing out junk clothing by offering a free room in your house to a vet or, if you're a landlord, a free apartment to a veteran or active-duty service person. You'd even probably get on the local news, as a re-start of a World War II program, in which case tell them you heard about it here.)

The U.S. Navy is shutting down the Roosevelt Roads naval facility in Puerto Rico. This move only follows logically for this support facility, from the President's decision earlier last year to stop USN live-fire testing on Vieques, a decision opposed by this Association.

Puerto Ricans erupted in demonstrations against the loss of local revenue from the closure of Roosevelt Roads.

The Governor of Puerto Rico, Silva Calderon, said in English the closure was a good thing, that "the people of Vieques were not up for sale."

Que sera, sera, Silva.

A U.S. sponsored U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing peacekeepers to go into war-torn Liberia, passes.

The resolution exempted any U.S. peacekeepers in the force from the jurisdiction of the U.N.'s International Criminal Court, a jurisdiction which our Newstands have frequently disputed since 2001.

Three countries on the Security Council abstained from the vote because they specifically insisted U.S. Forces be subject to the ICC. They were:

No American Commander-in-Chief in his right mind will ever as policy subject any American serviceman or woman to the jurisdiction of the ICC.

The entire court, as currently constituted, is a legal fiction.

That is the opinion of this Association.

And we're sticking to it.

[A Footnote on the Liberian Story:

While the American mainstream media is focused on this story on Liberia, we also note there are civil wars and internal strife going on in other, and primarily francophone, central and west African nations, especially in the Ivory Coast, countries where France has significant (to them) commercial interests to protect. In order to protect those interests, the French government wants French peacekeepers to go in, under U.N. security council resolutions, to legitimize the insertion of those troops.

They have sought USG approval for those resolutions, which has been freely given.

Have these Frenchmen no shame, after hypocritically opposing our resolution for the insertion of U.S. and British troops in Iraq?

International politics is a dirty business to begin with.

When the French play it, it's even dirtier.]

8-22-03:

A day after supporting a plan to cut combat pay to U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Pentagon backtracked and supported a pay extension. The pay cut, which was planned to equally deduct pay increases begun in April, would roll back "imminent danger pay" by $75 a month and "family separation allowances" for the Armed Forces by $150 a month. Last April, the House and Senate increased the "imminent danger pay" for the first time in more than a decade from $150 a month to $225. The "family separation allowances" was increased from $100 a month to $250. Those increases - which were retroactive to last October - are set to expire on Sept. 30 unless Congress and the president continue the provisions. A day after the disclosure of a planned pay cut for U.S. troops, the DoD assured the public that they endorsed an extension of benefits. If Congress doesn't vote to renew the increases in Family Separation and Imminent Danger Pay, the DoD will use "other authority available to the department to make up for any shortfalls," a DoD press release stated.

The VA has proposed, by 2023, to shut down seven VA medical centers in Mississippi, Kentucky, Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and California, and to build two new ones in Orlando and Las Vegas, as well as 48 new (primarily outpatient) clinics.

The Association supports this plan as effectuating a long-overdue streamlining of the VA, concentrating its resources as to where population trends show the veteran population to be concentrated.

At the same time, we point out, there will be more veterans, especially in rural areas, without access to first class VA in-patient care. Veteran homelessness in rural America shot up by 300% last year alone, and the aging, and dispossessed veteran population is going to be more and more in need of hospice care, not the kind of care which is normally provided by outpatient clinics. The USG should recognize this fact, and the growing need of charitable assistance to this group of veterans by private charities, by supporting them.

Senator John F. Kerry (D-MA), Democratic presidential candidate, former Navy SEAL and one of the founding fathers of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (which many say, the membership of which later migrated to become the Vietnam Veterans of America), says on NBC-TV News' "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert 8-31-03 that he would propose adding two more Army divisions to the U.S. total (the Association has proposed doubling U.S. combat branch manpower levels); that he opposes adding any more U.S. troops to Iraq (the Association has proposed doubling the current force there); and that as President he would internationalize a U.N. command structure in Iraq with a view of adding more Arab-speaking and Muslim troops; and that he supports additional USG spending in Iraq.

Our analysis of his policy proposals: He's trying to sound more specific than others, but he's still sounding ambivalent. His policy proposals lack specificity as to how we could "U.N.ize" the war in Iraq without putting U.S. soldiers under a foreign U.N. commander or reducing U.S. dominance in the political and economic reconstruction of Iraq (and our message there) to insignificance.

Kerry also said he supported the lifting of travel restrictions to Cuba (USNVA also supports) but opposes the lifting of the embargo on the Castro regime (USNVA also opposes). Kerry also said he doesn't like Fidel Castro. (This Association doesn't, either.)

Kerry also said later that week, on this date, in the Democratic candidates' PBS-TV sponsored debate in Albuqerque (the "Hispanic" Debate) that:

" The United States only goes to war when we have to."

Our analysis: We had to go to war against the fundamentalist Islamic terrorists directing their war against us, and we must follow that war through.

Other leading Democratic presidential hopefuls in the Hispanic debate had this to say about the war in Iraq and national security:

HOWARD DEAN, former Vermont Governor:

Dean would U.N.ize the command in Iraq, but not place U.S. Forces under a foreign commander. "Our troops need to come home," he said, but otherwise gave no specifics to his vision for a reconstructed Iraq or for U.S. national security.

[UPDATE 9-10-03: In the Congressional Black Caucus sponsored debate in Baltimore, Governor Dean updated his remarks by adding; "This war [in Iraq ] was a mistake. We have to get out of it."]

RICHARD GEPHARDT, U.S. House of Representatives, Missouri:

Gephardt would "go back to the U.N.," but offered no specifics. He, also, said he would not place U.S. troops under U.N. command, an idea all these candidates, it seems to us, picked up from George W. Bush in the first place. Gephardt also said "We cannot cut and run," but that "The President is a miserable failure. He's a unilateralist."

JOSEPH LIEBERMAN, U.S. Senator, Connecticut:

"I'd send more U.S. troops." (This plan, specifically recommended heretofore by the Association was seemingly ruled out irrevocably by Secretary of Defense

Donald Rumsfeld, earlier this very date.)

CAROLYN MOSLEY-BROWN, former U.S Senator, Illinois:

She proposed "getting out with honor," a phrase from the Vietnam War. Our analysis is that there is no honor in retreating from the war against Islamic terrorists abroad any more than there was any "honor" in getting out of Vietnam, or "honor" in appeasing those in the Kremlin who sought to frighten and intimidate us.

This Newstand's opinion of what all these Democratic candidates are proposing, with the exception of Senator Lieberman, is either cutting and running outright in Iraq or internationalizing the reconstruction of Iraq under a U.N. regime. Our opinion of the latter is that it is not specific; that it plays into the hands of the French who simply want the Anglo-Saxons out of Iraq and for the U.S. to be perceived as a failure there. The French are not going to commit any dollars to reconsruct Iraq, and their proposals at the U.N. are not serious. Both proposals, getting out outright, or turning the situation over to what he French want, which is the only thing true "internationalization" could possibly mean at this moment, would produce catastriphe and chaos in post-Saddam Iraq.

The comments in this article are comments on the policy proposals, only, of these candidates, and not commentary intended to attack, disparage support or promote any candidacy itself. Moreover, the comments made are the comments of the VI Newstand Editors speaking as individuals and not for the Association proper.

9-11-03: SPECIAL REPORT

THE PROBLEM OF THE USE OF RESERVES IN A PROLONGED WAR SITUATION

There is a problem. It's a political one, and it all started with a dirty little military secret post-Vietnam when there was a conscious decision made by successive Administrations that we could build up a large Reserve force and use it if we got into combat abroad, while at the same time keeping down manpower costs for the reduced-in-size active-duty, regular Armed Forces.

The problem, post-1975, is that the Reservists and their families never bought the unspoken political premise that the Reserves might be called into extensive active-duty service to fight a war, as they are now being asked to do in the War on Terror, although that was clearly part of their legal commitment. Instead, the notion of the average Reservist was 2 weekends a month, 2 weeks a year training, a supplemental income for my family, and no interruption of my real career.

In the current War on Terror abroad, the Nation either needs to politically bring home the message of their legal commitment to the Reserves and their families, or it needs to make major expansions of the active-duty regular Forces.

...Or it needs to do both.

House-Senate negotiators reached agreement late today on a $368 billion Defense appropriations bill, $3 billion less than the Bush Administration had asked for, but a 1% increase over last year's spending. The bill does not include supplemental requests for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Major increases would include a 4.1% active-duty pay raise ($98.5 billion of the total for military pay) and 22 new F-22 stealth fighters. The bill would also provide about $9.1 billion for the now secret (as to test results) missile defense program, with the first missiles tentatively scheduled to be online at the tail end of calendar year 2004. $11.5 billion is for naval shipbuilding, up $2.4 billion from last year.

Waiting list numbers for VA care in Florida and Puerto Rico have now fallen to 2,000.

In Florida, the VA health care system since 2000 has grown from 267,000 to 450,000 qualifying veterans. The largest hospital there, James A. Haley in Tampa, services eight counties: Brevard, Hernando, Hillsborough, Orange , Osceola, Polk, Pasco and Seminole, but many who are counted as qualifying for service get, in fact, little or none, because of the lack of transportation.

(Washington) The House of Representatives today approved H.R. 2297, the Veterans Benefits Act of 2003, legislation that would expand and extend benefits to veterans and their surviving spouses. H.R. 2297 was sponsored by Congressman Chris Smith (NJ), Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.

The Veterans Benefits Act would provide significant new support to veterans, particularly to disabled veterans and surviving spouses of veterans, Chairman Smith said. With enactment of this legislation, we will also expand the GI Bill educational program to include self-employment training programs to help veterans run their own businesses, he said.

An extremely important provision of this legislation would correct an injustice for our Gold Star Wives, those who lost their husbands through service to our nation. This provision, which Rep. Michael Bilirakis of Florida has championed for years, would finally allow surviving spouses of veterans to be able to remarry after age 55 without being penalized with the loss of widow benefits, such as widows pension or burial rights, said Chairman Smith.

H.R. 2297, as amended, would also:

· Make permanent the State Cemetery Grants Program;

· Reinstate a VA pilot program to provide vocational training to newly eligible VA nonservice-connected pension recipients;

· Increase the specially adapted automobile grant from $9,000 to $11,000;

· Increase the specially adapted housing grant from $48,000 to $50,000 for the most severely disabled veterans and from $9,350 to $10,000 for other severely disabled veterans;

· Add cirrhosis of the liver as a presumed service-connected disability for former POWs;

· Eliminate the requirement that a POW be held for 30 days or more to qualify for presumptions of service-connection for several specific disabilities;

· Expand benefits eligibility to those children with spina bifida born to Vietnam-era veterans who served in Korea near the demilitarized zone between October 1, 1967 and May 7, 1975;

· Make the VA home loan program for members of the Selected Reserve permanent;

· Adjust the funding fee charged to Selected Reserve home loan applications to the same amount as that paid by active duty servicemembers;

· Reinstate the Department of Veterans Affairs vendee loan program.

The DoD has established a policy today of 2 weeks R&R for each year served in Iraq. (Same as it was in Vietnam.)

Congress has proposed, and will pass, legislation paying full commercial travel for this R&R to any U.S. HOR. (More than Vietnam.)

This Association supports both, strongly.

The F/A 22 USAF fighter jet program has been cut to the current level of 276. The Navy was not signed up to receive any of these planes.

The "New" Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB) is available for active duty and veterans to help with education costs, and can provide up to 36 months of education benefits. If you're a full-time student enrolled in a Regionally or Nationally Accredited College or University, as of October 1, 2003 you can get up to $985 a month to cover education benefits, including high-tech or vocational-technical programs. This adds up to a total benefit of over $35,000 -- and these benefits are increasing every year. Don't delay in using the GI Bill -- these benefits are usually good only up to 10 years after you separate from the military.

The latest Bush Administration compromise counter proposal on concurrent receipts would mean proposed new spending, beginning January, 2004, of $22 billion over ten years (Probably will go higher). It would mean full concurrent receipts for disabilities rated 50% or above. (If that happens, look for administrative, and quiet, pressure on VA to keep down newly granted applications at those levels.) Reserve and Guard retirees would be included.

Republicans correctly point out that, although Democrats have seized upon the full concurrent receipts issue, that for the 40 years the Democratic Party had nearly exclusive control of Congress, they never sent a bill on concurrent receipts to any President.

"Stop-Loss" orders have been issued by the Army in early 2004. These mean no early retirements; no early resignations from service will be accepted, and no retirements or resignations whatsoever will be accepted from a rotated back serviceperson from overseas within 90 days. Additionally, initial service tours for incoming recruits will be lengthened, perhaps to as long as 7 years. This is all legalese. In English, it means the Army admits it has too few troops, and too many of those troops are not light infantry, just as this naval association has long held.

The Command pyramid also needs to be flattened, with top echelon officers let go, and more and more junior officers, NCO's, and enlisted personnel added. Redundancy in top echelon command structures are unnecessary. Top echelon command does not need to be run by multiple committees in any service branch.

Salaried payments and benefits to our active-duty Armed Forces, Reserve and Guard personnel are the biggest part of any Defense Budget (not including retiree benefits), going back at least to the 1940's, and respected analysts do argue politically that increases in that category would mean, politically in Congress, less money allocated for other (mostly weapons systems procurement) items in that same Defemse Budget.

The DoD has floated the idea of bringing more stability to active-duty tours in the Reserves by promising stability to the Reservists' civilian careers, and limiting the amount of time which could be spent overseas in a given time frame. This float is being put forward because of the political problems apparent in some Reservist families due to the Iraqi war. Its larger cause is the undermanning of our current infantry force levels.

The Association lobbies for bringing that infantry strength up to par.

The Association has lobbied against this sort of Reservist philosophy, absent the reinstaement of the draft, which is not about to happen.

The German judicial system has sentenced a self-confessed murderer and cannibal to only 8 1/2 years. in other words, the accused murdered his victim and then ate him. The German court literally said the lenient sentence was justified because the victim "asked for it." In Germany, the court both tries the case without a jury, and sentences the defendant without a jury.

O.K., let's get a couple of things straight about this Association and Germany. We do not hate Germans. We do not think all Germans are nuts. We do think this German court, with respect to this specific decision, is nuts, and that that opinion of ours bears itself out in other decisions of German courts as applied to lenient sentences handed down post-9/11 to international terrorists.

These people, meaning the current German government in Berlin, given these decisions, have no right to demand we ask for their permission to act in our own self defense, either in the U.N., or inside or outside Germany. and we would not approve any U.S. serviceperson being turned over to a national court, ever, that made this sort of a ruling in a domestic canibalization-murder case. No judicial system like that has even ther slightest notion of judicial fairness, equity, or justice, in its head, assuming it has a head. The defendant in this case was German; the victim was not.

For the record, the Bush Administration proposed 2004 Budget seeks to cut access to VA medical facilities (not by much). Additionally, the House Republican leadership this year has proposed a $28 billion cut to veterans' programs over a ten year period.

3/27/2004: AN APOLOGY

We apologize for the temporary interruption in the flow of news and analysis on our Newstands.

Site building pograms we use are being attacked by hackers traced to Middle Eastern hard drives, causing this temporary interruption in the flow of news, analysis, and other information presented on our Site.

The existing content of the Site has not been affected, and there is no way a virus can spread to your computer simply from viewing the Site, or even downloading a portion of the Site.

In the meantime, while we are rebuilding and strengthening the firewalls on these programs, the NSA, WOT and VI Newstands will continue to bring you analysis pieces on the Homepage Forum, which is not affected.

We will straighten this problem out and we will be back up and running with normal operations ASAP.

Only 30% of the current members of the U.S. Congress have been in any form of military service, down from 60% in 1969.

Of the major "top 10" leaders of both the Republican and Democratic Parties today, none of their above age 18 children have volunteered for military service.

"I know Franklin would have been upset if he knew his children had not wanted to fight for the United States."

- Eleanor Roosevelt, speaking of President Roosevelt, as to his feelings in 1942

At the same time, all service Branches today, with the exception of the Navy, are reporting that they are exceeding recruitment goals in the U.S., and all Service Branches are reporting substantial increases in recruitment rates.

5/7/2004:

VA To Close 3 Hospitals
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The Veterans Affairs Department will close three hospitals in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Mississippi and build two new ones in Nevada and Florida as part of much anticipated restructuring plan, The Associated Press has learned.

The agency also will add or remove medical services at dozens of other facilities.

VA Secretary Anthony Principi also has endorsed building 156 community-based outpatient clinics by 2012, with an emphasis on serving rural areas. Local VA officials had sought 270 clinics.

Principi was to release the plan Friday in Las Vegas. Several congressional officials who had seen it described the contents to the AP in advance.

The department undertook the restructuring two years ago to shift services to areas where veteran populations are increasing and to modernize outdated buildings and shed vacant space.

Under the plan, the VA expects to reduce costs for maintaining vacant space from $3.4 billion to $750 million by 2022 but projects spending $6 billion on new construction during that time.

A draft plan last summer that recommended closing seven hospitals drew opposition from local officials and veterans in those communities. An independent commission examined that plan and narrowed the list of closures.

After reviewing the commission recommendations, Principi decided to close three hospitals, in Pittsburgh, Brecksville, Ohio, and Gulfport, Miss. The hospitals must have a plan for closure by September. It was not immediately clear when they will shut their doors.

A fourth hospital, in Livermore, Calif., will have all its services except long-term care transferred elsewhere. However, a new VA nursing home will be established there.

The VA plans to continue studying ways to cut costs. Representatives from veterans groups who met with Principi on Thursday were told the agency would not close or eliminate services at any other locations before new or replacement services are available elsewhere in the area.

Veterans group leaders were reluctant to comment on the report because they had sketchy details and promised Principi they would withhold comment until the report was publicly released Friday. But the groups have tried to ensure the restructuring plans didn't hurt veterans.

"We have been concerned about trying to take things too fast because when they looked at medical care and said what's our access they were not looking at mental health and long-term care," said John Brieden, American Legion national commander. "We didn't want the VA to make decisions based on only partial information that would impact those areas."

The department will build new hospitals in Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla. The VA also wants to build new rehabilitation centers for the blind in Biloxi, Miss., and Long Beach, Calif., and place new spinal cord centers in Denver, Minneapolis, Syracuse, N.Y., and in a city that can serve Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas and part of Missouri.

Among the VA facilities that will lose services is the hospital in Canandaigua, N.Y. It had been on the list to be closed, but Principi decided instead to transfer inpatient psychiatric beds to Buffalo or Syracuse and ordered officials to come up with a plan for making the campus more efficient. The hospital was built for nearly 1,000 beds but has only 166 patients on average.

"Overall, it's not an A-plus for New York, but it's still an A," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

But Michigan officials were unhappy with a decision to close acute inpatient psychiatry beds in Saginaw. Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Mich., is "appalled" by the decision, said spokesman Peter Karafotas.

"Eliminating inpatient care will have a devastating impact on the quality and access of medical care for over 60,000 veterans in mid-Michigan," Karafotas said. He said Kildee will continue to push House and Senate bills that would block the closings.

Congress will review Principi's decision. It cannot change the plan but does have authority to determine whether to fund the changes. Congress had been unwilling to approve money for construction until the department came up with a restructuring plan.

There are an about 25 million veterans in the country, with more than 7 million enrolled in VA health care.

VETERANS BENEFITS AS ENTITLEMENTS?

AND AN OVERVIEW AND UPDATE ON BENEFITS DURING THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION

Kansas City Star

May 10, 2004

Veterans' care puts costs on front line

An excellent and detailed copyrighted article by: MIKE McGRAW

John Kerry, who often campaigns with old Vietnam comrades, is advocating a costly policy change that pleases many fellow veterans but worries budget hawks.

Amid all the talk of tossed service medals and questionable National Guard duty, the nation has heard little debate about "mandatory funding" of health care for veterans - that is, putting them in the same "entitlement" category as Social Security and Medicare. The proposal is promoted by several large veterans groups. Kerry's campaign Web site endorses it. The Massachusetts Democrat even co-sponsored a mandatory-funding bill in the Senate. Some estimates indicate the change could double the $30 billion spent annually on health expenditures at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Despite his promise to halve the federal deficit in his first term, Kerry will not back off his support of mandatory funding, his campaign aides insist."Our veterans' health care shouldn't depend on the yearly whims of budget cutters," Kerry says.

Where President Bush stands on the issue is not clear. A White House spokesman referred inquiries to the Bush/Cheney campaign. Campaign spokesmen pointed back to the White House. While many Republicans oppose mandatory funding, said Joe Violante, legislative director for Disabled American Veterans, the president seems to be ducking the issue. "Our national commander met with Bush a couple weeks ago and didn't get a response." In this year's expected close elections, candidates want to avoid offending veterans, who, with their families, make up about a quarter of the U.S. population.Despite relatively large budget increases for veterans' benefits under his watch, Bush already has found himself accused of underfunding the Department of Veterans Affairs."Balancing the budget on the backs of this nation's veterans," thundered Edward Banas, commander in chief of the Kansas City-based Veterans of Foreign Wars, earlier this year.When mandatory funding cam! e up last year, Bush's secretary for veterans affairs, Anthony Principi, called it "unworkable and inappropriate." But in a recent interview, Principi was more careful. "I have concerns...," he said. "Often times in this town, you come up with cost estimates only to find out five or six years later that they were woefully underestimated."

While the cost of Kerry's Senate bill has not been estimated, the Congressional Budget Office says a House version could add as much as $473 billion (about the size of this year's federal deficit) to the $303 billion already projected for VA health care over the next eight years.In a brief phone interview, Kerry said that estimate seemed high.

The call for mandatory funding grows in part from a change in 1996, when Congress widened the doors of veterans' hospitals and clinics to all who have served in uniform, regardless of ailment or income. Now the Disabled American Veterans, the VFW, American Legion and others are pushing for automatic appropriations at a time when others are asking how the nation can afford! future strains on Medicare and Social Security. "Discretionary programs should not be converted into entitlements," said Bob Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan Washington group that advocates deficit reduction. Bixby said Congress has already given up control of far too many budgeting decisions by making other programs mandatory. When that happens, he added, programs no longer have to compete for budget dollars and go on a sort of budgetary autopilot. "We call them appropriations that have died and gone to heaven."

The second largest of the 15 cabinet departments, the VA has nearly 1,000 facilities, 218,000 employees and a $67 billion budget.Counting veterans and their families, 70 million people are potentially eligible for VA health care or other benefits, an obligation that can last for many decades. More than 400 children and widows of Spanish-American War veterans still draw benefits. The last Civil War widow drawin! g benefits died last year.Historically, the VA health-care system has had a relatively small clientele because most higher-income veterans sought care elsewhere. Its traditional claimants have been mainly combat-disabled, homeless or low-income veterans, whom the VA still considers its "core mission."But that is changing with the new open-door mandate and the massive post-World War II population bulge. At the same time, veterans from Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf wars are aging. More than 13,000 veterans from the war in Iraq have already sought care."Veterans are voting with their feet," said Kenneth Kizer, a doctor who ran VA health care under the Clinton administration. "They are using the system now because it works better."However, he added, he and others had anticipated the VA could recover some of its increased costs by billing Medicare for qualified veterans who seek VA treatment. But that never happened.In approving the 1996 change, Congress dismissed warnings from its own auditors and budget analysts that the VA was ill-prepared for the surge in business. Rep. Steve Buyer of Indiana, a Republican member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said at a hearing earlier this year, "We here in Congress have created this problem. This committee ... had it wrong."The VA clientele shot from 3.5 to 4.8 million, many of them first-time claimants fleeing higher co-pays and enrollment costs from Medicare and private insurers.

But funding hasn't kept pace."I chose the VA (over Medicare) because it doesn't cost me as much, and it's better care," said Hubert Norris, a cancer patient at the VA Medical Center in Kansas City. Norris, a Korean War veteran, has no service-connected disabilities.Crowding in some areas can cause longer waits for combat-disabled veterans. In July of 2002, more than 300,000 veterans were waiting six months or more to see a doctor.When Principi sent a top aide, paralyzed and in a wheelchair, out to test the system that summer, he was turned away at six of the eight clinics he visited. "It wasn! 't pretty," Principi said."He was told to go elsewhere. We were oversu bscribed."Since then, he said, the backlog has been drastically cut. In fact, overall funding for the VA, including pensions, is expected to go up about 38 percent in four years under Bush - to about $67 billion - compared to a 32 percent increase in the eight years of the Clinton administration.But despite what Principi called "unprecedented" funding, the administration was criticized in January 2003 for freezing enrollment of nondisabled veterans with annual incomes above about $25,000, cutting out 200,000 veterans.Veterans groups also complain of a proposed $250 annual enrollment fee and increases in prescription co-pays for middle-income vets.The Kerry campaign says the Bush administration's own estimates predict the policies will exclude about 500,000 veterans from the VA health system by next year.And the latest Bush budget for VA health care alone - $32.1 billion - is an increase of only 3.8 percent.When questioned by Congress in February, Principi broke from protocol to say he had asked the White House for $1.2 billion more than he got.Even the president's allies on the hill took issue. Sen. Kit Bond, another Republican and chairman of the veterans subcommittee, helped restore the $1.2 billion.

As to mandatory funding, Bond speaks carefully, "We have a tight budget and we need to care for veterans. But we also need to take care of the health-care needs of others, educational needs, environmental needs, science needs and, in my bill, housing needs."`

The appearance of opposing any veterans' benefits can open a candidate up to accusations of being unpatriotic, weak on defense or ungrateful to the troops. The issue has become even more sensitive with more wounded soldiers being shipped back from new wars."It's always been a very ticklish subject for people to touch politically," said one Capitol Hill staffer. "Besides, in this generation of politicians you have some guilt complexes at work by those who never served, or ducked Vietnam."

But not all veterans believe in mandatory funding."We don' t think it's necessary that just because someone served two years in the Army that the taxpayer owes them a lifetime of health care," said Steve Strobridge, legislative director of the Military Officers Association of America, which represents active-duty officers and retirees.On the other side, Rick Weidman, director of government relations for the Vietnam Veterans of America, says picking which veterans should get benefits is fraught with hard choices. "How do you turn away a retiree who did 30 combat missions as a bombardier, serving as a hood ornament on a B-24, and allow in someone who got hurt in basic training?" he asks.All veterans deserve access to the system, he says, adding, "The American people have something much deeper than a contract with veterans. It's a covenant."

Islamic Courts; War Crimes; and Gaddafi

We'll give you an example of how "court" justice works in the Islamic world, and why we say no person should be subject to it. As you probably know, Col. Muammar Gaddafi, sole dictator of Libya, has been welcomed back into the world community by western leaders because he's surrendered his WMD programs. Good, so far, though our Newstands have said he still needed bringing to justice because of his murders of U.S. citizens in the skies over Lockerbie, Scotland, and U.S. service personnel in Berlin, all through terrorism.

So Gaddafi's phony Islamic Libyan courts trumped up totally fake charges against a number of Bulgarian nurses (Bulgaria, when it was Warsaw Pact nation, was an ally of Gaddafi; now Bulgaria is a NATO member) for "infecting" Libyan children with the HIV virus, and then sentenced them all to death. The real facts are, the HIV virus is rife in the blood replenishment supply in Libya, but these nurses had nothing to do with it.

Gaddafi will now commute their sentences to show what a "humanitarian" he is. Our comment as to him and his Islamic sentencing court: What a crock of crap!

This guy, and all like him in the Mid-East, need killing. They're all phonies, and they're murderers, and they're savages. The same applies to their company owned Islamic court systems.

God forbid we would ever subject an American soldier to one of these rigged courts for "war crimes."

The House and Senate Armed Services Committees have agreed to an across-the-board 3.5 percent pay raise for servicemembers in 2005, as well as making permanent increases in deployment-related pays. The pay provisions are part of the fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill passed recently by the House Armed Services Committee; and a different version of the same bill passed last week by the Senate Armed Services Committee. Both bills add money to the Bush Administration's proposals for military heath care, especially for reservists and their families, and for force protection measures, including more armored Humvees and armor kits for other vehicles for troops in Iraq. Both committees authorized $422.2 billion for the Department of Defense in 2005, the full amount requested by the Bush Administration and $20.9 billion more than the amount authorized by the Congress for fiscal 2004. But because the Administration's 2005 proposal did not include funding for operations in Iraq or Afghanistan, the House bill also adds an additional $25 billion in "emergency" money for those missions.

INDICTMENT OF CIA CONTRACTOR FOR TORTURE IN AFHANISTAN

A federal grand jury in North Carolina has brought a criminal indictment against a CIA civilian contractor for killing a "POW" in Afhanistan.

Legal experts our Newstand staff has consulted, all of whom are members of this Association, are unanimous in opining that there is no jurisdiction of a U.S. court in this case, and that there should not be as a matter of U.S. constitutional law: The defendant is a civilian, they argue, not somebody subject to the UCMJ, allegedly having committed a crime in a foreign land where the alleged victim was not a U.S. citizen. If jurisdiction would lie in such a case, in or out of wartime, they argue, it would lie in Afghanistan.

This is a political indictment by the Bush Administration.

This Association is opposed to it.

Administration Retreat on the International Court of Criminal Jurisdiction

The Bush Administarion has retreated in the Security Council, withdrawing a resolution continuing the exemption of both U.S. Forces and USG officials from the jurisdiction of the International Court of Criminal Jurisdiction (ICCJ), when they are on missions authorized by the U.N.

This Association opposes any turnover of any U.S. serviceperson to any court except a U.S. court for "war crimes."

A lot of veterans and active duty personnel have questions about what all this means. There is confusion on the subject even among international lawyers. Our legal experts have put together the best available analysis we could come up with as to what this means for practical purposes, given the murkiness of the subject even among the experts:

At first glance, the White House press conference announcing the decision seemed to imply an admission that U.S. forces on future U.N. peacekeeping missions would be subject to the war crimes jurisdiction of the ICCJ. On second reflection, however, that is not exactly what they said.

As best we can tell, the ICCJ does not assert jurisdiction over official personnel of countries which do themselves prosecute crimes by their military. Whether the ICCJ decides this, or whether the country concerned does, is unclear. Also unclear under this doctrine of jurisdiction, is whether the concept of non-prosecution by the concerned country applies to a particular named defendant, or to a class of persons accused.

The ICCJ is believed not to assert jurisdiction in any case for acts committed in a country not a signatory to the 1998 Treaty of Rome creating the ICCJ, even though this doctrine, if it is doctrine, would make a mockery of the ICCJ's perceived inheritance of the role of the Nuremburg Tribunals. (Neither Nazi Germany nor Imperial Japan signed any treaty creating those Tribunals.) President Bush administratively removed President Clinton's signature to the Treaty, and apparently does not intend to re-sign it now. Iraq is also not a signatory. Countries not signatories to the Treaty are not represented on the Court.

The USG has status of forces agreements, most of them signed during the current Bush Administartion, with 90 governments (including Afghanistan) barring any prosecution by official Americans by the ICCJ. Whether the ICCJ would recognize any such ttreaty as limiting its jurisdiction has never been decided by that Court.

Given all the above reasons why there would not be any practically speaking jurisdiction, why go for these 'exemption resolutions' in the first place? Answer:our Newstand staff doesn't know, other than to say the resolutions gave the Administration bragging rights to say that the Security Council was really unanimous in supporting the mission of U.S. Forces.

Footnote: Bill Clinton was a partial creator of the ICCJ and wanted its jurisdiction to extend, for war crimes, to USG officials, presumbably even including himself, and service personnel, in each and every case. He said tonight, on the PBS-TV Charlie Rose Show, that he put in place in the treaty provisions "to safeguard" U.S. troops from "unfair prosecution" by the ICCJ.

That statement is totally untrue, for the simple raeson there is no concrete definition of a "war crime" under which a U.S. citizen could be tried by the ICCJ. As a former Arkansas attorney general and 'the smartest lawyer in the world,' according to his wife, Clinton knows that a fundamental constitutional requirement of U.S. criminal due process is that, based on statutory language which can be read in advance, the accused must know before the crime is committed what is proscribed, and what is not. No notion of American due process is recognized by this Court composed entirely of foreigners, many of whom have known and open anti-American biases.

To sum up our analysis and the facts on this subject, and today's decision, is difficult, but we'll try:

It is difficult for our Newstand staff to perceive of a situation where President Bush, at least, would actually turn over a U.S. Army military intelligence branch commander, or a Secretary of Defense, to a court in the Hague compose entirely of foreigners not utilizing at all U.S. court procedures of due process.

Such a decision would be devastating to any future ability to successfully recruit for the U.S. military.

Yet the decision to withdraw these on-going resolutions says that that is exactly what could happen, at some time in the future.

Over the next hundred years, we predict, given the predominance of lawyers in the world's society, the attempt of the ICCJ will be to assert more and more jurisdiction over Americans.

Based on the consensus of the membership of this Association today, this Association will oppose that every inch of the way.

FOREIGN AID FOR VIETNAM

President Bush today approved an aid package out of U.S. generic AIDS funds in an unspecified amount for the Communist government of Vietnam to fight AIDS.

This Association is opposed to ANY USG foreign assistance programs for this government,

The Politburo in Hanoi is a throwback to the days of Soviet Imperialism and of Communist wars of national liberation.

The Bush Administration would not spend a penny to assist Fidel Castro, who falls into exactly the same category. In fact, the Bush Administration spends a lot of money to support the overthrowal of Fidel.

This decision on Vietnam is inconsistent with the policy on Cuba, where AIDS is commonplace among prostitutes on the streets of Havana.

The Politburo in Hanoi is composed of violent anti-American thugs. Ho Chi Minh was a common thug. General Vo Nguyen Giap was a common thug. An American president who believes otherwise is mistaken.

We should work to overthrow this regime, not buttress it with foreign aid which will be, by the way, diverted from its humanitarian purpose into the pockets of the Vietnamese Politburo, and their friends.

Furthermore, this money could be better spent on AIDS research and treatment here at home. Americans are still dying here, we tend to forget, every year, from this disease.

Almost on the same date, the USG announced that 15,000 Hmong from Laos would be granted immigrant status into the U.S., into Minnesota.

The mayor of St. Paul went to Thailand and the Hmong camps, and said that Hmong immigrants were welcome because of the support they showed the U.S. in the Vietnam War.

The Hmong tribe was overwhelmingly supportive, with military support, of both the French cause against the Viet Minh, and the U.S. cause against Communism, in Indochina.

They are an example of the kind of people we should be helping and nurturing.

NEED FOR MORE ACTIVE DUTY FORCES

The Army will send out next week 5,600 letters to IRR reservists (the total Individual Ready Reserve is 166,000) saying that they are recalled to active duty because of the war in Iraq, a desperation move.

Many, if not most, of the addressees will be returned by the USPS, "address unknown."

The facts in this report merely reinforce our headline.

NUMBER 1 RANKED MILITARY FRIENDLY STATE

Florida has retained its rating as the Association's annual ranked Nation's #1 military friendly state.

New, innovative statutes passed by the State legislature and signed into law by Governor jeb Bush this year , included:

Congress Approves $417B Defense Bill
Associated Press
July 23, 2004

WASHINGTON - Congress used overwhelming votes to ship President Bush a $417.5 billion measure for defense in a day that highlighted lawmakers' bipartisan approach to the military - and their divisions over many domestic programs.

The Senate approved the Pentagon spending bill 96-0 and the House followed suit by 410-12. The legislation included $25 billion for the next few months of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and a 7 percent boost for other defense programs.

The appropriations bill also included a 3.5% pay raise for active duty personnel.

See the 2005 Pay Charts.

The ongoing wars and the approaching November elections made the one-sided votes inevitable. Also easing passage were home-district projects, including $4.5 million for research, equipment and construction that Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y., claimed for his upstate New York district, and $1.9 million for the Presidio park in San Francisco, hometown of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

"Our generation's time of national trial has come, and we're being called to stop a new kind of enemy," said Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C. "Now more than ever, we must improve our national security."

The bill is the first of the 13 annual spending bills for the government's next budget year - which starts Oct. 1 - to clear the Republican-led Congress. Lawmakers were eager to pass it before going into their six-week recess, which began Friday.

"Our troops will have what they need to do their jobs, and I am pleased that a bipartisan majority in the Congress continues to stand with me to support our military," Bush said of the measure in a written statement.

After passing the appropriations bill, Congress will still have to pass another authorization bill to actually approve the spending of the figures set. For the difference between appropriations bills and authorization bills, and to see how this process actually works in Congress, see our Legislation Page.

But lawmakers' summer break was beginning with the rest of the spending bills a long way from finished.

Those measures have been rocked by fights over everything from spending for schools to aid to Saudi Arabia. With a backdrop of record federal deficits that have prompted the GOP to try reining domestic spending, legislators will face decisions about those measures when they return in September.

In other budget work Thursday,

- The House approved a $10 billion military construction measure by 420-1. First, as expected, it dropped an expansion of a housing program for soldiers' families that conservatives said broke budget limits. The Senate has not yet approved its version.

- The House Appropriations Committee passed a $90 billion bill financing the Transportation and Treasury departments after voting 42-16 to give civilian federal workers the same 3.5 percent raise the military received. Bush recommended a 1.5 percent increase for civilians.

- The same House panel approved a $92.9 billion bill that cuts funds for NASA, environment and science programs while increasing veterans' health care to $30.3 billion.

Money appropriated for the war in Iraq will probably still be insufficient.. Administration officials say they expect to have enough money through September by moving money among accounts.

The war funds include money for body armor, reinforced Humvee vehicles and $500 million to train the new armies of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The overall bill has $1.6 billion less than Bush requested for the Pentagon but nearly $25 billion over this year's total, excluding money for Iraq and Afghanistan.

It has nearly $78 billion for weapons purchases, $3 billion more than Bush requested. Included is more money for Air Force unmanned Predator aerial attack vehicles, Stryker combat vehicles for the Army and a DD(X) destroyer.

There is $10 billion for continued work on a national missile defense system. And there is $100 million for the Air Force to modernize its fleet of midair refueling tankers - though House language was dropped requiring 80 of the craft to be purchased from the ailing Boeing Co.

Included were several non-defense items, including $500 million for fighting wildfires, $95 million to help victims of warfare in Sudan and $685 million for U.S. diplomats' activities in Iraq, including their security.

WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON IN THE WIDE FLUCTUATIONS WE'RE SEEING IN RECRUITING AND 'LET GO' POLICIES IN ALL THE SERVICE BRANCHES THIS PAST YEAR?

What's going on is that the Army and Marines need more personnel, specifically infantry. and their recruiting efforts aren't picking up those recruits, which is why, in this country for the first time since the 1970s, we're hearing serious proposals to re-start a draft.

So the DoD, at political levels, trys to experiment: It orders the other branches not to aggressively recruit from time to time, so as not to compete for manpower with the Army and the USMC, and it orders some 'let go's' in the other branches (non-Army or Marine Corps), prior to full retirement credit, which is what these servicepersons wanted, knowing that many of them can transfer to the Army or Marine Corps, where many will be gladly accepted because of their skills.


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