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National Secretary’s REPORT
BY BARRY HAGGE
I don’t know how our 56,000 brother and sister VVA
members feel, but the last five months have flown by. It’s
been a blur: the Springfield Convention, planning for the
25th Anniversary of The Wall Parade, the publishing of The
Wall, planning for our Leadership Conference and 30th Anniversary,
and our next legislative blitz on Capitol Hill. It seems
like we never have enough time, yet we still succeed. Thanks
to our National Staff for all they do for us. They are few
in number and overworked, but they always are there to help
us succeed.
By the time you receive this issue of The Veteran,
we will have rolled out the National Secretary’s Info
Center to the chapters in Region 3 and asked the other Regional
Directors to supply e-mail addresses for the chapters in
their regions. The next region to be rolled out is on a first-come,
first-served basis.
What is the Info Center? It is a secure
section of the VVA Website where information (sometimes more
than you want) is posted as it becomes available. Over the
last nine months or so, we have opened the site up for the
Board of Directors and State Council Presidents, and now
to our chapters.
If you want to see the work of the national
committees, the latest on the efforts of the VI, public relations
info, and Government Relations news, go to the Info Center.
Information is posted when it happens, and you do not need
to wait for a mailing. What can your chapter do to get on
Info Center? Just give your State Council President your
chapter e-mail address.
In my next column, I will address
in more detail the issues I noted during my visit to the
National Cemetery and VA Hospital in San Juan and my meeting
with the Puerto Rico State Council, which was scheduled as
a follow-up to VVA President John Rowan’s investigative
trip last year. While I had hoped to see improvement, such
was not the case.
What I found was a national cemetery running
out of space in 2016 and no federal effort in process to
expand the cemetery; veterans forced to walk a mile for a
doctor’s visit
because parking is not available; a single physiologist with
a 300-patient caseload; the VISN scheduling the length of
a counseling session instead of the attending doctor; a Vietnam
War veteran denied compensation for type II diabetes and
peripheral neuropathy when it should be a slam dunk; and
veterans being quiet because they are concerned their ratings
will be reduced.
We have accomplished a great deal during
our thirty years as a service organization, but the battle
is not over, nor can we declare victory. Our brothers and
sisters must know that they may be out of sight, but they
are not forgotten. The fight continues.
My wife Dee and I
hope that your holidays were joyful, your faith renewed,
and that our healing continues in 2008.
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©2006-
2008, Vietnam Veterans of America. All Rights Reserved. 8605 Cameron
Street, Silver Spring, MD 20910