National Debt & Deficit Spending Veterans Issues
During my own military career I had the unique opportunity to observe my father-in-law, Albert Bland, MSgt, USAF(Ret), in his work, and frustration with, veteran's issues. He served as the National Commander of the American Ex-POWs in the mid-80s and later headed their Med-Search Team tasked with researching medical information supporting various diseases resulting from imprisonment.
I feel strongly that the U.S. Government made promises to military people over the years. The bill to pay for that is tough for Congress to swallow, but the Congress must honor that commitment. I will work to do just that.
One of the issues I observed while my father-in-law was on the Med-Search team was that many physical problems veterans have as a result of imprisonment are not recognized by conventional medical practice simply because they have not had the experience to recognize these ailments nor the opportunity to develop a common practice and regimen.
For example in his own case the severe and extended nutritional deprivation caused many things to appear later in life that were probably caused by his POW status in the Bataan Death March and Japanese prison camps of World War II.
Today the Department of Veterans Affairs struggles with odd diseases from Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and now the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Diseases that are not seen by medicine today outside of those regions are being brought home. These present tough problems for Medical Science yet our obligation to treat and cure is clear.
Medical Science of Al Bland's era needed to be brought to the well to drink and the Med-Search team did just that by targeted research of medical journals and work with many specialists who otherwise might not have recognized applications of their work to POWs.
I will also seek to put in place and ensure continued support for similar "teams" within veteran's organizations and across the spectrum of medical science so that veterans are not improperly denied benefits.
Congress always will seek to ensure "efficiency" in funding. That is natural and they should seek to be good stewards of the public purse. This unfortunately results in bureaucratic pushes to save money and may unfairly deny claims. Congress needs to change their outlook somewhat to ensure veterans are fairly compensated and properly cared for. I will work within Congress to do this.