Dear Lucas,
Veterans day is unique in the American calendar. It is a day of both pride and grief, a day of thanks for current service and remembrance of sacrifices past.
We celebrate Veterans Day on this particular day because it was at the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month, that the guns at last fell silent in the First World War.
It is always an honor to participate in the New York Veterans Day Parade and wreath laying ceremony. I was there today along with former Mayors Ed Koch and Charles Dinkins, as well as New York’s current Mayor Michael Bloomberg and colleagues, including Senators Chuck Schumer and Congressman Charlie Rangel (a Korean War Veteran).
Given the role that our military is playing in the life of our city at this particular moment, this year seemed especially meaningful. The theme of the parade was "United we Stand." Each year a different branch of the service is chosen for special recognition. This year it was the Coast Guard, with Commandant Admiral Robert J. Papp Jr. there to represent the 40,000-plus men and women who serve under him.
Veteran’s Day has always had great significance in my household. My late husband Clif served as an officer in the Navy, my brother was a Special Forces veteran of the Vietnam War, my brother-in-law graduated from the Naval Academy and my father saw service in the Air Force in WWII. As part of the larger military family, we came to appreciate and understand the many sacrifices that go with service to country, and how it can also ask much of those who remain behind.
Service Close to Home
At this moment there are about 68,000 Americans stationed in Afghanistan. But important contributions to our safety and security are also being made much closer to home by those in uniform.
This week, the National Guard has been helping in storm ravaged areas all over the city - working often in the cold flooded basements of public housing complexes, assessing damage to boilers and electrical panels.
The Coast Guard has played a vital role, including saving the lives of 14 people that they lifted from the stricken HMS Bounty, in the midst of a raging storm.
The Air Force has been flying in C-17 Globemasters carrying a wide range of badly needed supplies including utility repair trucks, pump trucks and trailers to help with the Hurricane recovery effort.
Marines and Navy sailors with high-powered water pumps and sophisticated surveying equipment have taken on the floodwaters in Queens and Midland Beach.
And even as the parade was making its way down Fifth Avenue, veterans were at work. The United War Veterans Council organized "a rally for storm victims" and collected winter coats for the victims of Sandy.
Helping Those Who Served Us
So far, more than 2.3 million American service members have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tens of thousands have been wounded and over 6,000 have died in the two wars over the past decade. We owe them and their families more than just our words of gratitude on this day.
As Teddy Roosevelt once said in a Fourth of July speech to Veterans back in 1903: "A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards."
All of our returning veterans are going to need a wide range of help and support as they return and transition into civilian life, especially our wounded.
For many, the services available at our Veterans Hospitals will be critical. Unfortunately, two facilities located in New York City were casualties of the storm.
The Manhattan VA Medical Center is closed due to extensive flood damage sustained during Hurricane Sandy. One hundred and thirty patients were transferred to neighboring VA facilities. No timeline for repairs have been established. The VA’s regional office also remains closed because the facility lacks electricity and heat
To assist VA NYHHS enrolled Veterans who are out or almost out of medication, the VA has established an Emergency Prescription Refill Program. To learn more about that you can click here.
Last Friday I met with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Admiral Eric Shinseki on the Brooklyn campus of the VA. He assured us that every possible effort is being made to get those facilities up and running again as quickly as possible and that extra staff has been added at the facilities that took on the transferred patients.
One of the critical things that returning vets will also need is a good job. At the parade, Maureen Casey of J P Morgan Chase explained how that Chase, along with 83 partner companies has launched the 100,000 Jobs Mission. They have set as a goal hiring 100,000 transitioning service members and military veterans by 2020. So far, more than 28,000 have been hired.
This year also marks the 50th anniversary of US involvement in Vietnam. It is still a painful memory for many vets of that era to think back upon their return home, to a country that had grown tired of the war, and treated many of them with open hostility. It was a wound for them that was slow to heal.
I am so very glad for the theme the organizers chose for this year’s parade: United We Stand. It is what our veterans deserve. It is what our country needs.
Sincerely,
CAROLYN B. MALONEY
Member of Congress