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Veteran Issues is a forum for informing veterans, organizations, government offices, elected officials, and the news media about a variety of issues that affect veterans, military Retirees and their families.

Click on flag button to sign up for my free Periodic News...one of the oldest & largest vet lists on the web, FROM Dan Cedusky, Champaign IL

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First of all we need to collect e-mail addresses of you the veteran, and of veteran organizations, so we can send information and alerts about specific issues.
Join our growing list of names of those that want to be involved and informed by signing up at the yahoo group for our newsletter above. We reach thousands of valuable resources with our mailings.

Several Senators, Congressmen,and staffers have signed up for our email news. This is perhaps the oldest and largest privately run Free veteran email list.

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When you know of a problem or veteran's issue that you would like us to address, send us an e-mail about the problem, email points of contact, and the e-mail address of those you feel could or should solve, or those best able to impact on the problem.

Tell us about related Web Sites.

Click on button flag to find email contacts for the VA & Ask Benefit Questions

See Many other Links below: Due to volume and cost of long distance phone calls, I seldom return long distance calls…use email,

Colonel-Dan@SBCGlobal.net
Veteran Issues, Dan Cedusky,
Champaign, IL 61821 Colonel, AUS, Retired,

Life member: DAV, AMVETS, American Legion, MOAA (formerly TROA), NGAUS, NGAIL;

Member: Reserve Officer Assoc, Assoc of Former Intelligence officers, National Assoc of Uniform Services-NAUS, State Director of USDR, Cold War Veterans Assoc.

Life member of Golf Nut Society of America
http://www.golfnuts.com/

"I AM YOUR FLAG - The silent sentinel of Freedom."

I am the emblem of the greatest sovereign nation on earth.
I am the inspiration for which American Patriots gave their
lives and fortunes.
I have led your sons into battle from Valley Forge to the
bloody swamps of Viet Nam.
I walk in silence with each of your Honored Dead, to their final
resting place beneath the silent White Crosses, row upon row.
I have flown through Peace and War, Strife and Prosperity, and amidst
it all I have been respected.
My Red Stripes . . . symbolize the blood spilled in defense of this glorious nation.
My White Stripes . . . signify the burning tears shed by Americans who lost their sons.
My Blue Field. . . is indicative of God's heaven under which I fly.
My Stars . . . clustered together, unify 50 States as one, for God and Country.
"Old Glory" is my nickname, and proudly I wave on high.
Honor me, respect me, defend me with your lives and your fortunes.
Never let my enemies tear me down from my lofty position, lest I never return.
Keep alight the fires of patriotism, strive earnestly for the spirit of democracy.
Worship Eternal God and keep His commandments, and I shall remain
the bulwark of peace and freedom for all mankind.
I am your Flag.

[ Compliments of Colonel Daniel K. Cedusky, AUS, Retired - Original author Unknown ]

I Was A Soldier

" By Colonel Daniel K. Cedusky, AUS, Retired
I was a Soldier: That's the way it is, that's what we were...are. we put it, simply, without any swagger, without any brag, in those four plain words.

We speak them softly, just to ourselves. Others may have forgotten
They are a manifesto to mankind; speak those four words anywhere in the world -- yes, anywhere -- and many who hear will recognize their meaning.

They are a pledge. A pledge that stems from a document which said: "I solemnly Swear”, “to protect and defend” and goes on from there, and from a Flag called "Old Glory".

Listen, and you can hear the voices echoing through them, words that sprang white-hot from bloody lips, shouts of “medic”, whispers of “Oh God!”, forceful words of “Follow Me”. If you can’t hear them, you weren’t, if you can you were.

"Don't give up the ship! Fight her till she dies... Damn the torpedoes! Go ahead! . . . Do you want to live forever? . . . Don't cheer, boys; the poor devils are dying."
Laughing words, and words cold as January ice, words that when spoken, were meant, .. "Wait till you see the whites of their eyes". The echo's of I was a Soldier.

You can hear the slow cadences at Gettysburg, or Arlington honoring not a man, but a Soldier, perhaps forgotten by his nation...Oh! Those Broken Promises.
You can hear those echoes as you have a beer at the "Post", walk in a parade, go to The Wall, visit a VA hospital, hear the mournful sounds of tap, or gaze upon the white crosses, row upon row.
But they aren't just words; they're a way of life, a pattern of living, or a way of dying.

They made the evening, with another day's work done; supper with the wife and kids; and no Gestapo snooping at the door and threatening to kick your teeth in.
They gave you the right to choose who shall run our government for us, the right to a secret vote that counts just as much as the next fellow's in the final tally; and the obligation to use that right, and guard it and keep it clean.
They prove the right to hope, to dream, to pray; the obligation to serve.
These are some of the meanings of those four words, meanings we don't often stop to tally up or even list.

Only in the stillness of a moonless night, or in the quiet of a Sunday afternoon, or in the thin dawn of a new day, when our world is close about us, do they rise up in our memories and stir in our sentient hearts.
And we are remembering Wake Island, and Bataan, Inchon, and Chu Lai, Knox and Benning, Great Lakes and Paris Island, Travis and Chanute, Bagdad, Kabul,Kuwait City,and many other places long forgotten by our civilian friends.
They're plain words, those four. Simple words.
You could carve them on stone; you could carve them on the mountain ranges.
You could sing them, to the tune of "Yankee Doodle."
But you needn't. You needn't do any of those things, for those words are graven in the hearts of Veterans, they are familiar to 24,000,000 tongues, every sound and every syllable. If you must write them, put them on my Stone.

But when you speak them, speak them softly, proudly, I will hear you, for I too,
I was a Soldier, I AM A VETERAN.
Inspired By “Creed” I am an American by Hal Borland

It is the Soldier

"It is the soldier, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier,
Who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag."
[ By Father Denis Edward O'Brien, USMC ]

"Some Issues that need to be worked on."

There are too many homeless veterans, and more programs are needed at the VA.
Every Veteran's Service Organization Post should adopt a local homeless veteran.
Put them up in cheap Apt for at least a six-month period.
Help them file claims, get food stamps, & get and keep VA appointments.

Funding of VA Medical Centers is inadequate.
Even the $1 per hour jobs at the VA for needy patients is often out of money.
The budget has been flat-lined for too many years.

The VA is too quick to deny claims, and too slow to help veterans gather records in support of claims;

Local politicians ignore veterans and their issues. They perceive a lack of organization among their local Veterans, and that it won't hurt them at election time. Veterans too often vote party...not veteran issues.
All veterans should vote in every election.

Local news media give inadequate coverage to local veteran issues and events. You must send them letters to the Editor

Please contact your members of Congress and urge them to "co-sponsor" key legislation: We have had some great success with our past lobbying efforts.

Go to the following web sites once-in-a-while and check out bills in progress...then...lobby your representatives.

For Current Information on Veteran Bills in the HOUSE, click on button.  

For current information on Veteran Bills in the SENATE click on button.  

A Few Current Issues Broken Promises...

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THE PROBLEM: In the process of down sizing the United States Military, a large number of military bases and Military Treatment Facilities have been closed.

More to come.

This has created a situation where inadequate space is available to accommodate the retired American military community.

As a result, the United States Government is denying the critical medical care that was promised to the retired military.
This is WRONG. The U.S. Congress is well aware of this problem.

Some legislative action is in progress, to correct the problem,but is moving too slow to help the oldest of the military retirees who need help now. Veterans are suffering, and many, far too many are homeless.

THE ARGUMENT: The medical care promise, as it has played out, was a gimmick (a novel or clever scheme, a hidden or deceptive device)designed to keep the trained military in the military.

It was a promotional stratagem of great proportions. In other circumstances this promise could easily be considered a conspiracy to defraud.
If one of our large U.S. Corporations would make then break a similar promise the entire U.S. Government legal system would be mobilized to correct, in the name of justice, that injustice.

I feel that I have a duty and an obligation to appeal to you, the Congress, the News Media, and the American People, on behalf of the retired American military community to fix this.

I can not, with a clear conscience, stand idly by and watch this graveinjustice being perpetrated upon the weak and helpless retired American military senior citizens.

The medical care promise was made, in good faith, by the United States military and sanctioned by the United States Congress.
They were right when they made the promise. They needed to make the promise.
It was imperative that they make the promise. They laid the foundation.
The American people and the current U.S. Congress must now find a way to maintain the integrity of this foundation.

You must find a way to keep the medical care promise made to the retired American military veterans.
The security of the United States of America hangs in the balance.

Retirees have had to sue.

We demand Concurrent Receipt for Disabled Military Retirees. They are only group of corporation, State or Federal employees that have to pay for their own VA disability, out of their earned military retirement. stay current with my email news, or at http://www.vetspac.com/

We demand that the congress amend the Uniformed Service Former Spouse Protection Act (USFSPA), a 1982 law that authorizes state courts to divide military retiree pay as property in divorce cases.

NOTE: All Veterans should be enrolled in the VA Health. If you aren't enrolled do so..soon, even if you don't currently plan on using it. System