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The House of Representatives passed its fiscal year 2009 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill on Aug. 1 in a strong bipartisan vote of 409 to 4. The 2009 legislation (H.R. 6599) builds on historic increases for veterans and troops passed into law last year, which saw the largest funding increase in VA's 77-year history.

"This bipartisan bill builds on the historic increases in the fiscal year 2008 bill and sends a clear message to America's troops, veterans and their families that we honor and respect their service and sacrifice," said Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs.

"This is about the moral responsibility of keeping our promises to those who have kept their promise to serve. The humility of this bill is our knowing that we can never fully repay the debt of gratitude we owe (to) all who have served in uniform to protect the American family."

Overall, the bill totals $118.7 billion and provides $72.7 billion in discretionary spending, $47.7 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs, $24.8 billion for military construction, family housing and Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), and $241 million for related agencies. It is $3.4 billion more than the president's request, and $8.8 billion more than the historic fiscal year 2008 bill.

In his first year as chairman in 2007, Edwards authored historic increases of $11.8 billion in veterans health care and benefits.

H.R. 6599 must now be passed by the Senate. Following is a more specific breakdown of the appropriations:

VA: It's getting $47.7 billion - $4.6 billion above 2008 and $2.9 billion over the president's request - for veterans medical care, claims processors and facility improvements. The Veterans Health Administration estimates it will treat more than 5.8 million patients in 2009, including more than 333,275 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan (40,000 more than in 2008). Some notable provisions include:

Mental Health Care: Dedicate a minimum of $3.8 billion, $900 million more than 2008, to specialty mental-health services for veterans with mental illness and PTSD, and for suicide prevention.

Priority 8 Veterans: $568 million to increase enrollment of Priority 8 (low- to middle-income) veterans by 10 percent.

Mileage Reimbursement: Increased funding to raise the gas mileage reimbursement rate from 28.5 cents to 41.5 cents per mile for veterans traveling distances for care, and a freeze on the associated deductible.

Claims Processors: Increased funding to hire 2,100 additional claims processors to alleviate the backlog of 390,000 benefits claims, and to reduce the six-month wait to process new claims.

Rural Veterans: $200 million more to provide increased access to local health-care providers for veterans, Guardsmen and reservists living far away from VA facilities in rural areas.

Maintenance: $300 million more to address the backlog in maintenance at VA medical facilities to prevent another Walter Reed Annex 18 tragedy.

Prosthetics: $116 million more to increase availability of new-generation prosthetics.

Research: $58 million more for medical research in trauma, traumatic brain injury, mental health and other critical areas in finding the best treatments for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
Homeless Veterans: $130 million to provide additional case workers and medical services.

Oversight: Additional $11 million for the Office of the Inspector General to provide additional personnel to inspect the community-based outpatient clinics and Vet Centers, to avoid a Walter Reed scandal in the VA system.

Construction: Increases VA construction by $1 billion above the president's request, which will provide needed funding for six additional major construction projects, and another 145 minor construction projects at VA facilities for fiscal year 2009.

Military Construction: $24.8 billion, $400 million above the president's request and $4.2 billion above 2008. The large increase is mostly due to the costs of implementing BRAC, and plans to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps.

Some notable provisions include:

2005 BRAC and Re-stationing: $9.1 billion, ($1.8 billion above 2008 and meeting the president's request) to implement base closures and realignments, and support the re-stationing of 70,000 troops and their families from overseas to the United States.

Quality of Life Initiative: $336 million, not requested by the president, to continue a quality of life initiative for troops and their families started in the 2008 supplemental, including nearly $200 million for five new trainee and recruit housing facilities for the Army and Marine Corps, and $136 million for medical military construction.

Growing the Force: $5.6 billion in military construction and family housing, to increase the size of the Army by 65,000, the Marine Corps by 27,000, and the Guard and reserve branches by 9,200 personnel.

Military Housing: $3.2 billion, $300 million above 2008, to further eliminate inadequate military housing.

H.R. 6599 INFO

The military-to-civilian recruiting firm RecruitMilitary will present a free hiring event for veterans on Thursday, Aug. 14, in Milwaukee’s Bradley Center. This event, the RecruitMilitary Career Fair, will take place from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the center on 1001 N. Fourth St. RecruitMilitary urges all job seekers who have military backgrounds to attend--veterans who already have civilian work experience, men and women who are transitioning from active duty to civilian life, members of the National Guard and reserves, and military spouses.

Veteran-friendly organizations will conduct one-on-one interviews with the job seekers--organizations that will include corporate employers, law-enforcement agencies and other government employers, educational institutions, veterans service agencies, and veterans associations.

RecruitMilitary will produce the career fair in cooperation with The American Legion and HireVetsFirst, a unit of the United States Department of Labor.

More than 500 organizations attended 45 RecruitMilitary Career Fairs in 2007. At those events, an average of 30-plus organizations interviewed an average of over 350 job seekers. RecruitMilitary Career Fairs conducted in 2006 and 2007 generated television coverage by CNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN; radio coverage by ESPN and numerous regional stations; and articles in metropolitan and local newspapers.

RecruitMilitary, based in Cincinnati, connects employers with job seekers who have military backgrounds. All of the company's owners, officers, account executives, and retained search consultants are either veterans or active or former reservists. In addition to participation in career fairs, RecruitMilitary offers subscriptions to its database of self-registered job seekers who have military backgrounds, currently numbering more than 185,000, at its Web site, www.recruitmilitary.com, advertising in online and print media, and retained hiring services. The company mails more than 54,000 copies of a quarterly, print newsletter called Incoming! to over 230 military bases throughout the world for distribution to transitioning personnel; employers advertise their job openings in Incoming! The President of RecruitMilitary is Drew Myers, formerly a Captain in the United States Marine Corps. The company was founded in 1998.

BY JAMES V CARROLL

Attitude, leadership and accountability are crucial to recruiting new members and retaining current ones, American Legion National Commander Marty Conatser told the 45^th Annual Membership Conference in Indianapolis July 31 to Aug 2.

Are the leaders of your state participating, or are they just wearing caps?” Conatser asked. “Those are the questions you have to ask yourselves as leaders and motivators of The American Legion today. Those are the challenges that stand in front of you. Are you ready for them? Do you have a plan? Do you have a good attitude? Are you excited?

Conatser said it is difficult for him not to be excited when talking to people about The American Legion, and is puzzled why his excitement is not universally contagious.

>“If you look at the good things The American Legion is doing, if you look at the absolutely great things we are doing in family support, if you can explain the Legacy Scholarship and what that means to our commitment to America, and you are not excited – something is wrong.”

=The attitudes and excitement of department and district commanders and membership chairmen directly affect their districts, departments and The American Legion, Conatser said. Recruiting new members and retaining those already in the fold is not rocket science, but department and district leaders must lead by example. They must communicate their goals and expectations. And they must track their progress along the way.

“What do you expect for the year?” Conatser asked. “What are you going to achieve this year? How are you going get your people to do the job for The American Legion? How are you going to motivate them, hold them accountable in a positive way? You as a leader must be able to do more than recognize a problem. You must be able to offer positive suggestions to help your people to achieve goals”

As an example, Conatser told a story about a district commander showing up at a post meeting and saying, “We need more membership,” but he never suggested to others how they might recruit new members.

“When you go to a post and its leadership tells you they can’t get it done, do you come with positive ideas to help, or do you commiserate with them?” Conatser asked. “It is my experience that if you expect them to do things, they will do it. But you are going to have to take the lead, encourage, and move things along. That’s your challenge as a leader.”

Dave Rehbein, leading candidate for 2008-2009 national commander, told the 350 workshop attendees that pride and purpose drive American Legion programs and membership recruitment and retention.

“You’ve heard ‘back to the basics’ and the four pillars upon which our organization was founded – veterans affairs and rehabilitation, national security, education and mentoring of our youth, and honor and patriotism,” Rehbein said. “I’d like to add a couple other words – pride and purpose – should you elect me as your national commander in Phoenix. Those words encompass the meaning of the four pillars and ’back to basics.’ Those two words represent who we are.”

Rehbein said he intends to ask all Legionnaires in leadership positions to lead by example, by making personal contact with posts in their departments and districts.

“How you conduct yourselves and the way you fulfill the duties of your office set the tone for the folks under you,” Rehbein said. “If you choose to contact your posts by telephone, your posts will contact members by telephone. But if you care enough to go visit them in person, you can then look them in the eye and say, ‘I need you to care enough to go visit your membership in person.’ We know that face-to-face contact is how we recruit membership most effectively.”

Traveling from post to post provides an opportunity to learn firsthand the challenges and successes of each post, Rehbein said. Some people need to be challenged; some need to be encouraged. Leaders of the organization need to recognize the difference, he said. Face-to-face contact is the best to find out.

Rehbein unveiled monetary incentives for district commanders to visit posts. To earn the award, district commanders or vice commanders must personally visit every post in their district. Awards range from $100 to $500 depending on the number of posts in a district. Rehbein also intends to reward posts that show excellence in four areas: membership, youth activities, community service, and support to active duty troops or veterans. Posts meeting the criteria will receive framed certificates.

During the workshop, Linda Perham, chairman of the Membership & Post Activities Committee, briefed attendees on the status of an ad-hoc committee on Direct Membership Solicitation. The committee was established earlier this year to study ways to improve DMS, a national program instituted to recruit new members by direct mail.

Mike McDaniel, department adjutant of Florida, briefed attendees on the department’s fledgling virtual post – an online cyber post created to recruit new members and to provide information on Legion programs and activities. Bill Pease, deputy director of Americanism and Children & Youth, touted capabilities of a multi-faceted interactive teleconference software package.

On behalf of five Hendricks County, Ind,, American Legion posts – Avon, Plainfield, Danville, Pittsboro, and Brownsburg – Ralph Zoccolillo presented a $10,000 check to the American Legion Legacy Scholarship. The five posts conduct an annual Blue Star Banner salute to recognize families whose loved ones are serving in the U.S. military. Legionnaires were also briefed on two ongoing Department of Defense and American Legion programs: Wounded Warriors and Heroes to Hometowns.

Photo By John Raughter

There’s a saying I once heard: “You can’t talk a hog into slaughtering itself.” I am not sure I believe that anymore, after the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision to give detained enemy combatants the ability to sue us in our own judicial system. Captured terrorists from foreign lands, or so the ruling suggests, have U.S. constitutional rights, just like you and me. Members of al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and various other rogue cells committed to our destruction, are now granted legal privileges previously enjoyed only by U.S. citizens.

The decision is what it is. And we must respect it. However, the 5-4 ruling raises many chilling concerns about the future of America’s ability to fight and defend itself in a time of war.

The ruling punches a hole in the president’s wartime decision-making authority and subordinates Congress, in order to give suspected terrorists their day in our courts. To extend the argument, split-second battlefield decisions of U.S. officers and troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan may soon be influenced by the odds of winning in court, should it come to that. That’s a lot to ask of soldiers caught in firefights against an enemy without insignia, flag, military uniform or any respect for the Geneva Conventions.

To shoot or not to shoot? To detain or let go? U.S. combat troops have to trust their training, instincts and morals, which are already far superior to those of any foe on the planet.

As the high court’s decision was reported, I thought of Matt Maupin and his family. In 2004, the 20-year-old private first class from Ohio was captured by insurgents in Iraq. He was riding in a fuel tanker as part of a 26-vehicle convoy between Balad and Baghdad International Airport when the ambush came. The last time the young Army reservist was seen alive, he was surrounded by masked gunmen in a video aired by Al Jazeera. Another video was later released, depicting the execution of a U.S. soldier who may have been him. Maupin’s parents spent four years in anguish without word – not knowing – until their son’s remains were identified last spring, using DNA testing.

Such is the courtroom of our enemies.

Maupin’s terrorist captors, who stormed out of private homes and roadside ditches in their ambush on the convoy, scoff at justice. They simply attack, capture, murder and make a public spectacle of it. That’s Terrorism 101.

We need to remember who the enemy is. The enemy hijacked four U.S. jetliners on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and killed thousands of innocent people. The enemy seized journalist Daniel Pearl and executed him in a cowardly act of public bravado in Pakistan; a terrorist at Guantanamo Bay took credit for that beheading in 2007. The enemy is not a soldier but a fanatical thug who, at Guantanamo Bay, is fed well, treated by doctors and dentists, given religious freedom and afforded recreational activities. Those who are not dangerous are returned to their countries of origin. Those who remain devoted to our destruction, or are seriously suspected of it, remain in U.S. detention.

It’s pretty simple, really. At least it was until the ruling in June.

The U.S. Coast Guard traces its roots to U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, which was established by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton on Aug. 4, 1790. At the time, the Revenue Cutter Service was the only naval force of the United States.

Today, the U.S. Coast Guard consists of approximately 42,000 active duty personnel, 252 cutters, 1,600 boats and 194 aircraft.

The Coast Guards primary missions are to ensure maritime safety, maritime security, maritime mobility, national defense and the protection of natural resources. Members of the U.S. Coast Guard are eligible for full membership in The American Legion if they served honorably during The American Legion war-time eligibility periods.

View Coast Guard Video

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