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fontman
08-20-06, 07:24 AM
Colonel Bud Day replys to the media bad-mouthing military retired vets about the cost of their health care

Dear Cindy:

My name is Geo "Bud" Day. I am an 81 year old Florida lawyer who sued the United States in 1996 to force the U.S. to provide the medical care that they promised us for winning WW II on salaries starting at $12.00 per month in 1940, $50.00 per month in 1942..with those pay scales holding steady for privates throughout the war. As a corporal -overseas in the combat theatre my pay was $66.00 per month.

It was because of the pitifully small retirement pay scales during WW II/Korea, that the United States promised the WW II/Korean War era veterans who retired with 20 years...an additional benefit of free lifetime medical care for ourselves and spouse..if we would stay for 20 years and retire. This was part of our pay, and a big reason why we would work for so little salary.

Many of us from WW II stayed in the Reserves, and got called up for Korea in 1950-51-52, and decided to stay until retirement. My pay as a 2d Lt on flying status was $222. + $150 flying pay and $48. per month for rations in 1950. A little over $100.00 per week to go to combat in one of the worse places in the world..Korea.

Then Vietnam.. as a Major in combat..base pay $1,440. p. mo. + flying pay and housing. I can't recall those figures.

This was also my salary for 5 years and 7 months as a POW in Hanoi. I was certainly not getting overpaid at this time...and there was no Medicare like the civilians were getting.

I retired in 1977..a veteran of three wars..with more than 30 years of active and reserve service time. It was wonderful to have free military medical care for myself, wife, and four teen age children....which was just what they promised me.

THEN in 1996 the Clinton administration broke their promise and kicked all of us WW II and Korean vets and spouses out of military hospitals and told us to buy Medicare...just like the people who had never lifted a finger to fight for their country. What a disappointment that was.

So I filed suit against them in Federal Court in Florida, and lost the case. I appealed it to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington and won the case in Feb 2000. I was supported by thousands of retireds who called themselves the Class Act, and who kept us in Court. Class Act got a bill started in the Congress and the Senate to fix the broken promise by Bill Clinton. In October 2000, Bill Clinton signed the Tri-Care for Life bill into law that restored our free medical care, which isn't really free..you see..we pay the same Medicare premium that all those non volunters for military service get to pay.

I've always wondered if anyone computed what it costs the U.S. to provide free lifetime medical to the "non-volunteers" who never went to war for their country..and who now rely on Medicare for their free care?? Does that expenditure take away from money that ought to go to the military?

So..bearing these facts in mind..(and this is not an isolated story)...you might see a different side of the problem of we "retireds" eating away a lot of the military budget.

Here is a quick summary of my career--

30 months Pacific WW II, x-mas 42-45 overseas
Korean War-- 11-3/4 months overseas
Vietnam War 1967-73
POW 1967-73 in Hanoi jail.

You might just consider this..instead of us being a burden on the military budget, and eating into equipment buys etc....just maybe the Congress is not appropriating enough money to pay it's just debt to us retireds who kept the world free for democracy..and maybe Congress should stop ear marking bridges to nowhere in Alaska..and pork pork pork to non combat ..non military issues that are unconnected to our national defense. which continues to keep us free here in WW III.

None of us WW II/Korean War/Vietnam War vets want our service people to suffer. We are not at fault for a shortage of money to the military. It is the Congress who is shortchanging the military for the weapons and equipment they need for combat. ... not the retired military veteran and his spouse.

All of us appreciate your concern for the military coming out on the short end of the stick. That is plain wrong. To be fighting for our freedom in that crummy mid-east is one of the world's worse jobs. But, we military have always been there to deliver freedom..and we have done it..and these young people in Iraq and Afghanistan are doing it.

Thanks for your concern and insight into this problem of underfunding the military.

Yours truly,

Col. G. "Bud" Day
Medal of Honor/Air Force Cross/Purple Heart/3 OLCs