Where Was Jim?

Republicans and Military and John McCain

Let’s make this video viral…

McCain will make “Cheney look like Ghandi”. Hummm… now that is a really scary thought.

Pass this video around the Internet. Post to your blog and pass it along to everyone.

In Their Boots…

The Republicans talk about John McCain’s war experience. John McCain spent most of his Vietnam military time as a POW. Not to make light of that, but John McCain didn’t spend much time in direct combat. George W Bush spent his military time during the Vietnam War pretending to be a combat pilot and then when he tired of that, he went AWOL and was protected by his father’s rich and influential friends. Barnacle Dick Cheney, well, lets just say he had a “doctor’s excuse”.

And then there is “Support Our Troops” which is nothing more than a yellow ribbon magnet made in China. The media has been ignoring our troops and Bush and Cheney certainly don’t discuss the troops. And McCain, well, he was against the Webb military bill before he was for it and never showed up to vote for the bill. His fundraiser was more important than voting to support our troops.

For these veterans, there was no avoiding combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here is their story.

There’s a new website, In Their Boots, which will have weekly live Internet shows. I’ll let the producer explain.

Over the past several months, as we gathered our staff and began to meet the men and women who have served, we knew that it would be a privilege to be able to share the stories of these servicemembers and their families so that the other 99% of the US population can better understand what is happening to our troops when they return from war.

We wanted to do something different than our usual short videos with this project, so we developed an idea for a LIVE internet-based show and decided to call it In Their Boots to let the audience know they would be hearing the information from the servicemembers’ points of view.

The show premieres today, Wednesday July 2nd, at 4pm Pacific/5 Mountain/6 Central/7 Eastern at www.intheirboots.com. The stories are riveting and the show will be broadcast LIVE. You will have the opportunity to hear the stories from these servicemembers, learn about organizations that are helping, and find out how you can help as well.

The show will be broadcast from our brand new studio (it was a beauty parlor just 2 months ago), not quite finished since we are still doing some fundraising, but looking pretty good. Since it is LIVE, we invite you all to join the discussion and become part of webcast history by asking our interview guest a question, live, “on the air.”

We are proud of what we have put together and we hope that you all tune in to see this. Please let us know what you think of it as well. And if you miss any part of the episode, be sure to check it out on our site: www.intheirboots.com. We plan on producing a new episode every Wednesday, live at 4pm Pacific.

I hope to hear from you soon. As always, thank you for your support.

Best,
Jim Miller
and the Brave New Foundation team

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Take the time to visit and make a donation.’

UPDATE: Then there is this…

Thank You Uncle Sam But No Thanks

I have to tell you a little about myself. I served twenty years in the Armed Forces in service to my country. I joined the U.S. Navy during the last year of President Reagan’s administration and retired during President George W. Bush’s. During that time, I volunteered for the Gulf War (my orders to the USS Nassau were suspended when my own unit, USS Wasp, received orders to join the war effort. The war ended before my ship was to sail but I did participate in refugee operations), the Kosovo Campaign (where I was decorated with a Navy Marine Corps Achievement medal) and even volunteered for the Iraq War; which I was deployed to in support of twice. For my service in Iraq, I was given a promotion, a Navy Commendation Medal, and both the Global War on Terrorism Service and Expeditionary Medals.

I was a very dedicated sailor during my time. I gave 110% towards everything I was involved in even when I did not agree with the mission I was assigned to. I did this because I felt it was my duty to do so. I believed that this is what was expected of me when I rose my hand and said, “I do solemny swear …”

I have never been a fan of sick call. I thought that sick call was for the walking wounded, those who spent their weekends getting drunk only to face hangovers on Monday morning. If I got a sniffle, I took some Tylenol. A headache; some aspirin. An ache or pain; I sucked it up. Suffer from depression? I saw a counselor at Family Services on my own time. Again, this is what I thought I was supposed to do. As time wore on my service time began to take a toll on my body. My knees ached from walking upon steel decks and climbing ladders. I developed sleep apnea and Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) which, at times, can be so painful that walking becomes difficult. During the last two years of my service, I couldn’t postpone it anymore … I took a trip to sick call.

I was placed on Requip for my RLS and after several sleep exams, given a C-Pap to deal with my apnea.

I expected that the U.S. government, who I had supported so loyally, would take care of me when I retired (oh, by the way, thank you for the plaque which has my name misspelled on it.)

I was wrong.

I received a letter in the mail just the other day from the Veterans Administration. In the letter, I was told, in a overly worded 3 page document, that I had been denied my medical benefits upon review of my medical record. I was denied my benefits, not because they (my ailments) do not exist, but because my medical record wasn’t documented enough. In a nutshell, I didn’t complain loudly enough while I was on active duty.

So much for trying to live up to an image.

Since I left the service I have found employment hard to near impossible to come by. With all the talk about PTSD, it seems that no one wants to hire a veteran because they (HROs) fear that if we ‘snap’ while working for them, they might have to pay for our medical bills. I have a meager retirement that is divided between paying my bills and an alimoney check. I’m left with less than 50 bucks in my bank account after all of this. That’s not enough to pay for health insurance.

So, after serving my country for twenty years I have a box full of medals, citations and awards and that is about it.

I don’t even hear from the ‘guys’ I worked with anymore. They don’t want to hear from me.

I have the thanks of a grateful nation who is so ungrateful that they won’t even give me a job and they consider me a liability.

They were happy to send me to war but won’t even look me in the eye during an interview to say “I’m not going to hire you”. They save that for the form letters and messages left on answering machines or no message at all.

I’m now nothing more than a ghost; a mere shadow of what I was which I am not even sure exactly what that was.

I feel a bit betrayed by all of this and, for all my loyalty, I don’t understand this betrayal. I had your back, why didn’t you have mine?

I was a puppet; a marionette, taught to dance the dance my puppeteers made for me.

So, with no further ado, please allow this former Gulf War, Kosovo and Iraq War Veteran to tell the VA and my dear, dear Uncle Sam, Thank you for all that you have, and have not done for me, but also, No thank you.

If I had my dithers, I’d disown my uncle right here and now.

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