Hegseth: the most colossal insult to Veterans from the First Draft-Dodger and His Compliant Congress

I visited the Veterans Cemetery this morning where my Dad is buried. It was a stirring sight. Twenty or more full-size flags lining each side of the driveway— saluting in the gentle breeze the honored dead, veterans and their spouses buried there. And then a miniature flag at the edge of each veteran’s gravestone.

He served in Germany during the Korean Conflict. Those of us who loved/love him most are extraordinarily grateful that after his “tour of duty,” he returned home in one piece—having been able to avoid combat, got married, built a family with Mom, and worked hard until he retired. We lost him to this world in Y2K when he was just 70–much too soon. His 96th birthday is a few weeks away.

The only Veteran’s benefit he ever received as a post-active-duty veteran was mortgage loan assistance. He didn’t need or expect anything more. But many veterans, particularly after combat missions, need much more.

• Healthcare for life in many cases after physical and/or emotional battering.
• Family counseling and other support while trying to pick back up with in-person marriage and child-rearing after the separations necessitated by military responsibilities.
• Vocational guidance (sometimes new job skills are mandatory) to find jobs to replace those that couldn’t remain unfilled while the unwitting warrior was sent and required to kill enemies of their government leaders (rarely enemies of those forced to pull triggers and drop bombs).
• Housing. The number of veterans who are homeless is astronomical.

FACT: The United States loves to appear to be protective and proud of our veterans, but in reality few in the US care at all.

Many, I’d bet most Americans don’t even know what Memorial Day is supposed to commemorate. How could anyone wish others “a happy Memorial Day”?

The most insulting, cruel, anti-veteran act ever has been Trump (who thinks veterans, particularly dead ones, are losers) appointing a sociopathic Secretary of Defense incapable of sobriety, fidelity, compassion, leadership, intelligent decision-making, or patriotism and having a majority of Republican and Democratic senators confirm the draft-dodging First Felon’s recommendation.

What of ICE’s detaining a veteran, active duty military servicemembers, and spouses of active duty military personnel? These are not people who broke any laws at all. It’s utter disrespect for citizens who put their lives on the line for us asking nothing in return.

Words like “unconscionable”and “shameful” are no longer of value in the US because no evil is out of bounds for the rich and those tending to their interests. Even those who have given the most of themselves to protect and nurture democracy are fair game targets.

How many servicewomen and servicemen have died or been maimed for life in this unnecessary Iran debacle? We don’t know mostly because the details about numbers of deaths and so on are presented by seriously unreliable sources. None should have been harmed in any way because they have had to sacrifice for an evil narcissist and his obsequious underlings.

I loved the 1965-1971 tv comedy, “Hogan’s Heroes”! I watched it from the time I was 11 years old until a little before I graduated from high school. Performers across the board were superior—John Banner’s Sargent Schultz being my favorite. I had no serious thoughts at all about the moral incongruity of taking a prisoner of war context and using it as a basis for a comedy show—even with the German captors made out to be inept dunces chiefly seen in Werner Klemperer’s Colonel Klink. Only after the fact, maybe when some folks in my generation would suffer abuse at the hands of the North Vietnamese, did the incongruity of it all dawn open me. I apologize to any veterans or current active-duty military women and men for my tardy awareness.

Military servicewomen and servicemen deserve out utmost respect and support during AND after military service.

Between now and next Memorial Day not another grave needs to be added to any veterans’s burial roles unless death comes from old age or natural causes.