Since the beginning of the war on terror, I have been asked several times if the Iraqi War is similar to the Vietnam War. Each time I answer that it is the same only when it comes to dealing with some of the governing agencies back home.
Agencies such as the Veterans Administration still cannot seem to get their act together when it comes to providing the proper services that would help a veteran trying to re-adjust to civilian life.
These services are more commonly left to the various veterans’ organizations throughout the city that depend on monies obtained through grants provided by their elected officials.
Unfortunately, some of these elected officials use the umbrella of trying to help veterans by channeling monies to veterans’ organizations that are non-existent. Such was the case in the office of New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
In April of 2008, that office admitted to hiding the sum of $422,763 in a fictitious veterans’ organization called the “American Association of Concerned Veterans.” At a time when the veterans’ organizations of this city have to practically beg for monies to be included in the New York City budget, the conduct of those responsible in this matter is insulting.
In a letter dated April 14, 2008 to Quinn, I stated that I would like to know the proper procedure for my organization to access this money so that we can put it to use in helping the veterans’ community throughout the borough of Queens. As I write this piece, I still have received no reply.
More and more, it is being left to veterans’ organizations like the Vietnam Veterans of America, Queens Chapter #32 to assist not only the returning veterans but also those indigent veterans that have passed and have no means to get a proper burial. Just recently, Chapter #32, at the request of the Mayor’s Office of Veterans’ Affairs, has become an “Organizational Friend,” and has begun the process of providing the proper preparation, burial and military honors to those deceased veterans lying in the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office.
It was also left to the various veterans’ organizations to lead the fight to keep our veterans hospitals open and fully staffed. We stood together as in battle and said no to the proposed closing of the veterans hospital on 23rd Street and First Avenue in Manhattan and the veterans hospital located in Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn.
We won those battles and are now engaged in the war to keep the land which houses the VA Extended Health Care Facility in Saint Albans. Not only do we wish to keep our land, but also we are requesting that the proper medical facilities be provided there. These medical facilities would include, but not be limited to, a full service hospital with emergency room, hospice facility and women’s domiciliary.
We cannot turn our backs to the veterans that have fought our wars and who continue to do so now.
‘Never Again Will One Generation of Veterans Abandon Another.’
Pastor Toro Jr. is the president, Vietnam Veterans of America, Queens Chapter #32
