Why Are Veterans Not An Issue in the Debates?

"meant nothing. Its all theater".. OUCH !!, I felt pride, and honor with Honorable Service to this country.. I felt I did something for your country !! Which was asked of us by President J.F. Kennedy.. Now, thank You, I realize, I see, that I was nothing more than a Puppet in a Theater !!

PO3 Michael James - Some politicians actually are respectful and supportive of veterans. President George W. Bush was one. He made dozens of visits to Walter Reed and other military hospitals to visit wounded veterans. So did his wife. They were never publicized per his own instructions. Former SecDef Robert Gates had wrote a letter to the family of each service member killed in action. He also made multiple visits to military hospitals on a very quiet basis to pin on awards and shake hands with woulded veterans. Others treat us as tools to help in an election or re-election campaigns.

CPT James Hubbard - Thank you, Sir;.. and there are other politicians who have tried.. Someday, I hope to see the majority of our elected officials as respectful and supportive of ALL Veterans as they should be, resulting in an effective, value added administration for all..

Chief, I wouldn't so quickly "oh, well..". It would scare the living hell out "them" should we voice and move as though marching in ranks! The cadence footfalls would rattle their bones!

While the decline has occured before, it has accekerated more with the current administration.

PO1 Aaron Baltosser -

Absolutely right Aaron, Obama has nothing but contempt for us. But his is the communist way of doing things. Most Veterans don't realize that it was the Vietnam veterans that brought on new changes in the VA system. These were the guys that were treated like dog shit by Coward liberals who proved what they are really all about. They burned their draft cards and many ran away to Canada like a bunch of little schools.
girls when a mouse ran across the floor. The media ran the News like they were some kind of Hero's. The silent majority sat by and did nothing, As a result we have this Misfit running things now, and he has really done all of us a big injustice. Before the Vietnam guys got involved in the VA system you couldn't get an aspirin on a good day. The system, like any other needs some tweaking in some states. But not all. I'm in the New Jersey system and have never had a dragged out appointment or denial of service. Some States are corrupted. Those are the ones that need to be improved, not the entire system. I understand that Florida runs a good ship. I'm sure that many States do so also. If you have any problems with the State you are in I would suggest you contact the DAV with any complaints. They are the best in the business. If your particular State does not help you contact the Washington headquarters. They will look into any problem you may have. Almost all of them are Veterans and as such will not tolerate bullshit. Our system is good, only we can keep it that way. I personally believe that Donald Trump will be on our side, BIG TIME. Consider voting for him.

PFC Don Palumbo - Thanks for the one up buddy.

It's not a political rewarding topic of discussion at this time.

MSG Floyd Williams I am not sure there is even a handful.

This has not started with only THIS administration. It's been ongoing in one way or another since Vietnam. Up until that time we as a military and veterans were given the utmost respect by politics and society alike. The last REAL gov't we had was under JFK. Look historically at the actions of every president since and you'll see that despite the jingoistic, rooty-snooty, patriotic rhetoric, you'll see a massive tear-down in progress. When JFK tried to do what was exactly right for the country(people, not politicians/corporations), HE WAS KILLED! Since then we've had "leader" after "leader" doing the behest of those bastards and not us, the people.

PO2 Gerry Roberson Sr. - Gerry, You are right on the money. On another note it took the pissed on Vietnam Vets to clean up the VA. Before they came along you could sweat bullets and the VA would give you nothing. Take this from someone that went through it. It took me over 20 years to get my rating. And you are 100% right about Pres. Kennedy. We have not had a real president other than Reagan since him.

SGM Steve Wettstein
I think the bigger problem is that we think this way and do not realize the support we could be able to bring to 'our' candidate? For so many years we did what we were told and do not realize that when it comes to elections it is our chance to stand up and say what we want. Additionally, we...veterans...need to get those around us to do the same thing. If asked, 'Do you support our Veterans?' Not many people would say 'No' but if the same person was asked what have you done, or would you do, you would get a blank stare.

During the last debate, Veterans were mentioned by only two candidates during the broadcast, neither time in response to a direct question: Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina several times mentioned health care delay problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and businessman Donald Trump offered a broad promise to improve care for vets. In the first Republican debate a month earlier, veterans were mentioned only once, in the waning minutes of the event? Was there any cry from Veterans? I have not heard it and the VA is doing such a excellent job?

Good for you Steve. Trump is our only chance of not only caring for us but will be the guy to do us well. We have a good system. It is up to us to keep it that way. And by the way we are a much larger voting block than the idiot politicians think we are. We fight to win. That's what we all need to do now. We are soldiers, Keep up the fight, We always win.

Because we don't actually and forcefully SPEAK UP!!

Now is the time to act. The iron is hot. Strike now.

MSgt Ronald Stacy

I think you are spot on.

You are right on with you thoughts. But, I believe that now we will see more veterans coming together for our common cause. It's in the air.

PO2 Gerry Roberson - Ironic you bring that up because it's becoming more of a missing trait in America. Glad you did it.

SSG Warren Swan - We are in a war. As soldiers we know how to fight to win. We cant win if we say we cant. We always win when we only say we will. The politicians and the general public will never understand us. This is why we have to show them who we are. Only as a Unit can we defeat anyone. Keep pushing our brothers and sisters and we will win this battle. Just say, YES, we can do it. And we will.

PFC Don Palumbo - I understand your passion, but it's those VERY civilians who dictate the ROE, what moves and what doesn't, and our priorities in battle. You could give everyone in the military a weapon and say "go". Kill everything that moves. If it's lawful it'll be done. If not the lowest hanging fruit will be in prison for a long time. NOT the civilians in charge. Not mom and pop who "feel" patriotic but won't send their kids to fight. The politicians and general public have NO NEED to understand us or our capabilities. Half the time, those of us in uniform don' t even understand the ramifications of our actions. If we don't you expect them to? I KNOW we could win any battle we get into. We will never again face what we did in WWI, WWII, and Korea. No more amassed armies or navies. Just folks in a "uniform" or not, who could look like us or not, and who are using weapons we gave them years before or weapons furnished by a nation we're not friends with now. And in todays world, until you can "kill" an idea, you'll never destroy terrorism as a whole. No kinetic weapon on earth can do that. No special team could either. Money has even failed. The only way to "kill" an idea is to embrace the idea as your own, and redirect what comes of it to those willing to accept it. Change the narrative, change the thought process, you have now "won", and not lifted one round in anger. An example of this would be civil rights here in the US. It wasn't until white America saw what the minorities were saying and began to agree with them slowly taking in what they saw, absorbing it, and then redirecting it to those who oppressed the minorities. Over time, you began to see laws changed, politicians jump on the bandwagon, and the eventual turn from segregation to full integration. It wasn't perfect, or pretty, but this is what we need to do on a global scale to change minds worldwide.

Warren, I understand what you are saying, however I believe that right now we are faceing a much larger and more dangerous enemy than the world has ever seen. For many years we thought we had everything in order in the world. And we never saw the silent enemy that watched as we continued to let our guard down. Our politicians made us feel safe. It was them that should have been on watch. We only know what the corrupt news media feeds us. As such we have been fed cold soup for fat too many years. We were led to believe that we are the strongest and that we cleaned the world of all despots. We were lied to. Now we have the worst despot the world has ever seen, coupled with the worst corrupt government ever. As a result most of us don't know what to expect every morning when we wake up. Yes, we fought fanatics in past wars, but when we beat them we were able to come to a peaceful agreement with them after the wars were over. They were all from a civilized society. Now we are facing an enemy that will never agree with anything we present to them. They are in the hundreds of millions and born into being taught hate as toddlers. This is not just their leaders preaching to them, it's their religious belief. They will give up their lives just for the chance to kill infidels. They don't fight orderly wars. They don't take orders from an organized military organization. They are mostly free agents. Yes, they have some organized soldiers. But as a whole it's the loose ones that are the big threat. Just look at how they take over country's. They come in by the mob with no visible weapons and Rob, Murder and Rape with out much difficulty or resistance. As we don't allow a standing on our streets they take advantage of this legal exception. Now we may need to have heavily armed police forces. As strong or stronger than our military. The problem with that right now is we have a President that wants to destroy the police. This president is in bed with our present enemy. If what happens here like what is happening in Europe I still say shoot first and ask questions later. Our existence may depend on it. We can not take them in their country's without large numbers of troops on their soil, And just bombing them will not do the trick. We and the Soviet learned that fact in WW 2. If we don't stop them soon we will have one hell of a fight on our hands. And it will be here. Should we nuke them.?? If we do that we have to do it to most of the entire middle east. There are no short answers to this problem. We are not marching for civil rights this time. We will be fighting for our very existence. May God Help Us All.