This past week has been great on a number of levels and challenging on others. First, the USMC League, Lewiston Detachment 810 had a Vietnam Welcome Home event at the Lewiston Armory. Representatives of our congressional delegation and the Mayor of Lewiston provided their “welcome home. The next day, Travis Mills, our only quadriplegic who lost all his limbs in Afghanistan in 2012, held his annual Vietnam Veterans recognition breakfast. Over 500 folks attended, the vast majority of them being Vietnam veterans. It is pretty humbling when Travis stands on his prosthetic legs and gestures with his prosthetic arm thanks the Vietnam Veterans for our service and for making sure the next generation of veterans get the thanks they have earned and the welcome home they deserve. He talked about how much the visits of Vietnam Veterans who came to support the veterans going through rehab at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in DC and the other veterans recovering from wounds of war meant to him and the others. And, he gave us our welcome home, something he says he never forgets to tell any veteran he meets. This was followed by the Governor’s Vietnam Veterans recognition in the Capital’s Hall of Flags. General Farnham, Maine’s Adjutant General of Maine’s National Guard and the Governor made their remarks but the key note speaker was Peter Mills, the Governors brother. Peter is currently the head of Maine’s Turnpike Authority but he is also a Vietnam Veteran. He was a destroyer sailor off the coast of Vietnam. Of course I was a destroyer sailor off the coast of Vietnam too so I really resonated with his stories. One such experience he had that I fortunately didn’t was being hit by a missile which ultimately stuck in the side of the ship…didn’t explode. On close examination, the manufacturers name plate was on it and said it was made in Waltham, Massachusetts.

On the challenging side, a few veterans approached me with issues they were having with the VA, both on the benefits side and on the healthcare side. While I am a big fan of our VA, it is a huge organization and there will always be things that don’t go right. The good news is that the leadership want to hear those issues and want to fix them whenever possible. When you are having issues with the VA, you should always get the names of the people you are talking to. Just saying “’they’ said,” doesn’t help. When issues happen, and they will, you need to write down the name, the office they are in and when it occurred. With this information, Ed Harmon or I can get the information to the right person in leadership to get the situation taken care of. You should never be uncertain what is happening or go without answers to your questions. If what you hear doesn’t make sense to you, we need to resolve that!

Don’t forget, this Sunday at 7:30, the Legion Breakfast returns!