Dear Editor:

As I left the Navy in 1978 to rejoin civilian life, a separations counselor informed me that I would receive care at any VA center if I should need it. I was amazed and he continued, "You've served in the armed forces of the most powerful nation on earth, and we take care of our own."

After I got out, I enrolled in college with the GI bill, worked nights earning minimum wage as a security guard, and pulled my reserve duty one weekend a month. Things were tight but workable with the state funded college being very affordable. The value of that "take care of our own" adage took on new meaning when I discovered a strange lump. I went to the VA center and they took care of me and my lump.

Over the years the VA has been through a lot of cuts and changes. I am now given the lowest priority when it comes to my use if the VA services. That is OK, as I am covered with private insurance through my job. But these days the adage "we take care of our own" seems to have been displaced by “individual responsibility”; whatever that means for the worker earning minimum wage who has a strange lump.

What has happened at the VA is sad and probably predictable. The agency has been starved for resources at a time when new veterans with real and immediate needs have come into their roles. In fact, only three months ago Congress was unable to overcome the filibuster of a bill that would have allowed the VA to increase staffing levels to meet its obligations to our veterans.

Maybe our congressional delegation should take to heart the idea of individual responsibility and start taking care of our own.

Fred Nehring
Boothbay