VETERANS

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VETERANS MAKE YOUR VOICE COUNT — VOTE
Dear Fellow Veteran,
My name is Al Melvin and I am a retired Captain in
the US Naval Reserve. I also am an Arizona State
Senator and the Chairman of the Commerce, Energy
and Military committee at the Arizona Senate.
I am writing you to ask that you encourage all of
your veterans organization members to vote. As you
likely know, Arizona is home to a large concentration
of veterans, and our military bases remain critical cogs
in our state’s economy. If we veterans work and vote
together, we can ensure that Arizona is the most veteran-supportive state in
the country.
I am aware of the restrictions you face when discussing political topics, so
please be assured that I do not want you to advocate on behalf of any specific
candidate. The goal is to remind Arizona’s veterans of both the importance of
their vote and the great power we have when we speak with one voice.
Another great way to keep everyone informed and on the same page is to
read and support the ARIZONA VETERANS MAGAZINe. I think they do an excellent
job of serving the 700,000 veterans in Arizona. You can read all the issues at
www.azvetmag.com
Thank you for your continued service to our state and our nation!
Sincerely, Al Melvin, Arizona State Senator, Captain, Ret., US Navy Reserve
“Concerned Veterans for America fully supports President Obama’s decision
to accept Sec. Shinseki’s resignation. More importantly, we emphasize that it
doesn’t solve the widespread, systemic problems at the Department of
Veterans Affairs. In fact, this is only the beginning. We need both reforms and
a reformer, which is why it’s essential for Congress to pass systemic reforms
at VA in the coming weeks and months, bringing real accountability,
transparency, and choice to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The
government is failing our veterans; it’s time to get to work fixing VA.”
— Pete Hegseth, CEO of CVA
If you know of any able bodied man or woman who is out of work, please let
them know that every trucking company in Arizona is hiring drivers with
commercial drivers licences (CDL). It takes about 3 weeks and costs about
$3,000 to get a CDL. SWIFT & Knight have their own schools that you can
attend for free and then pay them back once you graduate. You can earn
$36,000 to $60,000 a year driving an 18 wheeler. If you are out of work please
look into this ongoing opportunity. — Arizona State Senator Al Melvin
I have been reading bios of Bob McDonald, and am very encouraged by his
background, which includes success in the business world leading a major
corporation, and a West Point graduate with five years of solid military service. The
changes that need to take place in the VA are on many levels, and must be lead by
someone with a history of success in leading a large, multi-faceted organization.
— Terry Araman
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A R I Z O N A V E T E R A N S M A G A Z I N E
THE ORIGIN OF THE VA MOTTO
by Jerry Iannacci
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
As the nation braced itself for the final throes of the Civil
War, thousands of spectators gathered on a muddy
Pennsylvania Avenue near the U.S. Capitol to hear President
Lincoln’s second inaugural address. It was March 4, 1865,
a time of great uneasiness. In just over one month, the war
would end and the president would be assassinated.
President Lincoln framed his speech on the moral and
religious implications of the war; rhetorically questioning how a just God could
unleash such a terrible war upon the nation. “If we shall suppose that American
slavery is one of those offenses in the providence of God, and that He gives to
both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the
offenses came.”
With its deep philosophical insights, critics have hailed the speech as one of
Lincoln’s best.
As the speech progressed, President Lincoln turned from the divisive
bitterness at the war’s roots to the unifying task of reconciliation and
reconstruction. In the speech’s final paragraph, the president delivered his
prescription for the nation’s recovery:
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as
God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to
bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle
and for his widow, and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a
just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
With the words, “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his
widow, and his orphan,” President Lincoln affirmed the government’s obligation
to care for those injured during the war and to provide for the families of those
who perished on the battlefield.
Today, a pair of metal plaques bearing those words flank the entrance to the
Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). VA
is the federal agency responsible for serving the needs of veterans by providing
health care, disability compensation and rehabilitation, education assistance,
home loans, burial in a national cemetery, and other benefits and services.
Lincoln’s immortal words became the VA motto in 1959, when the plaques were
installed, and can be traced to Sumner G. Whittier, administrator of what was
then called the Veterans Administration.
A document on VA medical history prepared for the congressional Committee
on Veterans’ Affairs and titled, “To care for him who shall have borne the battle,”
details how the words became VA’s motto. “He (Whittier) worked no employee
longer or harder than himself to make his personal credo the mission of the
agency. What was that credo Simply the words of Abraham Lincoln, to care
for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan. To
indicate the mission of his agency’s employees, Mr. Whittier had plaques
installed on either side of the main entrance.”
President Lincoln’s words have stood the test of time, and stand today as a
solemn reminder of VA’s commitment to care for those injured in our nation’s
defense and the families of those killed in its service.
The Vetraplex crew of veterans
Hire A Vet". I did. I called, Gary Rideout who has a business of
about 15 veterans who provide all sorts of handyman services at
$25 an hour — $20 an hour for veterans. I now have a cement slab
at the back door. We like it very much. I'll keep them busy for a
while. We need some yard work done. We are impressed. — Eva
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