John Marshall died last week...at the tender age of 31. He died of soft tissue sarcoma. John was a highly decorated combat veteran who served in the Iraq War. When John wasn't busy fighting the bad guys he was assigned additional duty as a burn pit monitor.
Burn pits are what the military use to dispose of the refuse that 10,000 folks generate during the business of living and working in a military camp in the field. John spent hours breathing the noxious fumes of all that refuse.
So, when John came home, and developed that nasty, nasty form of cancer, he sought out the VA for help. The VA, despite thousands of similar complaints from other "burn pit victims", declared John not eligible for VA medical care, saying burn pits are not "combat related".
We vets know that "combat related" stuff well. We were told that Agent Orange wasn't toxic either...even as tens of thousands of Vietnam vets began dying of various cancers and organ shutdowns decades before their time. It would be nearly 30 years before the VA would admit Agent Orange was the cause.
John Marshall has spent his last months fighting cancer, as fiercely as he fought for his country a few years ago. Sadly, he was fighting the VA too.
The VA won. John lost. He died last week. He leaves behind a wife and two young children, now destitute and on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars for medical treatment because the VA once again denied a vet the medical care he earned and should have received.
5 comments:
Our Government, and both Parties, lie to us all the time! If "they" had a war and drafted only those over 50, no one would fight. It is easy to deceive the young and offer their hearts a "cause"! I am so sorry about John, one soldier among thousands lied to and deceived by his Country.
And our "do nothing" Congress continues to get paid for sleeping on the job. They don't like our President so they just refuse to work. I didn't like many of my bosses, but I still had enough self-pride to earn my keep. Of course the VA problems go back many decades and Congress ignored them while patting themselves on the back. Sorry about John, unfortunately more will follow.
Thanks, Jerry and Jeff. I probably should have mentioned that, because, since the mid 90's, VA medical care is "means tested", which means if you make over poverty level wages you are not eligible for VA care unless your illness is combat related. This is the way the VA turns you away...simply by declaring you either you make too much, or that your illness is not combat related.
And I would remind you that, as late as 2009, Dems were touting the "wonderful VA system" as proof that federal health care works. It didn't then and it doesn't now. Anything the government touches they screw up.
Sorry for John's loss too. Maybe he should have renounced his Citizenship, gone to Mexico, snuck across the border and run to the nearest Hospital for emergency care. I hate to bring this up at such a time but this is something you know who says he'll fix. I believe him. The joke "the desert would experience a shortage of sand if the Government took it over" is actually, not a joke. They are the worst of the worst and all voted out of office to start all over. Maybe something would get done.
We need to speak up and be a voice for our veterans. It's the only way to make a difference so more of our good veterans who fought for our freedoms don't die in vain; leaving a family behind drowning in debt. My heart goes out to John's family-you are in my prayers.
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