Memorial Day 2016

I've never been a flag waver because I've never felt the need to confirm my Patriotism. I have my VA card to do that, if ever questioned. Likewise, I don't belong to any service clubs mostly because they smoke in them. And I wasn't ever a big green wearer on St. Pat's Day because of my red hair. If you couldn't tell I was Irish, you were blind. The non-Irish dressed up like clowns all in green. I wore just enough to piss off any Johnny Bulls I'd come across.

I was never ashamed of any of it, you understand. I was accosted by a young hippie girl in the Pittsburgh Train Station the night I got out when she tried to throw a drink on me. Her aim was off because she didn't remove the lid and it went all over her as well. It was the perfect excuse to get out of my uniform and I arrived home in civvies which disappointed my Mother some.

For thirty years I never thought much of my Army experience. I hadn't been permanently stationed in Vietnam so I didn't have any war stories. Unless you accepted my occasional brawls with other G I's in Germany. I drank a little beer, traveled around Europe and crossed into East Berlin several times. Talk about a strange feeling.

In 2000, I applied for Veterans Benefits after two blood clots ended my health benefits. It was the pre-existing condition from hell! Boy, have I used the heck out of them. In 2015 alone, I racked up about 1,500 pages of records and I am VERY happy I had such good care here in Fort Myers and the Miami VA Hospital. As I've often said, the bad wrap given to the VA has been mainly political, in my extensive estimation.

With our great civilian health care network backing them up, it's unimaginable that a veteran with some hope of being cured, would be excluded. During my frequent operations and hospital stays, I was accompanied by the greatest care giver in the world, my wife, Marion. She bunked next door for free in the Fisher House as did my Son and his wife, my Sisters and my Brother in-Law. I never stepped foot in there but the cold plates and hot coffee were as 5 star as I understand the accommodations were.

Me, I got 4 operations, one procedure, several CAT scans and more chest X rays than I could count. And I was getting better after each one of them which made me a happy GI. All of that made me appreciate my families involvement because late at night the private room door wasn't stout enough to block out the misery around me which came mostly from drug seeking addicts.

The staff usually gave in with a placebo but it only lasted so long. Between the 3am blood draws and the occasional cursing in the hallway, it was tough to get any sleep. Eventually, the demanding patient would sign himself out and go down on the street to smoke and maybe score some relief. That's what I said, the Miami VA Hospital allowed mobile patients to take the elevator to the Emergency entrance and smoke near the street even if they dragged their IV pole with them?

Now that is special treatment, right? Do something nice for a Vet this year on top of buying 'em a beer.