Veterans arrive for convention, visits to replica of 'The Wall'
Statewide VFW convention in Buffalo rallies support to keep, enhance benefits
Far from the front lines of foreign conflicts, veterans are assembling in Buffalo by the thousands to advance an agenda aimed at preserving and enhancing benefits they say were earned on the battlefield.
War veterans from several generations started gathering here Wednesday, with more than 900 motorcyclists escorting the largest traveling replica of the national Vietnam Veterans Memorial, known as “The Wall.”
There will be no shortage of those who pay tribute.
Today, some 3,000 Veterans of Foreign Wars members and their supporters open a statewide convention in downtown Buffalo. When they’re not focusing on health care and other issues, they will ride shuttles to Knox Farm State Park in East Aurora to visit the Vietnam memorial.
Amid all this, a deep sense of camaraderie will be shared among those who fought for American freedom. Making it even more hospitable, organizers say, is Buffalo’s reputation for patriotism.
“Everybody feels very welcome, and they are happy to be here,” said David M. Czarnecki, an Alden resident and president of the 90th annual New York Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention, which continues through Sunday in the Hyatt Regency Buffalo.
Veterans will share stories, some sad and some joyful, of what has become of them in their lives following military service.
“It could be a guy remembering a tragedy 40 years ago or a guy talking about his wife and kids,” said Gary Wald, a Vietnam Navy veteran who participated in the motorcycle escort.
Or it could be Edward J. Delmonte II, a 100 percent disabled Iraq veteran from Hamburg who wants to tell fellow veterans about the struggles some of the country’s newest wave of returning warriors are experiencing.
“What we put up with day to day with our disabilities is like a full-time job,” Delmonte said. “When someone asks me what I do and I tell them I’m disabled, they give a funny look like you’re a leech on the system, sucking it dry.”
Because Delmonte suffers from post traumatic stress and brain injuries, he says his war wounds are not always obvious.
“Everyone gets it if you have a leg or an arm missing,” he said. “I want people to know that no matter what a veteran’s age is or disability, he rightfully earned that [fighting] for his country, and he shouldn’t be treated any differently than someone who works every day.”
Delmonte, who plans to attend the convention, will get no argument from convention leaders, who say their mission is to make sure veterans receive their benefits and are treated with dignity.
“Our main concern is preserving the benefits for veterans, especially those coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan,” Czarnecki said, adding that these newest veterans do have it better in some respects compared with the hostile homecoming he and other Vietnam War veterans faced.
“To describe it in a nutshell, when I came home, they suggested we not wear our dress uniform,” Czarnecki said. “The general public had a bad taste in its mouth for veterans.”
Desert Storm Army veteran Marlene Roll, also of Alden, says she will focus on bolstering the ranks of veterans organizations at the convention.
“We really need our veterans to join,” Roll said. “That’s what gives us our legislative voice in Washington, D. C.”
The Buffalo convention comes at a particularly good time for veterans in the nation’s capital.
The House Appropriations Committee this week approved a spending bill for fiscal 2010 that follows President Obama’s call for a 15.3 percent increase in funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs. That bill includes 13 percent more for veterans health care.
In addition, the House on Tuesday passed four bills of keen interest to veterans.
Most importantly, it passed legislation giving Congress the ability to fund the VA a year before the start of the next fiscal year — which would mean the veterans care organization would no longer find itself running out of money while it waits for congressional action.
The House also approved bills giving the recipients of veterans benefits their annual cost-of- living increase, expanding health care for female veterans and directing the VA to include on its Web site a list of organizations that provide scholarships to veterans and their survivors.
“Last week, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer pledged to make veterans bills a top priority on the legislative schedule,” said David K. Rehbein, national commander of the American Legion, Washington’s largest and most influential veterans group. “Their colleagues on the House floor have now echoed that commitment to our most deserving citizens.”
And while all of these measures are afoot in Washington, the new head of the Western New York VA Healthcare System made a promise Wednesday to speed up the delivery of medical services to the 40,000 area veterans who utilize federal hospitals and clinics in the region.
William F. Feeley, who just completed three and a half years as a national deputy undersecretary for VA health, says he knows what’s on the minds of the veterans who have come here to push their agenda.
“Direct access to health care when they want it, and that’s my goal — to eliminate waits. People need to get care when they need it,” Feeley said.
The VA, Feeley added, has undergone a learning curve in meeting the needs of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, particularly in the areas of psychological wounds, brain trauma and burn treatment.
The mental health staff at the Buffalo VA, he said, has been increased by 60 workers and nationally by 25 percent with a total of 5,500 new employees over the last three years.
But vets like Delmonte say more needs to be done. “I don’t mean they aren’t doing anything, they’re just not able to accommodate everyone coming back,” Delmonte said. “They’ll give you medication and tell you to come back in a week to see if it worked.”
A rapid response in delivering comprehensive health care, the veteran said, is a necessity. “They know how to send you to battle,” he said, “but they don’t know how to treat you when you come back.”
News Washington Bureau Chief Jerry Zremski contributed to this report.
lmichel@buffnews.com and jmay@buffnews.com
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