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KAYSVILLE — As the Department of Veterans Affairs answers new questions about lapses at VA hospitals, military men and women need additional medical care, a group of World War II veterans said during a Memorial Day celebration at the Kaysville Cemetery.
“Especially those that have returned not as healthy as they were before,” said Haven Barlow, a U.S. Navy vet. “We need to do everything, everything that is humanly possible to restore them to the health that they were before they entered the military.”
Hundreds of residents filled lawn chairs and spread blankets near the cemetery in a patriotic scene of waving flags, blaring horns and the rhythmic taps of snare drums. Local dignitaries such as Elder L. Tom Perry of the LDS Church’s Quorum of Twelve Apostles, a veteran himself, addressed the crowd.
“We’re a dying generation now,” Elder Perry said. “We are known as the greatest generation.”
Elder Perry served in the U.S. Marines. He honored military service men and women past and present.
“We wear that title (greatest generation) with honor and we keep looking for another generation to take it away from us,” Elder Perry said.
Among those honored was a trio of World War II veterans age 90 and above. The history lessons are hidden in the stripes these men wear and the battle scars to prove their valor.
They said their stories of service are the same as those who serve today, but they said the battles have changed to joblessness and lack of medical care.
“I notice it more now than I did then,” said Barlow, a former Utah State Senate president.
“It really upsets me to have our returning vets, some of them that are in need of special help, and we’re not giving it to them.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs has come under fire for reported lapses at VA hospitals nationwide. At least 40 vets reportedly died awaiting medical care.
During Monday’s Memorial Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery, President Obama did not mention the VA controversy specifically, but he said that more needs to be done to make sure that veterans get the care and benefits "they've earned and deserve."
Utah vets said they don’t have the exact strategy for fighting the battles vets face when they return from combat; however, they know what has worked for them. Every serviceman and woman needs three things, they agreed.
“Give them jobs that they need,” said Gerhard Stracke, a retired U.S. Army and Navy staffer. “And the medical care that is there for them, it's not working, it's not functioning.”
The World War II veterans also say military veterans need support from family and the community.
“It it wasn't for the home front, those people that we left here, we wouldn't have nothing,” said Max Richins, a retiree of the U.S. Army Air Corps.
