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At a panel discussion hosted by U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., Pelosi was told that the Minnesota National Guard has done an excellent job of making sure its troops coming home from Iraq get all the health and education benefits they’re entitled to.
But participants said too many veterans from the active duty military services don’t get those benefits because they return home alone, and nobody makes sure they check the box on their discharge paperwork saying that they want the information to go to the veterans services offices in their home states.
Luke Weinandt of Mankato said he could have been one of those who fell through the cracks.
“I pretty much stayed in my father-in-law’s basement for a few months” after getting out of the Army, he said, having no idea what kind of help was out there.
Weinandt told Pelosi he eventually found out and went back to school, but had to take out student loans to pay his tuition because his GI Bill educational benefit payments kept coming late. Some of his fellow veterans just dropped out because the money didn’t come on time, he said.
Michael McLaughlin of Mankato, who served with the Marines in Iraq, told Pelosi he was fortunate that he had a father who was a Vietnam veteran and knew the system.
“A lot of our active duty members are left out,” McLaughlin said has he sat next to his father, Tom McLaughlin, who lost a leg in Vietnam. “... Ever since I got in the system it’s been world class.”
Tom McLaughlin, who’s now a Blue Earth County commissioner, choked up a little as he told Pelosi that he never imagined 40 years ago that he’d have a son who would also be a combat veteran.
The elder McLaughlin described how he was fortunate to have a high tech, computerized artificial leg, and held up the small battery that powers it. He said the new leg is a big improvement from the prosthetics of years past.
“We need to see that every veteran who suffers this type of injury, as well as other types of injuries that are severe and life-affecting, have this type of technology,” he said.
But he added that he had had problems getting benefits, too. While the Department of Veterans Affairs paid in 1984 to remodel his bathroom with handrails so he could get in and out of the tub, he said the VA refused when he moved again in 2003, telling him he was entitled to that benefit only once.
“Oh, my,” Pelosi said, as McLaughlin went on to explain that he had to spend $4,000 in his own money to get the work done.
McLaughlin said that needs to change because chances are that a 20- or 21-year-old amputee veteran probably won’t stay in the same house for his or her whole life.
“It’s shocking to hear all these years later that you only get that benefit once,” Pelosi said.
Ken Delano, of Albert Lea, a former military police officer who was injured on duty, was one of several participants who praised the quality of care they get at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center — once they get there.
But Delano told Pelosi he has to drive 100 miles one way, and the milage reimbursement rate was just recently raised to 28.5 cents per mile. He said the VA needs to add more community-based outpatient medical services so that veterans can get their routine care close to home, saving the long trips to Minneapolis for more serious issues.
The California Democrat said she helped last year to get the milage rate raised after it sat at 11 cents for many years. She said she’s working to increase that to the 48.5 cents, the standard set by the Internal Revenue Service.
After touring the VA hospital and meeting some patients and their families, Pelosi told reporters that veterans deserve futures worthy of their sacrifices.
“We will take this message back to Washington and we will act upon it,” the speaker said.
Pelosi later attended a fundraiser for Walz, a retired command sergeant major in the Army National Guard who sits on the House Veterans Affairs Committee and is running for re-election to a second term. Richard Carlbom, political director for the Walz campaign, said about 250 people attended the event at the Graves 601 Hotel. He declined to estimate how much it brought in, but said contributions ranged from $100 to a “very few” at the legal limit of $2,300.
