The Forgotten Veterans Project

BACKGROUND

For two generations our government has used the bravery and sacrifice of the Navajo and Hopi Code talkers in WWII as a recruiting tool to entice young member of the Navajo and Hopi to enlist in the military. Today a large percentage of Navajo and Hopi men and women are veterans or active military.

Despite the fidelity and service of these veterans, our country has failed to live up to its duty to care for those men and women who won and have maintained the nations freedom. Across the Navajo and Hopi Nations, there remains a disproportionately lower level of VA Services and Benefits. Most notably, there is no VA Hospital or Community Basic Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) on either Nation, forcing veterans to travel up to six hours in order to receive proper VA medical treatment.

Leo Chischilly, Director, Navajo Department of Veterans Affairs states that 12,837 veterans are currently registered. Many newly separated veterans are not registered, however. In July 2008 they submitted a report with the number of veterans in the Navajo Nation but the VA rejected the numbers, stating they needed to be revisited.

Earlier this year, March 2, 2009, Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley an Prescott VA Hospital officials signed an agreement with the goal of the Navajo and Hopi Nation being building a VA (CBOC) clinic in Chinle. The clinic is proposed to provide many of the specialized services that veterans currently must travel hundreds of miles in order to receive. Although this is a positive step, according to a Navajo Nation Department of Veterans Affairs staffer, this agreement took 30 years to accomplish. Why does it take so many decades for our Government to even begin to meet its obligations to these veterans?

The next step is an even higher hurdle. In order to open the clinic, Congress must appropriate funding for it and recruit staffers with an awareness of cultural differences needed to be fostered and understood.

POINTS OF ACTION

1) In an attempt to raise awareness among all Arizonans, collect pledges of support for the VA Clinic (CBOC) in Chinle, AZ. Ask community members to contact their Members of Congress, in a effort to gain support for funding of the clinic and proper staffing. Ask community members to volunteer to help us to raise public awareness.

2) In an attempt to raise awareness among all Arizonans, collect and pass on health-care related stories of Navajo and Hopi veterans. These anecdotes will showcase the lack of services and long travel times involved. These anecdotes, with accompanying videos and pictures, will drive New Media opportunities to garner support and encourage volunteer sign-ups.

3) Working together with the Democratic Native American Caucus, the Arizona Democratic Veterans Caucus will present to the Arizona Democratic State Party Meeting in October 2009, a resolution asking for support of the immediate funding and proper staffing of a CBOC in Chinle Arizona.

4) The Veterans Caucus will do a follow-up phone bank to remind individuals who signed pledge sheets to call, write or email their Congressional delegation in support of immediate funding and proper staffing of a CBOC in Chinle, Arizona.

Attached to this email is a pledge sheet for each of you to get three names. Ronald Canady of Tucson has mailed me a sheet of Veterans he signed in his area. Bill Gertz, of Mesa, has turned five sheets. Ben Love has emailed me that he has 40 signatures. Please feel free to use the attachment to print out as many sheets as you need. In printing the document make sure the disclaimer at the bottom of the sheet is legible.

Please mail all completed sheets to the Arizona Democratic Party Headquarters, 2910 N. Central Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85012, ATTN: Veterans Caucus, or scan and email the documents to me at this email address. If either one to those two options is not possible please make sure all signed pledge sheet are turned in at the Arizona Democratic Party Meeting scheduled for October.

We believe that this is a fight worth fighting and it is an issue that we can win.

I would like to thank all of you for your support and participation.

Thank you

Bob Stelling

Chairman: the Arizona Democratic Veterans Caucus

Paid for by the Arizona Democratic Veterans Caucus | 2910 N. Central Ave | Phoenix, AZ 85012

Not authorized by any Candidate or Candidate Committee