Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Country In Chaos

How many of you are aware of this latest government travesty?


Military Denied Benefits to Surviving Son

Military rules forced Jason Hubbard out of the service after both his brothers died in Iraq.

Then the military cut off his family's health care medical benefits, stopped his G.I. education subsidies and tried to force him to repay his $6,000 enlistment bonus.

Hubbard, 33, and his youngest brother, Nathan, enlisted while they were still grieving for their brother, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard, who was 22 when he was killed in a 2004 bomb explosion in Ramadi.

At their request, the pair were assigned to the same unit, the 3rd Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii, and deployed to Iraq the next year.

In August, 21-year-old Cpl. Nathan died when his Black Hawk helicopter crashed near Kirkuk. Jason was part of the team assigned to remove his comrades' bodies from the wreckage.

Hubbard accompanied his brother's body on a military aircraft to Kuwait, then on to California. He kept steady during Nathan's burial at Clovis Cemetery, standing in dress uniform between his younger brothers' graves as hundreds sobbed in the heat.

Hubbard was discharged under an Army policy governing sole surviving siblings and children of soldiers killed in combat. The rule is a holdover from World War II meant to protect the rights of service people who have lost a family member to war.

Hubbard broke his silence when he found his wife, pregnant with their second child, had been cut off from the transitional health care the family needed to ease back to civilian life after he was discharged in October.

It wasn't until Hubbard petitioned his local congressman Devin Nunesthat that he was able to restore some of his benefits.

Hubbard went to Nunes, who began advocating for the former soldier in December, after hearing the Army was demanding that he repay $6,000 from his enlistment bonus and was denying him up to $40,000 in educational benefits under the GI bill.

After speaking with Army Secretary Pete Geren, Nunes got the repayment waived, and a military health policy restored for Hubbard's wife.

But the policy mandated that she be treated at a nearby base, and doctors at the Lemoore Naval Air Station warned that the 45-mile trip could put her and the fetus in danger. Hubbard said doctors offered alternative treatment at a hospital five hours away.

Meantime, Hubbard and his two-year-old son went without any coverage for a few months.

"This is a man who asked for nothing and gave a lot," said Nunes, R-Calif., who represents Hubbard's hometown of Clovis, a city of 90,000 next to Fresno.

"Jason is one person who obviously has suffered tremendously and has given the ultimate sacrifice. One person is too many to have this happen to."

So let me recap this situation: Jason Hubbard was terminated from employment meaning his pay stopped, the government demanded his $6,000.00 signing bonus be returned, his $40,000.00 education allowance ceased, and his health care benefits stopped.

What did he do to deserve this? He fought for his country until he and his family had paid the ultimate sacrifice of losing two brothers to the war, that's what.

For simple math, let's assume the medical benefits for his pregnant wife equalled $54,000.00, add to that the education allowance of $40,000.00 and then add the $6,000.00 bonus which gives us a grand total of $100,000.00.

To put things in perspective, Nevada Senator Harry Reid announced the passage of the highway corrections bill, bringing home nearly $55 million in transportation funding to Nevada this year, $45 million for Maglev.

The money will help fund an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for this Maglev rail system that will safely and efficiently move people between southern California and Las Vegas.

As a country, our government can afford to pay for an impact study for train service between southern California and southern Nevada, which I may add should be privately funded, but this poor soldier did not deserve at the very most $100,000.00 from his government for his loyal service and the suffering of losing family.

We used to be a country that knew "Right from Wrong" and a country that believed in "Truth, Justice, and the American Way."

Why did we change?

1 Comments:

At 8:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Outrageous.

 

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