I am going to bury my rant here where it will be less likely to see the light of day. It is a vent or cry, and I am near tears right this minute. I can only imagine how the webmaster must feel at this point. I HOPE he is not getting the kind of e-mails I am getting every day. The ones asking are there rooms in _____ (pick a State or near a city) , I want a room at... as if i am a reservation service, and the phone calls asking the same. The innkeepers asking me to stop the phone calls because they have had 50 - I do not try to count them - veterans, innkeepers, and dependents.
The e-mail I got this morning was the last straw I think - I am ashamed to admit, I got pissy in my reply. Why is it that they think the word disabled makes them special - my husband has been "disabled" since he was 12 and never expected any special favors because of it.
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DEAR KATHLEEN:
I just read about the offer of a free B&B or Inn stay for veterans on November 10th on the
VETERANS COMPENSATION PROGRAMS' web site. The one thing that I noticed was that this offer was being made "
(ONLY) TO ACTIVE AND RETIRED MILITARY PERSONNEL". I am a disabled veteran who was involuntarily medically discharged in 1991. What about
US? Do those of us who had no choice but to end our military service due to illness or injury not count as veterans for the purpose of something like this? We
ALSO SERVED PROUDLY AND HONORABLY! Yet, due to circumstances beyond our control, we were not able to continue our service to retirement. It seems that, when it comes to offers such as this, we disabled veterans are the forgotten ones. I did notice also in this article that it specifies that "
A VALID MILITARY OR VA ID WILL BE REQUIRED FOR EACH RESERVATION". As a disabled veteran, I
DO, of course have a VA ID. However, there is nothing on this ID that identifies me
SPECIFICALLY as being a
DISABLED veteran or
RETIRED military, in order to distinguish me from just
ANOTHER honorably discharged veteran. In my opinion, I believe that offers such as this should be available to
ALL HONORABLY DISCHARGED VETERANS AND THEIR FAMILIES.
ALL honorably discharged veterans, as well as their families, have served and sacrificed proudly in service of their country. Therefore,
ALL honorably discharged veterans, and their families,
SHOULD BE HONORED FOR THEIR SERVICE. I hope that you agree and might correct this oversight (and slight) to
ALL HONORABLY DISCHARGED VETERANS AND THEIR FAMILIES.
Thank you for your time, attention, and consideration. I look forward to hearing back from you soon.
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I am ready to puke.