Increased Services for Veterans Urged at Flag Day VA Rally
Not only should the VA Hospital in Montrose never be closed, services for existing veterans and returning military personnel need to be increased.
That was the battle cry of a Flag Day rally outside the VA last week attended by approximately 80 local veterans and led by Cortlandt Supervisor Linda Puglisi.
“They’re hoping we go away. We’re not going away. We will be here forever,” Puglisi said regarding federal officials that were looking at leasing 160 of the 172-acre VA property to a developer before a lease agreement expired at the end of 2011. “We have to make sure they don’t do something as ridiculous and absurd again.”
William Nazario, head of the Cortlandt Veterans Committee and a Vietnam Purple Heart recipient, said the battle to save the VA may have been temporarily won but local officials and veterans can never let their guard down.
“The fight is not over. Washington is looking to balance the budget on the backs of veterans and that will not happen while we are here fighting,” Nazario said. “We have to fight for what we need. If we keep quiet they will roll over us. They will disrespect us. They’re trying to turn this into a ghost town so they have an excuse.”
Nazario said the Montrose VA treats the largest number of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder patients in the nation and predicted those services would be in higher demand when veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars return home. He also noted one out of every four deaths in the military outside combat is suicide related.
“Our children when they come home from the battlefield this better be standing and fully serviced,” he said. “This was promised to them. This facility more than ever needs to be up and running full tilt.”
Buchanan Mayor Sean Murray, a U.S. Navy veteran, said his 74-year-old uncle, an Army veteran, broke his hip in after a fall. Due to overcrowded conditions, there were no beds from him at the VA facility in Castle Point and he had to wait over a year to get surgery at a VA in the Bronx.
“You need to expand this facility, not downsize it,” Murray said of the 62-year-old Montrose VA. “We can’t forget why this facility was built. This was built for the people who protected our freedom.”
Cortlandt Councilman Frank Farrell, a Navy veteran, said veterans have more than earned a facility to treat their physical and mental injuries.
“We owe them more than a debt of gratitude, we owe them services,” Farrell said. “The way this country treats its veterans is shameful. When the fighting is done it seems like the people are forgotten. As Americans we are better than that. We in this country need to develop a conscience.”
Meanwhile, Puglisi announced a veterans park, currently under construction in Verplanck would be dedicated on July 20.
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/
