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“Once those in Congress get an inch, they will take a mile if they think it will not cost them votes. Please do not let Congress break its pledge to cut any of our benefits.”
—Col. Dean Messelheiser, USAF (Ret)


 


 


Navy Captains Left Out
Mark Cantrell’s feature article “Don’t Give Up the Ship” [September 2013] unfortunately makes Capt. James Lawrence the centerpiece and exemplar of the U.S. Navy’s coming of age in the War of 1812. Lawrence lost his ship and his life — and the lives of much of his crew — in a cocky but gallant attempt to break the British blockade of Boston when he should have waited for dark or dirty weather — or both. Freshly in command of the frigate USS Chesapeake, an assignment he had accepted reluctantly and with a green crew, he took on HMS Shannon, which was commanded and drilled scrupulously for seven years by [Royal Navy] Capt. Philip Broke.


The engagement lasted 15 minutes. While young Oliver Hazard Perry is deservedly high up in your pantheon, missing are the likes of Navy Captains Isaac Hull, William Bainbridge, Stephen Decatur, and Thomas Macdonough who helped Americans forget the burning of the capital, the failed land war, the coastal raids, and other humiliations of the war.
—Cmdr. Phillip Ritzenberg, USN (Ret) Life Member, MOC of Long Island (N.Y.) Woodmere, N.Y.


 


 


 


Health Care Advocacy
Storming the Hill is what most of us MOAA members expect you to do to preserve our benefits. Congress would just as soon cut them if they were not concerned about our votes to re-elect them.


[Former Director of MOAA Government Relations] Col. Steve Strobridge, USAF (Ret), and other MOAA representatives and members of MOAA have to stay active and vigilant, or veterans will be forgotten. Please keep up the commendable job of serving MOAA members and being our advocate. Do not give up anything. Once those in Congress get an inch, they will take a mile if they think it will not cost them votes. Please do not let Congress break its pledge to cut any of our benefits. Don’t give an inch. I’m 100-percent behind your work in not giving in to Congress or the [president].
—Col. Dean Messelheiser, USAF (Ret) Life Member via email


 


 


Brilliant! Stunning! The new Defense Health Agency as part of the Defense Department to reduce redundancy in health care spending. ... Gosh, what should we do with the assistant secretary of Defense for Health Affairs now? Is that office now redundant?
—Col. Scott Burner, USA (Ret) Life Member via email


 


 


As the wars wind down, we are again hearing about the “cost” of health care for “young, working age” retirees. The typical 20-year retiree has a couple of kids getting ready for college as he or she faces a tough job market and a major pay cut. Having retiree health care is often a big help in getting that all-important first job. It is not free, anyway; it has been well-earned.
—Lt. Col. J. Todd Miles, USMCR (Ret) Worcester County (Mass.) Chapter, MOAA via email


 


 


 


Not Just Retired Officers
Bravo Zulu to Lt. Cmdr. Norman Eaton, USN (Ret), for pointing out that both officer and enlisted servicemembers benefit from the efforts of MOAA [“Difference of Opinion,” Your Views, October 2013]. However, he incorrectly wrote that “MOAA is a retired officers’ association.” I joined MOAA (then known as TROA [The Retired Officers Association]) in the early 1970s when I discovered active duty officers were not only eligible but [were] being recruited. The TROA designation was changed to MOAA several years ago as a means to remove the impression that membership was restricted to retirees.
—Cmdr. Lee A. Hallman, USN (Ret) Life Member, West Alabama Chapter via email


 


16 MILITARY OFFICER NOVEMBER 2013

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