Veterans Sue Obama Administration Over 76 Year Old War Memorial: VFW Wants Obama to Restore Mojave Desert Cross

/PRNewswire/ -- Liberty Institute, representing the VFW Department of California and VFW Post 385, just filed a lawsuit against the Obama Administration because it refuses to transfer ownership of the land on which stood the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial to the VFW, as directed by a 2003 Act of Congress. The Obama Administration also refused to allow the VFW to rebuild the memorial after vandals destroyed it in May 2010, and it opposed the VFW's intervention into the lawsuit brought by the ACLU. The ACLU is attempting to permanently remove the VFW's Memorial as the case returns to the district court at the U.S. Supreme Court's direction.

"The way our government has treated the veterans in this case is a disgrace to their service and dedication," said Kelly Shackelford, president/CEO of Liberty Institute. "Members of the VFW and those this Memorial represents paid for this land with their own blood, sweat, and tears."

The U.S. Supreme Court's opinion in April 2010 reversed the rulings of the district court and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals which had demanded the removal of the Mojave Desert Memorial, and sent the case back to the district court for further consideration.

As Justice Kennedy observed in the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the Memorial, the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial "evokes thousands of small crosses in foreign fields marking the graves of Americans who fell in battles, battles whose tragedies are compounded if the fallen are forgotten."

The VFW then filed a motion to intervene in the district court case, which was denied after the Obama administration and the ACLU together opposed the veterans' attempt to defend their own Memorial on land transferred to them by an Act of Congress. The Memorial remains in a vandalized state since criminals tore it down on May 9, weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling protecting the Memorial.

"This land belongs to the VFW, and the court should honor the congressional act that conveys the land and the memorial to the veterans," said Ted Cruz, a Partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP and co-counsel with Liberty Institute. "The veterans have an acute interest in restoring and preserving this 76-year-old memorial to those brave American soldiers who gave their lives in World War I."

"This is our land, our memorial and we want it back," said James Rowoldt, State Adjutant/Quartermaster of the VFW Department of California. "To deny the veterans a chance to defend our own is to continue to dishonor those for whom the Memorial stands."

In a disturbing trend, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the same court that originally ruled against the Mojave Desert Memorial, recently ruled that the Mount Soledad Memorial, a 43-foot-tall veterans memorial in San Diego, is also unconstitutional. Liberty Institute represents The American Legion as an amicus in the case, and launched a petition at www.DontTearMeDown.com asking President Obama to appeal the disgraceful ruling.

Liberty Institute works to uphold Constitutional and First Amendment religious freedoms and free speech in the courts. Liberty Institute represented all the major veterans groups as amici in the Supreme Court case of Salazar v. Buono involving this 76-year-old war memorial.

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Officials Call Guard-Reserve Report 'Fundamentally Flawed'

Photo Right: Army Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, comments critically, during a 1 Feb. 2008, Pentagon press conference, on several of the recommendations contained in the recently released 400-page report of the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves. Blum was joined at the lectern by Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense Paul McHale who also found much in the report to disagree with. Defense Dept. photo by R. D. Ward

Core elements of a congressional commission's report aimed at overhauling the U.S. military's reserve forces are "fundamentally flawed," Defense Department officials said today.

The Commission on the National Guard and Reserves yesterday delivered its final report to Congress and Pentagon officials. The report included 95 recommendations on transitioning the reserves into a feasible and sustainable operational reserve.

At the crux of the Defense officials' objection to the report is a recommendation that would in effect make the National Guard a domestic response force for civil emergencies, essentially eliminating its go-to-war mission.

"That is sharply at odds with the position that we have taken in our strategy for homeland defense and civil support," said Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and Americas' security affairs, speaking to journalists at the Pentagon. "We believe that the National Guard has a primary role to play in domestic disaster response -- but that mission assignment should not be to the exclusion of National Guard's traditional war-fighting missions overseas."

The recommendation is that the Defense Department shift capabilities useful for state-controlled responses to domestic emergencies to the National Guard, and shift capabilities in the National Guard that are not required for state missions, but are required for its federal missions, to the military reserve components or active-duty military.

This would in effect place nearly all civil support capabilities within the National Guard and move wartime missions to the federal military.

"What the ... commission is recommending ... is that the National Guard become a domestic disaster response capability exclusively. We think that's wrong," McHale said.

Alongside McHale at the briefing today was National Guard Bureau Chief, Army Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum. He said that the active-duty military could not feasibly fill the gaps left my removing the Guard from its wartime mission. Right now, the Guard makes up 40 percent of the combat power of the U.S. military. More than 355,000 serve troops in the Army National Guard and 106,000 in the Air Guard.

"We would unhinge the volunteer force, and we would break the total force," Blum said.

Department officials are also at odds with the recommendation to place active-duty military forces under the command and control of the governors of the states in which they are deployed.

"Fifty different governors will command our active duty military forces in a patchwork quilt of command and control that would guarantee an inability to achieve unity of command and unity of effort in a crisis," McHale said.

That recommendation, he said, is at odds with the federal system of government and Article II of the Constitution.

"There can be only one commander-in-chief, and that is the president of the United States," McHale said. "To decentralize that command and control to 50 separate state governors invites confusion."

Another recommendation by the commission would cut reservists' drill pay in half. The commission recommends reducing the 29 duty status codes the reserves now have to only two – either on active duty or not.

Photo Left: Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense Paul McHale comments critically on several of the recommendations contained in the recently released report of the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves during a Feb. 1, 2008 Pentagon press conference. Defense Dept. photo by R. D. Ward

The problem is that reservists now get four days pay for a two day drill period. The commission recommends one day's pay, for one day's work. The drilling reservist would receive, for the same duty, half the pay he is currently receiving. Or they would have to put in twice as many duty days to receive the same pay.

"We believe that is a mistake," McHale said. "We believe it is precisely the wrong message to be sent to National Guardsmen and Reservists who at this point in our history are deserving of our appreciation and respect. Their compensation ought not be cut."

The pay cut could have also an impact on recruiting and retention, he said.

"We believe that this proposal moves in precisely the wrong direction in terms of encouraging reserve participation and expressing appreciation for the sacrifice that reservists and their families have made in support of our nation," McHale said.

Department officials disagreed with the harsh criticism leveled at the disaster preparedness of the nation yesterday by the commission chairman, retired Marine Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro.

McHale called some of Punaro's characterizations "unfortunate and inaccurate" and said that, while some plans are still being developed, the Department could respond to a disaster and has both trained personnel and up-to-date equipment in place.

McHale pointed to the National Guard's 53 certified civil support teams and 17 chemical emergency response force packages modeled after the Marine Corps chemical, biological incident response force.

"Our department's catastrophic response capabilities are the best funded, best equipped, best trained in the world," McHale said.

The secretary said that most of these plans and resources didn't exist before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The Defense Department is in the final stages of identifying and resourcing task forces made up of 15,000 department personnel trained and equipped to respond to a domestic detonation of a weapon of mass destruction.

"That kind of capability has never existed in such a task organization during the history of the Department of Defense," McHale said.

The department is developing plans to respond to nuclear detonations and multiple dirty bomb, chemical and anthrax attacks, as well as hurricanes and earthquakes. They should be final in the next year, he said.

Blum addressed the equipment shortfalls identified in the report. Punaro said yesterday that nearly 90 percent of the National Guard is not combat ready, lacking adequate funding, training and equipment.

Blum said that the report was accurate, but did not account for what he called and "unprecedented" $45 billion in funding being channeled into the Guard to fix those problems. By next year 69 percent of the forces should be equipped and 77 percent by 2013.

"We didn't get into that problem overnight. And we're not going to dig out of it in one night," Blum said.

Also, Blum said, at the end of 2013 the Guard will represent an organization that is equipped as a fully modernized, mirror-image of the active force, for the first time in the nation's history.

McHale and Blum both acknowledged that some of the proposals by the commission had merit, and even validated some of the policies and changes made by the department in the past four years.

"There are many parts of this report that are of value," McHale said. "We are not rejecting this report out of hand."

Army Maj. Gen. Guy Swan III, director of operations for U.S. Northern Command, which is responsible for homeland defense, told the American Forces Press Service in an interview that he also feels that the report was "necessary" and is "of some utility," but he said it doesn't apply correctly to the current situation.

"The report paints a picture that, in my view, is more dated than anything else," Swan said. He mentioned that many in his command are disappointed at how critical the report has been "because much of what is in that report has been addressed through a variety of means over the past couple of years."

Swan said that "if you looked at the report two years ago or three years ago, it was probably quite accurate," but many of the reports' criticisms have been acted upon in the past year or two.

Over the past couple of years he has spent serving within NORTHCOM, Swan said he has "seen remarkable cooperation and improvements with the National Guard, with the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies."

He said the command relies heavily upon the National Guard in order to accomplish its mission.

"We cannot do our mission at NORTHCOM without coordination and cooperation with the National Guard. It just can't be done," Swan said. "We see the guard as part of the broader friendly forces that might be involved in an operation, along with first responders, state emergency management personnel, and other federal agencies."

But Swan reiterated that the National Guard has a "viable, needed wartime mission." He said he does not think reducing the Guard's role simply to homeland defense would be a good move.

"I don't think we want to have a National Guard that is one dimensional. Frankly, I think the Guard is better than that," Swan said. "It has been demonstrated during operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans. They are a multidimensional force, and they can do the homeland operations as well."

Swan said he doesn't think the Guard should be limited to either a wartime mission or a homeland defense mission. He said there are shortfalls in resourcing, which the report has been helpful in identifying, and those issues are being dealt with in the appropriate Defense Department forums.

"I don't think it's an issue of either or. It is to some degree an issue of resources, and that is being addressed," Swan said. "In my view, the Guard needs to be part of the national defense establishment writ large."

By Fred W. Baker III American Forces Press Service
(John Valceanu of the American Forces Press Services contributed to this article.)

Service Leaders Report on Recruiting Success

By Sgt. Sara Moore, USA
American Forces Press Service

Despite a challenging recruiting environment, all four branches of the military have met with significant recruiting success in the past year and are on target to continue that success, the services' recruiting chiefs told a Congressional committee yesterday.

In fiscal 2007, the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps all exceeded their active-duty enlisted recruiting goals, and only the Air Force fell slightly short of its goal on the reserve-component side, the officers in charge of recruitment for the four services said at a hearing of the personnel subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The Army's success came after two years of reinforcing the recruiting command with additional manpower, resources and incentives to bring up numbers that lagged in 2005, Army Maj. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick, commander of U.S. Army Recruiting Command, said in prepared remarks to the committee. He noted that this success came at a time of persistent combat.

In fiscal 2007, the active-duty Army met Defense Department goals for the percentage of recruits scoring high on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test, but fell short of the goal of 90 percent of recruits holding a high school diploma, Bostick said. Only 79 percent of active-duty recruits for 2007 had high school diplomas.

Acknowledging this shortage and an increase in the number of waivers granted for recruits with convictions, Bostick said commanders in the field are pleased with the quality of the soldiers serving in their units. He emphasized that all applications for waivers are reviewed thoroughly, and those for individuals with felony convictions are reviewed by 10 different people and must be approved at the general officer level.

"The Army is reviewing the long-term impact of the less number of high school diploma graduates (and) the increased waivers on the effectiveness of an Army at war," Bostick said in his testimony. "But in talking to soldiers and drill sergeants and our Army leaders, there's a common theme that the quality and the skills of our initial entry training graduates remains high."

Fiscal 2007 marked the ninth consecutive year the Navy achieved its overall active-component mission, while exceeding Defense Department recruit quality standards, Navy Rear Adm. Joseph F. Kilkenny, commander of Navy Recruiting Command, said at the hearing. The Navy's top recruiting priority in 2007 was naval special warfare and special operations, programs that require exceptionally bright and physically fit recruits, he said.

To boost recruitment for these elite communities, the Navy hired former naval special warfare and special operations personnel to assist in selecting, testing and mentoring new recruits, Kilkenny said. This effort, coupled with $40,000 enlistment bonuses, improved recruiting in these communities and increased physical screening test pass rates for recruits at boot camp from 28 percent to 78 percent.

The Navy met with mixed success in officer recruiting in 2007, Kilkenny said. Nineteen of the 23 officer communities met their goals, but the chaplain corps, chaplain student program, naval reactor engineers and programs for students in the medical profession all missed goal. As a result, the Navy has increased its efforts in officer recruiting and is making medical officer recruiting its number one goal for fiscal 2008, he said.

The Air Force's success in 2007 marked its eighth consecutive year and 77th consecutive month of meeting enlisted recruiting goals, Air Force Brig. Gen. Suzanne M. Vautrinot, commander of Air Force Recruiting Service, said in prepared remarks to the committee. The quality of Air Force recruits remains above DoD standards, with 79 percent scoring above the 50th percentile on the ASVAB test and 91 percent entering without needing a waiver for moral, drug or criminal issues, she said in her testimony.

Vautrinot noted that the Air Force's critical warfighting career fields, such as pararescue and linguist, have consistently been filled, thanks largely to enlistment bonuses provided by Congress. Officer recruitment programs, with the exception of the medical corps, have met with continued success, as well, she said.

Last year, the Air Force recruited just fewer than half of its target for fully qualified health care personnel. To address this shortfall, the Air Force is increasing its health professions scholarships and realigning recruiters to major medical education centers, Vautrinot said.

The Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard both face significant recruiting challenges because of the impact of the Base Realignment and Closure initiatives, which will bring about personnel reductions and mission changes, Vautrinot said. However, in both the reserve and active-duty components, the Air Force relies on the examples of its current members and high-quality recruiters to send a positive message and boost recruitment, she said.

"The Air Force attracts recruits with a simple but powerful message: We're a well-trained, highly technical force, a global team defending the nation in the war on terrorism while simultaneously executing humanitarian missions around the globe," she said.

The Marine Corps' recruiting success in 2007 cut across the active and reserve components, including officers, Marine Brig. Gen. Richard T. Tryon, commander of Marine Corps Recruiting Command, said in his prepared remarks. The recruiting mission was increased as part of an effort to grow the overall force, he said, and the recruiting command stayed on track to build an active component with an end strength of 202,000.

In his testimony, Tryon attributed the recruiting success to a quality recruiting force that is screened, well-trained, and properly resourced. He noted that every Marine assigned to recruiting duty is evaluated thoroughly before attending a seven-week training course, and they continue to receive training while on recruiter duty.

Marine recruiters find they must invest considerable time with parents, teachers, guidance counselors, and other "influencers" to attract men and women qualified to serve, Tryon said. Recruiters mostly rely on the Marine Corps values and its reputation as an elite force for enticing people to serve, Tryon said.

All four leaders agreed that they are facing an extremely challenging recruiting environment today. The propensity among young people to serve is the lowest it's ever been, and key influencers, like parents and teachers, are not always supportive of military service. Also, the military is competing with the private sector for talented young people, many of whom see a college degree and high-paying job as the path to success.

Despite these challenges, all the leaders expressed optimism about meeting recruiting goals for fiscal 2008. All the services are adding new initiatives this year to better take advantage of technology and education programs to boost recruiting efforts, the leaders said.

First Honor Flight Fayette to go on May 14, 2008

Gail Sparrow, a co-founder of Honor Flight Fayette (HFF), reported the good news that the first flight of WWII Vets to Washington DC is scheduled on May 14, 2008. She said we would assemble near the Fayette County Courthouse, probably in a church parking lot of one of the churches in the area. From that moment on everything is taken care of by HFF until we are returned to this same assembly point. WWII Vets will need no money except for souvenirs that may want to purchase. Gail and Brenda Smith, Publicity Chairperson, attended the regular monthly meeting of VFW Post 9949 on January 10, 2008 at the Gathering Place in Peachtree City.

Among those assembled were 8 VFW Post 9949 members who are WWII Vets and registered to go. There were also 2 members of the Kiwanis Club of Peachtree City Golden K in attendance, who are WWII Vets and delivered their applications to go to Washington. Gail said she had 61 applications from WWII Vets when she came; she received 3 more Vets plus 1 Guardian application. In a Friday conversation Gail said she received 3 more application; there are enough now to fill the first flight. She has EMT's and possibly a Doctor for this first flight. We are flying on commercial flights between Hartsfield and Reagan International Airport. There are a lot of fine details to be worked out. For those of you going or are questioning whether your WWII Vet is able to go I recommend you visit the National site at http://www.honorflight.org/.

There you will find a listing of frequently asked questions that will help you with questions about wheelchairs and oxygen needs as you try to decide if your beloved WWII Vet is able to handle the trip. It will be a very long day probably close to 12 hours or more. Remember there are possible hour + naps on the flights each way. You could also grab a couple of quick naps on the busses. My personal view is that you should send in an application as soon as possible just in case you are ruled able to travel; if you delay you will find yourself way down on a list that will go on the basis of first received, first to go. If your name comes up and you can't go on the next flight, your name will slip down to the top for the succeeding flight. The National site will tell you that over 60 VETS who were signed to go have passed while waiting for their name to come to the top of the list. My guess is that before this first flight leaves there will be a waiting list approaching 300 or more on the Fayette County list.. Gail said she will Post on the local site the list of VETS going on the May 14th flight at http://www.honorflightfayette.org/

This program started in May 2005 and the first group of 12 WWII Vets flew in on 6 small private planes. The trip was just a week before the first anniversary of the WWII Memorial Dedication Ceremony that was held on May 29, 2004. Another document on the National site said 891 had traveled by the end of 2006. In 2007 the goal was to fly 5000 Vets to Washington. Flights are scheduled from mid-April through early November to avoid cold weather and possible flight delays. When the program started only the site in Dayton, Ohio existed. As of now 27 local chapters exist including 3 in Georgia. If the 2007 goal was met about 6000 have been transported. That sounds like a big number and it is, but I calculate that there are around 2,200,000 living WWII Vets today. From my sample of WWII Vets in Post 9949 only about 60% or around 1,300,000 are able and wanting to go. So if you could get the visits up to 100,000 a year, it would take 13 years to get everyone there. One problem is WWII Vets are dying at the rate of 1200 per day or roughly 450,000 a year. The youngest WWII Vets in our Post are 79 years old. A very small % of us will live beyond 95 years. My goal is to celebrate 100 years.

I've included two photos; one showing the Honor Flight Fayette spokespersons (Gail Sparrow and Brenda Smith) in front of the VFW members and our WWII guests. The other is from the national site which shows a group picture of an Honor Flight from some unknown community. If you open it in your photo program and zoom in you will see 19 Vets in wheelchairs and/or power scooters and 35 Vets in two rows behind the handicapped VETS. There is one female Vet in the grouping. Also at the right end of the grouping you will recognize former Senator Bob Dole. Look at the smiles on most of these faces. If you think you can't go and said no to going, look again and say I can make it and I will smile just as these handicapped Vets are doing.

So we have a schedule and a few optimists who say we can and will get the funds from individuals, businesses, service clubs, and entrepreneurs to pay for the free trips. If you want to contribute make your checks to Honor Flight Foudation of Fayette, Inc. a 502(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization. Donations are 100% deductible. Mail to Honor Flight Foundation of Fayette, Inc., P.O Box 1209, Fayetteville, GA 30214.. VFW Post 9949 voted to donate $2100.00,which would cover about 7 of our WWII Vets who are going. Donations of $35.00 or more will result in your name and your honoree being on the web site and you may make the donation in honor of family members or friends who are unable to visit the memorial.

My Comrades from WWII please make this trip if you possibly can- yes for you who are handicapped and have several health problems it will tire you out but it will be an experience that wont regret.. I bet that most of the 1200 WWII Vets who are dying every day had a fond hope of seeing the Memorial erected to honor and remember their sacrifices that insured the great liberties we all enjoy.

Bob Konrad,

An Update on Honor Flight Fayette For All WWII Veterans

Peachtree City VFW Post 9949 invites all WWII Veterans in the area to our regular monthly meeting to receive an update on the status of free day flights to Washington DC to visit the National WWII Memorial. The meeting will be held in the large meeting room in the Gathering Place at 7:00 PM on Thursday January 10, 2008.

The organizers of honor flight fayette, Gail Sparrow and Mark Buckner will provide an update on the program and answer individual questions. This presentation will be first on the agenda. Afterwards Post 9949 Comrades will cover our regular meeting agenda.

All WWII Veterans who served overseas earned eligibility to join the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.and are cordially invited to visit our meeting and consider joining our Post. No you are not to old to join the VFW. The oldest recruit we have installed was 1 day short of his 93rd birthday. He was undoubtedly our proudest and happiest member in our Post. 37 of our 140 members are WWII Vets.

We have 15 WWII Vets over 85 years and another 22 who are between 79 and 84. We expect to have 20 members visit the Memorial. On Tuesday Gail said she had 61 reservations on hand.

I hope that many of you who are not WWII Vets will contribute funds to this great cause and make it possible for these heroes to visit their memorial in the twilight of their lives.

Bob Konrad, Quartermaster
Peachtree City VFW Post 9949
WWII US Navy Vet