4th District Commander’s Report

In February, I went with fellow Legionnaires to Washington, D.C., to fight for veterans rights. We met with the offices of Rep. Betty McCollum, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Angie Craig and Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

We talked about the importance of the Major Richard Star Act, empowering and investing in women veterans, improving lethality of our armed forces through building more ships, Guard and Reserve G.I. Bill Parity and improved balanced community care.

Another big talking point was about how veterans are not getting the care they need because claims are being denied and the impact those denied claims have on the veterans. We said that it’s cheaper to give the veteran the help and compensation they need right away, rather than having a claim get denied and appealed over the course of many years. Many veterans hate going to the VA because they get denied the care and compensation that they earned.

We talked about how 1,151 claims are there to help the veteran with malpractice performed by the VA, but have a low rate of success. I shared my personal story of malpractice that was done by the VA in 2019 and how badly my life was affected by it.

For those that don’t know, in 2019 I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. After they had removed my testicle, they found that I did not have testicular cancer, but it something I was born with.

I was put on testosterone replacement therapy, which ended up causing a blood clot in my left leg. The VA put me on blood thinners.

After six months, the blood clots went away and the VA said that I could go off of the blood thinners. About a year later, I went to the VA because I couldn’t breathe and collapsed on entry.

They got me into the ICU and found that my entire body was full of clots. I was under anesthesia on the operating table for three hours while the doctor sucked all the clots out of my lungs. I was in the ICU for a week.

If the VA would have done their DNA research before the surgery, they would have found that putting me on testosterone replacement therapy with my blood type would cause clots. As people with something I was born with have a stickier blood type than normal.

My life was severely affected by their negligence. I filled out the 1151 form and it was denied. The VA felt that they didn’t do anything wrong. I guess nearly killing me was okay in their eyes.

I will be starting food shelf ruck marches to the VA on the last weekend of each month starting March 28. We will start at Minnehaha Park and walk 1.7 mi to the VA, drop off the food and walk back to the park, 3.4-mile round trip.

This will be a great opportunity for us to not only serve our veterans, but get a little exercise and build camaraderie. If you are interested in joining, please email me at [email protected].

The Legion Cruisers next meeting will be at Canterbury for the GSTA Hot Rod Show, the weekend of April 12. If you’ve never been to GSTA, it is a fantastic show that has custom cars, stock vehicles and vintage race cars such as gassers. Hope to see you there!