Crunch time for military retirees
Guest Opinion
By RALPH SHRIGLEY
Special to The Press
Among the members of the Spokane Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) is a retired Marine Corps colonel who, as a lieutenant, waded ashore across the coral reef ringing Peleliu in World War II. After only minutes of struggling through the waist deep water, enemy machine gun fire found him halfway to the beach.
Shot in the abdomen and under intense cross fire from both the beach and a pier on his right, he staggered back to his landing craft. He collapsed at the ramp. A wounded Marine sergeant reached down and scooped him out of the water. A second later the sergeant was shot dead. The colonel later fought on the island of Saipan and faced human wave suicide attacks.
Our chapter has more than 400 members, 80 percent of whom live near Spokane and 20 percent in North Idaho. Among them are a:
Retired U.S. Air Force B-29 pilot from World War II and Korea. He crash-landed twice and was shot down by MIGs in Korea.
Retired Army Major who was frozen in the winter hell of the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.
Retired Army Armor Officer who was wounded four times in Vietnam on his tank.
Retired Air Force Major who flew combat in Korea and more than 3,600 hours in a nuclear armed bomber. He spent 100 full weeks on nuclear alert and flew Arc Light missions in Vietnam.
Congress and the Pentagon are considering measures to reduce spending which include trimming medical benefits provided to retired service members. By objectively comparing the cost of benefits provided to government civilian and non-government employees with those of uniformed service members, they conclude that current military retiree benefits are too expensive.
In every chapter of MOAA and every post of the American Legion, VFW and DAV are stories of service and sacrifice. Not everyone was wounded, but all served and all faced the possibility of death, capture, disfigurement, disease and isolation. Every member experienced, weeks, months and sometimes years of separation from home and family.
We are asking Congress to recognize that medical care for career service members is not a social program. These are earned benefits, prepaid many times over by service, separation, wounds and stress that can never be compared to that of corporate or civilian government employees. Decades of arduous service and sacrifice by both the service members and their families represent far greater premiums for future health care coverage than any civilian has paid. In recognition of those extraordinary prepaid premiums, the percentage growth in military health care fees should not exceed the rate of growth of retirement pay.
Spirit Lake resident Ralph Shrigley is a retired Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, and current president of the Spokane Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America.