Last Wednesday, Congress passed the VFW-supported Arla Herrell Act, which has been championed by Senator Claire McCaskill and will expand benefits for veterans who were exposed to mustard gas and other chemical agents during World War II. This provision would require the VA to reconsider all denied claims for full-body exposure to mustard gas and lewisite brought by WWII veterans who were stationed at 22 locations. Under the bill, which is expected to become law soon, the burden of proof for those claims would fall on the VA, rather than veterans. Additionally, it mandates an investigation to determine what went wrong with the process and officially acknowledge the horror these service members endured.
GWOT Memorial Bill Clears Congress, Heads to President
The Senate, last week, unanimously passed the VFW-supported Global War on Terrorism Memorial Act, which exempts the GWOT Memorial from a provision in the Commemorative Works Act of 1986 that requires Congress to first wait 10 years after the official end of a military conflict before considering a war memorial in the nation’s capital. The House had passed its version of the bill earlier. The president is expected to sign the bill, which then allows the GWOT Memorial Foundation to work with the National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission to secure federal approval for acreage on the National Mall, as well as coordinate a national competition for the memorial’s design. “This memorial will be wholly dedicated to the brothers and sisters who deployed with us, but did not return and their survivors,” said GWOT Memorial Foundation Founder and Executive Director Andrew Brennan, a VFW Life member of Post 3945 in Pittsburgh. “It is dedicated to the 1 million wounded warriors who are reclaiming their lives back here at home, [and] it is for the soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines who struggle in their transition from combat deployments.”
POW/MIA Update
Army Cpl. Richard J. Seadore, 21, whose remains were identified earlier, was buried Aug. 4 in his hometown of Long Pine.
Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Charles E. Carlson, 24, whose remains were identified earlier, was buried Aug. 4 in Indiantown Gap, Pa. On Dec. 23, 1944, Carlson was shot down in an air battle south of Bonn, Germany.
Army Air Forces Pvt. William D. Gruber, whose remains were identified earlier, was buried Aug. 5 in Boulder.
Army Sgt. Willie Rowe, whose remains were identified earlier, will be buried Aug. 8 at Arlington National Cemetery.
Navy Fireman 3rd Class Kenneth L. Holm, 29, of Clarkfield, Minn., will be buried Aug. 9 in Fort Snelling, Minn. Holm was assigned to the USS Oklahoma.
Army Pfc. Lloyd J. Lobdell, 23, of Janesville, Wis., was stationed in the Philippines with Company A, 192nd Tank Battalion, when Japanese forces invaded on Dec. 8, 1941. Interment services are pending.
Navy Reserve Lt. j.g. Irwin E. Rink, of Kansas, was an F4F-4 Wildcat pilot assigned to Fighting Squadron Twenty Seven (VF-27). Rink did not return to base, and would be reported missing in action on Aug. 4, 1943. Interment services are pending.
Army Cpl. Dow F. Worden, of Morrow, Ore., was a member of Company A, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. Worden could not be accounted for after the battle, and he was declared missing in action on Sept. 29, 1951. Interment services are pending.
Till next week, praying for all service members.
– Charles Castelluccio
