For the veterans and active duty soldiers whose service spanned World War II to Afghanistan who gathered at the Vice President’s house with family and supporters in today, it was the deaths of 13 soldiers far from any battlefield took center stage.
The Nov. 5 shootings at Ft. Hood dominated the speeches at the luncheon, hosted by the Vice President and his wife. The audience included veterans, active duty servicemembers, their families and volunteers from the Veteran’s Administration. Former Gen. Eric Shinseki, now the secretary of the VA, said the Ft. Hood shootings had directly touched the agency he heads. He spoke to the slayings as did Vice President Biden and his wife, Jill when it was their turn to speak. Before they ate, the crowd bowed their heads in a moment of silence for Ft. Hood.
Shinseki said the focus was more than just veterans honoring their fallen active duty brothers and sisters.
“Among the fallen and wounded at Ft. Hood are three VA employees whose national guard unit had been activated,” he told the crowd.
It’s a tough time for the nation’s veterans, VA spokesperson Katie Roberts told TPMDC, as former soldiers find themselves needing government services more than ever thanks to the economic downturn. The Obama administration has upped the budget for the VA and, he said, “is fully committed” to caring for the nation’s millions of veterans.
That means new hospitals, and a refocus on the thousands of new female combat veterans leaving the nation’s battlefields. In his remarks, Biden said the VA was a top administration priority.
“They also serve who only stand and wait,” he said, quoting the poet John Milton as he emphasized what he said was the nation’s duty to its veterans.
“I’m truly, gratefully and humbly honored by our service,” he said to the audience. “And that’s not hyperbole.”
Biden said his feelings toward the military had changed during his decades-long career in Washington. First elected to the Senate in 1973, he said he came to the city angered by the Vietnam War.
“I came down here thinking most generals were like Slim Pickens, jumping out of planes on bombs and yelling ‘yeehaaw’!” he said, referring to a seminal moment in the anti-war film Dr. Strangelove. But Biden said that after meeting the nation’s military leaders as a member of the Senate Foriegn Relations Committee he changed his views quickly.
“Six out of the 10 people I most admire were wearing a uniform when I met them,” he said.
