Sun Herald, The (Biloxi, MS)
July 7, 2000
Section: LOCAL-FRONT
Page: A1

RETIREES PROTEST ERODING BENEFITS
RENI WINTER / THE SUN HERALD

GULFPORT --- Lawn-chair picketers quietly protested decades of decreases in medical benefits for military retirees and widows during rush hour Thursday morning in downtown Gulfport.

More than 100 military retirees, their spouses and widows of men killed in battle staged the demonstration outside Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's office in Gulfport from 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., before the sun got too hot. "There isn't enough energy in this group to do anything else," said Floyd Sears, a World War II veteran who retired after a 20-year military career. "Everything you see here is about medical care, but it goes way beyond that. These issues will have an effect on today's armed forces and our grandchildren."
The protest, organized by the Military Retiree Coalition, is one of dozens of peaceful demonstrations in communities across the country, Sears said. As retired career military personnel struggle to get medical care they were promised throughout their careers, some are becoming activists for the cause.

"We want this as an entitlement," said Jim Ayers, who organized Thursday's demonstration. "Then it can't be taken away from us."

Jane Morris Estrada, whose husband was killed in a B-58 jet aircraft while doing reconnaissance work in 1962, said cuts in benefits also hurt widows and families of veterans.

"I got a telegram saying that his plane was blown up," she said of her late husband. "It was right at the time of the Cuban businesses, during the early part of the Vietnam War. I was told that as long as I never remarried, I would get full benefits for myself and the children. I've been widowed over 40 years and never remarried. I raised four children by myself, and now here I stand. We were all promised that care."

Estrada, now president of the Gulf Coast chapter of the Gold Star Wives, an organization of war widows, retired from teaching about three years ago, just before widows' medical benefits were discontinued.

The 64-year-old widow won't be eligible for Medicare until her birthday in November.

"Widows are prone to sit back and let it float," she said. "But I keep getting letters from widows who are old and sick and don't have benefits to get the medical care they need. So I'm out here fighting for them."

L.N. Montague served 20 years in the Air Force during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. He is recovering from brain surgery after a stroke about four weeks ago.

Despite his health --- partially because of his health --- he wanted to be at the demonstration.

"I came back here when I retired, because of Keesler," Montague said. "All my children were born in the military. I see a lot of young troops with wives and children and it's hard for them to buy groceries. Trent Lott and Gene Taylor don't mind bragging about new ships being built, but they forget about everything else. There's no way I could recommend the military to anyone else. We've been lied to too much."

Montague's son, Gulfport Police Department patrolman David Montague, pulled his unit up to the picketers and asked his father how he was feeling. David Montague had considered a military career, but decided against it after watching his father's medical benefits erode over the years.

"I am in full support of them," David Montague said of the demonstrators. "I never thought I would see my father demonstrate, but he's doing it for a good cause. They were promised benefits and taking them away is a shame."

Retirees and widows resent the use of the term "free benefits" in reference to the medical benefits they were promised when they enlisted and during their service.

"When I do go to Keesler for treatment, I get told that we just want something for nothing," Estrada said. "Nothing? My husband gave his life."

***Reni Winter can be reached at 896-0538 or at rbwinter@sunherald.com


Illustration:Photo

TIM ISBELL/THE SUN HERALD

Charles Egerton of Ocean Springs and others protest outside U.S. Sen. Trent Lott's office. 'He needs to rearrange his priorities and give more consideration to vets,' Egerton said. 'The vets are his constituents also.'

Denham Roberson proudly wears his Purple Heart cap while picketing outside of U.S. Sen. Trent Lott's Gulfport office. Roberson served in the Army from 1944-1966.

Copyright (c) 2000 The Sun Herald