Did Congress acquiesce to the military retiree medical care promise?

(Posted 22 April 2005)

In reference to the Court's conclusion at:
http://mrgrg-ms.org/f99-1402.html#conclusion,
look at the dates on this material and you decide.

• Sept 1964 - Report No. 67, H.A.S.C. dtd 30 Sept 64....Page 10365. Recommendation...
  
  "That the Department of Defense revise their recruitment and retention literature to conform to present government policy that service-provided health and medical care is available to military retirees and their dependents only in military facilities on a space available basis".

• Mar 1966 - House Hearings on HR 9271, 13582, & 13538. Rep Charles E Bennett on page 5743...
  
  "It has been charged in some quarters that medical care is not due these retirees". Maybe we should just ask those who served on active duty how the recruiter and the Defense Department as far back as they can remember promised them medical care would be provided upon their retirement. The fact of the matter is that as far back as the Civil War our Government provided these benefits, and they were established of right by statute: 1n 1884".

• Oct-Nov 1974 - H.A.S.C. No. 93-70, Oct-Nov 1974... Rep Dan Daniel, page 226...
  
  "The observation I want to make Mr. Chairman, is something that has bothered me ever since I've been in Congress. Charlie (Bennett) referred to it a moment ago about making promises that aren't kept. Right now, in our misleading advertising campaigns, and the pressure on recruiters to meet quotas, I'm afraid Charlie, it's going to make this problem worse instead of better".

• Oct-Nov 1974 - H.A.S.C. No. 93-70, Oct-Nov 1974... Rep Charles E. Bennett, page 227...
  
  "Before I close I want to echo something about what you said. I looked at the printed material in the Navy--looked at it very carefully--I have a doctor's degree in law, an earned doctor's degree with honors. I practiced law for 10 years. I think it would have taken a rather astute individual to have found this caveat that health care for retirees is only on a space available basis"....So I Would like to suggest that the staff of this committee might well call in all the printed material. You can't control What a recruiter says and there is too much stuff printed in their material".
  

• June 1997 - House Hearings on HR 1119...Report 105 32 dtd 16 Jun 97. Page 369...
  
  "The committee is distressed about recent disclosures that recruiting materials have for decades failed to provide specific information about the total spectrum of retirement benefits, or worse, misrepresented the level of benefit that was authorized. The committee appreciates the anger felt by many retirees who viewed the commitments made by recruiters when they entered active duty as promises; promises that the retirees now know will not be kept. The committee considers this an intolerable situation that must be corrected".

How about decades of acquiescence!

Colonel (ret) Robert L. Geasland