Dear Marine, 

  The Foundation is proud to inform you that there has been a positive response to our e-mail asking for your help - both financial assistance and volunteer workers to carry some of the work load. The level of financial and "sweat equity" contributions are recognized as follows:

  There is a parallel process for rewarding your in-kind volunteer effort as well. Just contact me and we'll agree on where your work would be most meaningful for you in the context of our day-to-day goals attainment effort.

  Each Breech Block will cite donors for the period since the last monthly edition and the VTHF web site will post the up-to-date cumulative.

  Of course, should the contributor desire to remain anonymous, we'll honor that wish as well.

  Thank you for helping us to fund your Historical Foundation.

 There were a total of seven participants involved in the fund-raiser auction for the K-Bar.  The winning bid of $230 tendered by Guy Wolfenberger, 3rd Tanks.  The other six participants were; Bobby Joe Blythe, 3rd Tanks; Tom Colson, 1st & 3rd Tanks; R.B. English, 3rd Tanks; Al Jacobs, 1st Tanks; Doug Scrivner, 1st Tanks and Jerry Wahl, 3rd Tanks.  Your participation is greatly appreciated.

 We have been receiving fantastic response as a result of our email request for Ontos historical volunteers. However, we need more input from those of you that have yet to respond. Your history, your individual story will be lost to the ages if you do not take action and become involved.

  Also, we need copies of your photos to post on our web site and to submit to the National Archives, the Marine Corps University Library and the U.S. Marine Corps Historical Section.

  Send us an eMail for more information on how to go about supplying your information for those the archives.

Complied by Dick Carey

The fol­low­ing post was orig­i­nally fea­tured on the VA's

Five Myths About VA Health Care

Myth Num­ber One - I wasn't injured in the ser­vice, so I'm not eli­gi­ble for VA health care.

Sta­tus: False -
One of the most com­mon myths revolves around eli­gi­bil­ity for health care at VA. Many think that you have to first estab­lish a dis­abil­ity rat­ing before you can start to make appoint­ments, see doc­tors and receive med­ica­tion. That is not the case. If you served in the mil­i­tary, even dur­ing peace time, and were hon­or­ably dis­charged, you likely qual­ify for VA care.  Even if you don't meet those require­ments, spe­cial cir­cum­stances might apply, like Viet­nam ser­vice, expo­sure to Agent Orange and house­hold income. The best way to find out if you qual­ify is to sub­mit an appli­ca­tion for health ben­e­fits. 

You can fill one out online or at a VA Med­ical Cen­ter.  If you are an Iraq or Afghanistan Vet­eran, there are spe­cial com­bat Vet­eran ben­e­fits from VA, like tem­po­rary access to den­tal care and guar­an­teed access to Pri­or­ity 6 for five years (unless you are eli­gi­ble for a higher pri­or­ity group).  See the pri­or­ity enroll­ment groups here.

Also, if new reg­u­la­tions are estab­lished regard­ing health ben­e­fits, VA will auto­mat­i­cally reassess your case if it's on file.

Myth Num­ber Two - I can only receive care for ser­vice con­nected injuries.

Sta­tus: False -
You can receive VA hos­pi­tal and out­pa­tient care for any ail­ment, ser­vice con­nected or not if you are enrolled in the VA health­care sys­tem, but you may have to pay a copay­ment. For exam­ple, if a Vet­eran is service-connected for a bad knee, any VA hos­pi­tal and out­pa­tient care and med­ica­tion for the knee is free of charge. How­ever, if the same Vet goes into surgery to remove an appen­dix and it's not ser­vice con­nected, he may be sub­ject to a co-pay depend­ing on the amount of his dis­abil­ity rat­ing and other fac­tors. Famil­iar­ize your­self with co-pay guide­lines and rates.

A small num­ber of Vet­er­ans, such as those with bad con­duct dis­charges that VA has deter­mined were issued under con­di­tions other than hon­or­able and who are not sub­ject to cer­tain statu­tory bars to ben­e­fits, can only be treated for their ser­vice con­nected dis­abil­i­ties and noth­ing else. If one of those Vets is ser­vice con­nected for their left foot, they can only use VA health care for their left foot and noth­ing else.

Myth Num­ber Three - I make too much money to qual­ify for VA health care.

Sta­tus: It depends -
If you do not have a ser­vice con­nected dis­abil­ity, you may want to use VA's finan­cial cal­cu­la­tor to see if you qual­ify for free VA care, med­ica­tion and travel ben­e­fits.  If your income is too high (over a max­i­mum income level set every year), you may have to pick up the tab for trav­el­ing and receive your care and med­ica­tion by pay­ing a co-pay.  Recently, the rules have been changed for Pri­or­ity 8 Vet­er­ans to per­mit more of them to enroll for VA health care.    Go here for more infor­ma­tion and an income cal­cu­la­tor to see if you qual­ify under the new rules.

Myth Num­ber Four - I can't use VA health care if I have pri­vate health insur­ance.

Sta­tus: False -
From VA's Health Eli­gi­bil­ity Cen­ter Direc­tor Tony Guagliardo:

"We strongly encour­age Vet­er­ans to receive all your health care through VA.   How­ever, if you choose to receive treat­ment from pri­vate doc­tors, VA will work with them to meet your health care needs and coor­di­nate effec­tive treat­ment.  We call this Co-managed Care or Dual Care - which means that your VA and pri­vate doc­tors will work together to pro­vide safe, appro­pri­ate, and eth­i­cal med­ical care."

Myth Num­ber Five - If I'm 100 per­cent dis­abled, that means I'm per­ma­nently dis­abled

Sta­tus: False -
You could have a 100 per­cent dis­abil­ity rat­ing as a tem­po­rary sta­tus while you undergo surgery, and have it reduced to its pre­vi­ous rat­ing after you heal.  100 per­cent doesn't nec­es­sar­ily stay with you.