July-August 2006 Newsletter, Disabled American Veterans, Department of New York

We Americans always have cared for any symbols which have always motivated our patriotic feelings. Like the "Liberty Bell;" "The Washington Monument;" "The Statue of Liberty;" and "The U.S.S. Intrepid" which looms large in our hearts.

But, sixty three years after it's World War II commission on December 3rd, 1943, it is once again headed for dry dock repairs.

After being launched, the Intrepid saw action in October 1944 in the largest navel battle in history, the Battle of Leyte Gulf. This action was instrumental in America's fight to win control of the Philippine Islands.

At Leyte, two kamikaze attacks caused the ship's mid-section to be engulfed in fire and smoke. Photographs taken of the Intrepid at the height of the battle corroborate what many thought - the Intrepid was headed towards "Davey Jones's Locker."

Twice during World War II, the Intrepid was so badly damaged that it had to return to port for extensive repairs.

In February 1944, a Japanese torpedo smashed the Intrepid's rudder and the ship's crew used field expediency by rigging up a sail in the lower deck to limp their way back to Pearl Harbor.

The reasons necessary for repairs are strong. The ship has been standing at it's Hudson River site for 25 years or so. The leaks in it's hold and a rotting pier are good reasons for repair.

How it got here has become another shining example of our patriotic heritage. In 1976, the late Zachary Fischer, a real-estate magnet paid 25 million to rescue the Intrepid from the scrap heap and bring it to New York. The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum currently spends $17 million a year on overhead, and millions more on capital improvements. The Intrepid is more than a World War II carrier. It's heart and soul is that of the legendary Fischer Family from the late Zachary to their current leader, Arnold Fischer. This family's patriotism and selfless devotion to the preservation of America's heritage and to the care of present day disabled veterans and their families is unparalleled.

You should be proud to learn that our National Adjutant, Arthur H. Wilson, serves as a trustee of the Intrepid Foundation.

In about two years, the Intrepid will return from it's "R & R" in New Jersey and Staten Island and be returned to a rebuilt dock on the Hudson.

Our National Adjutant, Art Wilson, has it exactly right in his article called "Vets Shouldn't Need to Hire Lawyers," in the July/August DAV Magazine.

Legislative measures, S2694 and H.R. 5549 will allow attorneys to represent veterans in attaining their VA benefits. Proponents of the statutory proposals claim that it will improve access to the system and make it faster and easier for claimants to secure the rightful benefits.

Many of you know that I recently completed 54 years of practicing law here in the Empire State; and can safely state to you now that it's virtually over, it has been a wonderful career. I can say that together with my concurrent DAV career, it has been a heck of a ride. As much as you may think that I would agree with these legislative proposals opening the VA claims system to the general members of the bar; you would be dead wrong to think so. If the claims system as we know it, and I think the DAV - Claims Services has the best knowledge of the system of benefit awards of any organization or association in the country; is simply, if it ain't broke don't fix it!

Ever since the Civil War, generations of veterans right up to the present time could pay no more that $10.00 (bucks) to institute a benefits "claim" with the VA.

My argument with the proposals is not akin to those reasons put forth so persuasively by Adjutant Wilson; even though I wholeheartedly commend them.

Rather, it is in my view, another attempt to socialize the VA, and eventually merge it into the Social Security and Welfare System of the country. It is, in essence, a political vehicle to absorb and divide the deserving veterans of the great nation.

It appears the measures will succeed from what my enlightened colleagues tell me. What shall we than do.

If lawyers can be privately retained and want to compete with the DAV for our "free services," then we will have to be prepared to advertise with the media to bring home to the American Public that our services are proven best and most importantly they are free. Since lawyers are able to advertize, we have to be able to compete in the commercial world. Veterans do not need any of this because the system is not broke, it just needs a face lift.

DAVNY Home Page / Hot Topics / Action Line / Join the DAV / Administration / Newsletter
Newsletter Archive / Chapters / Events / DAV License Plates / Links of Interest / Send Us E-Mail /

Page Last Reviewed/Modified: