Bill Duncan: Carol Shea-Porter is the veterans' best friend in the 1st District
The Union Leader

I'm a Vietnam veteran, Annapolis graduate and proud member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, but I disagree with almost everything in Paul Chevalier's July 23 column supporting Jeb Bradley.

If Chevalier and other past VFW officers want to support someone who aligns with their views, that's fair enough. But to completely misrepresent Jeb Bradley and Rep. Shea-Porter's records and then give the impression that it's a VFW endorsement -- all in one essay -- is just too much.

To take just one example, Chevalier asserts that Jeb Bradley helped "fix" the problem created when retired military personnel could not concurrently receive earned retirement pay and disability compensation for injuries that occurred as a result of service. Chevalier's incorrect assertion is a cruel joke on any disabled retired service member. This "concurrency problem" is not fixed. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter is co-sponsoring important legislation to do that, but it will be a long, hard fight against solid Republican opposition.

And that's just the beginning. Chevalier covers all the same misrepresentations Bradley's speeches do, and even does it in the same order. Jeb and his friends employ the practiced fabrications on which he and George W. Bush have based their campaigns -- that a vote against President Bush's misguided Iraq war is a vote against the troops. This is an unfortunate and twisted assertion. Many people feel that support for the troops actually means voting to bring them home safely and treat them right when they get here. That's what Shea-Porter has done, against consistent Republican opposition, and her record shows it.

Shea-Porter is married to a veteran and her father served in World War II. That's why, as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, she was an original co-sponsor and strong supporter of the new G.I. Bill, and she was an original co-sponsor of a bill to guarantee that troops get at least as much time at home as the length of their last tour overseas. That's why she has introduced a bill to restore the Manchester Veterans Administration hospital to the full-service capabilities it used to have.

It doesn't make sense to assert that Rep. Shea-Porter doesn't support the troops. Actually, veterans of all eras throughout the district do know that New Hampshire veterans gained the best ally they've ever had in the U.S. House of Representatives when they put Jeb Bradley out and elected Carol Shea-Porter.

Ted Maltzie of Gilmanton certainly knows it. He spent 25 years suffering from a service-related knee injury he received as an Army Spec. 4 on an attack helicopter in the early 1980s. His knee deteriorated to the point that the pain was so great he could not leave the house, but the day he arrived at the hospital to get a new knee, the VA told him they would not give it to him. He was too young. Rep. Shea-Porter's office got involved and sent him to Concord Hospital for a new knee, courtesy of the VA. Ted says, "Congresswoman Shea-Porter gave me my life back."

And Ron Lyon of Dover knows it. He went to Vietnam as a first lieutenant nurse in the "doctors' draft" of 1967. By the mid-1970s, he'd been diagnosed with diabetes from Agent Orange exposure. Twenty years later, he asked the doctor to amputate his right leg to end the unbelievable pain, and he'll lose the other leg soon. When he finally sought disability compensation, the VA said no. They said his diabetes was a pre-existing condition.

A friend of Lyon told Rep. Shea-Porter's office about it, and three months later, Ron received his first disability check. Ron says, with wonder in his voice, "I'm a lifelong Republican, but I'm sure going to vote for Carol Shea-Porter this year. When it comes to constituent services, she's on a whole different level."

It's ironic that Jeb Bradley, who beat the draft with a college deferment and gets a 20 percent rating from the Disabled Veterans of America, would be running for Congress as "the man from the VFW." We need to send Carol Shea-Porter back to Congress to work for veterans.

Bill Duncan of New Castle is a co-chairman of Veterans and Military Families for Carol Shea-Porter. His opinions, as expressed above, are shared by Lew Henry of Lee, a wounded Vietnam vet and quartermaster of the VFW in Lee; Terence O'Rourke of Portsmouth, a former captain, Army Field Artillery, and Iraq vet; Robert Hannan of Dover, a retired Air Force captain; Lionel Ingram of Exeter, a retired Army colonel and Vietnam vet; William Whitman of Manchester, a decorated Vietnam infantryman and vice-commander of American Legion Post 2 in Manchester.