The Putnam county Veterans Service Agency Situation Report

245th Army Birthday This year, the United States Army pays tribute to 245 years of dedicated service to our Nation. While it is fitting that we pause to recognize the achievements and contributions ofour Soldiers and their Families, Army Civilians, Veterans, and retirees, we acknowledge that this Army Birthday will take place during a profoundly challenging time for America. Still, whatever challenge we face as a nation, the U.S. Army always answers the call to serve and defend. Our history of coming together to serve our communities with honor is part of the enduring fabric of America's legacy. Our Nation has faced significant challenges this year and the Army has risen to thosechallenges in support of our citi-zens. The Total Army's swift and deliberate response to the coronavirus pandemic provided augmentation to medical facilities and care in our most stressed cities, assistance to FEMA and local leaders to provide critical medical supplies, and innovative science and research to develop a lifesaving vaccine. The U.S. Army exists to protect this Nation and the rights of the American people. In recent weeks, we have done that, in the protection of the American people's right to peacefully assemble. Within our Army, now is the time to come to-gether and listen, learn, and take action against discrimination that has existed in our country and our Army. Army Soldiers and Civilians embody the Army Values of Leadership, Duty, Respect,Selfless Service, Honor, lntegrity, and Personal Courage and are committed to the mission. We thank our Soldiers and their families, Army Civilians, Vet-erans, and retirees for their extraordinary service and steadfast determination. The U.S. Army's honorable lineage dates back to June 14, 1775. Today, 245 years later, we observe our Army's values and patriotism, our legacy of service and making a difference in our communities, and the sacrifices we have made. We encourage all members of the Army family to participate in the virtual events that are taking place to pay tribute to America and commemorate the 245th anniversary of the U. S. Army's establishment. Please join us live on Facebook June 14, 2020, at 1900 for, "The Army at245: A Tribute to America." For the full list of other online activities in which you can participate, go to: https://www. army. m i l/ ar1iclel2357 061 .

Michael A Grinston Sergeant Major of the Army

James C McConville General, US Army Chief of Staff

Ryan D McCarthy Secretary of the Army

Happy Belated birthday army!!!

From 2 former soldiers

Art & Karl & the guys

Page 2

Prior June 14, 2020 over 2000 people received the last Sitrep inviting them to a Flag Day ceremony. A simple ceremony

that included only the singing to “God Bless America”. 13 people a bakers dozen had the time to show up to honor our

flag. A 14th person arrived a bit late. Some of you may have paused like the article asked where ever you were to sing

“God Bless America” The brief ceremony was held in the shadow of the Sybil Ludington Statue with the Row of Honor. I

want to speak of one person who showed up for the ceremony. His picture is with the Marines on Iwo Jima. (He was not

there). Ray is a fellow Vietnam Veteran. He had Covid-19. He spent over 40 days in the hospital and nursing home. He

now walks unsteadily with a cane. The mask makes it hard for him to breath because of the extra effort it takes to

walk around. He made it to sing “God Bless America”.

A simple question if Ray could make it where were you?

(Thanks Eric Gross for being there and taking the picture.)

Karl

It’s that time of year again—time for America to celebrate its very own “Brexit” in the most American way possible: gratuitous consumption and loud explosions. It’s the week before the Fourth of July, a time for beer, barbeques, and good old fashioned Red, White and Blue. …and apparently it’s time once again for veter-ans to put signs in their yards asking their neigh-bors to “be courteous with fireworks.”

Wait, what?

“A combat veteran lives here, please be courte-ous with fireworks.” When I saw my first “be courteous” sign a few years back, I hoped it was a fad that would pass quickly once people put some actual thought into it; you know, like “pet rocks,” or COIN. But apparently this has turned into big business, with thousands of the signs manufactured, sold, and distributed across the US. The signs are deeply dividing the Veteran Com-munity between those who think the signs are necessary, or at least helpful, and those who think they are silly at best, and more than likely harmful. There is also a lot of controversy about the or-ganization that produces and distributes those signs. More on that later, in a separate arti-cle. But if you’re curious for a preview, you can check out what This Ain’t Hell has to say. But for now, the signs. With much respect and love to my fellow veterans who have them, I think these “be courteous” signs are a terrible idea. The message reinforces the worst stereo-types about us: that we’re all broken, that we’re attention-mongers, that we think we’re different and special, and that the American people should bend to our whims simply because we served. I think that’s a bad message for us to send, and an even worse mindset for us to have. Reasonable people can disagree about the utility of the signs. Some veterans point out that with the plague of PTSD and the veteran suicide epidemic, reminding people that veterans are nearby and that loud noises can be triggering might help. Or, they reason, it can’t hurt. I disagree. Brothers and sisters, if your PTSD is so bad that you need to live in complete quiet you need treatment, not a yard sign. Get professional help. If that’s not an option, or if it’s not coming in a timely manner, head over to the Super Wal-

Mart and take matters into your own hands. Don’t wait on the government, or ask your neighbor, to do something for you that you

can do yourself. For whatever it’s costing for “shipping and han-dling” of these signs, I imagine you could buy a bottle of melatonin, a cup of warm milk, and a crapload of foam earplugs. That’s bound to be far more useful to you than a yard sign, which may or may not be heeded. In fact, the sign might have the unintended consequence of encouraging MORE noisy behavior. The sign also has the unintended consequence of making people think veterans want America to change for us. Fellow vets, America doesn’t have to change for us, we have to change for it. What we did in uniform is essential work for our nation, but it doesn’t entitle us to ask for everyone around us to change. Post-traumatic stress exists, but so does post-traumatic growth. You’re not going to grow if you expect everything around you to change instead of changing yourself. To me, these signs are the veteran equivalent of the Facebook “humble-brag.” It’s basically say-ing, “Hey, I’m a veteran, I want you to acknowledge my special-ness, feel sorry for me, and give me special treatment, ” without having to say “Hey, I’m a veteran, I want you to acknowledge my special-ness, feel sorry for me, and give me special treatment.” These signs are a physical manifestation of the belief many veterans have that the American people owe us something. Guess what folks? The American people don’t owe us shit.

The American government owes us plen-ty. But not the American people. If you want to put a sign in your yard advocating for your rights under the 2nd Amendment, or to ensure politicians keep the promises they made to the Veteran Community, or to bash the VA, by all means go ahead. But don’t ask the American people to give us more than they already have. Your signs aren’t going to help any-thing. In fact, they are going to make it worse. They cause us to see ourselves as a class separate from our fellow citizens, and it causes our peers to see us as danger-ous, broken, fragile, or as something to be feared. Posting those signs are also an exercise in futility. I would no more change my life-style over a “veteran lives here” sign on my neighbor’s house than I would if it said “Ultra-Liberal Hipster Lives Here: Please Be Courteous With Trigger Words.” Like my fellow veterans, I fought for our freedoms; I’m not about to ask other Americans to give them up on my behalf. Not over something like this. This Fourth of July I’m not going to set off fireworks in my neighborhood for a couple of reasons: 1) they’re illegal where I live; 2) they’re expensive; 3) that shit is dangerous; just ask the New York Giants’ Jason Pierre-Paul. But even if those things weren’t the case, I wouldn’t do it late at night. That’s not out of any “courtesy” to veterans, it’s just common courtesy. But more importantly, I’m not going to put a sign in my yard asking people to NOT do what Americans have done every Fourth of July since before I was born. If the county’s fireworks show bothers me, or if the neighborhood kids start shooting off their (illegal) bottle rockets when I’m trying to sleep, I’ll put in earplugs, turn on music, and be happy that I live in a coun-try that still raucously celebrates Free-dom. Seven combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq haven’t changed that feeling, and I’m not about it let it start now. Are you? July 1, 2017 by Scott Faith

Veterans, July 4 and Fireworks: Don’t Be Courteous, Just Be American

There will be some negative feed back

from this opinion piece. I do not believe

that the author meant to state that

American’s are not courteous in his

awkward title. Given that we are just

concluding PTSD Awareness Month the

article is very germane. If the Veterans

PTSD is bad enough for that Veteran to

purchase and post that sign more real

help is needed. Avoid venues that will be

shooting off fireworks or get ear plugs.

I dislike fireworks and that was prior to

my military service.

Karl

Page 3

Page 4

Page 4

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

July 4, 2020

At 10:00 AM

Reading of the

Declaration of Independence On the steps of

The Historic Court House

In Carmel Sponsored by

Enoch Crosby Chapter

Of the

Daughters of the American Revolution

&

Putnam County Veterans

Service Agency

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalien-able Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are institut-ed among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its founda-tion on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happi-ness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right them-selves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Gov-ernment, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dan-gers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreign-ers; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

Page 5

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the execution-ers of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legis-lature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settle-ment here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kin-dred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, sol-emnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Ab-solved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Page 6

A Pensioner of the Revolution John Neagle (1796-1865) 1830 The Society of the Cincinnati, Museum purchase, 2017 This somber and arresting portrait depicts a home-less veteran living on the street in Philadelphia named Joseph Winter. The painting attracted popular attention in early 1831, when John Sartain published a mezzotint engraving of the work titled Patriotism and Age, which became a call to the conscience of the nation to care for those who had fought its battles and won its freedom.

Even our nations first Veterans were

neglected by the government.

Advocates from the Society of

Cincinnati were the voice of the

Veteran. The Society was America's

the first Veterans organization.

They understood that Veterans

always help Veterans. (It was

named after Lucius Quinctius

Cincinnatus a Roman military leader.)

Donald b. smith government

campus

110 old route 6, bldg. #3

Carmel NY 10512

Monday—Friday 9-5

Call for appointment either location

845-808-1620

Tuesday evenings 5-7PM

2505 Carmel ave. (rt 6) Suite 212

Brewster, NY 10509

Karl Rohde, Director

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE ARE OPEN!!!

Art and I will be here for the Veterans .

However for the near future there will be some

rules in place.

1) Appointments only no walk in’s

2) No waiting room. Call when you get here to be

let in. If early you will have to remain in your

car.

3) Your temperature will have to be taken

(100.4 + degrees and you can not enter)

4) Masks needed to enter

We will be sanitizing the chairs and desk surfaces

after each Veteran’s appointment is concluded.

When we have the capability we will do remote

visits via the computer.

Welcome back sort of!!!!!!

Karl

Volume 10 Issue 13 Page 7