The Military Feel Good Thread - Post anything

Wishful said:
Ever wonder how come veterans have Tricare for life?? It wasn't always so. Before that, vets had Tricare until 65, then had to switch over to Medicare.
Tricare for Life (TFL) came about because of a lawsuit brought by USAF Col.(ret) Bud Day. Day was a WWII (as a Marine), Korea, & Vietnam veteran, and his day job apparently was as a lawyer. Among other cool things he did was to bail out of a fighter jet w/o a parachute becoming the 1st. person to live in doing so. (a 30' tree helped.) Guess God had other plans for him.

In 2002, the TFL class action made it all the way to the Supreme Court which refused to hear the case letting stand a lower ruling leaving the switch to Medicare the law. The class action had national attention & the same year, Congress passed Tricare for Life & Tricare Senior Pharmacy, the biggest expansion in government-funded health benefits in decades. I guess Congress didn't like the optics of Col. Day arguing healthcare for vets before the Supreme Court while wearing his Congressional Medal of Honor awarded for his service & leadership during his 5 yr. 7 month POW imprisonment in the Hanoi Hilton! ;)

PS: The wiki article states that Day is wearing an unidentified badge on his right pocket. Maybe someone on this forum can ID it and contact Wikipedia!
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en.wikipedia.org

Bud Day - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Supreme Court rejects military retirees' appeal in health-care lawsuit

products.kitsapsun.com
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Curious, why would Tri-care be better than Medicare. Since I am not familar with either one at this point, I am just curious. When they say Tri-care, does that mean the Veterans Admin and if so, you normally dont hear great things from them. Becuse honestly based on my father went through, Medicare and in expensive Blue Cross supplement insurance meant my father pay nothing especially when he went through ICU
 
Humey said:
Curious, why would Tri-care be better than Medicare. Since I am not familar with either one at this point, I am just curious. When they say Tri-care, does that mean the Veterans Admin and if so, you normally dont hear great things from them. Becuse honestly based on my father went through, Medicare and in expensive Blue Cross supplement insurance meant my father pay nothing especially when he went through ICU
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TRICARE For Life (TFL) serves as the second payer after Medicare after age 65, for military retirees. No need to buy Medicare Advantage or supplemental coverage. TFL is a DOD program, not VA. There are no premiums for TFL.

VA benefits are a separate program. All vets, separated or retired, can use the VA as their healthcare, and what they pay depends on their disability situation. Too much to go into here, but I’ll give two examples. Someone I know is a 100% combat disabled veteran, a full-career military retiree. He uses Medicare and TFL, pays nothing except the Medicare premium which comes out of his monthly Social Security. No co-pays. He goes to his VA primary and specialist docs for routine care, gets seen for the same things, has all Rx written through the VA, including OTC, and it’s free, and mailed to his house. His vision care, glasses and hearing aids are all through the VA. He pays nothing for anything through the VA. His Medicare + TFL docs are all in the Johns Hopkins Healthcare system, and most of his docs also teach at JH med school. His civilian Medicare doc is a former AF flight surgeon, and his orthopedic doc is a former Navy doc.

On the other hand, one of our USNA sponsor alum who separated after 8 years, so is not a retiree, pays nothing to the VA for services related to his VA-rated disability. For other care, he pays.

TFL is the part of TRICARE for post-65 military retiree beneficiaries. There is also the active duty and under-65 TRICARE military retiree healthcare. Everyone’s mileage varies. In general, I had superb, caring providers and good experiences with both primary care and specialists, military medical staff and civilians, throughout my Navy career, at both tiny clinics and big hospitals. Same with DH.

Funnily enough, since I am no longer eligible to go to MTFs (Military Treatment Facilities), my civilian providers are almost all former military medical folks. My derm is a former Army doc who used to work on combat burn cases, and the other two docs in her practice are a former Navy flight surgeon and an AF Mohs surgeon. The staff techs include several former Navy corpsmen and Army/AF medics. They get me, I get them. They don’t bat an eye at what they see or hear from me; I don’t have to explain anything. My ob/gyn is former AF. Optometrist is Army Reserve. I admit to snooping through doc bios when looking for new providers, along with where they went to school, residencies, board certifications, etc. If I see a military residency or tours, I know what I am looking at.
 
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flieger83 said:
So she has a target of opportunity?

That rifle work? 😁

Steve
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This is from the FB page I'm getting the pics from. The FB page is USS Slater.

"They can fire blanks from MT33. Technically all of Slaters weapons are operational they belong to the State of NY Department of Military affairs. Long story short they where never demilled."
 
They should never de-mil anything in my opinion. There are roughly 4,500 select-fire M14s at USNA that are de-milled. If they hadn't done that to them, they could sell them to the general public for $15,000 each. They could sell them and buy brand-new replicas for $400 each and pocket the $14,600. No more rusty rifles in parades and people with more money than sense could own a piece of history.

That amounts to $65,700,000.00 for USNA to use on various maintenance projects.
That's also another $900,000 to the ATF&E for the NFA tax stamps.
That also means that every MIDN would have a shiny new rifle for parades.

It's the trifecta of wins.
 
Devil Doc said:
Here's an army and navy post. The former USS Slater is a museum ship and just finished a yard period at the Caddell dry dock in Staten Island. She is approaching West Point on her way by tug to her berth in Albany.

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At one point I had command of a Reserve unit at the Reserve Center in Albany NY that was an augment unit for a Guided Missile Destroyer.
When time/opportunities allowed, some of my engineers spent a few days assisting in the initial survey and restoration work.
 
THParent said:
They should never de-mil anything in my opinion. There are roughly 4,500 select-fire M14s at USNA that are de-milled. If they hadn't done that to them, they could sell them to the general public for $15,000 each. They could sell them and buy brand-new replicas for $400 each and pocket the $14,600. No more rusty rifles in parades and people with more money than sense could own a piece of history.

That amounts to $65,700,000.00 for USNA to use on various maintenance projects.
That's also another $900,000 to the ATF&E for the NFA tax stamps.
That also means that every MIDN would have a shiny new rifle for parades.

It's the trifecta of wins.
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And then there was the JROTC unit that was told to turn in their demilled M-1s for "fake rifles."

I was able to check out their rifles. The demillling consisted of putting a large nail in the receiver and putting a dot of solder on its edge. ANY armorer could fix this. I contacted the AF to see if they'd sell them as a money maker.

No, they're going to be destroyed.

They were all 3 digit serial numbered between 300 and 450.

Think about what that could have gotten that unit.

Steve
 
That would be something.
Sadly, I had my DS' M14 in my hands on PPW a couple of years ago. It was thoroughly fubarred. They plugged the barrel AND cut the receiver where it doesn't show. The trigger group was good, however.
 
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