Who Cares for the Gold Star Moms Who Care for Our Vets?

Dwayne Hunn

He was 31. He was a weight lifter, and it showed. He loved kids, and he showed it. He had two adoring children, a beautiful wife, and an income approaching six figures.

His father was a Vietnam era vet, who tries to cover the loss of his son by fencing and farming. His mother was French, a gentle hospice worker with a heart big and bold. Few, however, until some years ago needed to knew how tough and hard a broken French heart could be.

On September 11, 2001, he told her "Mom, I have to do something." He didn’t tell her he had that day picked up his enlistment papers.

"I've got two kids. I want to serve my country, but I don't want to leave the country,” he told the National Guard recruiter.

"No problem. You'll probably end up guarding a nuclear plant or something in our country," replied the recruiter.

His father initially favored the war and all George Bush did, especially Bush’s bragging about “We’ll train them up, so our troops can step down.” When they took his son forever, all those beliefs changed.

On October 11, 2001, he returned his sign-up forms and was assigned to the 579th Engineering Battalion based in Petaluma, California.

He asked Mom to take a ride with him. She knew something was wrong. When he told her what he had done, she stunned him with, “And f you have to take someone’s life, what are you going to do?”

After a series of boot camps, April of 2004 found Patrick and his reservists tented outside of Fort Anaconda. He and his fellow engineers were always on patrol. He was training Iraqis in warfare, capturing the same trainees dropping mortars into the American compound, and arguing about his company’s experiences and conditions to his superiors.

He was his company’s go-to guy -- strong enough to carry the reservists’ antiquated radio gear, to be the company's paramedic, their counselor, their psychologist, their cell phone provider, and their rep to the officers.

At home, his mother worried about her lifesaver. While he patrolled on foot or in his plywood-reinforced Humvee, from which he loved giving kids candy, she saved money to send him a fully reinforced Kevlar vest.

He was all you'd want a teammate to be in a season of tough games.

After six late-night patrols in a row, he heatedly argued for his guys with the officers for a night of tented sleep in Balad’s 120° heat. They ordered him to do what he was told.

Early on the next day, June 22, 2004, Lieut. Andre Tyson, Bruce Himelright, and he were fired upon by snipers near a small village’s police building. Then their back-up Iraqi Security Forces, whom they had been “training up” also opened fire on the Americans. Bruce, blown into a ditch, survived.

With the radio gear on his back, he came to Lieut. Tyson's defense. By the time the rest of the Americans came to them, the lieutenant was dead. He, however, had eight gaping holes through his muscled body, and was still breathing.

On June 29, 2004, in defiance of President Bush’s ban against photographing soldier’s caskets, she invited photographers to capture her son’s Sacramento return. “He will not come home in darkness. He did not die for nothing. The way he lived needs to be talked about. He was not a fighter, he was a peacemaker."
 
He was the son who called home every two days and was soon saying, “I don't understand why we are here. In small towns, small villages, people scream things at us, throw things at us. There is resentment." Still, he was the peacemaker who in his last letter home asked that the family "Send a box of basketballs and gifts for the (Iraqi) children."
 
Yet, honor required he be a soldier. So, his mother required that he be the first red, white, and blue coffined American soldier that the public would see. The soldier who wanted to serve his country by building something good at home came home pinned to a folded flag, Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Combat Action Badge, and California Memorial Medal.
 
Too many times his mother has said, "I feel empty, hurt, numb. I am not angry. I am not revengeful. I'm just hurt that my son's life is gone, and they should stop what they're doing." And she marches on in his honor -- caring for vets in her home, fighting for their rights with generals, Senators, and bureaucrats, and working to establish Veterans Villages (www.PatrickMcCaffreyFoundation.org) that will address the deeper wounds our troops bring home.
 
Her name is Nadia McCaffrey. Her husband is Bob McCaffrey.  Their beloved son was Patrick McCaffrey Sr.
 
And how does our nation, which just spent $3+ trillion on a WMD-less invasion that morphed into an economy breaking war on a tactic called terror, assist a mother dedicated to providing succor to our wounded troops who just followed orders? 
 

Every day she wakes to push Patrick McCaffrey’s Veterans Villages forward. Every day she battles for another homeless, confused, wounded vet.

Every day her white blood counts remain too low, the tumor hurts more, the liver cysts cause pain, the bleeding continues. When the doctor warned her, "You could be dead in five years,” she realized, "I don't care. I don't want to live without Patrick."

But then there are the grandchildren -- Janessa and Patrick Junior -- and so many others who know and more than care for the wounded Mom fighting for wounded warriors. Certainly, there should be medical care for the separated wife of a Vietnam veteran. Certainly, there should be care for the mother of a fallen American hero. Certainly, with 500 American billionaires populated with banksters and defaulted paper traders, there should be medical care for a mother who funds her campaign for wounded veterans by renting rooms in Patrick's home.

Say again, what country has the greatest economic system in the world?

In today's corporatized America with its downsized middle class, Nadia had to spend months hunting for a little health clinic medical grant, which only covered a small portion of a few of the medical procedures she needs.

There are many other struggling, hard working, patriotic Nadias in a nation that ignores:

· Effective tax rates for those earning $1, 5, 10, 15...100 million hovering around 17%, which for diligent students makes our proclaimed "progressive tax system" a misnomer.

· Raising the $107,000 gross income cap on Social Security taxes.

· Reinstituting the Fair Tax Brackets that existed under Eisenhower, grew America’s Middle Class, and kept us out of debt.

· Making the 1.45% of Medical Health Insurance taxes a little more progressive on the top 1% (whose average Adjusted Gross Income in 2007 was $410,096).

Explain again, why can’t we implement these fiscal policies to pay some patriots’ essential human needs?

Some, in the Almighty Land of the Free, ranted and raved about changing the term "French Fries," because the French objected to invading a nation they knew had no weapons of mass destruction. Today, we can't pay for our PTSD-ed veterans. We can't afford to cover medical care for a Gold Star Mother who cares for vets in her home and wants to build Veterans Villages in her son’s name, who gave his last breaths for this country.

Tell us again, what great country cares for its vets better than any other?

Long ago in France, the aristocrats looked at the struggling masses and said, "Let them eat cake." Today, Nadia's French family implorers her to return to her birth home where all her medical needs will be covered for free.

Remind us again, what country has the world’s greatest health care delivery system?

Hey, anyone know any of those great American billionaires, insurance companies, lobbyists, or politicians opposing health care reform who might cover Nadia's healthcare cost until and if she survives to Medicare’s 65?

For collateral, The Patrick McCaffery Foundation could offer Patrick's Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Combat Action Badge, California Memorial Medal, and memorable pictures of his service.

To do what the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave can’t afford to do, please contact the Patrick McCaffrey Veterans Village Foundation. (www.PatrickMcCaffreyFoundation.org)

[Valley Forge Veterans Village]

“If People’s Lobby’s proposed American World Service Corps had existed when Patrick was alive, he would have served his country that way and been alive today.”

Nadia McCaffrey