Director's Veterans' Message June 28, 2024
Independence Day 2024 June marks the halfway mark for the year and although we’ve done so much, we still have so much to do for the remainder of the year. As we continue to embrace the summer months before us, I am confident that we will continue to provide you safe compassionate, and quality care.
Independence Day reminds us patriotism comes in various forms, but it always involves serving something bigger than ourselves.
On the Fourth of July as we celebrate Independence Day, it provides an opportunity for all of us to reflect on the true meaning of our citizenship. To be American is about so much more than simply a place that we call home. It is about a deeply felt commitment to the higher principles of liberty, self-governance, and equality.
May you and your family enjoy a Fourth of July holiday filled with thankfulness and gratitude for living in this great nation of opportunity, promise and hope. Most importantly, I want to thank you, our Veterans for your continued commitment to our nation. We are privileged to be able to care for you, and we will continue to do everything in our power to exceed your expectations and provide you the care you have earned.
VA Pacific Islands Health Care System (VAPIHCS) will be closed on July 4th, which occurs this year on a Thursday. However, we will still have regular hours in our clinics and our pharmacy on the Saturday before and after the holiday. Have a safe and Happy 4th of July.
Other Than Honorable Discharge Rule Changes
On April 26, 2024, the Department of Veterans Affairs issued a final rule amending its regulations regarding character of discharge determinations, expanding access to VA care and benefits for some former service members discharged under other than honorable conditions or by special court-martial.
When former service members with other than honorable discharges and bad conduct discharges (adjudged at special court-martial) apply for VA benefits and services, we carefully review their records to determine if we can provide them the requested care and benefits.
This process helps ensure that VA can provide services to deserving former service members – including certain individuals who faced discrimination, survived sexual assault or harassment, struggled with their mental or physical health, or faced other challenges while serving in the military.
VA’s new regulation will expand access to care and benefits for certain former service members by:
Eliminating the regulatory bar for “homosexual acts involving aggravating circumstances or other factors affecting the performance of duty” as a bar to benefits. Creating a “compelling circumstances exception” for certain former service members, which opens the door for previously denied service members to reapply for benefits.
I encourage former service members with “other than honorable” discharges and “bad conduct discharges” to apply for VA care and benefits today. For more information, call: 1-800-214-1306
Thoughts from Chaplain Jewel Davis
We’ve probably heard the 16th-century English poet Thomas Tusser’s adage, “April showers bring May flowers,” and during this time of year, we probably anticipate showers of rain that usher in fresh, new scents and colors of spring. We may also expect these showers to create traffic delays, ruin or postpone outdoor events, hamper travel plans, and perhaps, on the brighter side, invite us to dance to their rhythms or come up with a perfect reason to stay indoors and just relax. But after the rainfall, there in the sky appears a translucent, arching band of multiple colors, and in response to this wonderment, is the exclamation, “Look! A rainbow!”
Rainbows, which are natural phenomena, form when sunlight passes through water droplets and refracts, disperses, bends, and reflects its spectrum of colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet - each color visible according to its wavelength and angle. But for rainbows to be seen, certain conditions need to be present, such as sunlight, water droplets, clear skies, and the position of the rainbow’s observer. However, because rainbows are ephemeral optical illusions that appear for the moment and do not exist in any one place in the sky, how and where they are viewable depends on its viewers’ location and the sun. So, with the sun in the background, one needs only to look at a rainbow to see it.
In their magnificence, rainbows are extraordinary silent motivators. They encourage us to pause to appreciate precious and fleeting moments. They remind us to be consistently true to ourselves and to others. And they teach us to position ourselves to clearly see the persons in front of us. To see phenomenal, brilliant displays of passion and intrigue, of inspiration and imagination, of knowledge, wisdom, vitality, resourcefulness, and so much more; and to see that we are interconnected reflections of differences in our commonalities, and of diversity in our unity.
May our today be replete with moments of pause, appreciation, and positioning.
I end with this quote from Dolly Parton, “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”
Blessings and Mahalo.
One Team, One Ohana!
Adam M. Robinson, Jr., MD, MBA, CPE
Director, VA Pacific Islands Health Care System
VADM, MC, USN, (RET) 36th Surgeon General, USN
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