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Veterans’ clinic to rise on Saipan this year
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Posted on May 25 2009
The presence of a Veterans Administration outreach clinic right in their doorsteps has long been a dream for veterans in the Northern Marianas.
That dream will soon be realized, according to Ruth A. Coleman during yesterday’s annual Memorial Day celebration at the CNMI Veterans Cemetery in Marpi.
Coleman announced that a VA outreach clinic would be available on Saipan by the end of this year.
“We honor our war dead as we provide medical care to more veterans than ever before and continue to improve the quality of that care,” Coleman said.
By next year, Coleman said the veterans would no longer spend for airfare to a VA medical facility in the U.S. mainland or Hawaii to avail of the outreach program.
Coleman also said veterans will continue to get compensation for disabilities incurred during their service and pensions for their widows and orphans “as Lincoln so eloquently put it.”
Coleman said VA will continue to assist the veterans’ return to civilian life with housing, educational and employment assistance.
“And we honor that memory by the national cemetery system, like this cemetery, to insure that every veteran has the opportunity for interment in a shrine when his or her time comes,” she said.
She said cemeteries around the world are dedicated to brave Americans cut down in their prime, doing what American soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen and Coast Guardsmen do, stepping in harm’s way between the forces of tyranny and aggression for America and its freedom loving citizens.”
She said Memorial Day is not only to remember the dead but for those who are living, including those who are working with the Veterans Affairs Office.
There are an estimated 23 million veterans who are still alive, over a thousand of them here in the CNMI.
