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Disrespect
An open letter to Vicente Camacho, director of the Office of Military Liaison and Veteran’s Affairs: I would like to extend my gratitude to the Department of Veterans Affairs and your liaison office for its services during my father’s, Antonio Q. Maratita’s, funeral. I would also like to thank you for the heartache it has caused me and my sister. If I am not mistaken, it is military protocol that the folded U.S. flag is presented to the next of kin. I myself was not able to attend my father’s funeral but my younger sister did. I do believe you were made aware of this. However, it seemed incumbent upon you to proceed to present the flag to my father’s brother, Oscar Quitugua. I hope you are proud of the disheartening and repudiating impression the Department of Veterans Affairs and your liaison office have left with me and my sister and of bestowing a sense of entitlement upon Mr. Quitugua, who only took in my father in the last few months of his life. My sister and I have kindly asked for the flag, but Mr. Quitugua, as his wife not so kindly expressed, refuses to give it to us. I hope that other families seeking your services are not met with such disregard and disrespect as we have been.
Antolynn Maratita
Tigard, OR
