The Pentagon has announced transgenders can now serve openly in our military. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter stated that transgenders before his announcement had to pay for an operation out of their own pockets. He then stated this is “inconsistent with our promise to all our troops that we will take care of them.”

Mr. Secretary, I guess the transgenders are now a Pentagon priority and come before our troops who come home with horrendous injuries. They sometimes wait for weeks, if not months, to get medical care and many have died waiting. And you stand there and make the statement that our government has promised to all our troops that you will take care of them. What a bunch of bunk.

This promise to transgenders is a slap in the face to those veterans who have had to beg and plead to get medical attention. I happen to know a man who was exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam and was talked to like a dog when he recently went to Veterans Affairs for help. This shows the lack of concern for our military personnel that our VA and our government displays.

Some of you politicians and VA workers who haven’t the guts to fight for this country sit there in your comfortable chairs without any concern for those men and women who put their lives on the line so you can badmouth them when they come to you for help. Our veterans don’t deserve this type of treatment. If it were not for our veterans, especially those who gave their lives for this country, you people would be speaking either German or Japanese.

Paul S. Barnes
Flowery Branch