Vet's Voice — Veterans golf at Royal St. Cloud

The Department of Veterans Affairs, partnering with the Professional Golfers Association (PGA), has developed a program to help veterans and activeduty military to enhance their physical, mental, social, and emotional well-being. The effort is called PGA HOPE (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere), and St. Cloud’s very own Royal St. Cloud Golf Links is the only Orlando-area location for the program.

Currently, three sessions scheduled, Spring, Fall, and Winter. Unfortunately, the 12 slots for the Spring session are already full. The Fall session is scheduled for Sept. 6 through Oct. 25, 2023. A registration link will be posted six weeks before the start date (July 26, 2023). The classes are every Wednesday during the session from 8-10 a.m. No dates for the Winter session have been announced yet. If you are interested, contact PGA Hope at the link below and give them your contact information to receive the information on registering for future sessions. http:// bit.ly/3zscTKi If you are already an active golfer, there is also an informal “military” league already playing at Royal St. Cloud and you can contact the course for details.

Now Hear This, Now Hear This!

The search is underway to find former USS Intrepid crew members and their personal memorabilia for the 80th Commissioning Anniversary Celebration happening on Aug. 16, 2023. The good ship now serves as the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, located on the Hudson River on the west side of Manhattan, New York City. More info at http://bit.ly/3m8Dx7U

Congressional Budget Office Targeting Veteran, Retiree, and Active Duty Benefits

Now that the latest “shooting war” is over, except for our forces deployed in Syria, some in Washington D.C. have been busy trying to work out how cuts in military benefits can help pay down the deficit. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says they “produce independent analyses of budgetary and economic issues to support the Congressional budget process.” A December 2022 CBO report detailed “savings” of a slate of active duty, veteran, and military retiree cuts. The cuts included means testing veterans’ disability pensions, and phasing out of disability benefits for those making a family gross income above a certain amount; eliminating disability benefits for those rated less than 30% by the VA; increasing the cost of military retiree Tricare and Tricare for Life health insurances and limiting active-duty housing allowances to 80% of the report average locality costs.

Each of these measures is draconian, put together they constitute an insidious, inexplicable slap at those who have served or are serving. Already, VA Secretary Dennis McDonough has publicly stated that no actual cuts to VA benefits are being considered, however, I will not rest easy as long as someone in Washington D.C is thinking along these lines. If you or a family member receives any of these benefits, please monitor this situation, as I will surely be doing. The cuts are detailed in Chapter 3 of the document found here: http://bit.ly/3G6gtO7.

As always, please pass on your events, comments, and concerns to osceolavets@gmail.com.