To Our Local Veterans

By DR. Chuck

This is the second in a series of articles and information for our Veterans in Hawaii

To those of you who visit our site, Please get the word out to those in need that we are here and we want to help, all it takes is a phone call, a letter, or leave a note on the comments section of the Local Veterans site Really Hawaiian.com, I promise you I will get back to you as early as I possibly can.

There is much happening that would never be known about unless you were actually looking for it. Let me give you a couple of examples, from 1957-1987 Camp Lejeune was pumping carcinogenics into the drinking water of the family base housing in North Carolina. This is the largest Marine Corps base on the east coast. The contamination was coming from a dry cleaners and a metal fabrication shop off base. This means that thousands of Marines and their spouses and children were being contaminated with the drinking water. Most of us that were actually stationed there, like myself, never heard of it until 2008 after the investigation was completed.

Until recently sailors that were stationed aboard ship off the coast of Vietnam were not allowed to file claims for Agent Orange contamination unless they actually put foot on shore. It was learned that during the desalination process that the ships would draw closer to shore and suck up the salt water and it would be heated in the process and this would create dioxin poisoning in the drinking water contaminating the sailors on the ship and causing severe symptoms and could actually lead to death. The effects were even more profound then those of the troops on shore. This has begun to manifest itself in those sailors that were on the ships setting off shore. Sadly enough it took all these years for the government to acknowledge this.

Lastly in a sea of wrongs, is the fact that now Parkinson’s disease and B or hairy cell Leukemia and aseptic heart disease has been added to the presumptive diseases for Agent Orange. It seems like the list of diseases keeps growing and us veterans keep dying uninformed. It is my mission to keep you informed and as up-to-date as possible. I thought it was strange that so many of the veterans I have submitted claims for have Parkinson’s disease.

Remember folks we at Christian Works of Hawaii survive on donations alone and every dollar donated is tax deductible. All too often Veterans get these donation requests in the mail and being good veterans and caring about our fellow veterans we drop a check in the envelope and send it off. Before we know it we are donating to Disabled Veterans, Blind Veterans, crippled Veterans, Psychologically impaired veterans, organizations for deceased veterans spouses and children, and so on…
The problem with this is the money goes off Island to someplace in the mainland where it is divided up and kept in the mainland and the folks like us never see a penny of it so we are broke and can no longer do what we should be able to for our Island Veterans. Please do not misunderstand I love all veterans but I do have a slight bias, and that is our veterans here on our Island! So next time you get a donation request, drop it in an envelope for Christian Works Hawaii where the money stays here on our Island to help our Veterans.

Take a chance on us, se us at the market; write to us at DR. Chuck Sanders PO Box 1437, Kurtistown, HI 96760, email at asktherev@flex.com or call at 966 -5092.  Let us set up an appointment with you to see what we can do to help, leave us a message if we are not at home, we will get back to you, or write to Really Hawaiian! Maybe your situation will cause others to open up and reach out. Let us make this column work for the people of the people!  Donations can be sent to this address as well, Please include your name and address so we can send you a donation card.

Remember when you see me I am not real pretty and definitely not one of the pretty boy suits!

Learn more about Dr. Sanders here.