John Wells for Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs

As you know that we will have a new President this coming January. It doesn’t manner what you think of him it is going to happen.  President Elect Donald J. Trump is going to need a new Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs for the new Congressional Session.

I am asking every one to please contact President Elect Donald J. Trump and request that he consider MVA’s Executive Director, Commander John B. Wells, USN (Retired) as Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs

Below is some information about Commander Wells.

MVA’s Executive Director, Commander John B. Wells, USN (Retired) has long been viewed as the technical expert on Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Issues. A 22 year veteran of the Navy, Commander Wells served as a Surface Warfare Officer on six different ships, with over ten years at sea. He possessed a mechanical engineering sub-specialty, was qualified as a Navigator and for command at sea, and served as the Chief Engineer on several Navy ships. As Chief Engineer, he was directly responsible for the water distillation and distribution system. He is well versed in the science surrounding this bill and is familiar with all aspects of surface ship operations.

Since retirement, Commander Wells has become a practicing attorney with an emphasis on military and veterans law. He is counsel on several pending cases concerning the Blue Water Navy and has filed amicus curiae briefs in other cases. Since 2010 he has visited over 400 Congressional and Senatorial offices to discuss the importance of enacting this bill. He is recognized in the veterans community as the subject matter expert on this matter.

 If you would like to support this effort, please snail mail a letter of support to:

Donald J. Trump Transitional Team

1717 Pennsylvania Ave. NW

Washington, D.C. 20006

Below is the proper salutation to use:

Dear Mr. President Elect Donald J. Trump

John is in D.C. this week and next visiting with house and senate offices on our Blue Water Navy Bills and Resolutions.  It is early, but the early bird gets the worm.  Once we have an official fax number or email address, I will provide at that time.  For now written letters should be used.  Will certainly not hurt to then fax or email it when we received that information.  Let us try and get the attention John needs at this transitional time to get his name on the ballot to get an interview.

I have had the pleasure of meeting Commander Wells and I can tell you he is very dedicated to ALL Veterans. You may have seen his post on some Facebook Pages, he has a great sense of humor and as I said already very dedicated.

Please help get Donald J. Trump Transitional Team to notice John. He will be a great asset to all Veterans.

Mike Yates

Blue Water Navy Awareness

thebluewaternavyawarenss@gmail.com

.John Wells and Susie are doing a radio show tomorrow. Info below.

The discussion will focus on BWN Vietnam Veterans who served offshore, in the bays and harbors who are excluded from their AO benefits.

Approximately 21 million gallons of deadly herbicides were sprayed on Vietnam between 1962 and 1970.
Where do you suppose it all went?

Nearly half of the surviving hundred thousand members of the United States Navy and Fleet Marine services who fought in Vietnam between 1962 and 1975 may currently suffer disabilities from the effects of dioxin, found in Agent Orange. Yet, these service personnel are being denied all service-connected health care from VA Hospitals and disability compensation for these diseases while all other Vietnam War veterans are receiving these benefits!

This site provides information related to dioxin and other toxic exposures by personnel of the Blue Water Navy, which includes Coast Guard and Fleet Marine personnel. Additional information for all veterans is also posted. We are not doctors and offer no medical advice. We are not lawyers and offer no legal advice. We will not take your Power of Attorney to represent your case, but we will consult with you as to the best information and arguments that we know by experience to give you the best chance of winning your VA claim.

Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Ass.

http://www.bluewaternavy.org/

Military Veterans Advocacy, Inc.

http://www.militaryveteransadvocacy.org/

Here is the Link

Radio Show

The Most Powerful Person

I find it amazing that in this country of ours that one PERSON has so much power that he can decide on his own if a Bill won’t become law.

Let use look at how a Bill becomes law;

1.     A member of Congress introduces a bill.

2.     Committees review and vote on the bill.

3.     The Senate and the House debate and vote on the bill.

4.     The President signs the bill—or NOT. 

Now the last step mean the President can SIGN or VETO the BILL.  BUT if over 290 of the House of Representatives votes to override the VETO and at least 67 Members of the Senator votes to overturn the VETO then the Bills because law. Seems Fair to me that because ONE Person decide that the bill should NOT become law then a Super Majority can over ride the VETO.

Now if you think I am talking about the President, you would be wrong. Let me give you an example.

There is a Bill in the House of Representative, HR-969, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act that has 334 Members of the House of Representative that support the Bill. Now when I went to school I did learn the 334 is greater than 290. YET in the House Veterans Affairs Committee ONE PERSON, the Honorable Congressman Jeff Miller is deciding, since he is the Chairman that HR-969 should not go to the Floor for a VOTE, EVEN if there is more than a SUPERMAJORITY already in the House SUPPORTING the Bill.

In the Senate there is ONLY 45 Members Supporting S-681, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act. This is 45% of the Senate that supports the Bill. I find it hard to believe that there wouldn’t be at least 6 more members of the Senate would vote for the Bill, but that is a guess. It would be nice if Senator Johnny Isakson would also bring the Senate Version to the Floor for a VOTE.

Now to be fair to both of them I understand they were waiting for the CBO score of the Bills. The CBO has stated that the Bills will cost about $2.4 Billion over the period of 10 years. So that excuse is over. They are also waiting for a Write Up from Secretary McDonald of the VA and the VA was waiting for a Write Up from the Navy. Well the Navy has provided the Write Up telling the VA there were no way they can test a Ship that may have been exposed to Agent Orange back in the 60’s and early 70’s.  Too much time has passed for anything to still be there.

All members of Congress are sworn in with the following oath:

‘I AB do solemnly swear (or Affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or
purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.’

It's easy for Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans to understand this oath because it is very similar to the oath we had to take when we joined the Navy. So the oaths states they are going to follow the Constitution. It some what easy to understand, well, if you can understand the Constitution.

Now MY UNDERSTANDING of the Constitution is that both the Members of the
House and Senate are elected to represent the will of the people that not only elected them but who they represent. This is easy enough for me to understand. Now of course not all constituent are going to agree so they should do as a majority of the constituent want, which is if they are in favorite of the Bill it would seem that their constituent are in favorite of the Bill.

Now to me it seems that at least Chairman Jeff Miller is either Breaking the Law or Violating the Constitution by not allowing the Bill to go to a floor for a vote.  They are deciding what they want and not what a majority of the fellow Members of Congress are wanting. So it seems that the most Powerful Person in OUR government is NOT the President of the United States but the Chairman of the Veterans Affair Committees.

These are my opinion. I’m not a lawyer; this is done with some research and guessing. I have been working for about two years helping to get the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act along with many others. I started the Blue Water Awareness Group on Facebook under 2 years ago and there we have many great members working towards the same cause in getting the Members of Congress to understand why we feel they should bring back the benefits that were taken away from Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans in 2002.

Many of us have the effect of being exposed to Agent Orange; in my case I have Prostate Cancer, which is on the list of diseases that Agent Orange cause. I also have Thyroid Cancer, which there is now finding evidence that Agent Orange may cause problem with the Thyroid. Yet the VA says that I couldn’t have been exposed to Agent Orange since I was stationed on a ship. Yet there are studies both here in the US and in Australia those shows that members of the Navy may have been exposed to Agent Orange by the way of the way the water on Naval Ships distilled for cooking, cleaning, bathing and all the other reason water is used. BUT the VA along with Congressman Jeff Miller don’t believe it.

Mike Yates

Blue Water Navy Awareness

thebluewaternavyawarenss@gmail.com

Update fon Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act

Update from Blue Water Navy Awareness

Supporting Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act

House: 334

Senate: 45

This is NOT a Political Post, this is a Veterans Issue.

I know it has been a long time since I have provided an update and I am sorry for that. We have had more Members of Congress sign onto to support the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act. We now have 334 Members of the House and 45 Members of the Senate supporting the bills. These are good number and we are working hard on getting more support in the Senate so we can get it over the 50% mark. However there are two Members of Congress that are holding back the Bills. We have Congressman Jeff Miller, who is the Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee and Senator Johnny Isakson who is the Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

We have almost 77% of the House and 45% of the Senate supporting the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act yet two Members of Congress are using their power to prevent the Bills from going to the floor of Congress for a vote.

We are asking everyone to help us in Contacting these two and requesting that they allow the Bills to be sent to the Floor for an vote. Also we are still asking everyone to Contact their own Members of Congress and ask them to Contact the Veterans Affairs Committee and ask them to bring the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act to a vote.

We at Blue Water Navy Awareness on Facebook are still working hard to get these two Bills passed. Weekly we are asking all our Members to Contact specific Members of Congress so we can put Respectful pressure on them. So far we believe it has worked. In the last year there have been over 100 House Members signed on and 31 Senate Members. We would love to get the Number of Senators up above 66. Please help use, we are asking not only for ourselves but for all the Other Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans that are suffering from the effect of Agent Orange.

These two Bills are not the only thing we work on, but it is what we are focusing on.

Please feel free to share this information and if you have any questions please feel free to Message Me, email me at thebluewaternavyawareness@gmail.com or come over to Blue Water Navy Awareness on Facebook and post the questions.

You can go to my website at http://www. bluewaternavyawareness. com/senators-not-supporting-s-681.html (remove the two spaces)

Thanks for your time.

Mike

Blue Water Navy Awareness

May 18 - Please make this phone call

ON MAY 18TH, CALL (202)224-3121, GIVE THE OPERATOR YOUR STATE AND/OR ZIP CODE AND THEY WILL CONNECT YOU WITH YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS OFFICE. ASK TO SPEAK WITH THE LA FOR VETERANS AFFAIRS...MAKE IT CLEAR YOU ARE CALLING AS A CONSTITUENT ASKING FOR THEIR SUPPORT OF HR 969 and S 681, THE BLUE WATER NAVY VIETNAM VETERANS ACT"

Washington DC Rally

I have a request. On May 18th I will be in Washington DC attending a Rally and New Conference being held by Senator Gibson from New York.

I am asking all my friend to please read the following and please Contact your member of Congress and request they support these if they aren't. We have 41 Senators and 320 House Members supporting them.

Also Please share this information. We Make the calls and please let any one you know that served in the Navy during the Vietnam War about the following;

ON MAY 18TH, CALL (202)224-3121, GIVE THE OPERATOR YOUR STATE AND/OR ZIP CODE AND THEY WILL CONNECT YOU WITH YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS OFFICE. ASK TO SPEAK WITH THE LA FOR VETERANS AFFAIRS...MAKE IT CLEAR YOU ARE CALLING AS A CONSTITUENT ASKING FOR THEIR SUPPORT OF HR 969 and S 681, THE BLUE WATER NAVY VIETNAM VETERANS ACT"

RALLY IN SUPPORT OF THE BLUE WATER NAVY LEGISLATION

On May 18, there will be a gathering in Washington, DC, of veterans, friends and family members. Everyone is encouraged and welcome to come. We will be having a Rally in Support of the two bills that are languishing in both the House and Senate Veterans Committees. Hopefully, this will bring some attention to the subject and help get those Bills brought to the Floors of both House and Senate for a vote.

Our exact meeting place is yet to be announced, but we will perhaps be visiting the Congress as well as showing up in other locations. Anything you can do to let your local press know about this, the better.

We are simultaneously asking veterans, friends and family to Rally in Support at their own locations, because the trip to DC is long and expensive. So if one or more individuals supporting our legislation (HR-969 and S-681) can make a sign indicating their Support for the Blue Water Navy, they should go walk around outside their nearest VA facility and join in this National Effort. It is a peaceful, compliant, and non-trespassing walk that brings attention to the problems of the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans and to the legislation that can fix that problem. Every event should be covered by your local newspaper, radio and TV stations.

Senators Letter to Secretary McDonald