Star-Journbal Editor
The national voice of America's military veterans is spoken in a Boston dialect uncommon to these parts. But judging from the rousing applause at the end of his speech, he was speaking the same language as his audience this past Wednesday.
Paul Morin of Chicopee, Mass., the recently elected National Commander of the 2.7 million-member American Legion, visited Hillsboro Post #366 as part of a three-day, 16-post tour of Kansas.
He enjoyed two helpings of sausage biscuits and gravy at Post #366, and, after complementing the cooks, told a breakfast gathering of about 20 local Legionnaires what he had wanted to say a week earlier in Washington, but didn't get a chance.
"I had the opportunity to testify in front of the senate veterans affairs committee," he said. "I got five minutes on a panel discussion, because the chairman decided to change the format on how he does the testimony.
"Unfortunately," he added. "It's showing more and more what's happening in Washington, D.C., where grown people cannot get along and do what is right for America, especially for American veterans.
"But what I had an opportunity to say in that testimony was the issues of our organization that are up front, and that we will battle for, until we get them passed."
In an interview before his speech, Morin, a Vietnam veteran, said foremost on the Legion's national agenda is more funding at Veteran's Administration Hospitals.
"All of the major veteran service organizations are united on this front," Morin said. "We've kind of put congress off guard when we united on one major issue that we want to see happen."
Morin, who is on a one-year leave of absence as superintendent of the Massachusetts Soldiers' Home in Holyoke, said he will battle for benefits for all veterans, young and old alike.
"I had an opportunity to be at Walter Reed Hospital to see those young men and women," Morin said. "We're going to see the highest percentage of amputees and loss of sight injures that we've seen since World War II, the way it's looking right now, coming back from Iraq.
"Those young men and women who would have been fatalities in other wars have survived because of modern medicine and being able to get them out of the battlefield so quick.
"What impressed me about those who have suffered the ravages of war, is that they just keep on trucking and they have a great attitude about life.
"That's why I'm happy to be that voice for those veterans who've suffered in battles, to do battle for their benefits."
