Medal of Honor Society Annual Convention

Britt, thanks for that kind introduction, and for your advice and counsel. And Leroy, thanks so much for the invitation to join you today, and for your leadership as President of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

Let me also acknowledge Colonel Ralph Puckett, our country’s last surviving Korean Medal of Honor recipient. Colonel Puckett, I’m told you were in the Enlisted Reserve Corps during WW II, a combat Veteran of both Korea and Vietnam, the captain of the boxing team at West Point, and that you served as the Honorary Colonel of the 75^th Ranger Regiment. Now, the Korean War is sometimes referred to as America’s “Forgotten War,” falling between WWII and Vietnam. But Colonel Puckett, you will never be forgotten. It’s an honor to be here with you, Sir.

And it’s good to see my VA colleagues: Skye McDougal, our VISN 16 Network Director; Fernando Rivera, our New Orleans VA Medical Center Director; members of our new VA Medal of Honor Program team—Debi Bevins, Jennifer Koget, Jennifer Silva, Annette Field, and Alice Entrekin. Could I ask you ladies to stand and raise your hands? These folks have been here for the duration of your convention. I hope many of you’ve met them or find the opportunity to meet them. They’re good at what they do, and they’re here for one reason—to assist you, and to provide whatever information you need about VA. And they’re grateful for the incredible support they’ve received from Jane Barnes, your society’s Executive Director of Healthcare and Advocacy—Jane, thank you.

Last, but most importantly, all the Medal of Honor recipients in attendance, your family members and guests. I am humbled to be able to spend some time with you. I’m humbled and I’m honored because you are members of the most exclusive organization in our nation. The narratives of what you did for your fellow service members, for our military, and for America describe unbelievable acts of valor—levels of courage and qualities of character that are hard, sometimes impossible, to comprehend. The depths of determination and heights of bravery you demonstrated set you apart and provide courageous examples for all those in uniform, for those who will wear our uniforms in the future, and for every American who understands what you did.

Thank you for your service and sacrifice in combat, for defending our country, and for your leadership today in communities across the nation. We are better Americans for your examples of courage, selfless service, and citizenship.

I want to talk for a few minutes about why VA exists, our priorities, and the scope of what we do. When young Americans sign up to serve our country in the military, we make them a promise. If you fight for us, we’ll fight for you. If you take care of us, we’ll take care of you when you come home. Our nation makes that promise, but it’s our job at VA to keep it. That’s why we exist.

And our vision for the future of VA is simple—provide more care and more benefits to more Veterans than ever before. I believe providing more care and more services means less suffering for Veterans who served and sacrificed and sometimes can’t escape the lifelong visible and invisible wounds of war and service that they bear on behalf of the nation.

Of all Americans, and all Veterans, I believe you best understand the burdens borne by many Veterans. That’s why, in April of this year, we instituted our VA Medal of Honor Program. We want to serve you as well as you’ve served us, and that’s a very high bar to reach. But if we don’t get started, we’ll surely never get there.  

Now, I understand some of you routinely use VA care and services. I know some of you have a hybrid model of care, using other care providers along with VA. And some of you are not engaged with VA at all. And all of that’s fine. If we at VA have done all we can to assist you, if you know what benefits and services you’ve earned, and if you’re getting all you need, all that’s fine. But we want to serve more of you. We want to provide more care and more services to you. That’s our goal for you, and for all Veterans.

Now, most people see VA as a big health care organization. For the most part, that’s true. The Veterans Health Administration, VHA, operates 173 VA Medical Centers networked with almost 1,700 sites offering outpatient-only care, 316 Vet Centers, and other outreach and mobile clinics. With that infrastructure, and over 9 million enrolled patients, VA’s the largest, integrated healthcare system in the country.

We have academic affiliations with over 1,400 educational institutions, including 99% of the nation’s medical schools—120,000 Health Professional Trainees receive training at VA facilities each year. VA’s medical innovations and research have made life better for Veterans and for millions of Americans—the first implantable cardiac pacemaker, the first successful liver transplants, the nicotine patch to help smokers quit, and leading critical investigations into Long COVID to name a few.

And VHA is providing a record amount of care—over 87 million outpatient visits 42.4 million at VA last year. Simultaneously, we’ve delivered more telehealth care than ever before—more than 2.4 million Veterans received part of their care through 11.6 million telehealth appointments.  

But health care is just one of our three major operations. We also have the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) and the National Cemetery Administration (NCA). So, here’s what’s also true about VA. We’re second only to the Department of Education in providing education benefits, amounting to $10.3 billion annually to over 819,000 Veterans and family members. We are the Nation’s 12th largest life insurance enterprise. We insure every member of the military as well as their spouses and children, covered by SGLI. VBA guarantees almost 14 million home loans, and our foreclosure rate is the second lowest in the Nation.

And VBA has been working tirelessly to implement the historic toxic exposure law, the PACT Act, which can be the largest expansion of Veterans’ benefits in decades. Since the PACT Act was signed, Veterans and survivors have filed over 1.1 million claims for toxic exposure-related benefits. More than 630,000 of those PACT-Act related claims have been completed, and VBA has awarded over $2 billion in earned benefits.

VA also operates the country’s largest national cemetery system, NCA, with 155 national cemeteries, and an additional 122 VA-grant funded state cemeteries. Almost 70% of NCA’s 2,200 employees are Veterans—the highest percentage in the federal government. Fifty-five percent of those employees are disabled Veterans. NCA employees know the cost of freedom because they see it every day at work. And NCA also manages the award-winning Veterans Legacy Memorial, an online interactive web site that allows family and friends to share memories for nearly 10 million Veterans, and counting.

All of this is to say that in addition to providing health care, VA is a large enterprise designed and devoted entirely to serving America’s Veterans. And, again, our goal is to provide more care and more benefits to more Veterans than ever before. That means reaching out to all Veterans—including the distinguished Veterans in this room. I understand your Society’s top priority is the health and welfare of the recipient members. Our priority at VA is the same, for all of you, and for every Veteran.

VA and members of your society are not strangers. We have an historic and enduring relationship. Some of our facilities are named, of course, for Medal of Honor recipients. Outside our VBA Office in Washington, we proudly display a plaque with the names of 98 Medal of Honor recipients who chose to continue serving other Veterans at VA after leaving the military. All told, about one in eight Medal of Honor recipients from the World War II generation ended up finding employment at VA—including Hershel “Woody” Williams, whose VA-career spanned 30 years. And I believe Brian Thacker is here today. Brian, also, had a long career at VA after his military service—23 years, I believe.

What I want to convey is that the members of your iconic society and VA have always been connected in important ways. And we want to further strengthen those connections in every way possible. That’s why I’m here today. That’s why we’ve established our new VA Medal of Honor Program team—and why five members of that team are here today.

In closing, I want to ask for your help. If you share with us areas in which VA is falling short, we’ll work tirelessly to fix it. We want to be advocates for all of you and build trust with you—with all Veterans. And I want VA to serve you well enough that you become advocates for your VA. This is an invitation for you, for all Vets, to build new relationships with VA—Vets who don’t have a relationship with VA, and Vets who may have tried VA in the past but didn’t feel welcome. We owe every Veteran better than that.

And when we can earn your trust, when you become advocates for your VA, you’ll be helping us accomplish our top priority and achieve our vision—more care and more benefits to more Veterans than ever before. Thank you all for what you have done for our nation, and for what you’re doing now. Thank you for having me as your guest. I’m truly honored to be here. May God bless all of you and your families, our current service members, and