Friday, September 18, 2009

Day 477 - Sep 18, 2009

Today has been an exhausting day. First the Army purchased airline tickets with a layover for us on Sunday. Kevin can in no way handle a layover - we're lucky he can handle the flight. I was just aggravated because I even reminded our nurse case manager yesterday that it had to be a straight through flight and he was like "yeah, yeah, I already know" and then what happens? They do it anyway. The worst part was that they weren't going to change them because they claimed it would cost too much and I told them that I really don't care. We are not going on a flight that is made longer just because someone didn't do their job and read the notes. So the phone calls kept going back and forth for hours to get this all straightened out and this is just part of what I said in DC...

Why does everything always have to be such a struggle? Why must I have to get into fights with everyone just to take care of my son? The Army knows how wounded he is, so why don't they just do what's right for one of their own? And why do they have to consistently make my job even harder? It's just so darn frustrating.

So then we did come to the hotel at the beach, but so far Kevin's not really enjoying himself. It is very busy here and he isn't handling all of the stimulation very well, so we have been in our room a lot today. I am hoping tomorrow that he will go out fishing with the guys though. He always loved to fish and there are some really nice people here to take him out. Anthony also came and he will be going too so Kev should have a good time.

So now I am going to put some of the links to some of the articles that a few of you have posted about in your comments and then I am going to bed. I believe there will be more as time goes by and I read where somebody said it had been taped so maybe we will get to see it.

Oh and I want to thank Rene' and MOAA and the USNI for inviting me to speak. It was an experience I will never forget.

The AP Article

Stars & Stripes

Air Force Times

The USNI site

A video at MOAA on YouTube

1 comment:

Denver said...

I'm thinking about the big airshow at Mather last weekend...

The DOD has planes that could be in FL in four hours from CA and transport you both and your car to Texas.

I see huge planes flying for hours around Travis AFB just for practice / training.

It's not clear to me why putting on an airshow is worthwhile publicity, but sending wounded soldiers on discount commercial flights is the only affordable option.

I am interested to hear from someone who knows why a plane couldn't be sent from FL to TX on a "training mission" with real passengers.

These planes from Travis fly to Germany, Iraq, and Afghanistan to bring back wounded soldiers who require constant medical monitoring. I'm sure such a plane brought Kevin home.

Taking Kevin in his present condition would be simple by comparison to a full load of patients and flying halfway around the earth.