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By GLENDA SANDERS, DAILY SUN

THE VILLAGES — If Tom Bock has anything to say about it — and Bock has plenty to say about it — what happened in Vietnam is not going to happen again.

“We remember the 1960s and the 1970s, a dark time for our country,” Bock said. “Hate for the Vietnam War grew so strong that it spilled over our troops. That’s not going to happen again.”

Bock has been traveling across the nation and around the world spreading that message at American Legion posts, on Capitol Hill and in radio broadcasts since his election to the top office in America’s largest veterans-support group at the Legion’s 87th national convention in Hawaii last August.

At that same meeting, the Legion adopted Resolution 169, authorizing Bock “to use whatever means at his disposal to disseminate accurate information about this war on terrorism, and to engage whatever means necessary to ensure the united support of the American people.”

Bock was doing exactly that Monday when he visited American Legion Posts 284 in Belleview and 347 in Lady Lake as part of a sweep of key posts in Florida.

Bock also shared with Legionnaires his concern over the fading voice of veterans in Washington and the attacks on American values by the American Civil Liberties Union.

 

“We’ve been to Washington, meeting with our friends. We also go to the Hill and see our congressmen,” Bock said in Lady Lake, driving home his point with humor before taking a hard line on the subject of waning support for America’s 2.7 million veterans.

He cited the $1.5 billion shortfall for veterans’ programs in the 2005 budget as evidence of the eroding support from federal lawmakers, and called for a way to “fund the Veterans Administration from year to year to year without having to reinvent the wheel” during every budget negotiation process.

What’s needed, he said, is “mandatory funding or long-range funding” for the VA hospital system.

“Every year we’ve got to go begging to Washington,” Bock said. “We need common sense measures — that’s hard to do in Congress.”

A common-sense measure, he said, would be to make the VA hospitals Medicare providers.

“This would bring tax dollars into the VA system,” he said.

Bock pointed out that only 24 percent of federal lawmakers are veterans, a situation due in part to the way Vietnam veterans were treated when they returned home, which discouraged their interest in government service.

“The veterans’ voice is being shoved aside,” Bock said. “Veterans are being kicked out of Congress. They don’t want us there. They’re tired of us telling them what’s right.”

Bock said the American Legion is committed to keeping veterans from being pushed aside when it comes to support from the government.

“We need not only a voice, but a strong voice. The American Legion cannot allow veterans’ voice to be deleted. The American Legion is not going to back down on this,” Bock said.

Since his election last year, Bock has visited Iraq and Guantanamo.

“We can be extremely proud of them,” Bock said, referring to the American military forces in Iraq. “Morale is high. They know what they’re doing, and they’re good at what they do.”

He said the Iraqis are grateful for what the Americans have done, don’t want them to leave too soon and ask for patience as they adapt to a new way of doing things.

“They’ve never had a police force there,” he said. “They’ve never had that. They’ve had Saddam’s army.”

In Belleview, Bock touched on his visit to Guantanamo and expressed frustration about the United Nations’ condemnation of the way detainees are treated there by people who have not actually been there to observe the way the prison is ran.

“I don’t understand why, in today’s world, Americans are the bad guys,” Bock said. “America is not the enemy. Terrorists are the enemy.”

He said the Americans at Guantanamo have demonstrated an “unprecedented level of care for detainees.”

Bock expressed concern over the repeated assaults on America’s values and symbols by the American Civil Liberties Union, and urged Legionnaires to contact their congressmen, letting them know they support HR 2672, the Public Expression of Religion Act, which would limit government funding of ACLU attorneys fees.

Bock outlined an atmosphere of fear of litigation in public schools, like the one that notified the local Legion post that it could no longer come into an elementary school to conduct a Veterans Day program because the Legion’s Constitution includes a reference to God.

School officials feared a lawsuit would be filed against the district if the Legion was allowed to present the program.

Bock also cited a case in which the ACLU called for the destruction of a World War I memorial in the Mojave Desert because the monument featured a cross on top.

“They’ve twisted freedom of religion around to freedom from religion,” Bock said. “We should not have to work around someone who hates America. These are the people who think Boy Scouts are evil. The American Legion is standing up for scouts and for the Pledge of Allegiance.”

Bock said the nation’s values are “on a slippery slope” when “millions of our tax dollars are going to the ACLU to attack our values.”

Ruth Sovern, first vice president of the Post 347 auxiliary, was impressed by Bock’s address.

“I like that phrase, ‘freedom of, not freedom from,’” she said.

Warren Post, a member of Post 347 and Eastern Area Commander for Florida, said that Bock is a “good speaker” who “really represents the American Legion well.”

Post 284 Commander Ron Amerine agreed.

“He’s a fantastic speaker on behalf of veterans and the nation,” Amerine said.

“He had 2.7 million veterans under him,” said John Burroughs, head of the Legion’s Children and Youth activities in Florida. “He carries a pretty heavy stick.”