There is so much going on right now, it's getting hard to keep track of things. We're on the verge of a Primary election prior to the Mid-term elections, and things keep happening, mostly bad things, and Obama sits in the White House thinking, "It's cool. I've got this." He goes out, makes a passionate speech, and nothing happens. In the meantime, people are dying (in the VA medical system), our foreign policy is so haphazardly done that we've become the joke of the world, and the National Debt continues to spiral out of control due to potentially criminal spending sprees that have failed to end a recession. Plus, we're now finding out all those "minor details" that Nancy Pelosi said we could read about after passing the Affordable Care Act, and are discovering that the whole thing is "a house of cards" that is hinged on Gen-X'ers who can't afford to pay for the expensive coverage, even if they can negotiate the poorly designed website.
Each time some new, totally irresponsible thing happens, Obama makes a speech. That's his answer to everything. The community organizer has rallied and inspired the troops, so he can take off, play golf, and spend another 50-60,000 taxpayer dollars, and then sit back and think that "It's good to be the King." Personally, I can't wait for 2016, when we choose someone else to do his job. It'll be the first time anyone's done it in eight years.
I will say this, I have been very fortunate, in my lifetime, to have been a recipient of Military Medicine for most of my life. I have records a David Grant (Travis AFB) Medical Center that go back to 1965, and have been treated at Balboa Naval Hospital, Trippler Army Hospital, Oak Knoll Medical Center, and Mare Island Naval Hospital prior to that. Heck, I was born in Bremerton Naval Hospital, so I've had a great deal of my life covered by Military Medicine. I consider it a blessing to have had access to the system for so long.
Yes, I've heard the horror stories. People getting the wrong surgeries, records mix-ups, and on, and on, and on... I've never experienced anything near that incompetent, although I have had a run-in (or two...) with Navy Nurses, but nothing so dramatic as people will tell you. I've had nothing but good experiences for almost 63 years with the Military Medical care, but the best of them all is David Grant (Travis AFB) Medical Center. As I said, I've got records that go back almost 50 years there, and it's one of the reasons I chose to come back to the area when I retired from the Navy.
The hospital was set up as an EVAC Hospital, when I first started going to DGMC, in fact, it wasn't even called David Grant at that time. It was set up on a knoll on the base that backed up to a taxiway where wounded soldiers from Vietnam would be treated, and released (or reassigned). Soldiers would come from Saigon to Honolulu, and get additional treatment before moving the wounded state-side, at Travis. Unfortunately, Travis was also on the itinerary for most of the thousands of soldiers killed in Vietnam, and the base allowed people to watch as the caskets were unloaded, and taken to a warehouse to await further transportation. People had to be respectful, but that never seemed to be a problem, as the sight is quite solemn in itself. When you think that each flag draped box is a person, someone's son, or husband, or brother... I went once, after a high school friend was killed, and couldn't stop myself from crying.
At one time, I had the labyrinth of the hospital all figured out. I could find any "-ologist" in the building. Then they moved to a new building...
I thought the old building was confusing... The new building was built weird, for one, as the first floor on the North side of the building is the basement on the South side. The hospital had four floors on the North, and three on the south. Add to the fact that they are continually changing the building as they update clinics, and incorporate new treatment facilities. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining (really), everything they do seems to make things better for the patients, but it's tough not knowing if you're going to the right place because of some changes being made. Hey, if that's all I have to gripe about, it can't be all bad.
