Veterans pouring into town with calls for better treatment

Friday, Aug. 21, 1998 | 10:49 a.m.

When soldiers were on break from the rigors of duty, it was not uncommon for the commander to say "smoke 'em if you got' em."

Soldiers had little trouble finding a pack of cigarettes because they were routinely put in government-issued rations. And for many years, military bases have offered cigarettes several dollars cheaper per carton than in most civilian retail stores.

The government made efforts to help veterans quit the habit, but Congress later cut the $15.5 billion to fund that and other veterans assistance projects, sparking anger from veterans organizations.

On Saturday 4,000 members of the million-member Disabled American Veterans organization will start pouring into town for a convention that runs through Thursday at the Las Vegas Hilton. Among the topics of discussion will be the cigarette issue and numerous other defunct programs that veterans -- especially those severely wounded in battle -- feel should be restored.

"We hope to accomplish getting out the word that we need to be taken better care of than the government is now doing," said longtime Henderson resident Pete Buell, past state president of the DAV, and one of the convention's local organizers.

"The government helped a lot of (ex-military) get hooked on cigarettes, but because of federal budget cuts, the funding to help solve that problem was taken away, and a promise made to veterans has not been kept."

Buell, a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars, says about 75 Nevadans, including 50 from Southern Nevada, will attend what will be the seventh DAV national convention held in Las Vegas. The convention will return to Nevada in 2000, and both Las Vegas and Reno are in the running for the site.

The 78-year-old DAV has more than 5,500 members in Nevada, including more than 3,000 in Southern Nevada.

The Cincinnati-based organization is interested in protecting the rights of not only its members, but also 26 million veterans of all United States-involved wars.

"It is notable that, at a time when Steven Spielberg is honoring the service of America's veterans in the hit movie 'Saving Private Ryan,' some in Congress and the administration are seeking to take away (veterans) benefits," National DAV Commander Harry McDonald said recently.

"Our mission at this national convention is to lay the groundwork that will strengthen the resolve nationwide in retaining our rights and benefits. The DAV is bitter that some in Congress and the administration have abandoned this nation's moral obligation to veterans and are trying to dismantle the programs and services that (veterans) so desperately need."

The DAV is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 1920 and chartered by Congress in 1932. To gain membership a veteran has to have suffered a service-connected disability. A large number of its members are ex-military personnel who were wounded in combat.