| Middle Tennessee Chapter Newsletter
March 2010
Editors: Doug Minton & Gus Gustafson
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MOAA Middle Tennessee Chapter Meeting
The Largely Untold Story of the 2nd BN / 7th Calvary at the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley.
1Lt Bud Alley
February 23, 2010
Tuesday, 11:30 AM
Old Natchez Country Club
115 Gardengate Drive
Franklin, Tennessee 37069
We read the book We were Soldiers Once and Young that depicted the story of the 1st BN / 7th Calvary during what became the Battle for the Ia Drang Valley, and then many of us saw the movie which tended to manipulate the facts in order to make the action "movie worthy".
Bud Alley, our speaker was a young 1Lt then, not too long out of ROTC, assigned to the 2nd BN and his goal will be to set the record straight as he provides a narrative of what happened from their liftoff from LZ X-Ray, the relief of the 1st BN, and then the forced march to LZ Albany.
Bud graduated from Furman University and was commissioned a 2Lt in the Infantry in 1964. He would witness the U. S. Army in transition as his final assignment following Signal School became the 2nd BN 9th Infantry (Mechanized), 2nd Infantry Division, which was shortly thereafter re-designated the 2nd BN 7th Cavalry of First Cavalry Div. (Airmobile) as the Army decided to put new doctrine to the test.
Bud returned home on August 1, 1966 and was released from active Duty. In a two year period he witnessed some of the heaviest fighting for a BN sized element during the war, participating in the Pleiku Campaign-Shiny Bayonet, and in Operation Masher White Wing, amongst other actions. During this time frame he received the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, Presidential Unit Citation, RSVN Cross of Gallantry, and the Purple Heart, amongst other awards.
Bud is working on an MA in History at MTSU while currently working at the Tennessee Preservation Trust a 501c3 organization. He married the former Caroline Davis upon his return from Viet Nam and they have two grown children and several grandchildren.
Please come join us as Bud tells his story!
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MTC February Board Meeting Notes
In February LTC (R) Wanda Graham our Personal Affairs Liaison hosted our Annual Personal Affairs program, focusing on VA Death and Burial Benefits. To provide additional insight on the subject, she solicited Mr. Brad Raines and several associates of the Dignity Memorial Network, to share their experience as well as discuss the Veterans Planning Guide, published by Dignity Memorial. Wanda also had copies of the MOAA Military Funeral Information Booklet, which is basically the same information as the Dignity Memorial booklet, available to hand out. I have been through the process as well as several similar briefings and this may have been the very best coverage on the topic that I have encountered to date!
And a very sincere note of thanks to Chaplain Bob Adair for his additional insight on the subject!
MOAA National has introduced their 2010 Membership Program with a special offer for national membership; if you have not previously joined the National Organization members can join for two years for $28.00. Actively serving officers (active and reserve component) can join at no cost for one year. Both programs offer you the opportunity to experience membership for yourself and then decide whether you want to continue. They also offer the opportunity to transition from annual to life member as part of the 2010 program. If you are interested, or know of someone that is please let me know and I will get the necessary forms to you.
We recently began distributing our newsletter via email to those members that agreed with this distribution manner. We have heard back from 132 of the 153 members with email. If you have email, and have not already responded please send your address to info@mtcmoaa.org today.
The MTC Board meets on a monthly basis on the first Tuesday of every month. The next MTC Board meeting will be Tuesday, August 4th at 0700 hours at the offices of the National Guard Association of Tennessee. If you are interested, but unable to meet at this time, please let us know so that we can possibly consider another time for the meeting. (This timing was utilized to allow members that are still working to fit it into their work schedule, but we may have other options which would also work.)
Doug Minton
President, Middle TN Chapter, MOAA
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Member Updates
Please extend a hearty welcome to the following new members:
CAPT Jamie Hopkins
USN
New Commander & Professor of Naval Science
Vanderbilt University
CAPT Jerry Jenkins
USN (Ret)
Did you know that we have a number of members that are deployed, or about to deploy?
Col Rod White, USMC (Ret) is deployed to Iraq
COL Mike Walsh, USA is deployed to Iraq,
MAJ Matt Smith, USA/ARNG is deployed to Iraq.
If you are aware of other MTC member's that are currently deployed please let me know and we will pick them up in later newsletters.
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Legislative Update
Payment rates for TRICARE are tied to Medicare rates. To control the growth in Medicare payments to physicians, a complicated programmed formula, designed to keep Medicare payments to physicians in line with a targeted Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR), will reduce Medicare/TRICARE physician payment rates by 21% on March 1, 2010.
Previous American Medical Association (AMA) surveys have shown that physicians would likely limit the number of Medicare patients they would be willing to treat if rates are reduced. The looming reduction in physician payment rates will also discourage physicians from accepting new TRICARE patients.
If Congress does not take action to reverse the Medicare payment reductions, this situation will only deteriorate, leaving many of our TRICARE beneficiaries searching for participating physicians.
With the implementation of the TRICARE Reserve Select (TRS) program on October 1, 2007, an ever expanding number of beneficiaries within our National Guard community are covered under TRS. Moreover, under the TRICARE for Life program, TRICARE is the second payer to Medicare for a growing population of military retirees.
For the TRICARE benefit to remain readily available to members of the Guard, their families and to our retirees, Congress must not reduce Medicare/TRICARE physician payment rates.
Contact your Senators and Representative and ask them to take immediate action to reverse the planned 21% cut in Medicare/TRICARE payments that will otherwise occur March 1, 2010.
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