First of two parts

MIA, “Missing in Action,” is a status assigned to United States military personnel who are reported missing during active duty service. The U.S. Dept. of Defense also classifies military personnel who have been MIA for 10 days or less as “DUSTWUN,” Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown.

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Victor, a homeless U.S. Marine Veteran, sleeps outside the National Veterans Home. Victor is a bright, articulate and thoughtful American who knows he can succeed in life if he can only find a place to call home so that he can get organized and have an address for his resume.

While it's a frightening thought that any of our men and women in the military would become POWs (Prisoners of War) or remain missing while faithfully serving our country, there's another classification of MIAs that continues to be unacknowledged and unaccounted for by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs and “We the People.”

This unofficial MIA classification is for former military personnel. It is respectfully called Veteran-MIAs, i.e., “Veterans Missing In Action,” because there are nearly 200,000 whose whereabouts are unknown.

Tragically, they are missing in the USA. They have become inactive as productive citizens within our society.

Even though the respectful code at the bottom of the POW/MIA flag declares “You Are Not Forgotten,” Veteran-MIAs have sadly become lost and forgotten.

Battlefield's ‘Code of Honor’

In Los Angeles alone, homeless Veterans represent more than 20,000 of America's best and brightest who once pledged their lives to protect the safety of our own. For a multitude of reasons, they are now homeless and fending for their own safety on the streets of one of the most prosperous cities in the most prosperous nation in the world.

There's an unwritten “code of honor” amongst America's military, and it is faithfully and reverently adhered to by all who bear the brunt of the battle:

“No comrade left behind.”

Accordingly, combat soldiers never will abandon their wounded or dead on the battlefield. In fact, all combat soldiers are willing to put their own life in harm's way just to rescue one wounded comrade or recover the body of a fallen fellow warrior.

The above notwithstanding, homeless Veterans across America are engaged in a major war against the demons of war, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

But why are our fellow Americans shamelessly abandoning these fallen warriors, leaving them behind to fend for their own safety even though they once selflessly protected us from harm's way?

Lonely Battlefield of Homelessness

Think about it.

Why would any grateful American who truly loves and respects his or her individual freedom and independence abandon those who risked their lives for our unparalleled way of life?

Why is the military's “code of honor” forgotten on American soil?

Why do Veterans leave fellow Veteran alone on the “battlefield of homelessness?”

More importantly, why has our own government that sent them to war in the first place, abandon them after they return from active duty, leaving them “Missing in Action” from our society?

Fellow Citizens' Code of Honor

Unlike their active duty days when they had military “buddies” and camaraderie they could depend upon, homeless Veterans are left alone to fight a battle they never volunteered for and a domestic war they do not understand.

Unfortunately, their chances of survival and victory are slim to none.

Too many surrender to the powerful enemy of drugs and alcohol. Many will end this ravaging battle by taking their own lives out of frustration and desperation.

It is incomprehensible that in a country as great as America, there's no fellow-citizen's “code of honor” to protect these once proud and brave warriors who defended the safety of our lives and our liberty.

Instead, we're selfishly leaving them behind while we move forward in the pursuit of our own happiness.

Shame on America

Needed: An Act of Congress.

In America, where virtually anything is possible, why hasn't our Congress collectively agreed to enact legislation that would immediately bring home our Veterans who are Missing In Action?

There is already a Congressional act more than a century old that responsibly resolves this matter by requiring our nation to respectfully provide for homeless Veterans. Unfortunately, the act has been seriously breached, violated by today's VA bureaucrats, corrupt politicians and their self-serving constituents.

Thanks to Honest Abe

It's important to remember that one of the last acts of legislation signed by President Abraham Lincoln before his assassination in 1865 was to incorporate the National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers and Sailors of the Civil War into branches of National Homes for America's Veterans across America.

Subsequently, on March 2, 1887, an Act of Congress was passed to locate, establish, construct and permanently maintain a branch of said National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers west of the Rocky Mountains.

Entitled to Admission

Sec. 2, of this 1887 Congressional Act specifically stipulates:

“That all honorably discharged soldiers and sailors who served in the regular and volunteer forces of the United States, and who are disabled by disease, wounds, or otherwise, and who have no adequate means of support, and by reason of such disability are incapable of earning their living, shall be entitled to be admitted to said home for disabled volunteer soldiers, subject to like regulations as they are now admitted to existing branches of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.” As to Longevity

On March 3, 1888, in compliance with the Congressional Act of 1887, John P. Jones and Arcadia B. de Baker deeded and entrusted 300 acres of some of the most desirable and advantageous land in Los Angeles to the United States government with the restated promise that the land was “to be permanently maintained as a National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.”

Time for a Change

For over a century, politicians and America's citizenry honored both the Congressional Act of 1887 and the Deed of 1888 by providing a National Home of reverence and quietude for America's Veterans to heal from war.

However, over the past two decades this sacred land and Veterans’ healthcare facilities have been shamelessly prostituted, raped, pillaged and plundered by greed and corruption with numerous “enhanced use and sharing agreements” brokered by the VA bureaucrats to benefit commercial entities and non-profit organizations, rather than serving the best interests of our Veterans. It's time for change.

The VA needs to focus 100 percent on its sole responsibility of providing “enhanced healthcare services” for America's Veterans instead of facilitating these so-called “enhanced use leases and sharing agreements” with businesses and special-interest community organizations that take away Veterans sacred land and healthcare facilities, which then hampers and impedes their convalescence, rehabilitation and healing.

Mr. Rosebrock, a tireless Veteran activist, may be contacted at dutysCalling@aol.com

(To be continued on Tuesday)