[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 110 (Wednesday, July 30, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S8374]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 VFW INITIATIVE TO PROVIDE LONG-DISTANCE PHONE SERVICE TO HOSPITALIZED 
                                VETERANS

  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, I rise today to congratulate 
the members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States for 
their program called Operation Uplink. Through private donations, the 
VFW has been able to distribute more than 11,000 hours worth of free 
long-distance calling time to hospitalized veterans and active duty 
troops overseas who might not otherwise be able to talk with their 
loved ones back home. Since I represent a State which especially honors 
national service and has the most combat veterans per capita, you can 
be sure that this is an issue I care about deeply.
  Shortly after I joined the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, I 
learned that none of our country's veterans' hospitals had bedside 
phones. Patients had to collect change to use at a pay phone, or wait 
for a nurse to wheel a portable phone into their room. Not only did 
this inconvenience patients greatly, it added to the burdens of an 
already overworked nursing staff.
  We all realize that a phone is more than a modern convenience; it is 
a lifeline to the outside world for a sick veteran. That is why I 
fought for, and won, $1.5 million in 1993 to support the work of the 
bedside phone project, P.T. Phone Home, in West Virginia and elsewhere.
  A couple of years ago when I was in West Virginia visiting the 
Clarksburg VA Medical Center, I spoke with a World War II combat 
veteran, Kenneth Getz. Mr. Getz had been experiencing serious medical 
problems, but he was much more concerned about his blind wife than his 
own health. He told me, ``We start the day with a phone call and end it 
with a phone call. Phones should have been in here years ago.'' And he 
is exactly right--we have an obligation to make certain that every 
veteran receives the same quality care you or I would want for 
ourselves.
  Unfortunately, too many poor veterans are not able to take advantage 
of the bedside phone service, since for many, home is not a local call 
from the hospital. The thought of a sick or wounded veteran, lying in a 
distant veterans' hospital, cut off from family, children and friends, 
is very troubling to me. It is plain wrong.

  I highly commend the VFW for recognizing this problem and taking 
action. We know that in the long run, veterans who can talk to their 
spouse or children are not only happier, but also have higher morale, 
and that can go far in improving their health. I can just envision the 
comforting effect on a patient like Mr. Getz in having the opportunity 
to talk to his son in Houston or wife in Charleston--all of this made 
possible by the VFW initiative.
  Mr. President, I ask my colleagues to join me in extending a warm 
thank-you to the VFW and its members all across America. I am 
especially pleased to note that this service is being provided by 
private donations, thus protecting the already beleaguered Federal 
budget. This project is a tribute to the many veterans who believed in 
the principles of freedom and democracy strongly enough to risk their 
lives in the name of freedom. By providing prepaid phone cards to sick 
vets and overseas troops, the VFW truly ``Honors the dead by helping 
the living.''

                          ____________________