[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 13214-13216]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   REMEMBERING MAURICE ``MO'' BAILEY

  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Madam President, as I mentioned, this has been a very 
difficult week for our military and our veterans communities in the 
State of Alaska. On Tuesday of this week we came together in Sitka, at 
Sitka Air Station, the Coast Guard air station there, to honor the 
memory of three members of the U.S. Coast Guard who gave their lives in 
a very tragic accident, the crash of an H-60 Jayhawk helicopter. This 
was off the coast of Washington on July 7. It was a real tragedy for 
the Coast Guard families as a whole. The community of Sitka is one that 
truly embraces the men and the women of the Coast Guard. In addition to 
being the ones who pluck the fishermen out of the sea when they are in 
jeopardy or at risk, these are the men and women who are helping in the 
local churches, helping with Boy and Girl Scouts, coaching the kids. 
They are truly members of our community. The loss of these three men is 
very painful for us all.
  I attended that ceremony on Tuesday in the hangar in Sitka. After I 
left, I took the flight back to Washington, DC. I took the redeye. When 
I arrived on Wednesday morning I was informed of the passing of a very 
dear friend of mine, a gentleman who made a profound contribution to 
the lives of so many of Alaska's veterans. I am speaking today of an 
individual by the name of Maurice Bailey. We called him Mo. Mo was from 
Wasilla, AK, and he was a disabled Vietnam era veteran who fought the 
VA bureaucracy to obtain his earned benefits.
  He fought for himself and he was successful in that, but he went 
beyond that. He devoted the rest of his life to ensuring that the 
challenges of Alaska's veterans were not forgotten. He focused his 
efforts on those veterans who live in more than 200 rural communities 
that are not connected by road to the rest of Alaska or certainly to 
the continental United States. These are the communities of bush 
Alaska.
  In 2003, Mo founded Veterans Aviation Outreach. This is an 
organization of volunteer pilots who travel to rural Alaska, to the 
communities that are hundreds and hundreds of miles from the nearest VA 
facility. He and his other volunteers did what the VA simply was not 
doing. They sought out those forgotten veterans and helped them in 
every way they possibly could.
  When you listen to the stories about what Mo did and what the 
Veterans Aviation Outreach group did, it was a little bit of 
everything. They helped the veterans fill out applications for their 
benefits. Oftentimes it meant volunteering to fly a veteran to 
Anchorage for a medical appointment or perhaps raising the money for an 
airplane ticket. In so many of our very rural, very remote communities, 
there is no road. You don't get in your car and drive. So for the 
veteran to go for care, they may be traveling hundreds of miles. They 
don't have the money to do so. So Mo would bring his guys together or 
he would get in his plane and he would fly out there and pick them up.
  Sometimes the help meant delivering moose meat, clearly a very 
desired food staple in rural Alaska. Sometimes it meant building a 
wheelchair ramp in a veteran's home. This was an all-volunteer 
operation. It functioned on raffles

[[Page 13215]]

and bake sales. All too often the money came straight from the pockets 
of its own volunteers.
  We are a State that reveres all of our veterans. In Alaska we are 
home to more veterans per capita than any other State in the Union. We 
are also known as a very strong State for voluntarism. Support for 
veterans is clearly the rule. In many of the communities it is 
difficult to provide for that level of support, but we figure out a way 
to do it anyway.
  It is universally acknowledged that there was something exceptional 
about Mo Bailey. His was a life of selfless service, sacrifice, and 
humility. He was truly a cut above the rest, and that is a pretty 
strong statement when you consider the many veterans who call Alaska 
home. But Mo never sought recognition for himself. He was so humble. 
But this did not stop his friends from ensuring that he received the 
recognition he had so honorably earned. In 2007, Mo was awarded with 
the prestigious Alaska Governor's Veterans Advocacy Award. I do not 
believe I am overstating when I say today that we mourn the loss of one 
of our State's most significant veteran leaders.
  Mo Bailey was born in 1939 and grew up in Memphis, TN, during the Jim 
Crow era. The story goes he was looking up at the B-17s flying overhead 
and he told himself: Someday I am going to be flying those. Mo 
recounted, in a 2009 interview published in the Frontiersman newspaper:

       Black people there said they didn't think this would ever 
     happen. But at 7 years old I knew this is the United States 
     of America and you can do anything you want to do. That was 
     my heart's desire.

  Those were Mo's words.
  Mo enlisted in the Army at the age of 17. I say to the pages down 
here, he joined the Army at 17. He forged his father's signature on the 
consent form. Then he served 20 years. He pulled two tours in Vietnam 
and one in Alaska. He was a helicopter crew chief and a gunner.
  Then, upon retirement from the Army, he decided to stay in Alaska and 
get involved in our community. He became a private pilot and a flight 
instructor. He was a trained Veterans Service Officer and he served as 
president of the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 903 in the 
Matanuska-Susitna Valley.
  It was not too long ago that Mo discovered he had leukemia, but he 
said it was not going to slow him down. In an interview in the 
Frontiersman newspaper Mo said:

       I feel as though I'm probably on somebody else's time. But 
     that's OK. There is no quit. No way, no how. I'm never going 
     to prepare myself to die. Never.

  Mo really did live his life and live it large.
  I got a call in early January. I was traveling and I got a call from 
my staff person out in the Mat-Su Valley and he said: Mo has leukemia. 
He is not doing well. He is in the hospital and this may be it.
  I called the hospital. A man answered. I asked to speak to Mo. The 
guy on the other end said, ``Well, this is Mo.''
  I said: Mo, you sound pretty healthy.
  He said: Yes, they tell me I am not going to make it. They tell me I 
am done. I am in the hospital. But I just don't feel like dying. I 
don't feel like I am ready.
  I said: Mo, you don't sound like you are going anywhere. You sound 
like you have got a lot of fight left in you.
  Mo said: You know, there are some things I want to do. I have been 
working on this veterans gathering. It is a big gathering in the valley 
with so many of our Alaskan veterans. I have got a lot of things to do. 
I have got some things I want to give you. You know, I am focusing on 
that.
  I said: Mo, I will see you in May at the gathering.
  This was January and he had been told this was pretty much the end. 
But in May Mo hosted the gathering in Palmer, his annual day-long event 
that provides Alaska vets across the generations an opportunity to 
spend time with one another. They listen to music. They donate 
something to the Veterans Aviation Outreach, and they have a lot of 
fun.
  There are some speeches, too. You can't go to any veterans gathering 
without a speech or so. But at that May gathering, Mo honored me with a 
Veterans Aviation Outreach jacket. It has my name on it and I am an 
honorary member of the Veterans Aviation Outreach.
  Mo stood with me there and we both talked about the fact that, back 
in January, May looked like it was a long way away. But Mo is a 
fighter. Mo was not one who was going to go out easy.
  At those many speeches I told those at the gathering that as much as 
I can do, as much as I want to do for our veterans, I am here in the 
Senate to help Alaska's and all veterans. I said: Mo, I will never hold 
a candle to you, but I sure promise to try. And I promised to try to do 
more, and today I renew that commitment in Mo's loving memory.
  Many of us who were gathered there thought that event was going to be 
Mo's ``last hurrah,'' and indeed that is the way it turned out. But Mo 
continued to fight right up until the very end on Tuesday evening.
  I could go on for a while about Mo's work in service to the Alaska 
veterans community, but I would suggest it is probably a more powerful 
statement, a more powerful story, if it is done in Mo's own words. I 
ask unanimous consent that two articles, one from the Vietnam Veterans 
of America magazine and the other from the Anchorage Daily News, be 
printed in the Record at the conclusion of my remarks.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (See exhibit 1.)
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. I place these articles in the Record not only because 
Mo's legacy needs to be preserved in history, not only to do justice to 
the tremendous contribution of Mo Bailey, I am really hoping these 
articles will catch the attention of some of the senior officials 
within the VA. Reading about the gaps in service Mo Bailey sought to 
fill might challenge the VA to think a little bit harder about how it 
can improve its service to other rural veterans. At the very least, it 
might cause the VA to acknowledge the debt it owes to people like Mo 
Bailey and so many others in our veterans service organizations who are 
giving of their own time, their own energy, their own money, to fill 
these gaps. So maybe, just maybe, Mo's story, which has been an 
inspiration to so many of us in Alaska, will also inspire the VA to do 
more and to do better.
  On behalf of all of my Senate colleagues, I express my deepest 
condolences to Mo's wife Ann and all of those who have been touched by 
Mo Bailey's generosity and kindness.

                               Exhibit 1

      Reaching the Unreached in Alaska Veterans Aviation Outreach

                            (By Jim Belshaw)

       In the course of his 20-year Army career, Maurice Bailey, 
     president of VVA Chapter 903 in Mat-Su, Alaska, pulled two 
     tours in Vietnam and one in Alaska. He thought Alaska was a 
     ``cool place'' and went back there to live. It was different 
     from anything he'd known, and he liked things that were 
     different. Since 1980, the mechanic-turned-pilot has flown 
     small fixed wing aircraft around the state. With a handful of 
     other veteran-pilots, he's hoping to turn those long years of 
     experience in the air into something that will help Alaska's 
     aging veteran population.
       As Bailey himself got a little older, he said he decided to 
     put in for ``some VA disability stuff Agent Orange-related 
     and PTSD. Just a whole gamut of stuff.'' He said the VA 
     experience ``wasn't a cakewalk,'' but when it was done the VA 
     found him to be 90 percent disabled. That got him to thinking 
     about other veterans. 74,000 of whom live in Alaska, some in 
     remote villages far from any kind of service, Alaska being a 
     good place to be alone if that's your desire. There are 234 
     villages in Alaska. They range in population from 50 to 500. 
     A big town might have as many as 2000.
       ``A lot of people are hiding,'' Bailey said. ``They just 
     wanted to run away. They just don't want to be bothered.''
       He'd spent many year flying to such places. While he 
     noticed the large number of veterans, he didn't give it much 
     thought until he went through his own VA experience. He 
     wondered how many of Alaska's veterans might be so far 
     removed that they didn't know they had benefits coming, let 
     alone how to get them.
       He became a veterans service officer. It seemed the natural 
     for him. He met men he hadn't expected to meet.
       ``I met World War II guys,'' he said. ``One guy in 
     particular, a tough old guy 84 years old. He was gut shot 
     twice, medically discharged, and given a 30 percent 
     disability. He

[[Page 13216]]

     quietly disappeared into the wilds of Alaska. When I met him, 
     he was still flying airplanes. The oldest guy I saw was 90 
     years old.
       He says he doesn't mean to criticize the VA when he says it 
     needs to do outreach. He thinks that if the VA did a credible 
     job of outreach, it would be overwhelmed by the needs of 
     veterans. He thought perhaps a smaller number of people 
     working on a modest scale might be a good place to begin.
       Maurice Bailey got together with other veteran pilots--Tom 
     Baird and Joe Stanistreet (no longer with VAO) and Chuck 
     Moore--to talk about the possibility of doing outreach 
     themselves. Bailey had been doing it on his own for a year 
     and asked his friends if they'd like to join him. A fourth 
     later joined the group--Jim Kendall, a photographer and 
     navigator.
       From these conversations grew Veterans Aviation Outreach, 
     Inc., three veteran pilots flying their own airplanes to 
     reach people who live ``off the road'' in a place not known 
     to have many roads. Many of those veterans live in what is 
     described as ``survival mode'', barely existing, often 
     finding comfort in alcohol, only to have the alcohol lead to 
     unemployment.
       From the beginning, Bailey said, trust was the critical 
     factor in the success they've had. Because of his long 
     experience flying around Alaska, he came to know many of the 
     distant veterans. It made a difference when he broached the 
     subject of benefits. By way of illustration, he tells of 
     another veteran who went to a small village where no one came 
     out to greet him. But when Aviation Outreach went to the same 
     place, they signed up 29 people in two days for health care 
     and benefits.
       ``These guys have seen me around these villages and they 
     trust me,'' Bailey said. ``I know most of them. I know their 
     kids.''
       Bailey said Moore, with whom he served in Vietnam 38 years 
     ago, is a key player in the effort and the pilot with the 
     most experience.
       ``He was a young pilot (19) and I was an old man (25),'' 
     Bailey said. ``He flew gunships. He left the Army and went 
     into the Navy to fly jets. He flies 90 percent of the 
     missions for VAO. At this time he also flies for the State of 
     Alaska. We have three pilots and four airplanes. Chuck owns 
     two airplanes and the other two are owned by Tom Baird and 
     myself.''
       Tom Baird underscores the importance of trust with the 
     veteran's community.
       When I travel in the bush, most contacts are developed by 
     these kinds of relationships,'' he said. ``Once you establish 
     a relationship with an individual as a friend, you end up 
     being steadfast friends. Individual homes are open to one 
     another. Most of the people in this state will stop and give 
     a hand if you need it. We want to reach the unreached who are 
     out of sight and out of mind. These individuals are extremely 
     independent. They like to do things for themselves whether 
     they can or not.''
       Bailey says the four members of Veterans Aviation Outreach 
     have no grand illusions. They try to do ``small stuff.'' They 
     sign people for VA benefits; they recruit new VVA members. 
     Believing there is strength in numbers, they do what they can 
     to build the veterans community.
       They built a wheelchair ramp for a veteran to get in and 
     out of his house. He's 50, Bailey said, and he'd ``given up 
     on life.'' So they do small things that will enhance that 
     life.
       They put in a claim for a veteran suffering from diabetes. 
     It took eight months to settle, but the veteran received 
     $4,000 in back pay and now gets $200 a month for the rest of 
     his life.
       ``He's real happy because now he can buy fuel oil,'' Bailey 
     said.
       Bailey is direct when dealing with veterans, ``I try to 
     explain to them, ``Look guys, you're old and you're sick 
     now,'' he said.
       Tom Baird said decisions between quantity and quality is 
     always difficult.
       ``We've run into difficulty making decisions about reaching 
     as many people as we can or making sure those we have 
     contacted are taken care of before we move on,'' he said. 
     ``Because of the difficulties of processing and getting 
     things done, it's looking like we're going to go for quality 
     first. These guys already had been promised the world and 
     gotten nothing, so it makes no sense to go out there if we're 
     not going to be able to do it right.''
       Maurice Bailey counts his blessings and speaks of a duty to 
     share them.
       ``Life has been pretty good to me,'' he said. ``I live 
     pretty good. But we're here for more than to just live pretty 
     good. We're here to help people when they need it.''

             [From the Anchorage Daily News, Nov. 18, 2008]

Pilots Bring Hope, Help to Veterans in Alaska--VAO: Outreach by 7 Vets 
          Includes Food, Claims Help and Flights to the Doctor

                           (By Zaz Hollander)

       Wasilla--A national veteran's group report released last 
     month highlighted health-care struggles facing Alaska Army 
     National Guard members returning from deployments to rural 
     villages. But news of under-served Bush veterans came as no 
     surprise to Maurice ``Mo'' Bailey, a Wasilla flight 
     instructor who served as a helicopter flight engineer with 
     the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.
       Several years ago, Bailey and six other veterans--also 
     pilots--took to the skies in their own planes to help 
     veterans living in Western Alaska. All had flown the area for 
     fun, and saw veterans in need of help. In 2003, Bailey 
     created a nonprofit, Veteran's Aviation Outreach, which 
     serves ``isolated veterans'' in rural or remote parts of 
     western Alaska and elsewhere.
       The men mostly help people file for Veterans Administration 
     benefits. But they've also flown out veterans in need of 
     medical care, made sure deceased veterans got flags for their 
     graves, and shared literally tons of moose meat scored from 
     helpful guides.
       In 2005, they filed benefit claims on behalf of six Naknek 
     veterans. The next year, they flew a rural resident to 
     Anchorage for emergency medical care, a visit that also 
     resulted in diagnoses--and later treatment--of diabetes and 
     post-traumatic stress disorder.
       Now 69, Bailey last year received the Governor's Veterans 
     Advocacy Award for his ``outstanding volunteer service.''
       He talked about the flying outreach group during a recent 
     conversation.
       Q. Why did you start?
       A. Seeing the conditions that many veterans are in. Me and 
     the rest of the pilots used to fly to western Alaska. We saw 
     that people would have medical problems and some people in 
     some cases died, leaving huge debts. Had they known they had 
     benefits, the VA would have taken care of that. It's mostly 
     information: these people are clueless. Once you're released 
     from the military, you are not tracked, updated.
       Q. Why western Alaska?
       A. We were retired, just kind of goofing around (and flying 
     the area). They're all combat pilots--the rest of the guys 
     are. I'm not. We were all in Vietnam together. All of us are 
     retired from the military, looking at our brothers and 
     sisters and saying, ``Well, what can we do?'' We didn't set 
     out to do this, trust me. We were enjoying our retirement, 
     our grandchildren.
       Q. Can you give me some specifics of the kind of outreach 
     you do?
       A. We've been to all villages up and down the Kvichak River 
     and Lake Iliamna. We found out veterans had been buried 
     without flags. We decided that was totally unacceptable.
       Q. Where was that?
       A. It was in Newhalen on Lake Iliamna. We came back and 
     went around to organizations such as the VFW. We got flags at 
     the Wasilla Vet Center. We took flags out to make sure that 
     people who had died recently, they received flags they hadn't 
     gotten before and we left flags there so they could have them 
     to take to six surrounding villages. That was last year.
       Q. What about more recently?
       A. We help veterans, no matter where. Last month, a guy was 
     on dialysis. He had to come into Wasilla three times a week. 
     He lived in Sutton. His house was not sanitized, broken 
     pipes. We took a couple ladies out, cleaned the house, took a 
     plumber out to fix pipes for water, built a handicapped ramp. 
     Now he's able to do his dialysis at home.
       Q. Where does the money come from?
       A. Most of it comes out of our pockets. Sometimes people 
     give fundraisers, spaghetti dinners, garage sales, cookie 
     bakes or whatever. We do lots of stuff. I tell you what, I'm 
     not just bragging, I'm really proud. We've had a heckuva 
     impact doing things for people, little things that 
     (otherwise) people, they got to paperwork it to death.
       We just gave away 2,100 pounds of moose meat. We do it 
     every year, have a deal with guides in Healy. They bring 
     Lower 48'ers on hunts. They want horns. We want meat. We 
     caravan a couple of trucks, pick up the meat and have it 
     processed. The neediest people get it first. Valley veterans. 
     Actually, we sent meat to the Bush--400 pounds last year to 
     Naknek. Last week we also bought two freezers for needy 
     veterans and filled both up with meat.
       Q. How many veterans do you serve?
       A. I just started tracking that. We see and help maybe two 
     veterans a week. On a large scale, like the meat giveaway, 
     it's to 50 to 60 people. Out in the Bush, we file claims for 
     people with disabilities, illnesses. We do a little bit of 
     everything.
       Q. Where's the next trip?
       A. Dillingham. Hopefully (early November). We'd like to 
     have a gathering there. We had 600 people last spring at a 
     Wasilla Airport gathering, with a barbecue and a band . . . 
     We had World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan 
     vets.
       What made it so amazing was that these young guys that just 
     returned from Iraq and Afghanistan were able to communicate 
     and talk to guys that was in World War II. A lot of those 
     guys won't be around here next year.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey is recognized.

                          ____________________