[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 21 (Monday, May 31, 1993)]
[Pages 975-977]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Teleconference Remarks With Veterans in VA Medical Centers

 May 28, 1993

    The President. Vincent Maurio, are you there?
    Vincent Maurio. Yes. My name is Vincent Maurio from Philadelphia 
Nursing Home Care Unit.
    The President. And is Eugene Young there?
    Eugene Young. Yes, I'm here at Bronx VA Nursing Home Unit.
    The President. It's good to hear all your voices. I'm here with Vice 
President Gore and with Hershel Gober who is the Deputy Secretary of the 
Department of Veterans Affairs. And as we move into Memorial Day 
weekend, we just wanted you to know and all veterans like you in 
hospitals all across America that we're thinking about you, pulling for 
you. We know you wish you could be home and able to participate in the 
Memorial Day services. But we're very, very excited about the fact that 
you have these phones in your rooms now thanks to the PT Phone Home 
Project.
    And I want to say a special word of thanks to Frank Dosio who came 
up with this idea and to all the people who worked on it: Bell Atlantic, 
C&P Telephone, NYNEX, and especially the workers, the Communication 
Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical 
Workers. There have been a lot of people who worked on this project, and 
we wanted to highlight that by talking to you three this morning.
    And we thought it was an especially good time to do it as we head 
into Memorial Day. And I have a few notes about you guys. I know more 
about you than you know about me now. [Laughter] I wanted to say a 
special word of thanks to all of you. And Mr. Young, I understand you 
have a couple of sons in the service.
    Mr. Young. Yes, I do, sir.
    The President. And you ought to be able to talk to them more 
frequently now. Where are they?
    Mr. Young. One, Korea; the other one in Italy in the Army, sir.
    The President. Good for you. And you have a third child in college?
    Mr. Young. Yes, Queens College.
    The President. So, you have one child handy.
    Mr. Young. Yes.
    The President. Pretty close.
    Mr. Young. Yes.
    The President. And Mr. Maurio and Mr. Patenaude, both of you are 
veterans of World War II, is that right?
    Mr. Maurio. That's right.
    Ken Patenaude. Yes, I am.
    The President. Is it nice for you having those phones?
    Mr. Young. Very nice.
    Mr. Maurio. I think it's an enormous accomplishment, and I think 
it's going to be great for all of us. It's going to get us easy access 
to reach our families and friends at home, a greater sense of privacy, 
and I think it's going to instill in us yet a higher level of self-
reliance, which of course in our conditions is very important.
    So, I'm fascinated by the incredible technology and the genius that 
it takes to put this program together and this phone system together. 
And I've been witness to it all

[[Page 976]]

morning long, and it's been extremely fascinating.
    The President. Why don't you describe it to us. We can't see it 
here.
    Mr. Maurio. I have surrounding me a bunch of electronic wizards. I 
don't understand their language completely, but they're absolutely 
fascinating to listen to. And there's an awful lot of technical 
equipment here, a lot of apparatus, but I think mainly the most import 
thing is volunteer efforts of all the people involved. I think that's a 
little bit of America at work, and it shows what we can do when our 
minds are set down to it. And I would like to thank all who participated 
in this wonderful project on behalf of all the patients, the staff, and 
the administration at both VA Hospital and the Nursing Home Care Unit in 
Philadelphia. I think it was a marvelous effort on all their parts. They 
deserve a great deal of credit, and I'm sure you will have to agree with 
me.
    The President. I do. I hope we can get them the credit they deserve 
by this conversation this morning.
    Anyone else have something to say about this?
    Mr. Patenaude. Mr. President, this is Ken Patenaude from Albany.
    The President. Hi, Ken.
    Mr. Patenaude. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I'd 
be talking to the President. It's an honor.
    And I can't believe that this is happening. It's beautiful, the way 
they have this set up and all the work that these men have put into it. 
I want to thank all the volunteers from the Communication Workers of 
America, the VFW, American Legion, and all the employees at the Stratton 
VA Medical Hospital. This is one of the greatest things that has ever 
happened in my life.
    The President. Well, I think you've earned it. You've served your 
country well, and I'm just glad to be a small part of this.
    Mr. Patenaude. And it's a pleasure to have you on our side.
    The President. Thank you. Well, I am. We've got a very good Veterans 
Affairs Department here headed by two American veterans, Jesse Brown, 
who's worked for disabled veterans for many years, and my longtime 
friend Hershel Gober, the Deputy Secretary, who's a Vietnam veteran 
also. They are keeping me on the straight and narrow here when it comes 
to veterans policies. They've got our administration focused on these 
kinds of problems and a lot of other ones.
    And I'm glad to hear you say that. You say you never in your wildest 
dreams believed you'd be talking to the President. You know there are 
millions of people who would probably like to give me an earful this 
morning, and you can do it. So, you've been doing a great job.
    Mr. Vice President.
    The Vice President. Gentlemen, this is Vice President Al Gore. I 
just wanted to say that the heads of the labor unions whose members did 
this on a volunteer basis are here in the Oval Office with us this 
morning and representatives of some of the companies that made it 
possible. And I think that what people did in pulling together to make 
this phone system possible for you really kind of symbolizes the way the 
entire country feels about your service and about all veterans and what 
our country owes to you.
    The fact that members of organized labor and members of companies in 
corporate America pulled together with more than 5,000 volunteer hours 
and huge quantities of donated equipment, volunteers from the VFW and 
the staff of the VA all working together to make this possible. If the 
whole country could find ways to express what we feel toward veterans 
like this, you'd see more of this. Matter of fact, CWA members from 
other cities have taken up this challenge as a result of what Frank 
Dosio started there, and now it's beginning to be implemented in other 
VA hospitals and in other cities.
    So, we're really proud of you. We appreciate what you've done. We 
join you in appreciating what these volunteers have done for you.
    The President. I also wanted to note that as we get off the phone 
here I know that at least in Albany and Philadelphia several hundred 
other bedside phone units are going to be activated. There must be a lot 
of folks in those hospitals that want me to get off the telephone so 
they can use theirs. They're not going to be activated until we finish.

[[Page 977]]

    I did want to say one other thing to you. Yesterday morning we had a 
nationally televised town meeting here in the Rose Garden at the White 
House with a couple of hundred folks who came from 35 States. One of the 
people there said, ``You know, we're always asking you, Mr. President, 
what are you going to do and telling you what we think you should do. 
What do you think we can do for our country to help now?'' And I would 
just kind of like to repeat something that came out of that conversation 
because I told the woman who asked the question that there are clearly 
limits to what Government can do as well as great possibilities there. 
And a lot of the problems that we have in this country have to be dealt 
with by citizens working together at the grassroots level. And this is a 
stunning example of that. I mean, just think how many people all across 
America are going to wind up having telephones in these hospitals 
because one man had a vision, and his company and his union were willing 
to support that vision. I mean, that's an example of the kind of things 
that can be done by American people all over this country working 
together. Really, he deserves all the credit. I'm just glad to be here 
with this inaugural telephone kickoff.
    Mr. Young, are you going to call your children when we get off the 
phone?
    Mr. Young. I probably will, Mr. President. I'll get the number from 
my wife, and I definitely will call. And they will be excited like I am. 
And I would like to say thanks for the opportunity. And like Albany 
said, I never dreamed that I would be talking to the President of the 
United States and the Vice President of the United States.
    And the Bronx VA Medical Center has some of the best staff there is. 
And we appreciate their hard labor and the volunteer service. And 
they're doing a very good job.
    The President. Well, we're trying to support your veterans hospital 
network. Even as tight as the budget is here and as much as we're 
cutting, we're going to invest some more money in these veterans 
hospitals next year to try to keep the quality of care up for people 
like you.
    Mr. Young. That's true. Yes--[inaudible]--the quality of care for 
the veterans, allocate more funding, and it will bring better quality 
care for the veterans which, you know, they deserve. And the staff also.
    The President. Well, I wish all of you well. Mr. Young, when you 
talk to your sons in Italy and Korea, you tell them that we're proud of 
them on this Memorial Day weekend.
    Mr. Young. I sure will, Mr. President.
    The President. And when you talk to your child in Queens College, 
make sure that there's a graduation there. We need all the kids we can 
get with good educations so they'll support you and I when we get older 
and have a strong economy.
    Mr. Young. That's true, Mr. President. Thank you very much.
    The President. Thank you. Vince and Ken, thank you very much.
    Hershel, you want to say anything?
    Deputy Secretary Hershel Gober. I would just like to say before 
Memorial Day here for my comrades, fellow veterans, Vince, Ken, Eugene, 
we're proud of you. And Secretary Brown and I, along with the President 
and the Vice President, want you to know that we'll provide the support 
that you need and that you have earned. You have entitlements; you don't 
receive benefits. And I want you to know that we're thinking about you, 
and God bless you.
    Mr. Young. Thank you very much.
    The President. Thank you. Have a good day.

Note: The teleconference began at 9 a.m. The President spoke from the 
Oval Office at the White House.