An Advocate’s Point of View by Retired Navy Petty Officer Hal Cleveland

Earlier this spring, we introduced several VFW members who shared their stories of advocacy leading up to the spring legislative conference in Washington, D.C. As we continue to hear how VFW members advocate on behalf of their fellow veterans, we want to continue sharing their stories. This week, retired Navy Petty Officer Hal Cleveland tells us why he advocates for veterans and how he recently mobilized his fellow VFW members to tell Congress to protect military retirees and their earned health care benefits.

I have been advocating for veterans since I retired from the U.S. Navy in 1993. From my first involvement with the various veterans’ service organizations I belong to, I have been promoting and communicating legislative actions and news about veterans to anyone that will listen.

I have used the internet to scout for veterans who are willing to use the CapWiz prewritten emails to write our elected members in Washington. However, I realized that a letter here or there was not getting the message across, so I decided to concentrate on my local VFW post, VFW district commander, as well as all veterans who were willing to sign up with me in the congressional district where I live. My reasoning for this was that the more letters a representative or senators receives, the better chance that he or she would take notice of our issues – the squeaky wheel gets the grease theory. Everyone knows that not all the letters get read, but they do get counted and are categorized by subject, so if there was someone in every congressional district in the country that was a VFW legislative advocate, we could make our voices heard!

There is a thin line between advocating for veterans benefits and being political, and many veterans do not know where that line is. I have lived by an old saying of “all politics are local.”

I developed email groups of the various service organizations I belong to, and I am the service officer for my local VFW post. It is a small post and most, if not all, of the members do not require my services as a service officer. This is why I tend to embrace the legislative aspect. I find that there are more non-members who approach me about benefits than members. However, I do enlist the membership’s help in getting Congress to keep or improve what benefits that other veterans have earned.

Last month, the post purchased envelopes, labels and stamps, and I printed out more than 60 letters addressing our congressional representative and senators to stop the unfair increases in TRICARE [premiums]. I can’t say for certain that it worked, but the VFW [Washington] Weekly newsletter I received today states that the Senate Armed Service Committee voted to not allow the increases to TRICARE premiums. At the same time, we sent letters to the House Armed Services Committee and they also chose to not accept the premium increases.

There is a good saying that says, “If you don’t tell Congress otherwise, they will think everything is ok.”

The biggest obstacle that I have to overcome is that to me, it appears that most veterans are usually their own worst enemy. When something is hot and moving in Washington, I will ask a veteran to write in support of a given subject and their answer is always, “that does not affect me; why should I write?” Or, they will try and tie a political party to it. Regardless, you should hear them scream when they have an iron in the fire that they are interested in. Bottom line, if everyone would participate and if everyone sent one letter per week, we would speak with one loud and consistent voice.

I canvas all the legislative updates that I get from the various email subscriptions including the VFW and monthly I will post a legislative newsletter with a summarized version of what I have read. Not everyone responds by sending letters to their representative or their senators, but if they read it, they are more knowledgeable than the average person. Knowledge is a powerful tool, if they use it.

Twice a year we host a community service safety project, which I am chairman of this year, that serves free coffee and lemonade to the traveling public over the Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. This gives me an opportunity to meet with comrades from other posts and also traveling veterans where I offer [our] newsletters to help educate them.

So there you have it. This is my input for suggestions on how I advocate for veterans. Thanks for the opportunity to share it with you.

Hal Cleveland retired from the U.S. Navy as a petty officer first class in 1993. During his time in the Navy, he deployed as an aviation maintenance administrationman in support of operations in Lebanon, Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada, and Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf. Today, Hal continues to serve his fellow veterans as post service officer for Tri-Cities VFW Post 6872 in Crowley, Texas. To learn more about his post, click here. Photo courtesy of Hal Cleveland.  

To submit an Advocate's Point of View or a Field Report for consideration on the VFW’s Capitol Hill blog, simply fill out our online form here, or send photos and stories directly to vfwac@vfw.org.