Whiskey, tango, foxtrot - how does something like this happen?!
Meet 69-year-old Jerry Holliman - a Vietnam vet who lost his legs because of his service to his country.
Last year, juts a couple of days before Christmas, a man walked into his nursing home in Collins, Virginia, took Jerry's prosthetic legs, and left. The man wasn't technically a thief - he was a professional repo man.
As an 18-year-old Jerry served in Vietnam where he was exposed to Agent Orange, a dangerous chemical that caused many of our nation's veterans to suffer from cancer and diabetes. Years later this exposure to Agent Orange was the primary source of his health issues.
So what the hell happened?! Why did a repo man take prosthetic legs away from a guy who served his country in the Army & National Guard for over 40 years?!
If you're searching for someone to blame, look no further than the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. They wouldn't pay for his prosthetic legs; they told him he needed to fill out paperwork with Medicare, a process he described as a bureaucratic nightmare.
Jerry told the Clarion-Ledger, "Medicare did not send me to Vietnam. I was sent there by my country... with the understanding that if something bad happened to me, that it would be covered by the VA."
Once again our broken VA system has failed another one of our nation's heroes.
Holliman said he got a pair of prosthetic legs in August from a company called Hanger, which has offices in Hattiesburg.
After a few sessions with the Hanger staff, Holliman said he was told the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs would not pay for his prosthetic legs.
He tried to raise the alarm with staff at the Veterans Home in Collins, a state-run facility, but Holliman said he knows the ultimate decision to pay for his prosthetic legs lies with the VA — an entity he compared to Goliath.
Holliman said he was encouraged to use Medicare to pay for the prosthetic legs, but he was never shown a total cost, and the forms indicated he would have to pay a co-pay.
So he refused, never expecting what would come next.
On Dec. 23, an employee from Hanger came to the Veterans Home to see Holliman. Holliman said the man was adjusting his prosthetic legs, then asked himto sign some paperwork for Medicare.
Holliman said he declined because the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs should pay for the legs in full.
This is horrible - our nation's heroes deserve better.
Just imagine: this is what happens when the government controls your access to healthcare and progressives and Democrats want this to happen to everyone in America.
NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 29: A custom leg socket to attach an artificial foot and a prosthetic leg, both for U.S. military amputees, lie on a table at the Veterans Administration (VA), hospital on January 29, 2014 in Manhattan, New York City. The Prosthetics Center at the hospital constructs more artificial limbs then any VA hospital in the United States, both for veterans suffering combat injuries and veterans who have lost limbs following their service in the military. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)