Retirement News : Seniors : Elderly veterans sue Rumsfeld over retirement home

Elderly veterans sue Rumsfeld over retirement home

Date Added: 27-05-2005

Residents of a retirement home founded in 1851 for U.S. military veterans filed a class-action lawsuit on Tuesday against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over cuts in their medical services.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, stated the Pentagon was required by law to provide residents of the Armed Forces Retirement Home with high-quality, on-site medical and dental care. But it said the home, in a drive to cut costs, had slashed the care to unacceptable levels.

The suit, naming as defendants Rumsfeld and the official who runs the home, sought a restoration in those services.

The facility, situated on 276 acres (112 hectares) in Washington and home to about 1,000 residents, was created a decade before the Civil War as an "asylum for old and disabled veterans." Four of its original buildings are listed as national historic landmarks, and President Abraham Lincoln lived in one of them during the Civil War.

"We're not waving the flag. We're not whining. We're just trying to get someone to listen to us," 76-year-old Korean and Vietnam War veteran Homer Rutherford, a resident active in the lawsuit, said in an interview.

"The first thing they did with their budget cuts was to take our medical care away from us," added Rutherford, who performed medical evacuations in the Air Force and retired as senior master sergeant.

Rutherford said the residents brought their complaints to the home's management, a senior Pentagon official and congressional staffers, all to no avail.

"When you're playing football and you get hurt, they say, 'Suck it up.' That's kind of their attitude. We're just too damned old to suck it up any more," Rutherford said.

The lawsuit noted that Congress 11 years ago authorized the Pentagon to double the 50 cents deducted monthly from the pay of military personnel to support the home's trust fund. The increase would generate $7 million more annually, but the Pentagon has not done so, the suit stated.

The trust fund and residents' monthly payments largely cover the cost of running the home.

"The first priority of the Armed Forces Retirement Home is the safety of the residents," said Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman. Krenke said she could not discuss the specifics of the case.

The residents said the facility is supposed to provide a high-quality standard of living for veterans with at least two decades of military service, especially those left unable to earn a living because of a service-related injury.

The residents said the facility had closed its primary medical treatment room, previously staffed by a doctor around the clock. They also cited a shortfall in basic medical supplies and the elimination of an on-site pharmacy, X-ray services and mortuary services.

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