John R. Davis, Director, Legislative Programs, Fleet Reserve Association Speaks Out

John R. Davis, Director, Legislative Programs, Fleet Reserve Association

Statement of the Fleet Reserve Association
on its 2012 Legislative Goals

Presented to the:

U.S. House of Representatives and United States Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees

By

John R. Davis
Director, Legislative Programs
Fleet Reserve Association

March 22, 2012

THE FRA

The Fleet Reserve Association (FRA) is the oldest and largest organization serving enlisted men and women in the active, Reserve, and retired communities plus veterans of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. The Association is Congressionally Chartered, recognized by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and entrusted to serve all veterans who seek its help.

FRA was established in 1924 and its name is derived from the Navy’s program for personnel transferring to the Fleet Reserve or Fleet Marine Corps Reserve after 20 or more years of active duty, but less than 30 years for retirement purposes. During the required period of service in the Fleet Reserve, assigned personnel earn retainer pay and are subject to recall by the Secretary of the Navy.

The Association is actively involved in the Veterans Affairs Voluntary Services (VAVS) program and a member of the National Headquarters’ staff serves as FRA’s National Veterans Service Officer (NVSO) and as a representative on the VAVS National Advisory Committee (NAC). FRA testifies regularly before the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees and Appropriations Subcommittees.

FRA’s National Veterans Service Officer also oversees FRA’s Veterans Service Officer Program and represents veterans throughout the claims process and before the Board of Veteran’s Appeals. In addition, 171 FRA Shipmates provided almost 12,000 volunteer hours of support at 59 VA facilities throughout the country in 2011, enabling FRA to achieve VAVS “Service Member” status. Members of the Auxiliary of the Fleet Reserve Association are also actively involved in the VAVS program and hold an Associate Membership seat on the committee which requires involvement at 15 or more VA facilities.

In August 2007, FRA became a member of the Veterans Day National Committee joining 24 other nationally recognized Veterans Service Organizations on this important committee that coordinates National Veterans’ Day ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery. FRA also is a leading organization in The Military Coalition (TMC), a group of 34 nationally recognized military and veteran’s organizations collectively representing the concerns of over five million members. In addition, FRA senior staff members serve in a number of TMC leadership roles.

FRA celebrated its 87th anniversary on November 11, 2011. Nearly 90 years of dedication to its members has resulted in legislation enhancing quality of life programs for Sea Services personnel, retirees, veterans and their families and survivors.

FRA’s motto is: “Loyalty, Protection, and Service.”

(there are several subjects addressed in this message by Mr. Davis, we posted the relevant introduction and the last subject on this list which pertains to the issue involving Military Disability)

UNIFORMED SERVICES FORMER SPOUSES PROTECTION ACT (USFSPA)

FRA urges Congress to take a hard look at the USFSPA with a sense of purpose to amend the language therein so that the Federal government is required to protect its service members against State courts that ignore provisions of the Act.

The USFSPA was enacted 29 years ago; the result of Congressional maneuvering that denied the opposition an opportunity to express its position in open public hearings. The last hearing, in 1999, was conducted by the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee rather than the Armed Services Committee which has oversight authority for amending the USFSPA.

Few provisions of the USFSPA protect the rights of the service member, and none are enforceable by the Department of Justice or DoD. If a State court violates the right of the service member under the provisions of USFSPA, the Solicitor General will make no move to reverse the error. Why? Because the Act fails to have the enforceable language required for Justice or the Defense Department to react. The only recourse is for the service member to appeal to the court, which in many cases gives that court jurisdiction over the member. Another infraction is committed by some State courts awarding a percentage of veterans’ compensation to ex-spouses, a clear violation of U. S. law; yet, the Federal government does nothing to stop this transgression.

There are other provisions that weigh heavily in favor of former spouses. For example, when a divorce is granted and the former spouse is awarded a percentage of the service member’s retired pay, the amount should be based on the member’s pay grade at the time of the divorce and not at a higher grade that may be held upon retirement. Additionally, Congress should review other provisions considered inequitable or inconsistent with former spouses’ laws affecting other Federal employees with an eye toward amending the Act.

CONCLUSION

In closing, allow me again to express the sincere appreciation of the Association’s membership for all that you and the Members of both of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees and your outstanding staffs do for our Nation’s veterans.

Our leadership and Legislative Team stands ready to meet with you, other members of the Committees or their staffs at any time, to improve benefits for all veterans who’ve served this great Nation.

http://veterans.senate.gov/hearings.cfm?action=release.display&release_id=ce6eed38-8b1a-4932-a023-5bc86341f9aa

 

BEWARE: Attorney Marshal Willick is a volunteer for Operation Stand-By, a project of the American Bar Association (ABA) Family Law Section’s Military Committee

“The firm regularly provides information to military personnel and JAG offices
world-wide, without charge, participating in both “Operation Stand-by” and the
military pro bono project since the inception of both programs. We’ve provided
hundreds of hours of free educational programs on military-related divorce
topics, for decades, and as recently as last month. My own family includes both
veterans and disabled veterans.” Marshal Willick

Operation Stand-By is a project of the ABA Family Law Section’s Military Committee. (ABA Family Law Attorneys’ Network/North Carolina State Bar) Those who sign up agree to take calls, e-mail or other correspondence from JAG officers and answer inquiries about family law issues in their state. For the civilian practitioner, this is a great source of referrals from other states, Japan or Germany, and a way to provide much-needed help to the lawyer in uniform. And it will be a powerful tool for the military attorney who is providing legal assistance and needs some specific state law information or the name of an attorney who can help this client with his or her domestic matter. All those who sign up will receive via e-mail six handouts prepared by Mark Sullivan on: 1) overseas divorce and foreign/domestic court decrees, 2) how to word a military pension clause, 3) how to retrieve a “lost” military pension, 4) how to get direct payment for military pensions from DFAS (also contains a copy of the checklist used by DFAS), 5) how to assist the servicemember with military pension division, and 6) how to represent the member’s spouse in this area. Effective: March 21, 2001.

SEE NEVADA:  http://www.ncbar.com/lamp/aba_network.asp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Attorney Marshal Willick’s own words:

A legal note from Marshal Willick about developments – good, bad, and ugly – in the application of family law to cases involving military personnel (part two).

“In the 30 years I’ve done military divorces, I’ve seen plenty of bad
behavior on both sides, including a shocking number of military marriages
involving unforgivable recurring physical abuse by members against their spouses
and children.”

“The single most advantaged group of retirees in the United States has no cause whatsoever to complain about it.”

“Zoo keepers “put their lives on the line,” as do construction workers, cops,
fire-fighters, and a host of others. The sort of entitlement mentality
exhibited by the military groups is not (usually) seen from any of those
workers, and neither would or should be tolerated if it was tried. Besides,
whether a career is risky is irrelevant.”

It should not be assumed that the nut-jobs who cannot focus beyond their own
predispositional focus are all located elsewhere. One local member of the
military-obsessed fraternity – a lawyer! – actually wrote in, protesting the
last legal note (No. 46, “Military allowances for child/spousal support,” posted
at http://www.willicklawgroup.com/newsletters), and suggesting that garnishing
military pay was some kind of illicit money-making scheme.

“Military retirement benefits are just like every other bit of property accrued during a marriage, and belong to both parties. This remains true when one party attempts to
convert the form of the benefits to disability after divorce, and thereby steal property already adjudged to belong to somebody else.”

“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”

“Eventually, these nuts will reach Nevada, and it can only be hoped that there is
both a high-enough IQ, and sufficient common-sense resistance to absurdity, to
prevent anyone here from drinking their kool-aid.”

“When a flag-wrapped militant shows up, demanding special privilege in the form of
financially victimizing his wife and children, he should be shunned as the
opportunistic reprobate that he is.”

“They seem to have a nearly universal “if you’re not with us, you’re against us”
mindset, unable to comprehend the possibility that informed, honorable people
might disagree with them.”

“The proponents of the fringe-group positions being sold to State legislatures
are entirely fixated, unconcerned with any opinion but their own, and have no
concept of equal justice under law, equity, reciprocation, spousal or child
rights, or anything else that does not mesh with their particular branch of
jihad. Trying to have a rational discussion with them is the oratorical
equivalent of stepping in bubble gum.”

“The point is the utterly shameless hypocrisy and over-reaching of these groups in adopting whatever rationale leads to the conclusion that they get more –…………”

“Despite all the advantages handed to them, however, some military members just
can’t resist the temptation to ask for even more special treatment.”

“a certain segment of the military community has decided that its members are so “special” that they should be exempt from the laws governing everyone else –………”

“Military members are the single most favored group of retirees in any retirement
system in the United States.”

“They routinely portray themselves as “victims” of the law-……….”

“The groups in question, pretending to be large organizations and operating under
important-sounding names such as “Veterans for Justice,” have persuaded
themselves that they are so “special” that they deserve to be treated
differently than everyone else under the law.”

“It is an ugly but altogether too-often-seen self-delusion.”

“But the fringe military-retiree groups are even more self-impressed, and
self-obsessed.”

“And some of them have gone beyond rationalizing that they deserve superior
rights as a matter of “patriotism,” to believing that a higher power gives some
theoretical foundation for their greed.”

“In other words, they are whack-jobs. But they are persistent.”

“The Arizona statute effectively nullified decades of solid and
nationally-respected case law. (If and when a measure of sanity is returned to
the Arizona legislature, repeal of that measure should be the first matter of
business.)”

**************************************************************************************

AND TO WRAP UP THIS ENTRY, WHAT A PROFESSIONAL THINKS OF MR. WILLICK:

C.  “THEY WALK AMONG US”
It should not be assumed that the nut-jobs who cannot focus beyond their own predispositional focus are all located elsewhere. “One local member ofthemilitary-obsessed fraternity– a lawyer! – actually wrote in, protesting the last legal note (No. 46, “Military allowances for child/spousal support,” posted at http://www.willicklawgroup.com/newsletters), and suggesting that garnishing military pay was some kind of illicit money-making scheme. The inane note ignored, of course, that if garnishment has been ordered, it is because the obligor has ignored his duty to make court-ordered child and spousal support, and that the sum garnished goes to the spouse and children who have been left unsupported.  The point is that there are some members of the Nevada Bar who just shouldn’t be.”