Jan. 16, 2002 – Top national Veterans Affairs officials will arrive on St. Thomas on Friday for a two-day fact-finding tour of the territory that will include a daylong Sunday forum to focus on problems facing local military veterans.
The delegation is headed by Anthony J. Principi, secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. A cabinet appointee of President George W. Bush, he is a Viet Nam veteran who also served as deputy secretary of Veterans Affairs in the administration of the senior George Bush and before that was counsel to the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
Sen. Norma Pickard-Samuel, who chairs the Senate Labor and Veterans Affairs Committee, arranged for the visit. "We have some issues and problems locally that differ from those on the mainland U.S.," she said.
"The wheels were set in motion for this conference and the secretary's visit during my trip to the Veterans Administration in Washington, D.C., this past June," she added. "Without personal visits to D.C., it is difficult to express to those in power the uniqueness of problems our veterans have in the Virgin Islands."
Principi; Roger Rapp, national Cemetery Administration deputy under secretary for operations; E.D. Clark, chair of the Veterans' Appeals Board; Carl Christiansen, Small Business Administration representative; and Jim Whitson, Veterans Benefits Administration deputy under secretary, will be honored at a reception Friday evening at Government House on St. Thomas, Pickard-Samuel said.
Principi also will travel to St. Croix to visit the Veterans Center and meet with American Legion Post commanders on Saturday morning. He then will return to St. Thomas to hold a press conference Saturday afternoon at the Legislature Building.
Sunday's V.I. Veterans Forum and Exposition will be held at the Wyndham Sugar Bay Beach Resort from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday. It will feature comments by the federal government officials and is expected to cover the variety of benefits available to V.I. veterans.
The Veterans Administration Traveling Timeline Wall will be displayed at the forum. According to Pickard-Samuel's office, the wall, 44 feet long and 7 ½ feet tall, depicts the history of veterans dating back 3,000 years to the time of the Egyptian pharaohs.
Pickard-Samuel said she would like "all Virgin Islanders, particularly veterans and their families, to come out and view this impressive wall and get the important veterans information." Also, she said, "We need to make our voices heard at this forum to insure that the benefits we receive are equal to [those of] the rest of the nation."
