Honor our promise to help service members

As a veteran, I worry about our troops as conflicts heat up around the world. In particular, I am concerned about what happens to them when they come back from serving our country.

As a country we promise our Service members that we’ll take care of them. But we don’t always live up to that promise.

Case in point: More than 53,000 wounded veterans who were forced to medically retire are not receiving their full retirement pay — just because they didn’t serve 20 years. These are veterans who lost arms or legs, or suffer from PTSD, traumatic brain injuries, or hundreds of other injuries.

Penalizing Service members who were forced to retire because they were injured while serving their country is just wrong.

But it gets worse. More than 300 members of Congress sponsored a bill to let these veterans receive their full retirement pay: the Major Richard Star Act. Yet, at crunchtime, the House decided not to vote on it.

The Senate has a chance to pass the Major Richard Star Act in September as part of the annual, must-pass National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and I’m calling on Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley to support the veteran community.

If Congress sends the 2025 NDAA to the president without the Major Richard Star Act, our country’s promise to combat-injured military retirees will remain unfulfilled.

John D. Mikelson

Columbus Junction