As a Naval officer who served during the 1960s, I just want to say “Amen” to the two letters in Wednesday’s Whidbey News-Times relative to the real meaning of “supporting our troops.” It is high time that military retiree and VA medical programs be fully funded by sufficient tax dollars.

If that means raising taxes, then so be it. Our troops and military retirees were promised medical care, vocational and educational training programs commensurate with their military service and they are not getting what they were promised. At the same time, there are, apparently, funds available to outsource security and engineering functions previously the province to the military services. In addition, it seems to be perfectly all right to reduce taxes to the upper 10 percent of the populace in a time which the administration calls “war time.”

As one of the letters points out, there is more to supporting the troops than bumper stickers and flag waving. The collapse of the Tricare and VA medical systems is hardly the kind of support that was touted to service members when they entered upon active duty. Lifetime medical care for the career military retiree and for battle injured veterans should not be perverted into partial and inadequate payment for medical services the responsibility for which is passed off to the civilian community or to an inadequate VA medical system.

Paying taxes in order to fund promises previously made to military service members is, indeed, patriotic.

Jerry Case

Coupeville