“DISTRESS CALL!”

By Robert L. Rosebrock, Staff Writer 

At our 65th consecutive Sunday Rally to “Save Our Veterans Land,” which was on Flag Day, we had our American flags hanging upside down. It wasn’t out of disrespect for “Old Glory” but an outcry for help that the sovereign and sacred land at the Los Angeles National Home is being stolen away by the “domestic enemy,” i.e., sleazy VA bureaucrats, corrupt politicians and greedy special interest groups. 

We sent out our “Distress Call” in accordance with the U.S. Flag Code, Title 36, U.S.C., Chapter 10, as amended by P.L. 344, 94th Congress, approved July 7, 1976, and under § 176, (a) “The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.”      

As reported on VT, the Department of Veterans Affairs recently announced plans to transfer 85.4 acres of land from the North Chicago VA Medical Center to the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. 

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Now if anyone really believes that this land is being “transferred” without somebody profiting enormously at the expense of America’s Veterans, then I’ve got some prime oceanfront property in the Mojave Desert that I’d like to sell to such a naïve and dim-witted person.

“You Just Don’t Give It Away For Nothing”
Lest we’ve already forgotten, ex-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich controlled the rights to then President-elect Barack Obama’s U.S. Senatorial seat and he’s quoted as saying: “This is a fucking valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing.”  

Transferring absolute ownership to 85-acres of premiere land in North Chicago versus two years left on a Senatorial seat is like comparing an apple orchard to an apple core. You can bet the family farm that somebody will be profiting very handsomely with this land-transfer scam, and it won’t be America’s Veterans.

What is Value?
Veterans land is an extremely valuable commodity, not only in monetary value, but more importantly in individual sacrifice.  Consequently, there can never be a true price placed on the value of our freedom and Veterans land should never be negotiated away, because it was paid for in life and limb. 

Consider what has taken place at the Los Angeles National Veterans Home where there’s been a multitude of serious violations against the Congressional Act of 1887, which specifically guarantees:
     “That all honorably discharged soldiers and sailors who served in the regular and volunteer forces of the United States, and who are disabled by disease, wounds, or otherwise, and who have no adequate means of support, and by reason of such disability are incapable of earning their living, shall be entitled to be admitted to said home for disabled volunteer soldiers.” 

Equally concerning, there are serious violations against the Land Grant Deed of March 3, 1888, which specifically states six different times that this land is “to be permanently maintained as a National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.” 

With a crystal-clear Congressional Act and Land Grant Deed serving Veterans in perpetuity for more than a century, today’s shysters have stolen this sacred land while more than 20,000 Veterans are homeless in Los Angeles.  How can this possibly happen against the very defenders of America’s freedom, when this is their rightful “Home,” so stipulated in the Congressional Act of 1887 and the Deed of 1888? 

The aforementioned notwithstanding, there continues to be arrogant and flagrant pillaging and plundering of Veterans land with absolutely no accountability regarding the millions of dollars supposedly generated from the enhanced use leases and sharing agreements facilitated between the VA bureaucrats and greedy tenants. 

$200,000 Embezzlement of Veterans’ Money
The Los Angeles Times recently reported that more than $200,000 has been stolen / embezzled from the Veterans golf course. Nonetheless, while this major theft was taking place over recent years, Ralph Tillman, the asset manager of the Wes Los Angeles VA Medical Center (WLA VAMC), wasn’t trying to stop the stealing. Instead, he’s been talking with a “non-profit” group about leasing the Veterans golf course for public use, but it would be “free to all Veterans at selected tee times.” 

Since Veterans will purportedly get to play free on their own course and the public is supposed to pay, what “selected tee times” do you suppose that Veterans will get to play?  As accommodating as Mr. Tillman and local politicians have been toward Veterans, you can be assured that it will be before 5 AM and after 8 PM. 

Put the NCAA in Charge of Veterans’ Land
Compare the $200,000 heist at the WLA VA golf course versus Tim Floyd, the highly successful basketball coach at the University of Southern California, who recently resigned under a cloud of suspicion over $1,000 in cash purportedly given to a friend of former USC star O.J. Mayo.   

How is it that Mr. Tillman is still employed by our federal government with $200,000 of Veterans money missing, while Mr. Floyd had to resign over an unproven accusation of a mere $1,000, which wasn’t’ even from the University? Clearly, the USC athletic department didn’t lose any services over the $1,000 giveaway, yet Veterans healthcare services had to be impacted ever since this $200,000 has been missing.    

It’s rather obvious that our federal government needs to do some very serious housecleaning with the VA bureaucrats and it should contract the NCAA to operate the Department of Veterans Affairs.  One thing for certain, Mr. Tillman would’ve been gone a long time ago and Veterans would not be flying the American flag upside down in a “Distress Call” trying to protect their sacred property and healthcare facilities.

Scandalous Land Deals
Under Mr. Tillman’s “leadership” as WLA VAMC’s Contracting Officer, he has orchestrated numerous agreements that have violated both the Congressional Act of 1887 and the Deed of 1888. As a result, he has been prostituting Veterans land in backroom deals that shamelessly degrade and abuse Veterans hallowed land with privileged entitlements, including many “rent free.” 

Moreover, Mr. Tillman has signed off on scandalous land deals with non-Veteran businesses and non-profit organizations at the expense of America’s Military Veterans. 

Hold Your Nose and Read
Following are only a few of the unscrupulous leases that Mr. Tillman has facilitated to benefit a few of the wealthy at the burden of the many Veterans, including 20,000 who are homeless in Los Angeles. 

•    The WLA VAMC entered into a 20-year agreement with Brentwood School, one of the wealthiest private schools in the nation, for 21 acres of Veterans land to build an athletic field that is off limits to Veterans.  The sharing agreement expires in 2020 

•    The WLA VAMC entered into an agreement with Breitburn Energy. The land use agreement is for drilling oil on Veterans land and the Department of Interior controls the mineral rights agreement. 

•    The WLA VAMC entered into a 20-year enhanced sharing agreement with Richmark Entertainment Group, Hollywood / New York entertainment business, for the Wadsworth and Brentwood Theaters, the only two theaters at the National Veterans Home. They are no longer available for Veterans use but have become readily available for a “cultural community center” for the wealthy neighboring residents.  The agreement expires in December 2025. 

•    The WLA VAMC entered into a 10-year enhanced sharing agreement with Sodexho Marriott on Building 224 for laundry services for their hotels. The agreement expires in March 2010. 

•    The WLA VAMC entered into a no-bid, rent-free enhanced sharing agreement with Veterans Park Conservancy, which is not a Veterans organization but a wealthy neighboring homeowners group, for a 16-acre billion-dollar parcel of Veterans land to build a public community park. The agreement was signed on August 24, 2007 and is a 20-year contract with a 10-year option. 

•    The WLA VAMC entered into a 10-year enhanced sharing agreement with UCLA for a baseball diamond and the agreement expires in 2011. 

•    The WLA VAMC has entered into a 20-year enhanced sharing agreement with the Salvation Army for Building 212. The agreement expires December 2025. 

•    The WLA VAMC has entered into a 10-year enhanced sharing agreement with the Salvation Army for building 207. The Agreement expires April 2015. 

•    The WLA VAMC entered into a 50-year federal lease agreement with New Directions for Building 116. The agreement expires August 2045. 

•    The WLA VAMC entered into a 5-year memorandum of agreement with a five-year option with New Directions for Building 257. The memorandum of agreement expires February 2012. 

•    The WLA VAMC is negotiating a 75-year lease on building 209 with a New York-based nonprofit developer (an oxymoron if ever there was one).  Mr. Tillman chose Common Ground of NY and McCormack Baron Salazar, a national developer of mixed-income urban neighborhoods to operate a homeless housing service, with no guarantees that a resident has to be a Veteran. 

•    The WLA VAMC entered into a 20-year enhanced sharing agreement with Westside Services for parking lots on Veterans land that includes the Brentwood Village lot.  The agreement expires in 2020. 

•    The WLA VAMC entered into a special agreement for Community Soccer Leagues to use MacArthur Field on Veterans land. 

•    The WLA VAMC has operated a Veterans nine-hole golf course that allows the public to play and more than $200,000 has been stolen / embezzled from employees working at the course. Now Mr. Tillman is negotiating an enhanced sharing agreement with a “non-profit” organization and the leader claims to be a family member of the original donor of this land in 1888, even though Arcadia de Baker died in 1912, had no children, and left no will. 

Compromises at the Highest Levels of Government
The major question amongst fellow Veterans and concerned citizens is where has Congressman Henry Waxman been during all of this land grabbing?  After all, he is the elected steward of the largest VA in the nation that is included within his 30th Congressional District, and it is fiduciary responsibility to prevent the abuse and misuse of any Veterans land here, not facilitating it.   

When Sue Young, the executive director of Veterans Park Conservancy (VPC), was asked by the “Brentwood News” how she was essentially able to acquire the 16 acres of Veterans land (valued at nearly a billion dollars) for a public park, rent free, she responded: “Because this arrangement was unprecedented, it required lengthy discussions and compromises with Veterans Administration in Los Angeles and Washington. The agreement also called for approvals at the highest levels, i.e., Secretary Nicholson, and the involvement of the Congressional delegation.” 

There you have it; it required unprecedented compromises at the highest levels of government to swindle a billion-dollar parcel of land from Veterans, and Congressman Waxman didn’t stop it — he approved it! 

Thus, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that Congressman Waxman is listed among VPC’S “Government Supporters” at the highest levels, along with former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, U.S. Congressman David Dreier, Former U.S. Congressman Christopher Cox, James Nicholson, Former U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Hershal Gober, Former U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Anthony J. Principi, Former U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with many other political hacks that have sold their souls for the price of Veterans promised land. 

$1 Million for a Fence
The WLA VAMC also gave VPC $1 million to help build a wrought iron fence to beautify the entryway into their community of Brentwood, while Veterans healthcare services and facilities continue to go under-funded. 

“Beauty, Honor, Country”
The WLA VAMC also gave VPC permission to engrave in stone on Veterans property, “Beauty, Honor, County,” thereby seriously insulting and denigrating the Military creed of “Duty, Honor, Country,” because it was VPC’s mission to “beautify” the entryway into their community. 

The WLA VAMC recently entered into agreement for a “celebrity carnival and picnic fundraiser” with a fee of $1,000 per person and the fundraising money went to AIDS and not Veterans. 

There are more land grab issues and abuse, but too many to mention here. 

Why Not Sell Our Military Bases?
If the VA needs to prostitute our Veterans land to pay for healthcare services, then how about funding the war the same way? Simply lease out or sell the land at our military bases so that the Department of Defense can fund its ongoing efforts to pay for our national defense.

Stop the Fraud!
These “enhanced use lease” scams that the VA have with non-Veteran organizations are stealing Veterans land and each and every one of these agreement all across America must be fully rescinded posthaste. 

If our government cannot live up to President Lincoln’s promise to ” … to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan,” then government needs to stop sending our men and women to bear the battle of war. 

Distress Call!
Every American citizen needs to hang their United States flag upside down in protest against these sacrilegious land grabs, due to the extreme danger of Veterans sacred property being stolen away. 

All of America’s Veterans need rise up and speak out loud and clear every day until we take back all Veterans land throughout the Untied States and government fully funds the health care services required after a Veteran returns from war that are commensurate with the requirements to fight a war. 

Join The Veterans Revolution and help “Save Our Veterans Land.” 

“To remain silent when they should protest makes cowards of men.” -Thomas Jefferson 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rosebrock is a U.S. Army Veteran, Vietnam War-era, HQ USARHAW, Schofield Barracks. He is Director of The Veterans Revolution and Co-Director of We the Veterans, and a Member of the American Legion Press Association. [email protected] 

Robert Rosebrock

U.S. Army, 1965-67, Schofield Barracks, Hqs., U.S Army, Hawaii. Director, The Veterans Revolution, Captain, the Old Veterans Guard, and Director, We the Veterans.