Page 86 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2020- Online Magazine

HONORING SENIORS
HONORING SENIORS
General Update

The V.A. did agree to build and equip a State
Veterans’ Cemetery in Lubbock, for six to
eight million dollars, if Texas would maintain
it. Mayor Dan Pope and County Judge
Curtis Parrish both think that this is a needed
addition to Lubbock. The City of Lubbock is
very veteran friendly and has offered the V.A.
100 acres of farmland on which to build the
veteran cemetery. State Senator Charles Perry
is helping with our efforts to convince George
P. Bush, Texas Land Commissioner, that we
need a State Veterans’ Cemetery in Lubbock
for West Texas. Dead Veterans are not just
"Dead People". They are loyal Americans
who offered their lives for the United States
of America. They deserve to be honored and
respected.

There are 2000 veterans buried in the City
of Lubbock Cemetery, including four Medal
of Honor recipients, as well as 160 veterans
buried in pauper graves. According to V.A.
records, "553,000 U.S. veterans died in 2016,
A State Veterans’ Cemetery and only 20% were buried in National or
State veteran cemeteries.” There are four National Veterans
for West Texas Cemeteries and four State Veteran Cemeteries in Texas, and we
William Edgar Murphy are still short one million veteran burial sites. According to the
V.A.'s "Where Veterans Live," currently in the U.S., Texas is the
Major General (Retired) no. 2 state, and will be no. 1 by 2027. We need your support.
U. S. Army
The illustration below shows all the national and state veteran
Lubbock, Texas is an urban city in a rural area – the geographic cemeteries in the United States, with none in West Texas.
center of West Texas, the population center of the most veterans
in West Texas or Eastern New Mexico, except for El Paso. The
closest National Veterans Cemetery is 300 miles away – Dallas
or El Paso – and the closest State Veterans Cemetery is Abilene
at 163 miles. Abilene has less than half the number of veterans
in Lubbock, and Lubbock would also be the closest veterans’
cemetery for Amarillo and Midland.

The Steering Subcommittee of Lubbock's V.A. Rural Health
Committee is made up of five retired Army generals: Generals
Mittemeyer, Murphy, Huffman, Sobel, and Harber. The
Committee, as well as Eddie McBride and Abel Castro from
the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce and Lubbock U.S.
Congressman Jodey Arrington, went to Washington, D.C.
during the summer of 2019, to petition the U.S. Congress and
the Veterans Administration for a National Veterans Cemetery
in Lubbock. The V.A. declined because they did not believe New VA Super Clinic
there are enough veterans in our area, even though the V.A. Gary G. Harber
is currently building a $25 million V.A. Super Health Clinic, Brigadier General (US Army, Retired)
which will service the over 300,000 veterans in the West Texas
and Eastern New Mexico areas. The VA Rural Health Committee has come a long way
since our first meeting on 19 December 2009 after Lt. Gen.

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