Art Sloane

If you served in Vietnam and along the DMZ in Korea and have children or grandchildren you need to file VA Form 21-0304. This is a birth defect disability claim which won’t go anywhere at this time. It is being used for research. If or when it is determined that a presumptive or child disability was caused from a parent who served in Vietnam and connected was in contact with Agent Orange, your children or their children may be covered under VA disability. There’s a big push by the Vietnam Veterans of America and some people in Congress to get this research started ASAP. Make sure you send it to the address on the form, not your local VA. You may obtain the form at your local VA or Arizona Dept of Veterans Service office. Get the form from the VA website.

WWII Vets: The organization that puts on the Phoenix Veterans Day Parade needs your input. They are asking you to submit your name, phone number and information about your WWII service to [email protected]; 100 veterans from WWII will be honored during the parade. Please only submit by e-mail. If you do not have e-mail please have someone send it for you. This year’s parade will be honoring all WWII veterans but they only have space for 100.

I know there are many residents of Chandler and Sun Lakes that are retired veterans. “I expect that many Tricare For Life beneficiaries have used their two courtesy fills at a retail pharmacy already,” said Dr. George Jones, Chief of the Defense Health Agency (DHA) Pharmacy Operations Division. This means that if they fill their maintenance medications at retail again, they may have to pay the full cost of the medication out of pocket. Switching prescriptions from a retail pharmacy to home delivery can save beneficiaries as much as $152 a year for each prescription they move. To switch a prescription to home delivery, beneficiaries can call Express Scripts, the TRICARE pharmacy contractor, at 1-877-882-3335. They can visit the Express Scripts website at www.express-scripts.com/TRICARE, ask their provider to electronically prescribe directly to “Express Scripts Mail Pharmacy” or mail in a registration form and hard copy of their prescription. Beneficiaries who want to use a military pharmacy should first call their local military pharmacy to make sure their prescription is available. For more details on the TFL Pharmacy Pilot, please visit www.tricare.mil/tflpilot.

Navajo Code Talkers have been in the news lately concerning those great men who helped win WWII. Did you know that they were not even given the right to vote until after WWII? It took a lawsuit to make the first residents of Arizona have the right to vote and that did not take place until after July 15, 1948. The lawsuit was filed by two residents, both veterans of WWII of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Reservation. Another resident, Ira Hayes, who never had the right to vote, is honored every February in Sacaton and was glorified in the WWII Marine Memorial in Washington D.C.

Art Sloane may be contacted at 480-802-6810 or [email protected].