McCain makes stop for veterans forum
By Steve Herring
Published in News on October 17, 2014 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain, left, addresses the panel during a forum Thursday at the Wayne County Veterans Services Center. McCain has been stumping for state Speaker of the House Thom Tillis, right, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan in the Nov. 4 election.
Taking care of veterans, protecting the state's military installations and finding ways to mitigate sequestration are issues that North Carolina's next U.S. senator needs to make sure Congress understands.
Congress also needs to understand that now is not the time to downsize the military.
That was the message state House Speaker and U.S. Senate hopeful Thom Tillis and U.S. Sen. John McCain brought before a Thursday morning veterans forum in Goldsboro.
Tillis and McCain, who has been stumping across the state for Tillis, were at the Wayne County Veterans Services Office for the half-hour forum put together by state Rep. John Bell of Goldsboro.
They also used the gathering to take a few pokes at President Barack Obama and Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, Tillis' opponent in the Nov. 4 election.
McCain told the 50 or so veterans and supporters that Tillis is a proven leader who is needed in the Senate. Both said that Ms. Hagan is uninformed on matters of national security because of her poor attendance record at committee meetings.
However, most of the conversation focused on veterans' issues.
What is happening in the VA is not only a scandal, but a disgrace and a black mark on the honor of America, McCain said.
The VA is good at some things, and not so good at others, he said. Some services are more readily available and more efficient in the private health care system.
The country needs to look at areas that the VA does well, but look outside for the ones it does not, he said.
"Give \(veterans) a card just like people on Medicare," he said. "Give them a card and say, 'Go where you want to. Pick the best care you can, and we will provide it for you.'"
Veterans should be a top priority, Tillis said.
For example, the state is about three weeks away from announcing a 150-bed facility for homeless veterans at Butner, Tillis said. It is, he said, a project he has worked on for more than a year.
Tillis talked about base encroachment, lateral entry for members of the armed services into teaching and in-state tuition for veterans -- issues already in the works at the statehouse.
Those, he said, are what he wants to focus on, first and foremost, because it is what should be done, but also because it makes good business sense to do it as well.
"I want this state to continue to emerge as one of the most friendly states to the people in the armed services today and for those people who have retired," Tillis said. "We need to do that here in North Carolina and replicate it across the nation."
Tillis said voters need to ensure that whom they send to Washington, D.C., carries those views as a top priority.
Safety and security are two top priorities, Tillis and McCain said.
"Yes, we have to secure our border," McCain said. "Yes, we can secure our border."
It can be done through a combination of technology (drones and radar) and fencing, he said.
Sequestration has damaged the county's military capabilities, McCain said.
"Ask the men and women who are out at Seymour," McCain said. "Ask the pilots who are not getting the flying hours that they need to maintain their efficiency. Ask about the maintenance backlog of the aircraft. They are not as operational capable as they need to be in a world that is much more dangerous since we started these cuts in defense spending."
"It threatens 20,000 to 30,000 jobs around this area," Tillis said. "We have got to get that off the books and start doing responsible budgeting and get off these indiscriminate cuts that are a threat."
Another major issue for eastern North Carolina is the protection of its military bases, Bell said.
"At the state level, we did a lot in the last session to protect encroachment issues," he said. "We established a wind (farm) permitting process that (wind farms) would not affect our low-level training route.
"The reason why a lot of folks are here today is because of that base right down the street. It is so important not just for our economic impact here, but all of our military bases in North Carolina are so important."
McCain said protecting the low-level training routes was probably more important than most people understand.
"There is so little area on the whole East Coast that allows for the kind of training that is absolutely necessary for the training of our pilots," he said.
It is vital to the future of Seymour Johnson, Tillis and McCain said.
Bell asked Tillis and McCain what they would do to take that message to the Congress.
Tillis said he tried to spend a lot of time meeting with base leadership across the state to find out what lawmakers could do better to make their jobs easier.
People think those responsible for the bases are just working out war plans, he said.
"They don't realize they are running a major complex business operation," he said. "They have to deal with local governments, dealing with building and zoning. They are not exempted from that sort of stuff.
"Then we have the encroachment pressure continuing to come at us. I have tried to make sure that North Carolina, in every category that matters, is considered one of the best of all of the other states. I did that because I want us to have a compelling case when you get into possible BRACs or other situations that North Carolina is a place that still has the potential for growth."
North Carolina needs to be fighting to maintaining the military's presence and possibly growing it, he said.