Reply #24: You're a lucky man, Pete [View All]

[Johnyawl]

I would love to meet Max. He's worked so hard over the years for us vets. When my father (a WWII vet) became ill in 1979, and went to the Veterans Hospital in Portland, the place was small, over crowded, and lacked much of the newer medical equipment that other hospitals had. On the hill behind it was rising the skeleton of a new Veterans Hospital. That new hospital - and 8 others around the country - are the legacy of Max Cleland's tenure as head of the Veterans Administration.

My father died five years later, in the new Veterans hospital. He'd had care that was second to none; it's a credit to the Dr.s & RNs that they kept him alive as long as they did. And they couldn't have done it without the equipment and the facility that Max had fought to build.

I would love to have an opportunity someday to tell Max personally that I love him.