Brand new! Commissary, Exchange, etc.

[Phury & Rhage]

Coming soon to a military base near you!  I'm attaching a document that was just released that describes new access granted to service-connected Veterans (not just IU/100%) to military bases and MWR activities including Commissary and Exchange activities.  There are a number of categories of Veterans and caregivers that this affects.  Spread the word!

Phury & Rhage

Expanded Patronage.v2.docx

[Vync]

Sounds awesome!

For secure bases which require military ID or common access card, do you know if veterans without those forms of ID can just show their VA ID and get on base?

[GBArmy]

If you are close to a base exchange, it's kinda mandatory for a veteran to go and check it out. For many veterans, there are 3 things of note:

1) It will be effective Jan. 1, 2020 (so there may be a fly in the ointment still.)                                                                                                                   2) It states 0-100% service connected, so even a veteran rated at 0% (like  hearing) can used the facility.                                                            3)All you need is your VA health I.D.      Like Vync said "Awesome."       

 

[Tbird]

[broncovet]

I ordered a television from the base last year.  They whined, that, because of many more Veterans suddenly becoming eligible for "base" exchange (sometimes call Post exchange) benefits, it resulted in a delay in getting my TV.  (probably bs).  

At any rate, 2 weeks after I ordered and paid for tv, it was still not there, so I went back to the post and they "upgraded" me.  That is, they gave me a much better tv than the one I had ordered, and I walked out with it, at no additional charge.  The upgraded tv was worth about 300 more than the one I ordered. 

That is kinda confusing, since this letter indicates it wont be effective until Jan. 1, 2020.  However, some decisions like this are made locally by the base commander, and I think this commander knew it was coming and opened up eligibility on my base earlier, but I can not say that for sure.  

I do know there are military policy wide decisions, and local decisions, and these are not always consistent with each other.  Often the base commander has the authority to make local policy decisions.  

Another example is local VAMC's may/may not allow spouses of disabled Vets to use VAMC's.  This one is supposedly on a "if resources are available" bases.  I was rather suprised when my spouse was permitted unfettered access to my VAMC, while she is not a Vet.  

At my VAMC I see large numbers of female patients.  While this has been changing, only about 5 percent of military members are Female, in years past.  Back when I was in, there were 2 females out of 30 students in my A school.  

Edited August 28, 2019 by broncovet

[Richard1954]

deleted

Edited August 30, 2019 by Richard1954