Surviving Spouse Corner
By Pat Green
It’s still summer! Hope you are having a great one with a vacation, time spent rebuilding your garden after our freezing winter, or extra time with kids, grandkids, and family.
MOAA uses the summer for a follow-up Legislative push.

If you haven’t ever gone to the MOAA Legislative Center, let me guide you:

• Go to https://www.moaa.org Under the MOAA logo,
• Click on Advocacy, then click on Legislative Action Center.
• Start scrolling to the box labeled Families and Survivors, then click. You will find this explanation.

There are a number of issues there. A MOAA Legislative advocate told me that they need support on the 2nd issue, Parity for Surviving Spouses: Increase DIC to match other federal survivor benefits.

Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC)—a benefit for survivors of those who die in service or from service-connected conditions—lags behind other federal survivor benefits. DIC provides only 43% of what a 100% service-disabled veteran receives. Civilian federal survivor programs provide up to 55% of the employee’s calculated retirement pay.

This inequity leaves military survivors with less support than their civilian counterparts, despite the sacrifices their loved ones made in service to our country.
The bill also cuts in half, from 10 years to five, the amount of time a veteran must be rated 100% disabled before passing away from a non-service connected condition in order for the surviving spouse to collect DIC.

Contact your lawmaker today and ask them to champion this bill and push for its passage. Or, you can use the module that MOAA provides. When you press write, you will be asked to fill in some information so that MOAA can write and address a letter to your reps, expressing your support for that bill. Submit your information and then press write. An email will be sent to your representatives supporting this bill.

There are other bills in the Families and Survivors section. Please look through those. There may be others that you would like to support. Do your part and ask your Representatives to support your choices.

President’s Message
I hope you have made the most of your long summer days, and for those of you that traveled to cooler locations, I wish you a safe journey back to Central Florida.

We have made the tough decision to CANCEL our September 8th luncheon at the DoubleTree UCF. The Ballroom is not available on September 8th, and with the response from the email Randy sent out to Central Florida MOAA members who are not members of our Chapter, the DoubleTree restaurant could not accommodate the expected luncheon turnout. Our next luncheon will go on as planned on October 13th, 11:30am at the DoubleTree UCF.

It’s that time of year when The National Hurricane Center continuously monitors any upcoming major weather disturbances, and so please double check to make sure your hurricane plans are in place and your supply kit is well stocked! The National Hurricane Center upped the odds that two systems, one in the Gulf, and the remnants of what had been Tropical Storm Dolly, could develop. Please refer to the attached Hurricane Checklist which provides life saving tips while preparing for seasonal hurricanes.

I want to thank our Chapter members Charles Smith, Joanie Fiebrandt, Kin LaFate, Ashley Orf and Bob Brogan who volunteered at the August 21st Orlando VA Creative Art Show at Lake Nona to support of our local veteran artists. There were several hundred works of art on display, and we had over 300 visitors who had a chance to judge the artwork.

I am grateful and give many thanks to Al and Ruth Schroeder for their tireless efforts to promote our Chapter’s “Healing Through Expression” (HTE) philanthropy non-profit charity. We are very excited that VA Lake Nona has been chosen to host the 2027 and 2028 National Veterans Creative Arts Festival where the top veterans across America will be honored in over 50+ different categories! Our HTE involvement will dramatically increase, so let your voice be known if you are interested in participating in upcoming VA Recreational Therapy artistic endeavors to support this worthwhile cause.

Stay tuned to an end of the month announcement for the October 13th luncheon. And, as always, check out the Florida Council of Chapters newsletter, The Communique’, for the latest going on within the 36 MOAA Chapters in Florida. Go to www.flmoaa.org .
Cheers, Lorraine

The Purple Heart was instituted in 1782 by George Washington and is the first American decoration.
Originally it was awarded for bravery in action, currently it is awarded to those wounded or killed in action, in the latter case posthumously.

An Oak Leaf Cluster is added when a previously wounded person already has a Purple Heart. The decoration is a purple, heart-shaped badge with bronze edges. It depicts in relief a bust of George Washington wearing the uniform of a general in the Continental Army. On the reverse side is the inscription: “For Military Merit” with the recipient’s name below. It is estimated that just for World War II 1,076,245 Purple Hearts were awarded.

Go to www.thepurpleheart.com to find a list of recipients. To join our local Chapter 400 Order of the Purple Heart,

contact David Mercado email: davidmercado026@gmail.com,

or our very own MOAA Chapter member CAPT (ret) Rich Sloane email: richardtsloane@gmail.com