COMBAT-INJURED VETERANS TURN UP THE VOLUME ON MAJOR STAR ACT

COMBAT-INJURED VETERANS TURN UP THE VOLUME: 88,783 CONGRESSIONAL AND MEDIA CONTACTS IN NINE DAYS

//FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE//

September 26, 2026

“IS ANYONE LISTENING?” COMBAT-INJURED VETERANS PUSH THE MAJOR STAR ACT INTO CONGRESS AND NEWSROOMS ACROSS AMERICA

In nine days, a veteran-led campaign has generated nearly 89,000 congressional staff and media recipient contacts while combat-injured retirees fight to keep the Major Richard Star Act from disappearing into another congressional recess

For years, combat-injured veterans have written letters, called congressional offices, traveled to Washington, met with lawmakers and asked Congress to end a retirement offset that follows some medically retired service members long after their military careers are over.

Now they are trying something else: making sure Congress and the press hear them at the same time.

Shane Junkert, a retired Navy Senior Chief and Chapter 61 retiree who organized the 54Kvets outreach effort, knows personally what it means to have a military career end before expected.

“I spent over 18 years in the Navy, deployed boots on the ground six times, and my career ended with a Chapter 61 medical retirement. I know what it means when service ends before you planned for it. I organized this effort because too many combat-injured veterans have spent years telling the same story and still feel unheard. Sometimes it feels like we’re yelling into an empty room and asking one simple question: Is anyone listening?” Junkert said.

Over just nine days, that effort has put the Major Richard Star Act fight in front of congressional legislative staff and newsrooms across the country 88,783 times.

The campaign has recorded:

- 33,757 House legislative staff TO-recipient instances

- 4,368 Senate legislative staff TO-recipient instances

- 50,658 media and newsroom CC-recipient instances

- 88,783 combined congressional and media recipient instances

That means 38,125 congressional legislative-staff recipient instances and more than 50,000 media and newsroom recipient instances in nine days.

Since the campaign’s previous public update alone, another 1,431 congressional and media recipient instances have been recorded.

Those totals are recipient instances, not unique individuals. Congressional offices and news organizations can receive messages from multiple participants as the campaign continues.

But behind every number is something a spreadsheet cannot show: a person choosing to put their own name behind the message and asking somebody to listen.

BEHIND EVERY EMAIL IS THE SAME QUESTION: HOW MUCH LONGER?

The Major Richard Star Act, H.R. 2102/S. 1032, would change federal law governing concurrent receipt of VA disability compensation and military retired pay for qualifying disability retirees with combat-related disabilities. The House bill specifically describes its purpose as providing concurrent receipt for disability retirees with combat-related disabilities.

For the veterans involved, however, this is not an abstract fight over federal accounting.

It is about careers that ended early.

It is about injuries that did not end when military service did.

It is about families continuing to pay mortgages, buy groceries, raise children and plan for futures after a combat-related injury changed the course of their lives.

And it is about watching another Congress move closer to its end while veterans continue wondering whether this will finally be the year the promise becomes law.

218 SIGNATURES WERE SUPPOSED TO BE A BREAKTHROUGH

Veterans spent months pushing the House discharge petition connected to consideration of H.R. 2102.

On September 15, 2026, the official House Clerk record shows the petition reached the required 218 signatures, with Rep. Nancy Mace recorded as the 218th signer.

For veterans who fought for signature after signature, 218 was supposed to feel like a breakthrough.

Instead, they are still fighting to make sure the legislation reaches the finish line.

That is part of what this campaign is about.

What happens after the cosponsorship announcements?

What happens after the meetings?

What happens after 218 signatures?

What happens after veterans have told Congress the same story year after year?

At what point does support become law?

A SECOND BILL CHANGED THE FIGHT

The debate became more complicated when House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jerry Moran introduced the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act on June 10.

The chairmen described the legislation as a comprehensive package designed to carry a version of Major Richard Star Act that reduces the wounded warrior tax instead of ending it, along with more than 60 other bipartisan veterans bills.

54KVeterans opposes portions of that broader approach and is asking journalists to closely examine provisions affecting military retirement calculations and future VA disability rules.

Supporters of TCAVA argue that the package would expand veterans’ benefits, health care and other services while advancing numerous veterans priorities together. Bost has publicly promoted H.R. 9237 as a broad veterans package that includes the Major Richard Star Act.

54KVeterans argues that Congress should pass the standalone Major Richard Star Act without attaching provisions the organization believes could disadvantage other veterans.

The campaign is not asking journalists simply to accept that argument.

It is asking them to read the bills, examine the sections, talk to the veterans affected and ask lawmakers to explain their choices publicly.

CONGRESS AND REPORTERS ARE SEEING THE SAME QUESTIONS

That is what makes this campaign different from a traditional petition or form-letter drive.

The outreach effort puts congressional legislative staff in the TO field while copying journalists and newsrooms on the same message.

Television stations.

Newspapers.

Investigative reporters.

Assignment desks.

Public-radio newsrooms.

National media outlets.

The participants themselves review and send their messages. Nothing is automatically transmitted on their behalf.

Those messages direct congressional staff and reporters toward the legislative record, competing proposals, benefit calculations, Combat-Related Special Compensation, military disability retirement and the potential consequences of changes that can look technical on paper but become very real at a veteran’s kitchen table.

Congress sees the questions veterans are asking.

The press sees those questions too.

The idea is straightforward:

Make it harder for the issue — and the people affected by it — to disappear.

“IS ANYONE LISTENING?”

There is a human being behind every congressional office contacted and every newsroom copied.

And there is a human being behind every message being sent.

Some had military careers they expected to continue.

Combat injuries changed those plans.

Their mortgages did not disappear.

Their grocery bills did not disappear.

Their families did not stop needing them.

And the injuries that resulted in medical retirement did not disappear when the uniform came off.

That is why the numbers matter.

Not because 88,783 is an impressive statistic on its own.

It matters because it represents nearly 89,000 attempts in nine days to put this issue in front of someone with the ability to investigate it, report it, debate it or act on it.

33,757 House legislative staff recipient instances.

4,368 Senate legislative staff recipient instances.

50,658 media and newsroom recipient instances.

88,783 combined congressional and media recipient instances.

And still, the question from the veterans behind the campaign remains painfully simple:

Is anyone listening?

Follow 54kvets on Facebook and help spread the message to national media outlets and Congress. https://54kveterans.org/midterms 

54KVeterans is a veteran-led  social media advocacy effort focused on combat-injured Chapter 61 military retirees and the congressional debate surrounding the Major Richard Star Act.