DVA started as the first Veterans’ facility established for Veterans of the Union Army. On March 3, 1865 President Abraham Lincoln signed a law to establish a Veterans care system. It was the first-ever government institution created specifically for honorably discharged Veterans. The first national sanitarium opened November 1, 1866, near Augusta, Maine. Effectively, the United States government established the concept of caring “for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.” Today’s VA motto. This system provides health care and pensions for disabled Veterans. In a sense we've come to our nation's Capital to cash a promise. When the founders of our republic wrote the words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American would be a participant. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promise. America has given the Blue Water Veterans a voucher which has come back "insufficient funds." Now is the time to make real the promises President Lincoln. Now is the time to restore the premise that “no man is left behind”. Now we should tell ourselves we owe a debt of gratitude to these Veterans and let justice prevail over politics and greed. We need to own up to what the US did in Vietnam, and not let 70,000 sailors become scapegoats. The political conspiracy is participated in by not only the United States and the nations in South East Asia, but also the Far East and Europe. The ramifications of the true exposure of Dioxin contamination is multi-national, with the costs going into the Trillions of dollars for restitution and clean up. So the Blue Water Navy is the leak in the dyke. And keeping the leak plugged is of multi-national interest. As goes the Vietnam Blue Water Navy, so goes the world’s economy. Recognize the Blue Water Navy contamination at sea, then you must and you admit the contamination of possibly a quarter of the globe. Think about how foreign governments would explain to their people how widespread the contamination is and why they hushed it up!