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Re: The Forgotten Vets

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: February 19, 2003

"Forgotten vets gain a champion
BY MAY CHOW

Special to The Examiner

    Godofredo "Fred" Gomez made history last week. But it wasn't the first time the 80-year-old war veteran participated in a historic event.

    Gomez recently became the first Filipino-American veteran appointed to San Francisco's Veterans Affairs Commission, and though he says he is honored by the recognition, it is not what he most wants to be remembered for.

    Hundreds of thousands of young Filipino men fought and died alongside U.S. troops in World War II, but many Filipino veterans say they have been forgotten, especially by the United States.

    Gomez was one of 250,000 Filipino men who joined the U.S. Armed Forces under the leadership of Gen. Douglas MacArthur in the months before and the days just after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941. For the next several years, Filipino and U.S. troops shared the same grueling fate -- they battled the Japanese, endured horrific prisoner of war camps and fought for their lives as part of a guerrilla resistance.

    President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated the draft, which included soldiers in the Philippines Commonwealth Army. Gomez remembers taking the oath when he was 18 years old.

    "From the day I took the oath in 1941, I knew that it wasn't going to be easy," said Gomez, who was born in Argao, Cebu, in the Philippines. "I fought for the United States until I was honorably discharged in 1946."

    Congress also promised Filipino soldiers they would receive the same health and pension benefits as their American counterparts. At the end of the war, Gen. Omar Bradley, administrator of the Veterans Administration, vowed that Filipino soldiers would be treated like other American veterans.

    But Gomez and the other 70,000 or so living veterans have not seen any of those benefits.

    Despite Bradley's pronouncements, President Truman signed into law what would become the Rescission Act of 1946. The law states that the Filipinos' service "shall not be deemed to be or to have been in service in the military or national forces of the United States or any component thereof or any law of the United States conferring rights, privileges or benefits."

    Said Gomez: "We just want what's fair and what was promised to us when we fought for the United States. There are not many of us left in this world."

    Gomez has been part of a local effort lobbying Congress to overturn the Rescission Act.

    "We have been denied of our veterans' status," he said. "We are not recognized, and we cannot claim compensation and healthcare benefits like those of the American veterans. We are not seeking any retroactive pay. Our primary need is medical benefits."

    Gomez, who came to America in 1974 and lives in Visitacion Valley, is a lifetime member of the San Francisco chapters of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He and other post members are writing letters to Washington to lobby for their rights.

    They haven't made much headway with Congress. Even a proclamation signed by President Clinton in 1996 honoring Filipino veterans didn't produce any significant changes.

    Rep. Bob Filner, D-Chula Vista, has introduced a bill in Congress that would grant Filipino veterans full benefits. But Gomez and other veterans say it would mean more to them to have their contributions recognized and the government admit it erred in rescinding their benefits.

    "We are fighting for just what is owed to us," said Gomez."