On March 24, a beautiful night at the start of cherry-blossom season in Washington, D.C., MOAA held its eighth annual award ceremony to thank seven dedicated Americans for helping military servicemembers. The ceremony was held in the Caucus Room of the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill.

Approximately 300 invited guests attended, including Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and numerous other high-ranking military and civilian dignitaries, members of Congress, the secretary of Veterans Affairs, and many congressional staff members.

MOAA’s highest award for a member of Congress, the Arthur T. Marix Congressional Leadership Award, is named for the man who founded MOAA, then The Retired Officers Association, in 1929. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), received an award this year for his decade of leadership in the fight for concurrent receipt.

McCain also was recognized as a champion of two other major legislative victories last year—military pay comparability and tax equity. Because of his leadership, military homeowners, survivors, and drilling Guard and Reserve members won substantial tax relief. McCain also spearheaded the repeal of a law capping fy 2007 and subsequent military pay raises below the average American’s raises.
McCain captivated attendees with several humorous stories, including one about his 92-year-old mother wanting to wash out his mouth after she found out he screamed obscenities at his North Vietnamese captors during his 51/2 years as a POW.

McCain said he was very honored to accept the award “on behalf of my fellow citizens who have an appreciation for the service by the men and women in the military.”

The second Marix Award recipient, House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), was in the middle of leading a budget fight on the House floor, so he could not attend. His award was presented a week later in a ceremony at his office.

Blunt received his award for teaming with Reps. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) and Mike Bilirakis (R-Fla.), last year’s Marix Award recipient, in months of tough negotiations to convince the administration to accept a fix for the long-standing concurrent receipt inequity.

“I am extremely grateful to [MOAA] for presenting me with this award,” Blunt said. “Veterans have fought for concurrent receipt since the Civil War, and finally, with the assistance of chairmen Hunter and Bilirakis, we were able to end the unfair penalty on disabled veterans. We owe a tremendous debt to our soldiers, past and present, and this Congress is committed to providing current and future veterans with the benefits they deserve for their years of service.”
 
The Marix award also was presented to Hunter, a former U.S. Army Ranger who now chairs the House Armed Services Committee, for his leadership efforts to find a way to end the disability offset to military retired pay.

Award presenter Adm. Jerry Johnson, USN-Ret., chairman of MOAA’s board of directors, said, “[Hunter’s] efforts bore fruit last year, but only with a huge amount of personal elbow grease and jawboning on his part.”

Hunter graciously spread the credit for the concurrent receipt issue, citing Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) and McCain for working together to try to fix the problems. He also complimented the troops in Iraq for their spirit.

First-term representative and former U.S. Army member Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) also received a Marix Award for his leadership initiative in sponsoring a discharge petition that ultimately helped force a compromise to award concurrent receipt (ending the disabled veterans tax) to about 150,000 disabled military retirees.

Marshall suggested his work was only a small contribution to solving a problem that has been around for a long time. He encouraged attendees to describe the inequity as a “disabled veterans tax”—and not call it “concurrent receipt.”

MOAA presents its Distinguished Service Award each year to a leader (other than a member of Congress) who strongly supports the military community. This year, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi was honored for his leadership in improving VA health care services and benefits delivery to the nation’s veterans. Under his direction, severely disabled veterans now have priority access to VA health care appointments, and the VA has cut the number of disability claims awaiting decision almost in half.

Principi, a decorated Vietnam veteran, said he was “deeply humbled” to receive the Distinguished Service Award. “I stand here this evening in deep appreciation of all the individuals and organizations that work so closely with my department in fulfilling our important mission to the men and women in the military,” he said.

MOAA also presents an annual award to one or more congressional staff members whose personal efforts provide particularly noteworthy support to military servicemembers and their families.

The Paul W. Arcari Meritorious Service Award is named after the distinguished former director of MOAA’s Government Relations Department who headed the department for 11 years before retiring in 2001. Arcari’s tenure with MOAA was highlighted by protection of retired pay colas, repeal of REDUX retirement penalties, and the creation of TRICARE For Life (TFL).

The first Arcari Award recipient of the evening was Patricia Lewis, who recently retired after 28 years of service with the departments of the Navy and defense and two assignments with the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Lewis was the Senate Armed Services Committee’s professional staff member for health care issues. She was instrumental in winning TFL legislation and was honored for her continuing work to improve TRICARE for people under age 65.

Lewis, who now is a private consultant, said, “I want to compliment representatives of the beneficiary groups that represent you all so well to bring your causes and issues to Congress. ... We all serve military members, [their] families, and retirees. What an honor it is to have played a small part in those programs.”

Dr. Lynn Henselman of the House Armed Services Committee staff also received the Arcari award for her work on winning TRICARE upgrades. She thanked MOAA for all it does for men and women in uniform. She said, “As a former active duty Army officer and also now as a retiree, I have felt the direct impact of all that, so I am most appreciative.”

Talking about her visit to Iraq and the troops as part of House Armed Services Committee staff trips, she said, “It is heartwarming to see the kind of work [the troops] are doing over there, and they certainly deserve our best in Washington, D.C.”

Both staff members said they were honored to receive an award named for Arcari. Lewis mentioned she had regarded Arcari as an institution since she first came to Capitol Hill in 1983. Henselman called him a “legend” and said she was proud to walk in his footsteps with this award.