Politicians are missing in action when a veteran needs help

It’s sickening the way politicians use veterans like Joe Schicker to burnish their own patriotic, pro-military credentials. They honor the war-wounded in flag-waving ceremonies, such as the one Gov. Jay Nixon held in 2013 to pin the Purple Heart on Schicker’s battle fatigues. The Legislature gave him a standing ovation.

Once the news cameras have turned elsewhere, too many politicians have a way of treating war heroes like Schicker as if they never existed. Don’t let them get away with it.

As the Post-Dispatch’s Tony Messenger wrote last week, Schicker got a hero’s welcome as the Missouri National Guardsman recovered from wounds received while serving in Afghanistan. A 2012 Taliban attack left 26 pieces of shrapnel embedded in his body. Now 57, Schicker suffers lingering effects, including dizziness and uncontrolled shaking.

As a full-time master sergeant with an E-8 rank, Schicker would have been in line for promotion to the rank of sergeant major. But when he sought work with his unit back home, he was told no E-8 rank slots were available. Commanders gave him two options: demote himself voluntarily to an E-7 rank or seek work with another unit. Nearing retirement, he asked for an exception to let him keep his rank, but they refused.

The demotion meant a significant cut in retirement pay — $600 a month — and he no longer qualified to become a sergeant major. This demotion was based strictly on the expediency of filling a job slot, not Schicker’s performance.

Now that he needs help appealing his case, all those politicians who bravely stood up for the war hero are, all of a sudden, silent or missing in action.

Except for U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who wrote a letter in August to Gen. Stephen Danner, the adjutant general in charge of the Missouri National Guard, requesting an exception. Danner replied that rules are rules. McCaskill wrote again in April, prompting an acknowledgment from Danner that rules aren’t always rules, and sometimes exceptions are made. Yet Danner still wouldn’t budge for Schicker.

“Our government makes a promise that our service members will be treated fairly after returning home,” McCaskill said. “If that promise wasn’t fully kept in this case, then I want to get to the bottom of it.”

The politicians who were present in the state Capitol to give Schicker a hero’s welcome must now stand up as the patriots they claim to be. Republican Sen. Roy Blunt should add his voice to McCaskill’s appeal. And our current Republican governor, Eric Greitens, who never misses an opportunity to parade his own military credentials as a Navy SEAL, needs to lead the charge for justice in Schicker’s case.

It’s time to defend Sgt. Schicker. Because he’s done his part defending you.