Hospitals & Asylums
Armed Forces Retirement Home (AFRH)
To
incorporate the contents of Chapter 1 Navy Hospitals, Army and Navy Hospital,
and Hospital Relief for Seamen and Others as the clients to the political lobby
in Chapter 10 Armed Forces Retirement Home and to
promote the Hospitals & Asylums curriculum
Be the
Democratic and Republican (DR) party Dissolved, Referred to the Counsel of
Elders
1st
Draft 11 - 29 May 2006, 2nd 11 November 2006, 3rd 10
August 2007, 4th 11 November 2009
1.This Chapter re-incorporates the
Hospitals and Asylums already legislated in Title 24 by joining Chapter 1 Navy
Hospitals, Naval Home, Army and other Naval Hospital, and Hospital Relief for
Seamen and Others §1-40 in Chapter 10 Armed Forces Retirement Home §400-435 to continue the two century old mission
to provide asylum for old and disabled soldiers and sailors. Sections 400
and 435 are new. The Army and Navy Hospitals including the Tubercular
Hospital at Fort Bayard and the Army and Navy General Hospital at Hot Springs,
Arkansas are re-incorporated under the original Naval Hospital Act of Feb. 26,
1811, as clients of the Armed Forces Retirement Home political lobby. The joint
USNH and USSAH Armed Forces Retirement Home was established, effective November
5, 1991, by the Armed Forces Retirement Home Act of 1991, Title XV of the
National Defense Authorization Act of 1991 (104 Stat. 1722), November 5, 1990.
2. The Armed Forces Retirement Home
(AFRH)
houses an estimated 1,600 veterans. 1,300 at the U.S. Soldiers' and Airmen's Home (USSAH) in Washington, D.C and the 300 at the
U.S. Naval Home (USNH) in Gulfport, Mississippi campuses. Over more than 150
years, the homes evolved into retirement communities that offer a secure,
comfortable life style filled with activity for the residents. While
“inmates” were initially housed 8 to a room most residents now enjoy private
rooms and many activities and varying levels of assisted living. The general
eligibility requirement is that a person must be at least 60 years old and have
served at least 20 years in the Armed Services, other than Coast Guard, not in
active duty for the Navy. The average retiree served for 21 years, 600 in
the Army, 400 in the Navy, 500 in the Air Force and 100 in the Marines. 150
residents are women. More than 95 percent served in combat in at least
one war, many in two wars and some even in three. At an average age of 76, the
largest percentage of residents, 80% are WWII veterans, 30% in Korea and 10% in
Vietnam. The average length of stay is 10.6 years.
3. As early as 1799, contributions
of 20 cents per month were taken from every active duty member for the relief
of seamen in the service. Paul Hamilton of South Carolina, secretary of
the Navy under President James Madison legislated the
Naval Hospital Act of Feb. 26, 1811 to provide for Naval Hospitals and the
Naval Asylum. Distracted by the War of 1812 the Naval Asylum was not
established until 1834 after US v. Thomas Fillebrown,
Secretary of Commissioners of Navy Hospitals 32 US 28 7 Pet. 28 (1833). The name was
changed to Naval Home in 1880. Naval personnel who were so injured or infirm as to be unable to contribute
materially to their own support were allowed to live at the home and asked to
labor as much as they were able toward the care of it. The Naval Home was initially funded by
contributions from the active force. This contribution was augmented by all
fines imposed upon persons of the Navy and was the principal source of monies
for the Naval Hospital Fund/Pension Fund. The Pension Fund also received all
money accruing from the sale of prizes of war. For nearly 100 years these monies
funded the Naval Home. In 1934, the Pension Fund was abolished by
Congress and the proceeds were deposited into the U.S. Treasury. From 1935
until 1991, the Naval Home was funded by Navy appropriations. Today, it is
funded by monthly withholding from active duty troops, fines and forfeitures,
interest off the Trust Fund and resident fees.
4. The USSAH was established as the
Military Asylum, Washington, DC, by an act of March 3, 1851 (9 Stat. 595) as an
asylum for old and disabled veterans funded by deductions from soldier’s
monthly pay and the General Winfield Scott’s reparations from the Mexican War
for not ransacking Mexico City. Re-designated U.S. Soldiers' Home by an act of
March 3, 1859 (11 Stat. 434). The home accepted air force personnel as part of
the army establishment, 1917-47, and continued to do so following establishment
of the U.S. Air Force as a separate service, under the National Security Act of
1947 (61 Stat. 502), July 26, 1947, as implemented by Transfer Order 1,
Secretary of Defense, September 26, 1947. The Home was re-designated U.S.
Soldiers' and Airmen's Home, effective September 7, 1972, by order of the
Secretary of Defense, November 4, 1972. Four of the original buildings
still stand and are listed as national historic landmarks. Two of the
buildings, Quarters 1 and Anderson Cottage, served as the summer White House
for U.S. presidents -- Chester Arthur, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Buchanan and,
most notably, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln spent one-fourth of his presidency at
Soldiers' Home, and it was here that he wrote the last draft of the
Emancipation Proclamation. In 1973, the Soldier's Home was designated a
National Historic Landmark, and in 1974 was listed on the National Register of
Historic Places. A presidential proclamation in 2000 by Bill Clinton
established the President Lincoln and Soldiers' Home National Monument. The
Washington campus also includes the United States Soldiers' and Airmen's Home
National Cemetery, one of two national cemeteries administered by the United
States Department of the Army (the other being Arlington National Cemetery).
5. The Armed Forces Retirement Home Trust Fund is
established in the Treasury of the United States under 24USC(10)§419 to review general proceedings under the
Uniform Code of Military Justice
and the deposit of a share of any fines or forfeitures there
under 10USCAIV(165)§2772. Although the AFRH is a
corporate entity in its own right, as a political philosophy the statute serves
the US
military as a legal citation and council of elders. The “armed
forces retirement home” is a treasured right of citizens and soldiers to lay
down their arms under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions
and make peace. AFRH statute
settled the largest war reparations in history - $20 billion of the $33 Madrid
conference for the reconstruction of Iraq, that needs to be repeated equally
for Afghanistan,
whereas common Article 1 of the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights reaffirms the right of all
peoples to self-
determination.
Sanders, Tony J. Hospitals & Asylums. Chapter 10: Armed Forces Retirement
Home. 4th Draft. HA-11-11-09. www.title24uscode.org/AFRH.doc
Test Questions www.title24uscode.org/afrhtest.doc