By George Brown

As a small boy Ron Ouellette wanted to be a policeman, after high school Ron enlisted in the US Navy and served from 1961 to 1965 in a Naval Special Operations Unit. His dream came true when he co-founded the reserve officer program within the Woonsocket, Rhode Island Police Department in 1973. He remained in the reserve until 1985. During those years while supporting his family he earned an Associates Degree in Criminal Justice. Ron participated in Undercover Drug and Prostitution Investigations and was promoted to the rank of reserve sergeant,. After leaving Woonsocket, he did a short stint as the Public Safety Reporter for two radio stations and local weekly Newspaper.

In 1990, Ron was hired on as a Patrolman at the VA Medical Center in Providence, Rhode Island. VA police have full law enforcement authority. He graduated from the VA Police Academy in Little Rock, Ark. in March of 1991. He served honorably on that department until he was medically retired on September 1, 1999. The VA Police were unarmed, but eventually this policy was reversed after a physician was killed. The fact that eight VA Police Officers had lost their lives "in the line of duty" had made no impact on the decision to arm the approximately 2400 VA cops.

Ron was medically retired effective September 1, 1999, due to spinal cord compressions, cardiac problems and other medical problems and was awarded a VA disability pension of almost $960.00 a month.

Ron also applied for Total and Permanent Disability from the Social Security Administration at 56 years old. After a 4- year $10,000 fight he was finally awarded his social security total and permanent disability. Ron won his case, got four years of retroactive payments and his disability pension award was a little over $1300.00 a month. Ron thought that hed get by with the $1300 and $960.00 monthly social security check.

In March of 2004, he met with then VA Secretary Anthony J. Principi when he opened a new VA Clinic in Florida. Ron had arranged to meet with him privately, after the function, to ask him a couple of questions about staffing policies at VA facilities. When Ronnys concerns were dismissed, he told the secretary that hed go public with his safety concerns. After the meeting, Ronny wrote the secretary restating his concerns and the discussion that took place.

Six weeks later, Ron Ouellette was notified by OPM Office of Personnel Managements Office that the VA had figured out that Ron had been overpaid while Social Security and decided that he had to return $35,300. They determined that the Government had allowed him to "double dip". Additionally, because of WEP (Windfall Elimination Provision and GPO (Government Offset Provision) his pension from VA was being reduced the VA disability pension to about $450/ month and he was forced to sign a form allowing the Government to take $150.00 out of the $450.00 as repayment for 268 months.

With his VA disability pension reduced to about $300/month, the Ouellettes credit cards were really building up to high balances and they had to refinance their home with a higher mortgage and higher payments. Their resources have been depleted.

The last straw came last week when Ron received a letter from the VISN-1 Director of the VA Northeast Territory. In what maybe the final indignity, Ron received notice from OPM advising him that they were cancelling his health insurance, because there is not enough money in his disability annuity to pay for it! They have picked away at his pension so much that he now faces loss of their health insurance or the prospect of writing a check to the federal government for the privilege of having worked for them!

An aging and disabled man is forced to look back as he sees the nightmare of a law enforcement career in the eyes of a PoliceVet and ponders his future again.