FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (25)

February 2, 2008

Willie Nelson Approves OFFE Billboard Project!

According to Operation Firing For Effect, National Chairman, Gene Simes, country music legend and grassroots activist Mr. Willie Nelson has approved artwork for a very unique nationwide billboard campaign promoting full mandatory funding for veteran’s healthcare. Nelson, a United States Air Force veteran, is no stranger to grassroots movements. In 1985, Willie, along with John Mellencamp and Neal Young organized the first Farm Aid Concert to raise funds to help distressed American farmers. Most recently, Willie Nelson has been promoting renewable energy, bio-fuels in particular. Now, it appears that Willie is once again standing-up for the grassroots American, and lending his celebrity status to full mandatory funding for the healthcare needs of our veterans. Mr. Willie Nelson is now ‘officially’ a celebrity spokesperson for Operation Firing For Effect, and he has granted exclusive written permission to OFFE to reproduce his image and endorsement of full mandatory funding of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

 

  

Operation Firing For Effect is confident that we can rally this country’s military families in a massive show of Solidarity in 2008. Retired military families nationwide are facing high increases in their TriCare cost (for their earned ‘free’ lifetime healthcare), and VA hospitals are reducing services and additional facility closures are scheduled. Veterans from across the entire spectrum of military service are being affected. From the negative effects of BRAC base closures on our retired military families, to critically ill veterans being told to call 911 rather than going to a VA hospital, the veterans are rapidly losing their healthcare coverage. Meanwhile, deployed Reservist and National Guard troops are having their combat tours extended, while suicide, divorce, and homelessness among former military personnel have reached an epidemic high. The time has come for our veterans and their families to stand up and be heard. If we expect our young people to willingly volunteer their lives and health in the service of our country, we must be willing to stand up for the improvement and protection of the benefits and entitlements we have promised them. Most experts agree that it is this ‘group’, the veterans currently enrolled in the Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system that will be the future foundation on which a nationwide healthcare system is to be modeled.

The OFFE Willie Nelson billboards will be sponsored by companies, organizations, and civic groups from across the U.S. With the support of generous sponsors all of the billboards will be erected nationwide by October 1, 2008, and will remain up for the 30 days prior to the general elections in November. Each billboard will highlight the sponsor’s name at the bottom. The message that these billboards express is very simple; Regardless of who becomes our next President, the American people expect our veteran’s healthcare to be fully funded. 

OFFE is confident that Mr. Willie Nelson’s endorsement of our 2008 Crusade for Veteran’s Healthcare will inspire military families to turn out and vote in record numbers. This year is a genuine opportunity for our military families to be heard, before we give our politicians our votes in November. Don’t let this opportunity to show your unified unconditional support for our troops slip away! Get involved now!

If your organization, church, or company would like to sponsor one of these billboards in your state, contact Gene Simes for details; (315)986-7322, or (585)329-4711.

Operation Firing For Effect is a veteran’s advocacy group and subsidiary of Veterans For Veteran Connection, Inc., a registered non-profit corporation devoted to the improvement and protection of services and entitlements earned by our men and women in uniform. All donations are tax deductible.

 

Jere Beery

OFFE Public Relations Director

jerebeery@aol.com