Continuing his efforts to expand health care for South Jersey veterans, Rep. Rob Andrews (D-Haddon Heights) announced today that at his request the United States 
Department of Veteran's Affairs has agreed to extend the hours of operation for the VA Turnersville Outpatient Clinic from 2 days to 3.5 days, beginning next month.

"This is excellent news for the South Jersey veterans community and it comes at a most fitting time," said Andrews.  "As the country prepares to commemorate Memorial Day this weekend and the media focuses anew on Pearl Harbor, this living memorial will honor our veterans by reducing their waiting time for medical services."

Rep. Andrews was joined by Edward Smith, a veteran and Pearl Harbor survivor, Angelo Romeo, Director of the Gloucester County Office of Veterans Affairs, Freeholder-Director Steve Sweeney and Freeholders Bill Krebs and Helene Reed.  Rep. Andrews thanked Mr. Smith for his service to his country and acknowledged the leadership and support provided by Angelo Romeo and the Gloucester County Freeholder Board to assist in obtaining this increase in service.

The VA Turnersville Outpatient Clinic is currently staffed with one doctor and one nurse and is open two days a week.  The current backlog for a veteran to make an appointment can be as much as five months.  Working with the Freeholders, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and the Regional Director in Philadelphia, Andrews has secured the addition of a nurse Practitioner and clerical staff person and has been informed that the full complement will be on board in Turnersville in a few weeks. The VA estimates that these expanded services will cut its backlog by at least 1/3.

This marks the second expansion for the VA Turnersville Outpatient Clinic in little over a year.  In April of 2000, Rep. Andrews announced that the clinic would be expanding its operations from one day per week to its current two-day per week schedule. 

As part of an entire day devoted to promotion of a strong national defense, Rep. Andrews visited U.S. Material Supply and Bright Lights USA. in Barrington, which manufacture and distribute defense equipment for sale to the United States Department of Defense and United States allies abroad. US Material Supply and Bright Lights USA, which both employ 45 local residents, serve as an example of the importance of defense to our local economic base.

Next, Rep. Andrews visited Triton High School in Runnemede to participate in their Memorial Day Service where he addressed students and faculty on the importance of continuing search and recovery missions for soldiers declared missing in action (MIA) during the Vietnam Conflict. The service took place in front of a memorial dedicated to eight Triton alumni who were killed in Vietnam.  Rep. Andrews publicly thanked the U.S. Service personnel who risk their lives searching for American soldiers missing for almost thirty years. 

The remains of 603 U.S. servicemen and women have been returned to the U.S. since the end of the war.  Fifteen of these servicemen were from New Jersey.  The remains of approximately 25 servicemen per year have been returned to the U.S. for the past several years. The Joint Task Force Full Accounting (JTF/FA) was created in 1992 to conduct the effort to locate the remains of Americans in Indochina from the Vietnam War and is comprised of personnel from each of the services (about 160 permanently stationed in Hawaii and Vietnam, and many others who serve on short-term deployments to participate in search missions). Rep. Andrews has pledged to continue to support full funding for the Force.