DRUG WAR TAKES LIVES TOO

Staff, family members and students at Oceanside's Ivey Ranch Elementary
School recently had an emotional ceremony on campus honoring four Marine
Corps reservist aviators who died Jan. 22 when their helicopters collided
during a counterdrug mission in Texas.

Lt. Col. Robert Theilmann, 47; Maj. John Walsh, 36; Maj. Steven Palombo, 36;
and Capt David Cross, 34, were members of the Camp Pendleton-based Marine
Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 775, the Coyotes.

It was a reminder of how deadly America's efforts can be against the flow of
illegal drugs into our country.

Several years ago, the Marine reservist aviators adopted Ivey Ranch ---- the
school's mascot is a coyote. The aviators used to fly helicopters to the
Oceanside campus for the school's annual spring carnival and answer
questions from the inquisitive youngsters. A bond grew between the school's
population and the aviators.

So when the news of the deaths hit the campus, tears were shed, and more
flowed during the memorial service where the school's student council and
the Parent-Teacher Organization dedicated a stone bench in a garden to the
fallen aviators.

Military deaths in the drug campaign aren't new. The military joined the
federal effort against illegal drugs 16 years ago. The early efforts yielded
few positive results. In 1989, on the first night that an Army reserve
helicopter joined the anti-drug campaign in Imperial County, the chopper hit
power lines and crashed, killing everyone aboard.

Every year, schools across America hold red ribbon week in memory of Enrique
Camarena, the Drug Enforcement Administration agent tortured and killed in
Mexico by Mexican law enforcement personnel and drug traffickers in February
1985.

Every high school campus in North County has students who use illegal drugs
and alcohol. The peer pressure to use drugs on campuses, on the streets, and
sadly, in many homes, is relentless.

The Ivey Ranch Elementary School memorial service was a poignant reminder of
the dark side of illegal drugs and the horrific price we pay for them.

As American warriors return from Iraq, it's time the Bush administration
addressed several issues concerning veterans and military widow survivors.
I've fielded more than a dozen phone calls recently from retired veterans
who are unhappy with the Bush administration's callousness to veterans. They
note how the president praises our troops in combat while his administration
reduces benefits to veterans

The Military Officers Association of America has complained bitterly that
many military widows get short shrift when they reach 62. MOAA officials
said most military widows "receive one-third fewer dollars than they
expected from a government-sponsored survivor benefit program that their
spouses paid for."

The MOAA reported the one officer signed up for the military's Survivor
Benefit Program many years ago with the understanding that if he died his
wife would get 55 percent of his retirement pay for the rest of her life.
Not so. MOAA officials said she will get only 35 percent of his retirement
pay. The federal government provides a better program for federal civilian
survivors, who receive 50 to 55 percent of retired pay for life with no
age-62 reduction