Executive Editor

After a military family listening session in his Battle Creek back yard Tuesday by former Second Lady of the United States Dr. Jill Biden and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, former Congressman Dr. John J.H. “Joe” Schwarz said he was pleased that health care was discussed.

“I’m delighted that Dr. Biden came to Battle Creek and especially that the Governor came down to Battle Creek,” he said after the hour-long discussion with three military wives and one National Guardsman. “I’m even more delighted that the topic was health care in the military.”

The military families speaking with Schwarz, Biden and Whitmer were Matt Hubert of East Lansing, Michelle Zylstra of Grand Rapids, Erin Gifford of Grand Rapids and Lynn Garrett of East Lansing.

“It’s a problem every day,” Schwarz said of getting military families the health care they deserve. “One thing I’m trying to do is get more young physicians to spend some time in the military because the numbers, the percentage of medical school graduates spending time in the military has fallen off significantly yet we have more medical school graduates than ever before. 

“So,” he continued, “my hope is that the military can incent, and the medical schools can incent and the medical profession itself can incent the young doctors to at least spend several years in the military just as part of their patriotic duty which it is.”

Schwarz said he felt the listening session was productive.

Biden said the idea was to listen to the families and take back what they have to say to their campaigns “so we can continue to make things better.”

Schwarz, a retired local surgeon, served two tours of duty in Vietnam, one tour in Laos and a little longer than a tour in Indonesia, half on the military side and half on the civilian side.

“There is a very, very strong military history in my family and that’s why I’ve been anxious to do anything I can to not only help our active duty participants but to help our staffs and families,” he said.

Schwarz served in the 109th Congress from 2005 to 2007 as a Republican.

He now calls himself an independent and said he was asked by the Biden campaign to host the listening session after he publicly endorsed Biden for president.

Schwarz said he worked previously for both the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Central Intelligence agency “many years ago” which is how he knows who he can trust with the nation’s intelligence.

“The reason I hosted,” he said, “is because I went on record supporting Joe Biden for president. I vote for some Republicans and I vote for some Democrats. I think he will do a better job on national security. I want someone we can trust to listen to our intelligence agencies, who will listen to experts. A person can’t know everything about everything.”

Whitmer called Jill Biden a fierce advocate for military families, for education and community colleges, the fight against cancer and the education of women and girls around the world.

“Today, she is working to help her husband, former Vice President Joe Biden, become the next president of the United States,” Whitmer said in her introduction of Biden to the families and the press.

Hubert was asked by Schwarz how he would guage his observations of the strong points and weak points of military health care.

Hubert said one of the great benefits of serving a 20 years tour in the military and then retiring are the benefits.

“I think that would be a positive,” he said, “putting in that time and really earning those benefits of your service to then have that health care.”

However, one of the struggles, he said, is the access to the health care and the quality of the health care.

He noted the time it takes to get treatment.

“That would be one of the disadvantages of serving in the military, when it falls short on accessing those benefits,” he said.

Biden responded that one of the things that her husband plans to do is to improve the quality of the veterans hospitals more comfortable and to improve physical and mental health care.

“When my son came back from Iraq,” she said, “I asked him, ‘Beau, what can we do, what can Michelle (former first lady Obama) do to make it better. He said, ‘Mom, you really need to focus on mental health care.’ The personnel are under so much pressure. The military is so resilient but the things you see can eat away at you and be really hard.”