Veterans

Lawyers for Pennsylvania veterans and veterans' widows yesterday accused the state of dragging its feet in a way that made a dozen aging veterans' and widows' last days a little harder. The lawyers asked a federal judge to hold Public Welfare Secretary Karen Snider in contempt of court for not swiftly implementing a Jan. 29 court order to return monthly benefit checks to veterans and veterans' widows in nursing homes funded by state Medicaid money. In his decision, Judge Clarence C. Newcomer ruled that the state acted illegally last year when it forced an estimated 4,000 veterans and widows to give back the monthly benefit checks to help defray the cost of their nursing- home care.

The Eagles finish their spring with 4 additional days of organized team activities beginning today at the NovaCare Complex. The team will practice through Thursday before breaking until training camp. Rookies and selected veterans are scheduled to report to Lehigh University on July 26, with all remaining veterans expected to arrive on July 29. The preseason opener against Jacksonville is Aug. 13 at Lincoln Financial Field. This week's workouts likely won't include Todd Herremans, who sat out last week with a foot problem.

The first formal proposal for future use of buildings and grounds at Philadelphia State Hospital will go into the review process this week. Bound volumes of proposals for a veterans' nursing home, supporting statements and endorsements from interested groups and the community are scheduled to be hand-delivered to Gov. Casey, to the consultants studying the 398-acre site and to the citizens' advisory committee working on the project. The delivery was timed for this week, in advance of the next meeting of the advisory committee at 2 p.m. Friday in the office of the City Planning Commission, 1515 Market St. Spurred by reports that Veterans for a Delaware Valley Nursing Home would submit a written proposal for Byberry, a number of other organizations interested in the property also began preparing similar proposals.

David Neifeld, 87, an Army veteran injured at the Battle of the Bulge, died Saturday of heart failure. He was a 51-year resident of West Mount Airy. After graduating from Central High School in 1931, Mr. Neifeld searched for a steady job during the Depression. From shop to shop he went, working the registers and storerooms wherever he could, for as long as he could. In the process, Mr. Neifeld discovered his calling as an organizer of retail clerks for the United Food and Commercial Workers.

The real meaning of the Memorial Day holiday was conveyed by the young and old veterans who paraded in Ardmore Monday in authentic uniforms of American wars from the Revolutionary War to the gulf war. The Lower Merion Township Memorial Day parade was quiet by most standards. It had no floats, clowns or undue fanfare. But there were marching bands, a drill team and a procession of antique cars and new fire trucks. Scores of lock-step marching, flag-carrying veterans reminded paradegoers of the purpose of Memorial Day - remembrance of men and women of the armed forces who sacrificed their lives to preserve American freedom.

Above the front door, the Stars and Stripes were fluttering in an afternoon breeze. "Flag-waving is not the only way of demonstrating patriotism," said Vietnam War veteran Arthur Doherty. He was one of about 25 members and supporters of Veterans for Peace, a group that protested yesterday in front of the Navy Recruiting Station on Broad Street against the Bush Administration's military buildup in the Middle East. Carrying banners with slogans such as "Sanctions yes, intervention no" and "Iraq out of Kuwait, U.S. out of Saudi Arabia," the group picketed at the recruiting station before moving to the west side of City Hall to join 35 people from several other groups for a weekly rally against U.S. military involvement in the gulf.

When Penncrest boys' basketball coach Mike Doyle arrived at the Central League school three years ago, he had posted an 84-42 record in stops at Bishop Neumann and Arcadia. His record is now 90-88 after a 4-20 mark with the Lions last season, but he is convinced there is potential for a much more competitive program. "The school's only had six winning seasons in the last 25 years, but three of those seasons ended in Central League championships," Doyle pointed out. "It's just been a little more uphill here than I expected.

Bert Carpenter saw fear in the faces of American prisoners in Iraq whose images last week flickered across TV screens. Carpenter, a former Navy warrant officer from Williamstown, knew that fear. A patrol boat crewman during the Vietnam War, he spent 62 days as a prisoner of the Viet Cong. "You're scared and you feel lonely," Carpenter said quietly, as he stood in the dimly lighted American Legion hall in Williamstown, surrounded by other ex-warriors. His eyes focused on some distant point.

Facing a November deadline, the Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund has obtained only $200,000 of the $600,000 it has planned to spend to build a memorial, spokesmen for the fund said yesterday as they began a citywide campaign to raise money. "The memorial fund is now at a critical point," Dennis Fink, president of the fund, said during a luncheon at Mellon Bank on South Penn Square. "We cannot succeed without involving everybody - rich and poor, black and white, dove and hawk.

The veterans at the 76ers' minicamp yesterday had a much different look from the rookies. There was a confidence to the older players and a wide-eyed look to the rookies as they prepared for two weeks of summer-league competition starting Friday in Las Vegas and then continuing to Utah. Double-session workouts were scheduled for yesterday and today, with single sessions tomorrow and Thursday at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. The veteran Sixers included forwards Rodney Carney, Shavlik Randolph, Bobby Jones and Louis Amundson along with guard Lou Williams.