All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
And now, your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry.
Welcome to Veterans Radio. My name is Dale Throneberry, a CW2 helicopter-type pilot, Vietnam 1969.
Welcome to our program today. It's all about benefits. So we encourage you to give us a call if you have any questions for our crew here today.
The number is 734-822-1600. 734-822-1600.
A couple of things we're going to be talking about today are upcoming events at the local VA Medical Center, Charles S. Kettles VA Healthcare Center.
We're going to be talking about some questions that have been sent to us over the last week or so.
One was an incarcerated veteran. Another one was from elderly. And it wasn't me, but it was older veterans. I had to change that word.
And so we're going to try to address those issues for you today. So we want to make sure that you, you know, if you're, if you have any questions, the other thing we're going to be doing is constantly pounding on you to register with the VA Healthcare System.
Because anybody who has a DD 214 and honorable discharge, you can get the benefits.
So mean you qualify, obviously. And maybe there's some health care issues that you can get taken care of. And, you know, maybe you, you know, worked in business for 100 years and had health care all along the way.
And then you retired and you suddenly find out that your health insurance isn't so good anymore. Maybe we can help you out.
So that's what we want to try and do today is to let you know what is available to you. So that number again, 734-822-1600.
Before we get into the answering those questions, I got to make sure that we thank our sponsors. We cannot do this program without their support.
And we greatly appreciate them over the years, the last 20 years.
One sponsor has been with us pretty much for the whole 20 years. The other kind of going in and out. But this one is our favorite. And that's legal help for veterans.
And legal help for veterans specializes in veterans disability claims. So give legal help for veterans a call at 800-6934-800.
Or you can go to their website. That's legalhelpforveterans.com.
The National Veterans Business Development Council, better known as NVBDC, is the nation's leading third party authority for a certification of veteran-owned businesses.
For more information about them, go to their website. That's NVBDC.org. Or give them a call at 888-237-8433.
If you want to do business with a federal government and you are a veteran-owned business, you got to prove it.
And these are the folks that can help you prove it. So we encourage you to do that.
The Charles S. Kettles VA Medical Center here in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
For more information about them, you can go to va.gov. And Arbor Health Care.
We also want to make sure that we thank our local veterans organizations for their longtime support. They're the ones that got us on the air in the first place.
They'll be the Irwin Prescott and American Legion post-46 and the Charles S. Kettles Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 310, both of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
If you'd like to become a sponsor or you just want to support Veterans Radio, you can go to our website. That's veteransradio.org.
Click on the donate button or click on the sponsor button and all the information that you need is there.
If you want to ask me about it, you can send me an email to dale at veteransradio.org.
So that opens that up. So let me introduce our guests today, our regular crew members.
Number one is Brian Ayes and Brian is the Public Relations Director Extraordinaire for the Ann Arbor VA Center, Health Care Center.
That's our Charles S. Kettles VA Health Care Center. So Brian, welcome back.
Thank you.
Your title keeps getting bigger and bigger, so I don't know what is it.
It just made me, I'm the mouthpiece of the VA. That's all I mean.
There you go. You've been there a while now, so we assume that you are an expert.
And also on the line right now is retired Brigadier General in United States Air Force.
Our contact with the legal health for veterans and that's retired general, as I say, Carol Ann Falcone. General, welcome back.
Good afternoon, Dale and Brian. Thank you very much.
Well, it's a privilege to have both of you on the program because this is what we try to do. We really want to make sure that our veteran listening audience knows what's available to them because sometimes, I can remember going through basic training or flight school, I can't remember which one it was.
You know, they said, you know, there's always that 10% that never gets the message. And so we're just keep, you know, pounding it in and repeating our message through, you know, sign up for the VA.
Get your health benefits. If you're qualified for some disability, you can do that as well.
So Brian, tell us what's going on at the Charles S. Kettles VA Health Care Center.
Hey guys, it's good to be back. Mainly, you know, we have a few events coming up, focusing on our veterans. You know, we've got coming up next Saturday on the 2nd of March.
We're going to be at our Canton Clinic, the Major General Oliver W. Dillard VA Clinic in Canton.
And in that event, we're going to be doing the Veteran Resource and Enrollment Fair. So we're going to have 20 experts there to answer benefits questions, go through anything that you need them to look at.
We're answering questions about health care. What you name it, we're going to have an expert there to talk about it.
I think we've even got NCA coming there next week, National Cemetery Administration. So they'll be along.
And that'll be from 10 until 2 next Saturday. So drop by, you know, if you're in the area and you live in the Canton area, or you happen to be passing through, we'd love to see you there.
Be refreshments there too. And should be a nice event.
Brian, before you jump on to the next one, where is the Canton Center?
Well, the Canton Clinic is on 5900 North Lotz Road right behind Sam's Club in Canton.
And that's off of Ford Road?
Off of Ford Road. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Right there, very close to 275.
Down the road a little ways from Ikea. But yeah, it's just across just behind, on Lotz, just behind the Sam's Club there. Very nice, very nice place.
That's a nice clinic. It's just gorgeous.
Then we're going to be back again this year at USA Hockey for Military and Veterans Appreciation Night.
That's coming up Friday, March 15th from 5 until 9.
And that's at the USA Hockey Arena at 14900 Beck Road in Plymouth.
And that's always a big event. Veterans get in free and they're the rock stars of the evening. So join us for that.
And then of course on March 29th, we've got Vietnam Veterans Day Breakfast and Resource Fair.
That's going on to honor our Vietnam veterans.
We're actually holding three different events that day. One at the Medical Center in Ann Arbor, one at the clinic in Canton.
And we're doing an event in Toledo at our clinic there as well.
And we'll be having refreshments there and come by and be some folks you can speak to about benefits as well.
Mainly it's a celebration of our Vietnam veterans.
And what time are those?
Those are between 9 and 12 on March 29th.
9 and 12. Okay.
Those are kind of the big things going on. And of course, you know, we've always got a lot of construction happening.
We're always rebuilding and building on to and improving.
So, you know, we're really going through probably the most inconvenient time right now for some folks.
Because we're doing a complete remodel of our primary care area.
So just letting folks know that that can be a little noisy. There's going to be some loud noises there sometimes.
But rest assured, when that's done, our primary care clinic is going to be completely redone.
We're redesigning the exam rooms. Those are going to be larger.
We're going to have more of them. So it should be a pretty nice design rollout.
We're really looking forward to that happening.
Is that going to be in the same area that it is? I know my primary care moved across the hall.
Yeah, it'll be in the same block.
Yeah. We are creatures of habit.
It was really very interesting watching some of, I can't say older anymore.
Some of our, yeah, some of the veterans going, where's the purple team now?
Where are they going? It's right here. No, it's not here.
Right. Yeah. All of that stuff. But you know, it's all about improving services.
The end of the day, improving services for our veterans and in a clean, new, modern space.
Well, and I'm sure that, you know, there is, I'm assuming that there is reconstruction going on in many, many medical centers across the country.
It seems like the federal government finally came up with some funds for us, you know, for you guys to improve your facilities.
Yeah. I mean, without getting into the specifics, but there are sort of different buckets of money that you can dip into, right?
And, and, you know, well, while some areas might, you know, have a certain budget, you know, construction might have a completely different budget and that money is set aside, right?
Even, you know, for example, during a, you know, a government shutdown or something like that, VA is what's called advanced appropriated.
So we have our funds well into the future already appropriated, even, even if the government shuts down.
And there's always that chance.
That's always kind of lingering, isn't it?
It's always seems to be out there. They keep threatening each other.
That's my political statement for the day.
You know, though, you know, though, Brian, when it's all done and good results and a good example is the lab, when you sit in there and people talk, do you remember when we used to be jammed in the little corner?
And, yeah, oh, yeah, it's so interesting to hear the conversations.
And so, you know, it'll be great when the primary is all done and people aren't wondering where their team has gone, but it'll be worth waiting for.
Well, for sure. Yeah, we can't wait for it.
I am sure of that. I think it's, you know, the facility and we're, I'm sorry for all of our audience out there that we're always kind of bragging about the Charles Escaddle healthcare system out here in Ann Albrecht mission, but we are very fortunate, I think, to have an excellent facility associated with a major university.
And I know that there are other VAs out there that are associated with other prestigious medical schools, which is one of the advantage folks.
This is why we keep telling you to at least go and register for your health care at the VA.
You know, you don't have to go there.
No, but it's there.
And that's, I think, is the important message that we would like to get across to you is that it's available to you.
Sometimes it can be, you know, if you're using your own private care insurance, it's, you know, it's, they take care of everything for you and sometimes you have to pay and not very big.
I can tell you that.
Companies are very small to VA.
Right. Well, and, and you know, I don't think we take and talk about enough that the VA across the country is one of the leading entities for research.
And so you might be in Michigan, but if you have a unique rare entity, but they're studying it in North Carolina, because that facility has the expert there.
Your information will be fed there and it will be a part of a study.
And isn't that phenomenal that, you know, you could be, you know, your information and your disease could be involved in some study that might result in some benefit to your health.
And so I think the research component of this is phenomenal.
We have a very big research service in Ann Arbor.
A lot of other, you know, VAs around the country do too, especially ones that are affiliated with universities.
Yes.
Well, I know I keep getting, it's not that I have a very rare disease or anything like that, but I do keep getting requests to participate in research or whatever.
The issue happens to be, and if you think about it, you know, for the men and women that are listening to the program that do have unusual diseases or conditions, you're helping the next generation of veterans.
Yes, they can figure out how to cure whatever you have.
What a great, you know, what a great legacy to leave.
When you think about that, you know, and the things that they've come up with, and just to get off on a real quick tangent to remind everybody, you know, if you have had a claim, if you have had a claim for Agent Orange related disease or whatever it is,
you need to go to think about your children and your grandchildren, because this stuff goes down through the genetic tree, and they are asking for grandchildren, especially if there's any physical condition to sign up for the registry for kids.
Yes.
You know, if your child, I think the terms I was looking at recently was, you know, birth defects, especially.
And you may, you know, not that you're looking for the money, but you may be qualified, you may qualify for some benefits to, you know, help that child, you know, treatment-wise and, you know, monetarily, you know, throughout their lives.
So, it's always out there.
It ends huge, Dale, because as we saw last year in August of 22, when they finally, Congress responded to, or 23, Camp Lejeune, and everything was blessed, and it included families from the water, and everything that was adjudicated,
and then, you know, coming back and now offsprings, and Agent Orange is another great example that with defects and offsprings, that they could research and go into the research, and I know we've discussed this before, and with, you know, the Vietnam Day coming up again in March.
It's so huge to take a look at, and I think it needs to be reported, it needs to be discussed, and I think it's so good that it's brought up, and, you know, you talk to your practitioners, and that you enroll in the system.
And you don't necessarily have to go to the VA for your care, because it's, you know, you can go anywhere. As long as you notify the VA that you're in, you know, that you're seeing somebody or going to a clinic somewhere, or you have an emergency, or something like that,
possibility of it being covered is great. I think that's the coolest thing about that.
So, oh, the other thing I was mentioning is, you know, we had a question earlier this week from a listener, or actually it was a lawyer regarding an incarcerated person who got out and is looking for some help.
And there are so many clinics that are attached to, you know, most of the VA's out there, isn't that the way it goes, Brian?
Yeah, if you have a clinic.
I mean, not just Ann Arbor, but I'm just saying, you know, that there are, you don't necessarily have to go directly to the VA hospital in your area.
Not necessarily, it depends on the care that you need, but yeah, the clinics are attached to the medical centers. We call them, it's government speak, but we call them CBOX, Community Based Outpatient Clinics.
They're just medical clinics, right? And they're attached to the major medical centers. For example, we have the medical center in Ann Arbor, and then we have nine other locations of care throughout.
Michigan and into Ohio.
I think that's really important, you know, and the idea is, you know, maybe your VA is out in the middle of, I don't want to say where, but maybe there's, you know, you can't get to it.
And there are some of these CBOX out there that are available for you to get at least the start of your care.
Absolutely. You get most of these. You've got your mental health, your primary care. There's usually a blood draw.
So you can get your labs done, maybe even some physical therapy, you know, things like that.
But also just, you know, let me just really underscore the notion that you don't have to go to a VA to enroll in VA health care.
You can go to www.va.gov. There'll be a big button there that says register for health care, and you can just, it'll walk you right through it. It's so easy, real easy.
Get your DD 214 ready because you'll probably need it. But if you can't find it, they'll help you find it.
What else can we do for you, folks?
What else do you want? What does it do? You want us to go to your house and knock on the door and say, hey, come on, come on here, sign up.
I mean, it's all there for you.
And I would really encourage all of our veteran community to, you know, if you have a veteran that you know that is living alone, you know, doesn't have any family any longer or something along those lines.
If you could strike up a relationship with them, find out if they're utilizing the VA and if they're not encourage them to, you know, go online or maybe you can go online with them because there are some people that, you know, the internet is like the big fear factor of the world.
And help them register.
It's all great health care, you know, too. And, you know, a lot of folks have opinions about, you know, VA health care, you know, maybe if they, you know, think about the VA in the 1970s, they may have had a very, very different experience than what the VA is now.
But I can't speak for other health care systems because it's not my role. But as far as VA and Arbor health care system goes, you know, we received a five star rating from CMS, which is the agency that rates, you know, Medicare and Medicaid rates medical centers, both public and private, you know, based on their quality of care and a bunch of metrics, right, and measures.
And, you know, we're one of the few five stars. We even beat a couple of big private hospitals around here, including the University of Michigan, Michigan Medicine, you know, we are as far as quality of care goes.
So, so if you're thinking about quality of care and coming to the VA, the quality is good. It is really good.
I, yeah, again, I encourage people to at least try it out. You know, some, some people have bad experiences with medical issues in civilian hospitals, just as just the same.
And it happens.
And I think that you'll the other thing I think you'll find in most cases is that the VA staff that least I've run into from just the people I see in the hallways, they're all friendly, they're all very helpful. And then, you know, their whole meaning of life is to help you the veteran do what what they can for you.
I mean, you, you were willing to pay that ultimate price. And this is the least that we can do to help you out.
Well, and remember too that the, you know, the employees that you meet at the VA, at least at Ann Arbor, about 30% of them are veterans.
Right.
Yeah.
It's always cool when you go see a tech and you find out what service they were in and what they were doing and so forth.
Yeah.
I can't remember his name right off the hand. It was a Navy guy that was doing CAT scans.
And, you know, I mean, he's a big burly guy, but he was, you know, enter.
I know who you're talking about. I can't, I'm not going to say his name on it.
No, I know.
He had great rapport.
Yeah.
He was very empathetic and alleviated any of my tensions that I had or apprehensions of, you know, getting any of these chess that keeps sending me around for.
Super nice guy and a fellow Navy vet.
Yeah. See.
There you go.
So, you know, again, we're encouraging you to do that.
I think Brian, we're going to kind of go over to the disability side and talk with General Falcone about some of the things that are going on.
And I wish you would hang on because I don't know if this, if you are familiar with these things or not.
And I know that we've talked about older veterans care before.
But I think it's, it's important to bring up again.
I keep seeing what motivates me to keep, you know, repeating these stories is I keep seeing these.
They say that they're homeless veterans out there.
And I just want to, you know, grab them, pull them in the car and drive them off to the VA and say, OK, here you go.
They're going to be able to help you.
Yeah.
VA has a robust homeless veteran program.
We house so many veterans, help get them into apartments, safe housing.
You know, we have an entire department that's dedicated to that at every VA medical center.
Okay. Hold on. Is there a, is it, you don't happen to have a phone number for that, do you?
I don't, but they're, they're on the website.
Yeah. They're on the, they're on the website.
It's just called the homeless veteran program.
Yes.
HVP. Yeah.
Okay. Homeless veteran program. I'll look that up while we, when we take a break.
That's a huge priority.
I would, I would think so. And then, and just to get these people a warm meal and warm place to stay and at least for a little while to get them back on their feet, whatever their situation may be is, is again, this is what we're trying to do for you folks.
So please.
The thing I mentioned with the, it said elder care, so it's, you know, we're all elder. No, we're not.
You know, whatever, however, I owe them physically, my brain is still on the 18 years old.
But that there were benefits and it doesn't necessarily have to be family benefits. You know, we've talked about a dependent families before, but this would be just for the individual veteran.
And it was, you know, it was the aid in attendance thing. And you can, can you talk about that either general or Brian?
Well, well, the aid in attendance.
It depends. Is it for the veteran Dale or is the aid in attendance for the spouse?
It's for the veteran per se.
Okay, so the aid in attendance is going to deal with the veteran and then there's a couple elements to this because does I would say does the veteran have a disability benefit already because then depending on what he has and I think we've talked about this before.
Depending on the percentage, we could go after what is called pension and does he have special he or she have special monthly compensation and does he have special monthly compensation and what is the disability.
But with aid in attendance, it's really important with daily activity needs. Could they bathe themselves? Could they feed themselves?
Are they toileting?
Could they, you know, do they drive? Do they do their own laundry? How much assistance do they need for those daily activities of living? And when you have three or four elements that, you know, you really need assistance with, are you homebound?
You know, you can't leave your house. Some of our young veterans, and that's where I was having discussions pre, when you've got severe PTSD and you've got that anxiety and the fear, and you're 30 and 40 years old, and you can't even leave your house and you're homebound, you know, you sort of fit in this category.
And so you just have to break down all of the elements and look at each veteran and each case as a separate element and break it down, Dale. So that's why sometimes it's really hard to give a direct answer.
But then with aid in attendance, there is a form and an application and you go back through the VA and we could help with that. And it's a combination of looking at the disability benefits and then how could the veteran get some care and looking at the whole pieces.
Well, yeah, and that's the whole thing that we want to do. We mentioned before we went on the air that we were asked that the next item was going to be talking about incarcerated veterans and joining me on the line right now is we have a phone in from attorney Laura Sutton who sent us an email regarding an incarcerated veteran who just got out and we're trying to figure out how to help him.
So Laura, welcome to Veterans Radio.
Thank you. I do have to correct that he's not out. We're trying to get him out. And we are filing a commutation request for this man. He's in Dwayne Waters Hospital right now. He's totally blind and bedridden.
But he does have a honorable service record. He was a Marine. He served a tour in Vietnam and has medals and we're trying to get him really he's 75 almost 76 years old and he has spent 50 years in prison.
He needs all kinds of help once he gets out. But is there any way we can start the because all this stuff takes time and including our commutation process. But I know that the Michigan Department of Corrections would not want to even if they were inclined to release him,
put him out with no prospects and nowhere to be. He does have a family member, a daughter, which could provide him maybe some very short term temporary care but he needs care, being blind and unable to walk. He needs care.
But see Laura, this is Carolian. So the VSO who's not on our line today and legal help for veterans we already talked before this and we were going to give you a call, say tomorrow to start to put the pieces together but this would be a great team effort because as Brian is I'm sure
still on the phone. If we could get him placed. He would be a great candidate for one of the programs with the VHA on the hospital side, along with the VBA side, which is called the family caregivers program.
And if we get him even in there, and if there wasn't even a family member, we could get him into the general caregivers program where we could get somebody to give him care, because if he's blind, he might, you know, he might be out there already extremely eligible for a very high level disability.
But we have to apply for those issues and get him out of prison first.
I know that that's our problem. And, you know, it's sort of the fact that we're trying to get him out, but we have to have some kind of a network for him to, if they do release him to go to because he does need care.
And we thought of the VA right away because he is a veteran. He does have an honorable discharge. He has a very good service record and he needs, like I said, he needs care.
And he would be a very easy patient to work with because he knows who he is and where he is. He just can't see. So it would be, he would be easy to work with.
If you plan to call me tomorrow, I would really appreciate it. And I can give you more specific details.
Yes. And I want to tie up the whole radio program, but I would really appreciate a call and I will be here.
Yeah. David and I from the Washtenaw community, our VSO.
Yes.
I already had discussed that, that you would be receiving a call tomorrow.
Wonderful. I will be here. Are you going to call me on my cell phone or my office phone? I gave you both numbers.
We'll make sure it happens.
Okay. I will be here. I will be here.
See, it works.
Yay.
Yay. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it because not having had a veteran in my, well, I did have a veteran in my family, but one that was not eligible for VA care in a long time.
This was all new to me. So thank you so much. I appreciate it. And I'll share the information that I have with my co-counsel. Thank you so much.
Well, God bless you for helping this veteran. We really appreciate that because that's what it also takes.
People out there like you, your time and your energy to help a veteran. So thank you, Laura.
Well, you're welcome. I'm more than willing to do it because he's very deserving. So thank you. Thank you very, very much.
Thank you very much, Laura, for calling us. And as you know, you're going to be hearing from some experts tomorrow. And I think they might be able to help you out.
I think she's gone. Okay.
Again, this is what we try to do here on Veterans Radio. We'll do anything we can to help our fellow veterans.
And so if you know of somebody who is having a problem, even a problem with a disability or a problem with a hospitalization, you know, we know who to contact.
We have, you know, people that can help out. And so that's what we wanted to remind you about. So if you have a question yourself, you could give us a call 734-822-1600.
I need to take a quick break. And when we come back, I wanted to talk a little bit about a little bit more about that incarcerated thing, because there's a lot of things that are available to people who have been incarcerated
who think for whatever reason they might have lost. I mean, I'll go into details when we come back. So when you're listening to Veterans Radio, we will be right back.
The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor and combat, given a member of the Armed Forces of the United States. There have been over 3,400 recipients of the nation's highest award. This is one of them.
Staff Sergeant Drew Dix was working on a CIA project near Cambodia when the Tet Offensive began. Details after this.
If you have a VA claim denied by the Board of Veterans Appeals, contact Legal Help for Veterans at 1-800-693-4800.
They're experts in handling cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Their number again, 1-800-693-4800.
Dix's mission was to coordinate intelligence gathering with a unit made up mainly of indigenous Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Chinese Nungs.
In late January, Dix and his men were operating with part of a SEAL platoon to get information about a rumored Viet Cong offensive.
On January 31st, Dix's unit returned to base to find the Tet Offensive had begun and the city had been overrun.
When they tried to land, they encountered heavy fire. One SEAL was killed, the others pulled out, leaving Dix with only a handful of indigenous soldiers.
He moved through the city, picking up pockets of friendly soldiers. His first mission was to rescue an American nurse.
Then he brought several CIA employees to safety. Dix and his men moved through the city in an effort to liberate it.
He assaulted a building alone in the face of heavy fire to rescue two Filipinos. He killed six Viet Cong and brought out the men.
Dix and his men fought through the night, taking back the hotel, theater, embassy house, and other buildings.
On February 2nd, after 56 hours of battle, the city was freed. Dix's men had killed an estimated 200 V.C.
He was presented the Medal of Honor by President Johnson on January 16th, 1969.
The Medal of Honor series is a production of Veterans Radio.
Military veterans touch everyone's life. I'm guessing right now you're thinking of a veteran, a close friend,
relative. Maybe it's you. Even the toughest of us sometimes need help, but don't know where to turn for support.
You don't need special training to help a veteran in your life. We can all help someone going through a difficult time.
Learn how you can be there for veterans. Visit VeteransCrisisLine.net. VeteransCrisisLine.net.
A message from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
We're back here on Veterans Radio here to answer any of your questions regarding the VA, hospital side, and disability side, if we can.
Or at least we can point you in the right direction where you can get the information that you need.
Our guests are Brian Hayes from the Ann Arbor VA and General Retired General Caroline Fauston for legal help for veterans.
Brian, I just wanted to let you know that we did receive your other PSAs from the VA and we will be attaching those to our Medal of Honor things as we go along.
Great. Thank you.
Here we go. All right. And speaking of upcoming events, we've got Leroy Prages on the phone calling in from Belleville with an upcoming Veterans Benefits Event,
I think in the next week or so. So Leroy, welcome to Veterans Radio.
Thank you, Dale. First of all, I'd like to say thank you in general for your service in the military.
And I also am a veteran. I served in Vietnam.
But most importantly is this Veterans Resource Event going on Thursday, February 29th from 10 o'clock in the morning till 2.
And first I thought when you were announcing it earlier that you had got the fire that I sent in.
So I said, well, I'm just going to hang in there and see if you're able to announce it.
And I said, well, let me, I have something else I'd like to share with you about my, you might say lack of being able to get benefits through the VA.
But anyway, I still wanted to make sure that we announced this Veterans Resource Event.
Okay. Leroy, can you tell us, you said it's on Thursday the 29th from 10 to 2 and where is this being held?
This is at the River of Life Assembly of God Church, 16650, Sumpter Road, about 2 miles south of Belleville on Sumpter Road.
Okay. And those that are familiar, you head south out of Belleville and hit Sumpter Road and...
Right. Before you get to Beeman's Road, there will be a church on the right-hand side.
We, you know, normally you'll be able to tell that we were there with all the flags that we have flying on the flypoles.
But right now, because of the winter, they're not there.
But anyhow, it's right on the right-hand side as you go south on Sumpter Road. You really can't miss it.
Okay. We will do that. Thank you very much, Leroy. And best wishes.
I know you're going to have some resources there to help out Veterans again as well.
There are resources going on all over the country, folks.
And if you try to pay attention and try to see if you can find them, I think you're going to help yourself out or help out a friend.
You know, the American Legion has this buddy check in it. I think it's called Buddy Check.
And it's really kind of neat. I thought it was cool because they call every once a month they call and just see if you're still here.
And I think that that's really neat of them to do that.
So again, thank you, Leroy, for that. If you have any events that you want to promote, you know, especially in our local area or even out in, you know, we are affiliates in California,
PayMET out there. We've got affiliates in Detroit, WDTK, and, oh, I just got an email today that WDTK is replaying our program on Saturdays at noon.
I don't know how long that's going to go on, but we want to thank them for doing that.
And we're also at KFOW outside of Minnesota. So you can always, you know, if you miss something, you can go there.
Today's program will be uploaded probably by about 7 o'clock Eastern time and you'll be able to listen to what we talked about today.
Right. I want to make an announcement. I don't know if Brian was going to do this, but coming up shortly, and the VA's already started it.
The VA will no longer send any veteran benefits to multiple bank accounts. And I really think this is huge.
And they hope to have this all completed by April 20th. So if you're out there and you're receiving benefits from to multiple bank accounts.
And the reason one of the big reasons they're doing this is to try to decrease some of the fraud that's going on with checks.
And we just recently had several of that, those checks occur with some of our own veterans.
And we had to track it down. And now we're dealing with applying to debt management to work through the system.
So our veteran doesn't have to repay those benefits for the second check that was issued.
The veteran never got those benefits. And so when they issued the second check, it was because, you know, he should have got the check in Michigan, but it was cashed in Texas.
So they are really trying to do away and to, and, you know, reduce the fraud. I never thought about that happening.
When I saw this, and then don't you think this has happened two or three times in the last couple months with these fraudulent checks.
And I was surprised, but the multiple bank accounts, this is probably going to be affecting across the country.
50,000 veterans that this is happening to. So they hope to notify you.
And the big group that this is really affecting that they're trying to contact directly are the student veterans.
I guess the ones that are in school that are getting their benefits, maybe they're going to a different account.
If they're getting student benefits, books and tuition and things like that, and then they're getting maybe a VA benefit.
So I was thinking about that. Holy moly, you know, that that could really create a problem. So I just wanted to make that announcement to make people aware.
That's okay. I had it here. Seems to me somebody from legal help sent me an email earlier in the week about this.
Here's I have the sheet in front of me. It says instead, if veterans do not consolidate their distributions into one account by August by April 20, it says the department processes will begin to send all of the benefits to a single account, but it doesn't say which one.
So you've got to let them know or you know, you've got to keep an eye out as to where all these these checks might end up. And they know that they're they're apologetic that such a move could cause some financial problems for individuals expecting to find the money in bank a and it turns up to be in credit union C.
Yeah, so you got to start looking for that and they're going to be doing that over the next two months. Read your mail. Folks, right, going to be sending you notifications that this is going to be occurring.
And I'm sure that there'll probably be some online site that you can go to to consolidate where the money is going to go.
You don't even think about it Dale but you know when I started to peel back that onion. If you do have multiple accounts. Think about this. What if you have bills, electric bills, gas bills, all of these bills being paying by this account, and then other bills and things being
paid by this account. And if you don't take care of it, and the VA decides, okay, we're going to go to this account, you're going to be late. What if it's a mortgage or another payment, then you're going to be in big time trouble.
It's going to be a mess. It's going to be a mess. So make sure that you know, read your mail. As I said, read your mail. They're not going to call you.
They don't call you and ask you questions and things, but make sure that you do this. I just wanted to talk briefly about this incarcerated veterans thing because I hadn't even thought about it.
And I was reading online on the VA website about this and you know, if you happen to be a veteran and you happen to be incarcerated or incarcerated, especially for in a federal prison, you lose your benefits.
And the vast majority of them, it's that and sometimes you have to work with somebody, let's suppose that you have dependents, you have to work with a veteran service officer or somebody within that spectrum of how you can keep some of them.
You are not entitled to them while you're in prison, but you may be able to get some of them sent to your families. At least that's what it says here. And then there are re re entry programs, of course.
And we touched on this earlier in the program if you have been incarcerated. And, you know, once you get out, which is what we're going to have to, you're going to be having to deal with with the attorney we were talking to, you're going to have to reapply.
Unfortunately, for all of that. So get the help that you need. Ask for help. Don't be afraid. Don't be stubborn. And I'll figure this out.
Don't try to do it on your own. It's much too complicated. And I encourage you to, you know, get the help that you need, whether it's medical care, or it's, you know, if you were on disability before you got in trouble,
you could still get it back. So don't, you know, don't think that just because you were, you know, sent away for a while, that you've lost everything.
There are people out there that will do everything they can to make you as whole as possible.
Caroline, you had, you wanted to, I know you wanted to comment on that. I think the important thing is, you know, in any situation, it's filling out the right paperwork, understanding the system.
You know, if you need an open heart surgery, you're not going to go to a cardiologist who's done it for the first time, you're going to want to go to somebody that's done it 1000 times.
And so, you know, in, in talking to Dave earlier and knowing that, you know, he was, we were talking about Colin Laura tomorrow.
It's getting the paperwork right, assisting where we could to help this veteran with this incarceration, or any item that it could be aid in attendance,
incarceration, getting a veteran's benefit, helping with a dependency, a death to get a widow on DIC. It doesn't matter.
Contact somebody, don't try to do it by yourself. You know, reach out and ask one of the experts to help you.
Brian, I don't know if you're the expert on this or not, but, you know, you mentioned the homeless programs that the VA does have. You know, it sounds like this.
Marine, when he gets out, he's going to have nowhere to go.
Well, you know, I'm not sure if the homeless program is going to be exactly what's right for him. We have, you know, programs that will, you know, help veterans find, you know, living situations where they need, you know, special care.
And we can, they can, you know, definitely have infrastructure to help set that up.
VA also has a very good blind rehab program to specialize in it. So there are ways that we can get in and help them, you know, get what they need, you know, you know, considering their disability, right.
So, you know, it's, you know, the, I guess the top line message is, you know, there's so many services that VA offers.
You really just got to poke around and look and ask questions because chances are, if there's something that you need and you're a veteran, we have it for you.
And I think that that that's the message that we want to get out because as the lawyer that was on the program a little bit earlier pointed out that she was not familiar with how the VA works.
And, you know, she's just her goal right now is to get this, you know, Marine out of jail. He's been there for 50 years for Pete's sake.
And he's totally, you know, pretty much it sounds like he's totally disabled.
Yeah, it's a shame really, just, you know, just got to ask the questions and look and, and, you know, VA is not a big mysterious monolith, you know, just go to va.gov and poke around and you'll find so many things that can be helpful.
And that's for all the veterans listening, not just the veteran that we're talking about, but for everybody. It's a comprehensive website, very easy to navigate.
It was designed specifically to be an easy to navigate website. So hit va.gov. It'll take you to every place you need to go to find out what you need.
That's where I got all my information from.
Uh huh.
Yeah.
Well, it's there.
Medical Center. Yeah. And each medical center has their own website to ours is Ann Arbor dot va.gov.
So that's easy to remember, right?
Right.
And it is, and it is very user friendly. And again, we, you know, I hate to keep repeating it, but we just encouraging you, if you're not in the system, in this case, get in the system.
That's all we want you to do because you don't know whether you're going to need it or not.
Right.
Yeah, that really is the first step. You really, really got to enroll. And if you've tried to enroll before, and you weren't successful, your circumstances may have changed.
Oftentimes the laws change. Do it again, you know, enroll again.
Um, you know, if you're, if you're rolling for healthcare, that's fine.
Also, I want to remind folks too, you know, if you're having, if there's a veteran that's having a mental health crisis, the nature of their discharge doesn't matter.
They can get that mental health care through VA by reporting to a VA to get the care they need if they're in crisis.
So when we, you know, I just want to kind of just highlight that because oftentimes when we talk about VA care, we talk about, you know, honorably discharged, general discharge, that kind of thing.
But we often forget about, you know, folks who, you know, may, may have a mental health crisis. It doesn't matter what the nature of your discharge was, you will get the care you need for your mental health at VA.
I think that's a really important message there.
And, um, there are so many people that think that they don't have anything available to them.
Yeah. And this is, you know, that I was not aware of that. That's, that's cool.
Yeah, that was a deal that was signed into law, I believe last year or maybe late, late 2022 is called the compact act.
There are so many changes that have occurred over the last 10, 20 years. You know, I talked to veterans and say, oh, I tried to be a back in the 70s. It was terrible.
Yeah, it's it's it's not that VA anymore.
No, it's not your father's Buick.
It's no.
It's a new entity, and it is much more user, much more user friendly.
And again, we encourage you to do that.
We're coming up on two minutes to go.
It's really fast, doesn't it sometimes?
There is there any other thing that you want to touch on either one of you?
I just think if you have any doubts about benefits or if there's anything out there, just reach out and ask the questions.
There's enough great people out there that are willing to help you.
And that also goes for family members, because I think we overlook our family members sometimes.
Yeah, we don't we don't talk to them enough.
Tell them what's available to them and they know to to us at same one.
Yeah, yeah, you can always just just wanted to just remind you, you know, go to va.gov, get your questions answered.
If you'd like if you'd rather speak to somebody in person, you can always report to a local medical center or clinic and there'll be somebody there that can help you to.
But also show up at some of the big events that we have.
We do events all year long.
Last year we did 173 outreach events just in the Ann Arbor area, just reaching out to veterans to tell them about their benefits.
Remember next Saturday, 10 o'clock to two o'clock at the Canton Seabock right behind the Sam's Club on Lotz Road.
Okay, and I have another announcement from March real quick that I want to remind everybody.
Hey, we're getting a section of I 94 named Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway.
There's going to be a there's going to be a ceremony on that on the 29th of March.
And it's going to be at the VA Memorial here, not the VA, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial here in Washtenaw County.
I know that we're running out of time.
Thank you both very much for being on our program.
We encourage everybody to come back at the end of next month because we're going to be doing our benefits program again.
So if any questions come along, let us know about that.
Thank you very much for being on our program today.
He's very helpful, I think.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you, Brian.
Thank you, Caroline.
Appreciate it very much.
So this is Reba McIntyre going to be doing God bless America today.
So until next week, this is Dale Throne.
Mary for all of us here at Veterans Radio.
You are dismissed.
God bless America.
The land that I love.
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with the light from above
From the mountains to the breeze
To the oceans quiet with full moon
God bless America, my home sweet home
Everybody stand in their seats
God bless America, the land that I love
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with the light from above
From the mountains to the breeze
To the oceans quiet with full moon
God bless America, my home sweet home
America, my home sweet home
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