All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
And now, your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry.
Yeah, and welcome to Veterans Radio.
My name is Dale Throneberry.
I was a CW-2 helicopter pilot in Vietnam, 1969, half a century ago.
My goodness, holy moly.
I'm not sure how this happened.
But anyway, welcome today.
This is our benefits program for the month of June.
We're already into June, my goodness.
So if you have any questions that you'd like to ask our board of experts,
our panel of experts here, the local number is 734-822-1600.
This number can be used since we are broadcasting live in Detroit as well.
You could use that number and get in and ask your questions.
We have a lot of things to talk about today.
We're going to be talking about what's going on at the VA.
In Ann Arbor, we're going to be talking about some disability issues that are going on out there.
Remembering that there are two separate entities of the same thing.
One is for healthcare and the other is for the disability.
And Aiden attendance and those types of benefits for the veteran.
So we want to make sure that you are aware of that.
There's a couple of other issues that have come up over the last month that we're going to be talking about.
And again, I encourage you to join us.
But first thing I have to do is to thank our sponsors because we can't do this program without our sponsors.
And number one on the list is legal help for veterans.
Legal help for veterans specializes in veterans disability claims.
Give them a call at 800-693-4800 or 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 certification of veteran-owned businesses.
Former information, you can go to their website, NVBDC.org,
or give them a call at 888-237-8433.
Charles S. Kettle VA Medical Center here in Ann Arbor, Michigan,
one of the top VA medical centers across the country.
For more information, you can go to their website.
That's va.gov.
The Vietnam Veterans of America motto is never again will one generation of veterans abandon another.
For more information, go to their website, vva.org.
And our local support from the Irwin Prescott American Legion Post 46
and the Charles S. Kettle's Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 310, both of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
If you'd like to support Veterans Radio, please go to our website, veteransradio.org,
click on the donate button, and thank you very much for your support in advance.
All right, that's the official business that's out of the way.
We have a lot of events that are going on in June in the local area and across the state of Michigan.
And I'm going to queue up an interview that Jim Faustone did with, where does his name go?
J.C. Stewart. J.C. Stewart is out in Grand Haven and they are having a big extravaganza coming up.
So if we could play that interview real quick, it runs about four minutes.
So we'll be back in just a little bit. Here's Jim and J.C.
We've got J.C. Stewart on the line, a Marine over in Grand Haven, Michigan, who's got some
exciting things coming along for Lakeshore's Environmental Gala and an air show in 2025,
but some stuff going on this month. J.C., tell us all about it.
Yes, sir. Thank you for having me on. This actually gala coming up June 7th, next Friday,
is a great opportunity that I put together on the Lakeshore for our veterans to come and see
and be in person. Various benefits, factors of in-person services, they will give you
opportunities to know what benefits you have. There's opportunities also to know what other
benefits you may get that you may not know of. We'll have people such as the VA from Wyoming,
they're on site supporting some of the mental health, as well as the medical side. And we all
have the Ottawa County VA director and his team there on site to go over certain aspects of
your benefits as far as home, education services, etc. And we are very excited for this to be in
the first year. This is a two-day event and you've got activities, STEM activities that
should interest the whole family. Tell us about it. Absolutely, yes. This is a gala that's going to
be including STEM activities for aviation, marine vessels, as well as construction engineering. So
the kids will be able to learn a little bit about how aerospace works. They'll be able to build sand
castles and understand how construction works where they can put bricks on top and see that
the structure holds. They're going to be able to build airplanes. They're also going to be working
and building floating vessels for marine understanding things such as buoyancy and learning how
boats work in the water where you have metal, you know, a ton of metal onto water and how that
floats. So it's very exciting for the family of us. Tell us where this is going to be held.
This is going to be held in Grand Haven at the Mulligan's Hollow. That's going to be near the YMCA
if you're familiar with the Tri-Cities YMCA. Both days again, June 7th, Friday and June 8th,
Saturday from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. where we will have live music following the STEM programs.
And actually this Friday for the Saturday, excuse me, the Friday for the 7th, we are actually going
to have a very cool drone show at dusk that's going to be dedicated to the military for all the family
to see. Now there is, as there is always, food and drink at these things and you're looking for
folks to pre-register so you know who all's coming. Tell us how people get tickets and get out to
this program. Absolutely. So if you were to go up to our website at www.lakeshoreairshow.com,
you'll find all your details with getting your tickets and by the way the STEM tickets are free.
We are a limited team though so you got to get your tickets as they're available and then you
can also buy your tickets to the entertainment for the live entertainment. We're going to have a
live rock band for $10 which will be a donation towards our air show fundraising that's going to
take again next year in June 2025. And before we wrap up here, tell us about that air show you're
planning in 2025 that this is all a part of. Absolutely. So this air show is going to be the
first of its kind here in West Michigan and actually all of Michigan where this will actually take
place over the Lake Michigan beaches here in Grand Haven where we will be able to have this air show
free of charge as long as you have access to the state park. You can walk there, you can drive there
but as long as you have access to the beach it's free of charge. We're going to have several
civilian aircraft as well as military aircraft that are going to demonstrate the variation of
aviation in the sky and we are hoping that this does develop over time in the next couple of years
to where we're going to include boat shows and other activities during that time on the beach.
Well we encourage people to check this out and maybe go to Grand Haven here for this
Gala over two days. Give us that website once more JC. Absolutely. That website again is
www.lakeshoreairshow.com. Hey Marine, thanks and Semper Fi. Semper Fi, thank you for your time.
All right, thanks Jim. Thank you very much for that and we're looking forward to finding out more
about that particular event over in Grand Haven. I think it's going to be kind of cool really.
The other thing I've got is a vet fest that is coming up in Houghton County, Michigan. That's
way up in the UP and this is going to be this coming Wednesday, June 5th. The Veterans Resource
Fair is at Michigan Tech University in Houghton. Even if you just show up you have proof of service,
you get a $20 fuel card, free meal for veterans and their families, there's all kinds of veteran
service officers and over 50 service providers and organizations are going to be at the event.
I would encourage you to head out there and if you're up in the UP, that's Wednesday, June 5th
from 1 to 5 p.m. And for more information you can check out the Houghton County Veterans Service
Office up there in the UP. This looks like it's really fun and I like this one. It's cool.
This is Music Will Be Provided by Tom Catalan and the Highway 41 Band Between Programs.
That sounds neat. So hopefully you can do that. The last thing I wanted to talk about real briefly
was a happy birthday and this happy birthday goes to the Detroit VA Center. This is the
Charles Dingles VA Center. It started, I guess, 29 years ago. They closed down the one that was in
Alvin Park, moved everybody to Detroit and so I was hoping to have somebody on but they didn't get
back to me. So anyway, I wanted to wish them a happy birthday to the Detroit VA system over there.
All right, so let's see what's going on here in Ann Arbor in the healthcare system.
And so joining me right now is our good friend and he's the communication director for the
Charles S. Kettles VA Medical Center here in Ann Arbor and that is Brian A.s. Brian. Welcome back.
Hi, Dale. Thanks for having me back. I appreciate you coming back. So tell me what's going on at
Charles S. Kettles VA Medical Health Center. Well, you know, every time I come on we have so much
going on. I try to do it briefly because I know you have more show that's more than me. But
you know, last week we had a really successful women's clinic dedication ceremony featuring
Carol Ann. It was wonderful. It is officially named the Brigadier General Carol Ann Faustone
Women's Clinic. It was a really, really great time and it was wonderful to see everybody.
And Carol Ann, you have a huge family. Oh, Brian, shout out to your crew and specifically
my good buddy, Sean Stevens, did a fabulous job. That whole crew. I was overwhelmed, humbled.
The room standing room only. The Knights of Columbus Bishop Joseph Coffey came in representing
Archbishop Tim Brolio for the military. What a spectacular event. Yeah, it was so much fun.
It was so nice seeing you and your element and with your family. It was just a it was really a
great time. You can know so you appreciate it. Thanks the director again. Director Ginny.
She was fabulous. Everybody. I mean, it was a wonderful event. Thank you. It really was. Thank
you. And you know, in other news and Ann Arbor, you know, the construction, if you've been to the
medical center for primary care within the last year, you know that we're doing construction
there. That continues on one side and then it'll shift to the other side. Once that complete,
that's complete. Once it gets done, our primary care clinics will be brand new state-of-the-art
suites that are going to be pretty awesome. Really excited to get those up and running.
Right now they're not bad, but we want to get them get them really nice for our veterans.
And then of course, our Finley Clinic opening up late summer in Finley, Ohio. That's big news,
brand new Seabock down there. And the folks in Finley are very, very excited about that clinic
coming online and then we are too. And we'll probably be having a ceremony for that maybe and
hopefully by October for that. And just a couple of events coming up. I wanted to pass along to
the folks who at least are listening in the local Ann Arbor area and at Jackson. We've got a veteran
appreciation cookout and PACT Act enrollment fair that's coming up on Thursday, June 20th
or 10 until 2 at the Jackson VDA Clinic. And Dale, you had mentioned a few minutes ago a vet
fest happening way up in Houghton. We've got a couple of vet fests happening here locally.
One on August 3rd, it's the Washington Community College vet fest. That's from 10 until 3 on Saturday,
August 3rd at Washington Community College. And then of course, the annual vet life vet fest in
Fowlerville at the Fowlerville Family Fair. That's on Saturday, August 10th from 11 to 3. And that's
what I have today. Okay, it's very busy. The only other thing I wanted to mention was that I just
saw on the website because for those of you that don't bother going to the VA website because it
seems complicated. It's not that really that complicated. But there's all kinds of news there
of what's going on. And one of the news stories was that there's another research project that
is going to be starting up or it's probably may have started already at the NMRVA. And it's a
heart research program that inserts a little sensor into your, as a stent in your heart.
The idea there is it helps prevent heart failure. The VA is amazing as far as their research
programs that they do across the country. Well, in our VA, particularly, this is one of the big,
obviously the big research projects that are going on. But VA and Arbor has over 400 research
projects going on at any given time. And there's just a lot of primary science that's developed
here, as well as research on top of other research. But we're really proud to have been selected as
one of the few facilities in the country that will be participating in this revolutionary device study.
I know. I was just amazed when I saw the list of all of the different research projects that were
going on at our VA and I'm sure at VA's across the country. And I think that's something that I
really wanted to point out to our audience that, you know, I think that the VA in many cases is,
you know, a step above many of the medical centers across the country, especially as far as research
is concerned. A lot of folks don't really, I know, Carol Ann, one second. I just wanted to make the
point that a lot of it's good. It's good to know that, you know, VA is really at the forefront of
a lot of medical research, you know, things like the nicotine patch was invented by the VA. The
first liver transplant was by VA. Just all kinds of firsts that come from VA research. And it's
worth noting that. Well, Brian, I'm sure you're aware of this on another front, but it's on the VHA
side. On June 1st, it was Penpal Day. And legal help for veterans took a crew of our staff. And
we went to the John Dingell VA Medical Center on Thursday of last week. And on Friday, we went to
the Ann Arbor VA Medical Center with a thousand, with a hundred cards. And we went through the
hospital with your voluntary services, Camille down in Detroit and Alan Bray, and then in Ann Arbor
Gustav, the voluntary services director. And we walked in and around the staff on the inpatient
units. And I would like to offer to our listeners that if you've got individuals out there, groups
of people that want to go in and visit and thank our veterans, they were so happy to have us come
and give them cards and just thank them for their service. Just at a different time of year, I know
we do that for Memorial Day and Veterans Day, but they were so happy to have us come. You could just
contact the voluntary services office. And it was just such a great day to go into both
facilities. And so I was so excited to do that and happy. And yes, I did pay another visit
to the Women's Center in Ann Arbor. And what a great staff there. So Brian, thank you again for
everything at the Ann Arbor VA Medical Center. Thank you. And thank you, Dale. That's all I have
today. All right, Brian. Thank you very, very much. We'll talk to you next month. See ya. All right.
All right. I have to correct something myself. I wish the happy birthday to the wrong VA center.
It's the John Dingle VA Center in Detroit, Michigan. And there is some music that just came out that I
got a text from just a minute ago that talks about that they're actually opening their downriver
outpatient clinic. Another VBAC is coming on June 3rd. So tomorrow, oh, Monday, Monday, they are
opening up one of their clinics. And they're doing much the same that probably many of the VAs around
the country are doing. But it's good to know where they are. So this one is going to be,
it says the VA Downriver Clinic on Fort Street in Trenton, Michigan. So you don't have to drive
all the way into Detroit. You don't have to drive all the way to Ann Arbor. Those of you that are
downriver, you can go down to Trenton and get started on everything that you need to get started
on. So anyway, so thank you. That's the information. All right. So we're going to take a quick break here
to our Medal of Honor segment. When we come back, we've got General Carol Ann Faussone
of Women's Health Clinic fame and David Sames, who is a Washtenaw County Veteran Service Officer.
And we're here to answer your question. So the number again is 734-822-1600. And we'll be right
back. You're listening to Veterans Radio. The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in
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. Walter Ellers of his brother
were in the first wave to hit Omaha Beach on D-Day. 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. Staff Sergeant Ellers' brother was several hundred yards away
on the beach and they didn't see each other. Ellers' unit ran into a decimated unit of
Bangalore Torpedo men and provided cover for them as they used their explosives to blow a
hole in the German fortifications. This allowed an American breakup. On June 9th,
Ellers' platoon came under heavy fire. He climbed a hedge row and called his men to follow.
He spotted a German patrol and killed four of the enemy. Ordering his men to fix bannets and firing
from his hip, he destroyed a machine gun nest. He then attacked a second machine gun, killing three
more. The platoon moved out the next morning and came under intense fire from both sides.
The commander ordered a withdrawal. Ellers realized that someone had to provide cover.
He motioned his automatic rifleman to follow him, scrambled to the top of a mount of earth
that provided a vantage point. They began firing on the Germans, drawing fire away from the rest
of the platoon. Ellers was hit in the back, but was able to kill the sniper that shot him.
When his rifleman was wounded, Ellers dragged him to safety. Ellers was treated at a field
station and insisted on returning to action. Unable to strap on a backpack, he strapped on
two bandoliers of ammunition, picked up a rifle, and went to find his men. A month later,
he was informed that his brother was killed on Omaha Beach. Ellers was presented the Medal of
Honor by Lieutenant General John Lee on December 19th, 1944. 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 among 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. If you know a veteran in crisis, don't wait, reach out. Call the Veterans Crisis Line at 988,
then press 1. 988, press 1. A message from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Now we're back on Veterans Radio and this is our benefits program this week. And so I wanted to
bring in my two experts that we've got. We've got retired Air Force Brigadier General Carol Ann
Fausson from Legal Help for Veterans, a certified organization to help veterans. And David Sames,
who is the Washtenaw County Veterans Service Director of the Veterans Service Office here
in Washtenaw County. David, welcome back. Thank you. Great to be back. It's nice to be anywhere,
right? Yes, right. Okay. So I guess to start off without I wanted to find out if you would if
either one of you have had any unusual claims that you know that we could tell our audience about.
Maybe they're not aware of. We know that the PACT Act has increased the availability of potential
claims. And that is kind of running wild. I saw an article where it said over a million
claims have been posted or attempted in the last year since that came out. So what's happening
Carol Ann, what's happening at Legal Help? Well, I think it's interesting because
and I think David and I have talked about this, but a veteran handed me a letter a couple weeks ago
and it was from, believe it or not, the secretary of the VA that he received in the mail addressing
thank him for his service. But then it was related to reporting any issues of harassment,
any issues of care, anything that was not good service, anything related to
once again the ideas of a challenge, not good customer service. They wanted to stop harassment,
any intervention that they didn't consider acceptable. And we've been trying to address that word of
abuse during service. And so I just found it really interesting because we've been trying to
look at some of those issues of abuse during service even many years after, particularly with
females and David and I have had some discussions regarding that. So I thought that that was pretty
interesting that this letter has surfaced from the secretary about that they're not going to
tolerate any of that behavior by staff and employees. Was this a letter to a woman
a woman veteran or was it just no, it's entitled Dear Veteran or beneficiaries and it went out,
I think globally to individuals. And so interesting.
Yeah, well, you know, and I think we talked more about this last month when we were talking about
that the VA has really reached out to women veterans, especially, you know, from decades ago.
Yes, you know, like there's no there's no statute of limitations.
Well, I'll read you just one line. If you are, if you or someone you know has been harassed or
sexually assaulted at a VA facility, I encourage you to report this and follow up with guidance
and they give you some guidance to follow with reporting any wrong actions. And so
I was really encouraged by this, you know, that there will be no tolerant tolerating any of these
actions. And I'll some of the other things that they're sending out to so the VA compensation
side, they're sending out reminder letters for everybody that filed an intent for the PACT Act,
reminding them that they have to complete their fully developed claim by August, I think it was
10th, right, or whenever you filed your intent. So they're sending I think they're sending over
300,000 letters to people that haven't filled out their formal claim. So we think that, you know,
our office will be again, busy, not that we're not busy right now. And but those letters are going
out, I think they went out last week. On the claim front, we one of my VSOs reopened another
DIC claim, dependency and demony compensation claim for the spouse because the
veteran has had passed and passed quite long ago. And right when he passed, she didn't
fill out the application, but two years later she did. Well, then she came back because of the PACT
Act. And in that it was so they do a compensation pension exam without the vet, of course, but
with all the medical records, and they opinion that it was at least likely not due to service.
And it was another $250,000 retro. So again, if you know, if there's a dependence out there that
had filed claims and got denied, reach out to your local county office and reopen that because
there might be something there might not be. But those are just some of the things that we've been
seeing and focusing on. Because in the PACT Act expanded a lot of stuff, especially Thailand,
with those Vietnam vets, and a lot of people are unaware.
Are you launching something? Maybe it's an intention to file a claim?
It's called an intent. Yeah, so it's an 09, 210966 is when you want to
file a claim with a VA, but you don't have all your evidence yet. So you file the intent. So that
means I saved my place in line for a year. And so you have a year to develop your claim, and then
you have to file the formal claim on the 21526 easy. Okay, and if I don't file a claim with any
year, I have to start over again? Or it's... It just drops off. Yeah, so it won't go a year back.
And in this instance, if you file the intent, it won't go back two years because the date of the
law change. Right. Okay, I think that's rather interesting. Both of those things are, I think,
really important. We all know surviving spouses of veterans who would file the claim, or didn't
even file a claim and died of a service-connected disability. And I think this is an opportunity
for some of them to go back and see what they can do. Oh, yeah, definitely. David, you're
example just recently for our families. Please communicate because we go out and
ask for a case to be expedited if we find out that a person, the veteran, is terminal. We find
out that they're placed in hospice and we're waiting for an exam. We filed the claims. We know that
you've got a cancer that is presumptive and it's in there. We're waiting for an exam. We just find
out your terminal. We call, we write, we try to get it expedited. You don't get that exam and then
you die. And then the veteran dies. That's also very related to the case you just described.
They go back and the individual, the spouse now, we're putting in for DIC, but then we're going
back to also regarding another award that it's backdated because of what we did to ask for it to
be expedited without the exam. Yeah, and that comes into play when you do the substituting
of claimant. So even though the veteran dies, the spouse can be the substitute claimant and then
you file the 601. And so they develop it just like if the veteran was a lie. Right. I think that
is really important, especially for our audience out there who's not that familiar or maybe their
spouse didn't fill them in on what they could have gotten from through the VA on the benefits side.
And so I think if you know, in talking to the audience that's out there, if you're going through
your spouse's paperwork after they've passed and you find something in there from the VA or even
if you knew that they had a condition that you thought that they had applied for compensation
and never followed through on it, this is an opportunity for you to do that.
Oh, yeah.
Keep it, you know, keep it going because there are so many different things that are available out
there. You know, we, excuse me, we talked briefly about an article that showed up in the Washington
Post last week. Last week, I think it was two weeks ago. And it's talking about organizations
that are not certified to file claims with the VA, but they are out there filing claims. And
they're also charging the veteran or the family to file these claims and appeals and everything
else along the line. And they're charging in some cases some, you know, some really hefty fees
in order to do that. And then of course, there are also some of them are also
taking a percentage of the, of your, of your benefits that you're entitled to.
And so I was wondering if you've heard anything about this particular story or if you have any
comments you'd like to make on it. Either one of you. I've come across this many times where
you know, vets, you know, their buddy went through another person and you know,
the claims that they'll get it through within 90 days or they'll get you the highest percentage
because they're, they know more and they're connected with the VA and they do charge where
some of them charge a flat fee, some charge money for Nexus letters, and then some charge
where let's say somebody's 10% and then they get 50. They request that 40% difference for
five times five months. And so I see it out there and I tell the vets, I'm like, hey, listen,
you're in Washington County, you're in one of the best counties here. So come to me. I mean,
we don't charge none of the counties charge none of the service orgs, like the American Legion VFW,
DAV, VVA, they're not charging for their service. And it's, you know, if it goes further on like
the BVA or the US Court of Appeals, then, you know, attaining a lawyer that might be beneficial, but
with the status of the claim on the beginning, definitely go to your service orgs or your county.
What I, what I could tell you is with legal help for veterans or any case, ask them when, when we
take a case, I know veterans will say, well, how much are you going to charge us? And we say,
we charge nothing. If on an appeal on the back end is the only time and there is
the, the VA, depending on your decision, but we are certified, as you said in the very beginning
of the year, we're going to be doing Dale and we go through Nova. So if you are a veteran out there,
you need to ask the organization, are you certified? Or if you're an attorney firm, finance, do you
know what you're doing? And they should not be requesting any money upfront. As Dave said,
none of the VSOs, the counties, we legal help for veterans do not expect any money upfront.
And then there's the other, I would say, opportunity for a veteran with aid in attendance.
And I believe it is a law that no attorney, nobody should be accepting any money for aid in attendance.
It is a benefit. It's an income-based benefit, aid in attendance to the veteran and the spouse,
or the widow, could get this benefit. But there is no charge to fill out that paperwork. So
you really need to shop it around. And as David and I were talking ahead of time,
I think sometimes you go into a financial planner and somebody will say, hey, we'll do this and
we'll fill it out and we'll get it done in X period of time and you want to get it done.
But there's no guarantees you're going to get it done in 90 days. Have you ever seen some of these
things done, David, in 90 days as is promised? Yeah, no, only after over 95. They say priority
is over 80, but no, priority is over 95. And like you talked before, if it's financially
or they're on hospice, that's the only way you can expedite that. And we don't see that.
Right? And like Carolyn was saying, it's a non-service connected pension with aid in attendance.
And there's a lot of lawyer groups that are connected with financial advisors that go into
assisted living homes and nursing homes. And they present this. They're like, okay, we'll do your
claim. And then for a certain amount of money, I've seen flyers on that. And this is for a low-income
vet, a low-income spouse. And then you're charging them to do a free claim, a free application to the
VA, I think it's absurd. Well, we're being inundated with the advertising. I mean, especially, you
know, how the AI works with Facebook and all the other things that are out there. So if you pause
on one of those, I can get you 90% of what? If you don't have any disability. But, you know,
as soon as you stop and look at that, the next thing you know is you're going to get 100 of those.
And it's going to be different companies from all over the country, probably in all over the world.
And somewhere going to be legit and some are not going to be legit. And I think that that's
that's what we're kind of to convey here to our audience is that it is so important that you check
on these organizations that you are, you know, you're thinking about working with. And you mentioned
an organization called NOVA. What is NOVA, Caroline? It's a national organization of the
attorneys out there. And they've got the board and they meet nationally, they have to meet
a couple times a year. And all lawyers have to be certified, they have to get their accreditation.
And their hours of service, just like the service, the organizations, when you're accredited, you
have to get so many hours of education a year. And you've got to get your hours in your book
learning so that you're keeping up on all the regs. And you have to you have to go to these
conferences, you have to go to the meetings, you have to know all the federal learn about all the
new federal regs that are coming in. And so those are the accreditation boards. David has the
county counselors boards that I'm sure he goes to meetings a couple times a year. And we have a
great board here in Michigan. I'm sure the the big meeting usually in June is coming up, I'm sure
somewhere here in Michigan. And, and I know Christina, Christina Darrow, one of our attorneys,
usually has been going out for years and speaking at that. So, you know, you just have to stay
current with with your education and stay up on everything. So that's real important, Dale.
Well, you know, you think about that all of the changes that have come have occurred in the last
two years. And I'm sure that, you know, there's always people in there tweaking this or tweaking
that. And, you know, I get all the veterans magazines and all the magazines in there have their
legislative chairman is saying, well, this is what we're going to be trying to do this year. And,
and so it's, it's really we as talking from the veteran side now are depending on, on folks like
you and David and all the other VSOs and organizations that are out there to stay current
with the laws and, and, you know, really help us because it's a, you know, it's a minefield out
there that, you know, that you could get in, get yourself involved with. And you mentioned something
David that I had not when you're talking about priorities, you said 80 and 90. Is that are those
ages? Yeah, those are ages. Sorry. So, you know, it might be on the website, there's priority group,
you know, for 85 years old. But with a pension, if everybody's applying at 85, there's no priority
group really. So it's more like late 90s, you can get a priority, or if they're running out of money,
or if they're health. So then you can, you can ask for something to be expedited. And
with making those relationships at our conferences, like we go to the Michigan Association of
County veteran counselors in the spring, we get local presenters from the Detroit regional office,
from the Ann Arbor VA, all over the state, we had 150 VSOs at our conference. And then we do one in
the national, where they pull the, they'll have the undersecretary of the VA, they'll have the person
that is running the pension management center, the cemetery administration. So then we get a high level
contact. And they're usually really good about giving their contact information. So
it's just really beneficial when you go to a credit service officer or attorney that's accredited
through the VA, because they have those contacts. And if something doesn't look right, then they can
reach out to them and fix it before it's done. Right. So it's good. And, you know, the beautiful
thing is the interfacing when, when I sat as the assistant agent in general for the state of Michigan,
I would go to the directors meeting at the national level, they would pull in the state veteran home.
And so you would meet with them, those individuals, you would meet with the county counselor,
those leaders would come in and we would sit with the different leaders in those groups. And
we would talk about the problems that the different groups were having. And we're all working together.
We have the same rules. And we're trying to combine those issues to help our veterans.
You know, we've got our state veterans homes. How many times do we talk about those issues,
you know, trying to get our veterans in that in those homes, those veterans that might be homeless,
those veterans that are all by themselves, helping them get some disability benefits. So I think it's
really important to have sessions like we do Dale at veterans radio and to be communicating with our
county counselors. I think that's really important. Well, I think there's just there's so many,
there's so many rules and regulations and that that you, especially you two and all the other
VSOs out there have to be aware of. And I'm thinking, you know, I'm not sure. So you I'll
let you guys correct me on this, but you have access to some VA portal where you can follow the
claims, correct? Correct. It's called the VBMS. So we can see the same things that the raters are
seeing it at the VA. Okay. And is that something that requires your certification by the VA in
order to go to look at that? That's correct. Yes. Yes. Okay. So that's I mean, that's that's what
I was talking about. And so if we're talking to some Yahoo group out there, the claims that they can,
you know, process your claim quicker, and they're not accredited, they're not going to be able to
follow up on, you know, what the VA asked for. And I know with my claims, that the VSOs I've worked
with have called me and said, Oh, Dale, they're going to be, you're going to get a letter that says
you need this. And so that gets me to get that letter, you know, before I even get the letter,
you know, I get all the information that is that is necessary. And that's what I wanted to really
highlight today is to make to make sure that our audience is really aware that if you're filing a
claim, no matter who it's with, to make sure that they are certified, because they have a definite
advantage over some of these fly by night organizations that are out there that are claiming
they can get your claim done in 90 days. Yes. Now, if you're, I mean, if there's there's certain
diseases that they'll do it, right? ALS, they'll they'll get that done really fast. So there's
there's there's conditions out there, or if you're terminal, they'll try to do their best and and
then making those contacts at the regional offices and your local VSOs, that helps that county
department or the lawyers that much, they can make it go that much faster just because knowing
the contacts that you need to know in order to expedite a claim when when needed, you can't do
everyone right. But no, but I'm thinking you were talking about all your conferences and
you know, at those conferences, you get to talk to people from the VA and and you know,
maybe you've had an acclaim that was a little more complicated than the usual and you say,
well, what do I need to do with this? And I mean, you're talking to the to the source and they're
saying, well, this is what you need to do. This is what we are looking for. Oh, definitely. And
then you can reach out and say, well, I've had I have this one, I really need somebody higher than
a normal person to look at it. And everybody I've asked that are running the show, they they
they're definitely like send it to me and I'll look at it. And you explain the issues and it
usually gets resolved fast. And you know what, it's it's helping one another to and it's not
it's not saying, well, I'm not going to talk to David because he has the claim and I don't have it.
And a good example is I got a call from United Way that there was a poor widow, her spouse died,
and she's homeless, and they didn't know where to place her a female, and she was in dire need
of getting some help. And she thought a claim was filed for something. Now, so in my head when
they called and said, Can you please help your name came my name came up. So I worked through
the process. She didn't she thought she had applied to some organization. So I started to work through
my head. It was one of our VSOs. I called the VSO I thought she was referring to. She was so
so lost. I felt so bad for her. Her husband just had passed like three weeks before she was all
scrambled. This is the widow. So I was able to get in touch with the VSO. It was DIC.
That they applied for they didn't realize how what a hardship she was in. So we were able to connect
United Way was able to help her. So it was it was kind of beautiful because we put three
organizations together to try to help this widow. So they were going to expedite the DIC claim
because the DIC claim once it goes through, she would get money every single month if it went
through as soon as it could go through. So that was a great thing. We didn't need to get it and
say legal help for veterans got it. But we work together to get it processed.
Well, I think that that's the other thing I wanted to point out to our audience is that
all of these VSOs and the legal help for veterans organizations that you know,
this is what they do. This is their passion. They want to help the veteran community get what
they're entitled to. And they're not going to they don't worry about the money. They don't worry
about funds, you know, and what their percentages and everything else would be on these things.
So we encourage again, we encourage all of you out there, if you are having questions about
benefits, what you may or may not be entitled to, I strongly encourage you to contact your local
VSO, whether it be the county VSO, whether it's legal help for veterans, or all of the different
veterans organizations out there usually have some sort of a VSO that's a veteran service officer
for some other people. And they're there to help you. That's that's their whole purpose
is to get you what you are entitled to. And it's a maze to get through it. And I think that it's
so important that you contact these people. And if you have questions, we've got our two right here,
we've got Caroline Fesson with legal help for veterans, we've got David Sames with the Washtenaw
County VSO for those in the local area. And, you know, if you have questions, you can contact me
my name second to my email dale at veterans radio dot org, or info at veterans radio dot org,
and we will put you in touch with our VSOs. If you're listening elsewhere in the country,
and you've got a great VSO that you're aware of, Minnesota, California, wherever it might be,
let us know who they are. And we'll include them in our list of experts, and we'll get them on the
program too. So I only have a minute to go. This is gone really quickly today. So I'm going to thank
both of you. And if there's anything real quick that you want to ask, give you 10 seconds, anything
you want to say. Just thank you very much. And have a great month. I can't believe it's June already.
Same here. Have a great day and then reach out to your local service officer. Okay, they will do.
All right. This program, we're going to end up with playing God bless America. And the version that
I've chosen for today is Celine Dion. And it's just a beautiful version. And so, you know, this is
important at this point in time in our history, I want you to pay attention to this song and the
words in this song. So until next week, this is Dale Thrembry for Veterans Radio. You are dismissed.
Oh, God bless America.
God bless America.
Oh, God bless America.