All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
And now, your host for today's program, Jim Fossone.
This is Jim Fossone substituting in for Dale Throneberry, thus the technical problems.
Let's start with our folks at WAM.
Derek, do you have us?
Yeah, I got you.
OK, great.
Wait, good start.
This is why Dale's off on some R&R, asked me to step in.
He'll probably change his mind about that again.
We had to switch a few technical things to get everybody here.
But we're glad you're joining us here on Veterans Radio.
And I think we've got all our guests now finally on to the right spot.
Before we begin, we always like to thank our sponsors.
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which is critical if you want to do business with the major corporations in this country
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NVBDC.org administers a rigorous certification process to withstand that scrutiny of both
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And a new national sponsor that we're promoting is PuroClean.
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It helps families and businesses when they have to overcome disasters.
This might be water damage or remediation of fire smoke damage, mold removal, biohazards.
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This is our benefits weekend, if you have a benefits question, please call in at 734-971-1600.
And we'll try to answer your questions and give you some information maybe you don't
know.
And that's why we're starting with one of our always favorite guests, we haven't talked
to them in a while, Brian Hayes, Director of Communications at the VA Medical Center
in Ann Arbor, Brian Zavette and always has a wealth of information.
So let's start there, Brian, welcome back to Veterans Radio.
Oh, thanks Jim, I'm glad everybody's back.
We took, we were off for a little while.
It's nice to see everybody back on now, but yeah, if I've got a minute, I'd love to tell
you all the great stuff going on right now at VA Ann Arbor.
Well we'd like to have that and you're missing Dale and he probably will never give me the
microphone again after my technical hiccups, but we got to go in here and we're interested
in knowing what's new at VA Ann Arbor.
Well it's live radio and anything can happen, but probably, you know, since we met last
time, the biggest news is we opened a brand new clinic in Ohio and Findlay, Ohio, we've
got a brand new 7,000 square foot clinic there that's serving about 3,000 veterans in the
Hancock County and surrounding counties there in Ohio, south of Toledo, hoping to be able
to get them the care they need, primary care, mental health, blood draw, some of those kind
of services.
Now those, you know, that'll reduce, you know, we have 3,000 veterans who were able to reduce
their travel time, some of them up to an hour, who have to go to Toledo to get their care,
but now they can just go there to Findlay and we're really happy about that.
That they're at 1720 East Melrose Avenue in Findlay and if you're from that area, it's
where the old Social Security building used to be.
Right, right, before you move away from there, I want, maybe this is a good place for you
to explain, people might be thinking, well, why does Ann Arbor, what's Ann Arbor and
Findlay, Ohio got to do with each other and I don't think the general public, certainly
the veteran public, probably doesn't know how big your regions are and what you cover
and it's not just here, it's really all across the country.
So give us a little bit of insight into that.
Yeah, just a real brief sort of, you know, inside baseball and on how the VA is set up
and, you know, we have healthcare systems, for example, so we're the VA Ann Arbor healthcare
system is also a Detroit system, a Battle Creek system, Cleveland, you know, Dayton,
we're all part of systems in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana and we're what's called a vision
a veteran integrated service network when we're a vision 10 and we have 10 medical centers
in that vision.
And so our medical center is divided up into a region that's called a catchment area.
And so now, you know, our catchment area dips all the way down just south of Findlay, goes
all the way up to Flint, all the way west to Jackson and east into Canton, we bought
up against Detroit.
So we just have a massive area.
And how many veterans are in that vision?
What's the estimate?
Oh, the whole vision about, I think 300,000 something like that.
That gives our listeners some size and these visions are all over the cover the whole country
and have, you know, big collections of veterans that they're trying to serve is in quite a
spread out regional territory.
And the number I quoted is approximate and that's the number of veterans that we serve,
right?
That doesn't that's not all the veterans that are in the area.
So for example, you know, in Ann Arbor, we serve about 70,000 veterans a year and our
healthcare system complete about 654,000 appointments just out of our system.
But there's about 100,000 veterans in our in that area.
So there's a few that we could would love to have come get their care at VA.
That'd be great.
Well, we'll talk, we'll talk about that a little bit how they do that with general.
But I interrupted.
Go ahead.
I'll just go through the news you want to pass.
Just a couple of things, you know, briefly, you know, transportation is always a conversation
when it comes to, you know, getting veterans to their appointments and in the Michigan
area, what's called the Michigan market, which is the Michigan medical centers that are part
of the vision, which includes Battle Creek, Detroit, Ann Arbor and Saginaw.
You know, we've partnered together for the transportation navigation hub for veterans.
And what that is, it's a one stop shop, the number that veterans can call if they need
a ride to their appointment.
And we can get that done for them.
So let me give you the number real quick.
It's 877-VET-LIFT.
And that's the number you can call.
It's 877-838-5438.
And that operates between 7am and 5pm.
And if you need a ride to get to your appointments and we can get to you, we'll make sure that
happens.
And what we ask is that we need a three day notice to be able to organize that.
And Brian, is that just for appointments at the hospital or also at the clinics?
Where can I get a lift to?
That's the clinics and the hospital, right?
So real important for people to know.
That's right.
So yeah, we have 10 locations of care now with the addition of Findlay.
And we can get to all of those.
If you go to our website, narber.va.gov, the very top of that is a little section called
need a ride.
And there's a website that you can click there.
I'm not going to read off that website because it's just a really long government name for
a website.
But if you click on that hyperlink, it'll take you to all the information you need about
getting rides and veteran transportation.
So it's a really helpful resource, I think.
1-887-7-VET-LIFT.
And that's Monday through Friday, 7am to 5pm.
And just please give us 3 days notice so that we can organize that.
We can't just, you know, just run a vehicle anywhere, right?
It takes a little while to do the logistics of that.
And Brian, because many of these programs are nationwide, is this concept of making transportation
available to veterans to get to their VA appointments something that you see across the country?
Yeah, it's, you know, sometimes it's a problem, you know, in a lot of areas.
And we're doing everything we can to make sure that, you know, we get our veterans to
their appointments.
And so this is a, this is, this was kind of an innovation that we did here in Michigan
that other VA medical centers haven't done yet.
And I think they're starting to roll it out for themselves.
So this is something that we did exclusively here that's going really, really well.
So hopefully we're going to roll out all other, hopefully other, you know, regions will be
able to roll this sort of thing out.
So again, we're talking about, you know, veterans in Michigan, just being able to call that
number and set up their appointment.
So it's very simple.
A lot of times VA implements a program, sort of a pilot program, see how it works, see
what the costs really are, does it really meet the need and then they're able to get
funding to roll it out.
Is that hopefully the concept?
I think so.
And, you know, so we were able to roll ours out very successfully and we're hoping that
VA is all over the country or we'll kind of follow our lead, not to brag, but Ann Arbor
leads in a lot of things when it comes to innovation and VA.
There's a lot to talk about there.
I think they call that a humble brag.
I think that's a humble brag.
That's a humble brag.
Okay.
So, so coming up Friday, by the way, everybody knows, actually, I think Monday, I'd say 8,
9, 10, yeah, Monday is Veterans Day next Monday, but we're doing our Veterans Day program
this Friday due to availability of some speakers to come and talk to us.
And I know, Carol Ann, you're going to be there.
So we're going to do our Veterans Day program this Friday at the Medical Center in the auditorium.
So please join us there for that.
Carol Ann, I hope I'm not speaking out of turn, but she's our keynote speaker this
year.
So that should be a really nice, I'm excited to actually see that.
I'll be there too.
You better get going on each.
Brian, could you do me a favor?
Could you announce the time because I think everybody thinks Veteran Days programs are
at 11.
So could you?
Some are.
Some are actually ending at 11.
But yeah, so we're, we're, our program is at 9.30 and it'll end at 11 o'clock.
So 9.30 to 11.
It makes sense that it would be at 11 because of, you know, the way, you know, make it the
way 11, 11, 11, the way we didn't call it Veterans Day.
We called it Armistice Day, the way that rolled out.
But just remember, it's Friday the 8th, 9.30 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the auditorium of the
Medical Center.
And then simultaneously and over that, we're also doing a Veterans Day Appreciation Event,
which is running from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
And that's going to be in the Geister and Welcome Center of the Medical Center, where
we're going to be doing, you know, information, enrollment.
We'll have some refreshments there.
Hopefully just make a whole thing of it.
So that's, that's all going on next Friday as well.
Okay.
Well, you touched on it.
So I'll bring it back up now.
As you mentioned, you'd like to service more Veterans as all VA hospitals would.
You mentioned enrollment.
I know we've talked with David Sames, who's the director of the Washburn County Veterans
Affairs Department and Carolina Enrollment before.
But Brian, go ahead, give your spin on enrollment and the importance of it.
Oh, man, I mean, I think it speaks for itself getting enrolled in VA care.
But I guess my main pitch, what I always tell is if you've tried before, try again, because
the rules change constantly.
I just changed some stuff recently.
David actually will probably know better than I would about the specifics of what has changed.
But I know they're changing some of the priority groups and who can get in for health care
there.
So my big pitch is always, you know, yeah, I mean, you can get free or almost no-cost
health care through VA if you're a Veteran.
And if you've tried before and been denied for whatever reason, please try again.
That's always my pitch.
David, jump in.
He's giving you the opportunity.
Yeah.
And then with that as well, if somebody had maybe applied in the last five, 10 years, what
was told to me as well, if, let's say, you get out of the service and you enrolled at
one point in time, then you took a break for 20, 30 years, you can always go back even
though possibly you're over the income threshold.
But if you signed up at one point or another, then you can get re-enrolled back into that.
And sometimes even some of the call center people don't know that.
You know, you'll get some people that are on top of it and then you'll get some people
that, well, you make over that and you're not eligible.
But if you ever have applied in before and receive care, maybe you in college and then
now you're 50 or 60, you can re-enroll if you had done it in the past.
Carol Ann, generally, I know this is a big issue for you.
I hear you tell many Veterans about just enroll.
You don't know if you're going to be eligible.
You don't know when you're going to need it.
Go ahead, weigh in on Brian's subject.
Well, that's exactly true.
And just recently, a couple of the wives, the spouses, have tried to get Veterans in.
And Brian and David were real helpful because Veterans aren't finding their DD 214s.
And it's real critical to take that with you when you enroll.
And you're right, Jim.
We don't know when something's going to happen.
You might be told you're over the eligibility.
But if you're a Vietnam Veteran, I've been seeing lately that they have let you in and
they're catering to that.
And also, World War II Veterans, believe it or not, there are some that are coming to
the front and wanting to be eligible or get benefits.
And they're saying, why didn't I do this earlier?
So that's just a little bit about eligibility.
Brian, we took a detour here, but I was building off your comments.
What else do you want to tell us about what's going on at the Aang Arbor VA?
I had actually gone through the things that I wanted to promote today on the show.
So that was a good timing to add that extra little bit.
Hang on.
I know the general's got a question that you may or may not be able to get to.
And maybe David can weigh in on it too.
It is, Carol Ann.
Go ahead, ask your question of David and of Brian.
Well, Brian and David, this is my first time in 13 years that I've had this little problem.
One of our Veterans is seeking a clothing allowance.
So we put it in as going VBA and they said, oh, no, no, it's a VHA issue.
So resubmitted it and called over.
And they said it's in the prosthetics department.
And so we have tried like two or three times to get this veteran, his clothing allowance.
And I won't go through the criteria and the reason he needs it, but he is going through
his own clothes a couple of times a month.
And so we applied and we've gotten denied.
So is there any advice, Brian or David, how to get this veteran a clothing allowance?
So let's start a broader question than that, which is sort of a, hey, what is the clothing
allowance?
Brian, I don't know if you've run into this before.
You know, that's something that I'm just not familiar with.
That's not anything I've ever heard of.
I know that we do, you know, in the medical center, sometimes veterans need clothes when
they're there and our voluntary services folks take care of that and make sure that they
have what they need for whatever reason.
But a clothing allowance isn't something that I've ever come across.
That's rare.
Go ahead, David, I know you've probably got some experience with it.
Yeah.
So with the clothing allowance, you have to have service connected conditions in order
to receive that a certain service connected conditions to receive that clothing.
And that's like, if you have a prosthetic that goes through your, you know, maybe it's
on the arm and then you're wearing out your clothing or your knees where you have a knee
brace and it wears out that, or if you have eczema and you have a steroid cream and then
it affects your clothing.
So it has to be a service connected condition in order to relate to get a clothing allowance.
And General, if you have an issue, if it's the Ann Arbor VA and prosthetics, I might
know somebody there that could help you.
His last name is the same.
Last name is mine.
But yeah, I can, I can help you make that connection too.
I know the chief of prosthetics myself.
So excellent.
Yeah, because it wasn't David, one of those you would now, but if you could think of your
stomach bladder, having some of those other issues and the veteran is service connected.
And so it's just difficult.
The VHA person that I spoke to said, Oh, no, you have to put it in to VBA as a claim.
Even though once you get it, it'll continue, but it's just been some confusion.
So thank you.
I will give you a shout, David.
Well, I'm going to jump in and let Brian get off if he's completed his VA Ann Arbor
report and we're going to pick this subject back up after we get any final words, Brian.
Well, thanks for having me.
It was great seeing everybody.
Great, Brian.
Thank you.
Have a great Veterans Day.
You too, Sia.
Yeah.
And this is a good example of you don't know what you don't know, right?
Veterans don't realize that maybe they have an entitlement to a benefit such as a clothing
allowance until they talk to somebody who's got some experience and can kind of cut through
some of the red tape that comes up with this.
Have you seen this particular allowance before?
Yes, yes.
And you do apply through the Ann Arbor VA through prosthetics, right?
So it's their department that says yes or no.
And with that, it is key to, like the general said, it's just a stomach issue.
It might be where we might need to get more evidence from their primary care physician
to explain why they're going through that clothing, right?
Where it's not obvious where it's a brace or if it's steroid cream or you have a prosthetic,
right?
So that they might need some more information to explain why they need the clothing allowance.
And I know this year is the first year that they, once you get the clothing allowance,
you're supposed to apply every year, but now it's going to be automatic.
If you get approved, then every year it'll come.
So.
Well, I think, again, this is why we do benefits show once a month to talk about benefits that
you guys are running into that maybe people didn't know about or problems that they may
be having.
Caroline, any more to add on the clothing allowance issue?
No.
I love that they changed, you didn't have to apply every year.
I mean, we'd send out notices and they'd have to, yes.
So David, I will call you because I'm sure there's a form and there's a process so that
if everybody doesn't have a great resource like us, it is to go through the prosthetics.
But when the department that I called for this veteran who is not in Michigan, that state
or that region told me, oh no, we don't do it.
You have to call VBA.
And so now I have the official proof that you do go through prosthetics.
Yeah.
And with reaching out to Jason, we can see what area that is and who's in charge with
it.
You know, it's, and see, you know, the reason why it's getting denied and get an explanation,
you know, from firsthand from the person that deals with applications for clothing allowance.
Because, you know, we do everything, you and I do everything veterans benefits.
But if you don't do it, you know, but once every five years, you're not as sharp as
you once were, right?
And so that's why I always like to have those key people, which of course our audience won't
have all those people, but you're going to have a VSO or some benefits rep helping.
And they're going to, they should have those type of contacts to help.
Well, and we can't assume that whoever the veteran calls in or the rep even calls in
and talks to on the phone is maybe as knowledgeable as they should be on all the issues either.
So we're kind of back to, okay, they told me no, but is no really the right answer?
Or did I not ask the question right?
Or did the person on the other end of the phone?
Yeah, it wasn't quite their thing.
So you probably run into those sorts of problems.
You know what, Jim?
I just saw something else and David, please either deny or confirm this.
But when I get calls from veterans and I believe it's VHA, I think one of the best places I
tell them to stop is in eligibility because in eligibility of a say the Lieutenant Colonel
Charles S. Kettles, you go to eligibility and there's VSOs there.
And there's social workers and they will help you find out, oh, it is prosthetics.
Let me show you where to go or caregivers is social work.
And so those are some good examples of, you know, areas to go to.
But I think eligibility is the best if you're going into a VA medical center.
Definitely.
I totally agree.
And that at the VA, that whole portal right there, you can get a lot of questions answered
right in that small little office area.
Well I know both of you often refer folks to their social worker for this kind of help
and information at the hospitals as well.
I assume that's kind of a good place for them to start as well.
So let me ask David, what do you see in these days coming through your department?
Well, we're, you know, we're seeing the compensation and pension claims.
One thing I wanted to, you know, we're always talking about compensation, but I also want
to let the, you know, the listeners know that there is a non-service connected pension
and survivor's pension if you are a wartime era veteran.
And that's key when somebody has to go and assist at living or the nursing home and needs
some help, assistance with that care, right, for the money.
And you do have to be at least one day of wartime and at least 90 days of active duty
service before September 8th, 1980.
And then after 1980 served at least 24 months or called it to active duty and then serve
that period.
And where that comes in is, you know, right now assisted living could be, I mean at the
low end maybe 5,000 and then the large end is like $12,000 a month.
So anything helps.
And if the, if they're eligible, like my office would be happy to help.
And it's not always the veteran or the spouse that is coming into your office.
It's the daughter and the son and just the relatives that need help.
So just check out your local VSO, your county office, your anywhere where you get VA benefits
to help with that.
Well, certainly, and I think you're right.
You guys at the county counselors or a national VSO, a veteran's advocate has a lot more
knowledge to answer sort of the questions that are bothering not only the veteran, but
the family members.
And I think they're probably the ones who express it the most.
So what we're going to do at this time is I'm going to have Derek go ahead and play
our Medal of Honor segment and we'll come back out and talk about some more issues.
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.
Lieutenant J.G.
William Hall pressed the attack, although seriously wounded during the Battle of the
Coral Sea.
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.
Hall was the pilot of a scouting plane in action against enemy Japanese forces in the
Coral Sea.
In a determined attack on 7th of May, 1942, Hall dove his plane at an enemy Japanese aircraft
carrier contributing materially to the destruction of that vessel.
On the 8th of May, facing heavy and fierce fighter opposition, he again displayed extraordinary
skill as an airman and the aggressive spirit of a fighter in a repeated and effective counter
attacks against a superior number of enemy planes in which three enemy aircraft were
destroyed.
Those seriously wounded in this engagement, Hall succeeded in landing his plane safe.
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.
This is Veterans Radio.
I am Jim Fossone, officer of the deck today.
With me is David Sims, with the director of the Washington County Veterans Department
and General Carol Ann Fossone, retired nurse and answering any of the questions you want.
She's with Legal Help for Veterans.
We're talking about benefit issues that have come up in their various walks of life over
the last month or so.
There's one question that has popped up that I think, again, confuses people and maybe
not those of us who work in the serial all the time.
That is, what's the difference?
My VA doctor said, why do I have to go to a C&P exam?
I think this confuses people as to what these differences are.
David, do you want to take the first swing at it?
Sure, yeah.
You give it six, seven years ago, maybe a little bit longer, that your compensation
pension exams were, and those are the exams that you have to go to when you follow a claim
for a certain condition.
They have to review to see, sometimes it's an increase to see if it's worsen or if it's
need an opinion linking it to service.
The VA hospitals used to do that.
Well, it just got overwhelming, so they had to start using third parties.
When you follow a claim, you'll get some letters from Veterans Evaluation Services or QTC.
So I believe there's five different organizations that do it around the country.
And so you'll get a packet saying, okay, this is the time and date that you've got to show
up.
They usually call you as well to see if you can make that.
And just remember when they call you, and if you're working and you need it to have it
a different date, they do have a timeframe.
I can't tell you what it is off the top of my head two weeks, but they have to have it
the compensation pension within a certain timeframe.
But if you can't make it that day, but you can make it the next day, you got to make
sure that you let them know about your availability.
And they're usually accommodating enough and even have some snowbirds that, oh, I'm in Florida,
and they can set up the exam down in Florida if they're not in Michigan.
And, Carol Ann, I know the folks you talk to often run into this problem of maybe not
understanding the differences.
Talk to us a little bit about what you've heard from them and how you explain it.
Well, there are some times that the veteran claims that they never got a phone call and
they never got a letter.
And so all of a sudden, they see in or they hear from a VSO or legal help for veterans
or David will call them and say, you didn't go to your appointment.
And they said, what appointment?
And so we see that maybe they've moved or and then we have to go in and try to get that
denial reversed.
And then so we I do quite a bit of that.
The other thing that's really, really critical is I'm seeing now David that when that happens,
the veteran needs to let us know, you know, the VSO that's representing them right away,
because we are now, at least on our end, we have to tell the regional office why the vet
didn't keep his appointment, and they will either approve it or deny it.
And so we've had good rationale why the veteran didn't attend that exam.
But you're right.
If you don't go to the exam, their disability might be denied right out of the chute.
And so it's really important to verbalize and get that appointment date and be honest
with them.
You might have two or three different opportunities to select a time and you're right.
Tell them if you're going snowboarding, Florida, Phoenix or wherever, and they will accommodate,
but it's not good for you if you just don't show up and you don't let somebody know.
You'll have some of the one offs where they send the paperwork and it was like for yesterday.
So those are easier.
But I stress to my veterans that you have to go to these exams or they'll just deny it.
Yeah.
And the point I'm trying to get across is that just the fact that you've been at the
VA hospital last week for an exam with a doctor, that doesn't mean you don't have to go do
the C&P exam.
Welcome back.
We have a little technical problem on my end, not on Derrick's end.
Again, my partner, Dale, never let me have the microphone again live.
So I did want to talk about something.
It touched a little bit, David, on what you said about the reason you have to use the
VA hospital. This is a bit because of the considerable explosion of claims.
And just this week, the secretary of the VA was reporting out sort of what has happened
over the last year.
The VA saw its highest level of health care appointments ever in fiscal 2024 up about
6%, 127.5 million appointments.
It's just amazing when you think about that number.
And a large part of that's because of the adoption of the PACT Act, where 796,000 veterans
enrolled in VA health care in the last two years, it's 37% up in 24 months.
And even over on the benefits side where we were talking, they've had a 27% increase in
benefits and paid out to 6.7 million veterans, $187 billion in benefits in the last year.
Are you feeling this sort of increase in activity, David, at the county counselor level?
Yes. It was really big with the PACT Act.
That's where the local hospitals, they started doing town halls in every little county that
all around Michigan. And it started with that. And kind of snowballed where we just started
seeing more and more people.
I mean, if you look at it, I think Congress, they kind of yelled at the VA where they said,
you know, we are spending all this money, but Congress is the one that passed the PACT
Act, right?
And the big influx, you know, they pushed for all those new service-connected conditions.
And then TERA has toxic exposure exams have been a godsend coming in for where they've
been exposed to, you know, but I see a petroleum or radiation and now they go to a TERA exam
and they have more favorable opinions than just a CMP exam. And that's where it's really
connecting those veterans that were in certain areas that we didn't have that before.
Well, and I think there's, I give a lot of credit to Congress for recognizing this and
for VA for acting on this. We've all known for a long time service has a lot of toxic
exposure and that has long-term health effects. We ignored it for a long time. That's why
Agent Orange took so long to get here as a recognized problem, not only in Vietnam, but
elsewhere in the world.
But now we seem to be, both Congress and the VA seem to be recognizing disabilities associated
with other exposures, whether it's Camp Lejeune Water, but elsewhere, are you beginning to
see guys come back in who got turned away before, but are now maybe, hey, I heard this
is being recognized now.
Oh, yes, definitely. I mean, the big, I went through my files because of Thailand, right,
the Royal Air Force bases where, you know, they went in to the air, the base through
the main gate where they sprayed it, but only somebody that was MP or on the flight line
on the on the fence. Now anybody who were on those Royal Thai Air Force bases are service
connected for presumptives of Vietnam. Also, we've done very well for Guam. I haven't had
any American Samoa, but that's been a huge part of this. And then also, like I touched
on before with the Tara, you know, I've had it where Ford drum, New York, I've never
heard of anything there, but somebody had bladder cancer twice and they were in their
twenties and the tear exam confirmed it. So I'm getting a lot more different bases that
are not in the news that is very plausible for toxic exposure.
I want to talk about one of those because we had we did an interview back in 2021 with
a veteran who was at K2 in Uzbekistan, which is an old Soviet base with that we leased
part of it from the Uzbekistanis going into Afghanistan. It was a staging area. And what
was really amazing was that base was so polluted from the Russian activity and and the American
troops were being staged there and they're saying, Hey, there's there's all kinds of
colored stuff and radiation stuff going on back here. We need to do something. So so
again, there's a veterans radio podcast for May of 2021 on this issue where we talked
about Michael Leiter, who is an Army veteran and a DoD contractor talking about his experiences.
Well, just in the news this week, VA is now announcing that, Hey, you know what, maybe
certain types of cancer will qualify for those for expedited VA disability claims for those
veterans who were at K2. This stuff just constantly changes, doesn't it, David?
Oh, yeah, definitely. And I mean, some of the you mentioned a base you've never heard
of where there was a toxic problem. Honestly, goodness, I had to look up on a map where
Uzbekistan was let alone what K2 was when I did this interview three or four years three
years ago now. But that's part of why you listen to a veterans radio, where you hear
about things that may be coming down the road and it took years, but VA is now here. And
you're probably seeing that from bases like guys are coming in and saying at this base,
I got exposed to this, but it may take a little time before it gets recognized.
Oh, yeah, definitely. And I've had it where I've got it where the in like in Hawaii, you
know, I mean, there was a 60 minutes program about the fuel that was stored. And so that's
that's one thing. But there was another gentleman that had a rare cancer. And it was through
Tara and some good Nexus letters that we got them a service connected death. But any base
that you've been on, just doing a simple Google search to see what was exposed on that base,
that helps the projection of the claim. So that's what I do. If somebody comes in,
wherever you station, and then I review everything, all the bases that they were at,
and then to see if there if it's plausible. And then if we can get a positive tear exam,
or if we can get a positive Nexus linking that and usually it has to do with some cancers and
exposure to fire foam and all that. So before we move on, and we don't have time to talk about
PFAS and fire foam, but you mentioned Tara remind our veterans and their friends who are listening,
what a Tara exam is and how it's different than a CMP exam.
Yeah. So right, the CMP exam is for your knee, right? So
and they'll check out your knee. And then the Tara exam, sorry, a Tara exam is a toxic exposure
exam. So they look and see what chemicals that you were exposed to. And then what condition
that you're claiming. And if there is a 51% chance of linking that to service. That is different
than just the compensation and pension exam, where they're just looking at, all right, the evidence
that's here, maybe you don't have a Nexus, or maybe you just have buddy letters with a toxic
exposure, you have a doctor that's looking at the exposure levels to see if it's plausible.
Sort of a much higher professional review of exposures and service locations. Let me switch
one more gear here because it's an area that I know the general's bumped into a lot and we have,
again, a changing world out there. And this is a good example of it. Carol Ann, you ran across
some news that you thought was worth passing along. Well, it's basically not on the VBA side
or the VHA side, but the Pentagon has just initiated a pilot program to shed or launch
or launch the medical conditions that are prohibiting a young man or woman to go into the
service. And so the Pentagon has just dropped 51 disqualifying conditions as a part of a
recruiting push. We always hear that asthma is an immediate disqualifier, diabetes. So they have
said you're going to go in for an evaluation, but let me talk about asthma. If you used an inhaler
and it was a childhood condition, they were just eliminating you. Well, that's a huge part. A third
of the recruits a year is what the article was alluding to. So now a part of that allowing a
man or woman get into the service, what they are saying is, okay, you might have asthma. However,
if you haven't used your inhaler for four years, we're going to take a look at you and possibly
let you go into the service. Some you don't even need an exam for of the 51. You could go in and
reapply to that service. So this was good news for me because you would always hear
you have asthma and some other conditions. Forget it. Don't even apply. But that's not true right
now. So the Pentagon is conducting this pilot for all the services. And I would encourage you, if
you want to serve our country, go back to that service, go back to recruiting station and see
if you now will qualify. Well, certainly again, an example of how in the field in which we work and
we're talking about things change and they change regularly. So you've got to stay on top of it. You've
got to have a person like a county counselor or a veteran service officer who's staying up to date
with changing even over on how do I get into military service? You got to stay up to date
of what's going on. And I know the general gets asked this question a lot in a world where the
recruiting crisis needs to be addressed. So the DOD is doing something by taking some of these
things and saying, yeah, maybe maybe they aren't what we thought they were. As we're coming up on
time here, I wanted to do a couple of things. David, any Veteran Day events you want to make
people aware of or give your best wishes on? We're just I'm doing one at my local American Legion
in Selene, Michigan. We always have free first drink is on us and then also we have a meal.
So but that's if you're in Selene, Michigan, I know a lot of local American Legion VFWs are
doing their own thing. And like Brian said, he's doing a couple things over at the at the hospital.
And then there's been people asking me to come and talk. So but that's all I have really. I suspect
Brian, this is a good day for David for you to walk in. And if you've never been to the
wherever you are in the country, you've never been to your American Legion post or your VFW post.
There's a bunch of welcoming people here. This is the day to go. Have a free meal, maybe a free
drink and create some fellowship. Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, we embrace all veterans that
come in and the auxiliary gets in. We have every veteran that comes in gets a ticket. And then we
do a raffle for certain things. And we're going to have some good prizes there. So and I think
all the legions and VFWs around the United States are doing something. So if you if you've not been
involved, this is a good time to maybe step into a hall, meet some men and women who serve like you
do. So we'd encourage you to folks to do that for Veterans Day. I do want to do two other comments
before we work our way out of here. One is Veterans Radio received the National Veterans
Business Development Council Media Partner of the Year this week at NVBDC's National Conference.
It was a great surprise to be recognized for the work that we do on Veterans Radio. And they were
a great host. They had about 300 or so, three to 400 people in the audience. And a lot of
veteran owned businesses and a lot of corporate sponsors from Walmart to Amazon to Abbott Labs
to all sorts of different folks. Carolina and I got to go down and receive the award. So
really nice, very nice to be recognized. And we met a lot of great veteran business owners and
we'll be talking to them here on Veterans Radio. They were all interested in getting,
hey, how do I get my business spotlighted on Veterans Radio? So very nice thing. And we
wanted to pass along that good recognition. And David, you're part of it in our posts like
WAM and Derek Stone are part of that. So we wanted to say thanks to everybody who's made
this work for so many years. We would be remiss, we'd probably be the only radio show in the
country if we didn't tell you to get out and vote. We don't care who you vote for. But our next
commander in chief is going to be decided here. So men in particular, because you're not turning
your absentee balance in as fast as the women apparently, men get out and vote. You earned it
by serving. So go do that, whatever stripe you are, but get out and vote. And we've now checked
off a box that I think every radio and TV station has to say at this time of the year.
Hey, Carol Ann, what's coming up right after Veterans Day? The Marine Corps birthday.
But I was going to say happy Veterans Day to all our Veterans and their families and for all that
you do and have sacrificed over the years and try to get out to an event. Even if it's on
November 8th at the VA Medical Center in Ann Arbor at 9.30 in the morning or there's many events
going on in the community. Think of Veteran. It should be every day. I know there's a lot of
restaurants giving free meals if you identify yourself as a Veteran. So happy Veterans Day.
And David, thank you for all that you do at the Washtenaw. You're one of the best county
counselors I know. So thank you. I appreciate that and congratulations on your award and happy
Veterans Day too. Well, as I said, we're gonna recognize Veterans Day, but as you know, David,
if you don't recognize the Marine Corps birthday, there's a whole lot of grief. So we're gonna go
out with the Marine Corps hymn recognizing the Marine Corps birthday. And until next time, you are dismissed.