All across America and around the world, this
is Veterans Radio. This is Veterans Radio. And
now, your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry.
Hey, welcome to veterans radio. Good afternoon.
Good morning wherever you are whenever you're
listening to our program We're really excited
to have you with us today It's our monthly benefits
program. And so we're going to be talking a little
bit about benefits We're going to be talking
about of course the government shutdown and how
that might have affected a few things that are
going on out there And our guest today, we've
got a family affair going here. We've got Jim
and Carol Ann Faustone are going to be joining
us and talking about what's going on in the world
of benefits out there. They're both, obviously
Jim is one of the founders of Legal Help for
Veterans and Carol Ann is a big part of that
organization now. And we're really pleased to
have had them as a sponsor now for, I don't know,
20 years or more. Seems like something like that.
But so they're going to be here to answer any
questions that you might have. And let me give
you that number. For those of you that are listening
later on, it's recorded. So I'm sorry you won't
be able to get in there. You got to come on the
first Sunday of every month at 5 PM Eastern time
and we can answer your questions live. on the
air, or you can send me an email to dale at veteransradio
.org and we'll answer your question. The number
is 734 -822 -1600. Before we get into the program,
I need to thank our sponsors, and I guess that
can kind of give my little segue into Radio on
the River. Well, I'm not sure where to start
with this thing. Anyway, last week we had our
fundraiser and we made our goal. So we're really
excited about that, obviously. It was out at
Freedom River. Freedom River is a veterans retreat
center really out in Brighton, Michigan. It's
on Winans Lake Road for those of you here in
southeastern Michigan. It's Jeff and Jenayaki.
They've got a wonderful, I don't know how many
acres it is, but they had enough space for us
to have a helicopter come in and land and not
blow everything. to smithereens all over the
place. I'm guessing maybe we had two, maybe 250
people show up, maybe more than that. I don't
know, they were everywhere it seemed like. We
had musicians, we had Lem Genovese, we had Wayne
Deloria, both veteran troubadours, excellent
musicians, it was fun. We had raffles, we had
many, many prizes. We had helicopter rides by
the hundreds it seemed like. uh it was a big
draw we had a lot of veteran service organizations
that were out there sort of like a a mini vet
fest um and I thought that went really well let
me think what else we had free food we had an
awesome cake from Dom's Bakery in Ypsilanti Michigan
again uh Alicia over at Dom's Bakery she outdid
herself with this one she had a helicopter actually
on the cake which was kind of cool So I wanted
to make sure we got them a little, you know,
plus going on for that. The other people that
we really wanted to thank, obviously, and real
quickly, I'm going to do this as a list, and
that's Freedom River, of course, themselves.
You can find more information about them by going
to freedomriver .org. It's a great organization.
They've got really wonderful plans out there
for veterans and veterans' health and fishing
and... camping, and all kinds of things out there.
So our sponsors were the Shaw Family Foundation,
the Bob Woodruff Foundation, Washtenaw County
Veterans Affairs Office, Arrow Strategies, the
Todd and Chris Knickerbocker Family Foundation,
Trillomed was one of them, Kearns Brothers, Nader
Builders, J &B Painting Specialists, Arbor Avenue,
Private Wealth, which is a financial planning
organization, Cornerstone Real Estate, Fisher
House, Michigan, the Melcher family, in honor
of all those who've served, our good friend Walter
Orline, and many, many others. Yeah, I want to
mention the Britton family of companies over
in Traverse City area. It was really nice of
them to support us as well. There you go, Britton.
Anyway, thank you to all of you. out there for
helping us out. A little side story was, so this
was the first time that we brought out the UH
-1 Huey from the Michigan Flight Museum, better
known as the Yankee Air Museum for those locally,
and they were providing rides for people willing
to pay the fee to take a ride in a Huey helicopter,
UH -1H model, Vietnam veteran itself. And they
would take about eight to ten people at a shot
and they would take you up and I got a ride.
It was cool. And I have to tell you, when I was
flying, I was flying in the front seat with the
windshield and everything else. I wasn't in the
back. So I was way back in the door gunners well
back there. the wind was just blew me apart.
Now you know what you were doing to those other
guys. Yeah, I felt so bad. Yeah, I issued a,
you know, a general apology to anybody that I
was flying with if I if I was at a trim, which
just meant that the wind could come flying through.
We thought it was just being very helpful for,
you know, air conditioning over there. But we
were told not. It's funny, you know, don't use
your cell phone outside, you know, Don't reach
out to take a fancy picture, because if you drop
your phone, we're not going back to get it. Hold
on to your glasses, because they might fly off.
No hats were allowed and all these other things.
So I'm backing this wheel well back there. And
the pilots were excellent. They were terrific.
And so they took off and took off out over the
area out there. Well, it's cool. And this is
something we always talk, you know, a kid about
with jet pilots and stuff. We stopped at 500
feet hover. And then he did a rollover to about
a 45 degree angle and headed down toward the
earth. And on one side of the helicopter, you
were looking down at the earth coming up at you
rapidly. And on the other side, you're just looking
at the sky and and know that the ubiquitous Wop
-wop -wop sound that you get? Well, when you
start to pull out of one of these dives, the
whopping gets really loud because it's trying
to grab as much air as it can so you don't go
into the earth, which is never good. So he did
this twice, so you could get the sensation of
looking at the sky and also looking at the ground.
And, you know, it was fun. I mean, it was, it
was just great. I don't know how many people
took that ride, but they were from kids to grandparents.
I mean, it was really an opportunity for some
family members to be able to say, oh, that's
what you flew in. There were well, one of our
board members was on there. Willem was on there
with his son and his son. Nobody can see what
I'm doing. I'm covering my ears. because his
son held his fingers over his ears the whole
time. They gave us earplugs, which of course
they didn't give us in Vietnam, which is why
all your Vietnam veteran pilots are deaf. We
can't hear anything. But that was exciting for
me personally. And it was funny. I mean, it brought
back a lot of memories right away. And I was
shocked at how emotional it was when we first
took off. So all the guys I'd flown with That
survived and unfortunately many of that didn't
survive as we were flying along, but it was it
was cool I'm hoping that we can Maybe have them
out there again that that was it was certainly
was an attraction brought more people in I'm
trying to think of all the people that we need
to thank obviously our board for veterans radio
Kate Melcher Lydia Pinkham, especially And her
family. And her family and her new baby. The
new baby was there all the time. Never heard
of her. She was just a kid. Volunteers who showed
up just, you know, part of Freedom River's gang
to help her. There were guys. We had cooks. We
had... people that were, you know, doing a raffle
for us and just everything and all of the gifts.
Ryan Graf got, I don't know how many hundred
gifts that we were given, you know, that we were
able to raffle off. So I think everybody had
a good time. We ran out of food. We ran out of
dishes. We ran out of all kinds of stuff, which
is really kind of unusual. You know, previously
we were in a much smaller venue. So I'm anxious
to go out there again. I think we can, you know,
move things around and make it a little bit easier.
for people to get from one part of the program
to another part of the program without having
to walk too far. And next year, of course, the
Freedom River will be even more built up than
it is now. So again, kudos to those out there
at Freedom River and to everybody who came out
to support Veterans Radio. We thank you, appreciate
you. We can't do this program without your support.
And speaking of support. segue into our regular
sponsors because we just got a nice sponsorship
back from National Veterans Business Development
Council, better known as NVBDC. They're the leading
nation's leading third party authority for certification
of veteran owned businesses. For more information,
please go to their website nvbdc .org or give
them a call at 888 -237 -8433. three three two
threes right eight four three three and I always
saying you know if you're a veteran -owned business
or you're claiming to be a veteran -owned business
you need to get certified if you're going to
do business with the federal government and with
many corporations out there and these are the
folks that can get you certified so check them
out I think you'll find that they're they're
great people too as well PuroClean, known as
the paramedics of property damage. Each PuroClean
office is independently owned and operated. In
fact, PuroClean is one of the nation's leading
restoration franchise networks and is made up
of entrepreneurs just like you. And the best
thing is veterans get a 25 % off the franchise
fee. So for more information, go to puroclean
.com. The Irwin Prescor in American Legion Post
46 and the Charles S. Kettles Vietnam Veterans
of America, Chapter 310, both of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
I did not leave out legal help for veterans.
Which of course. specializes in veterans disability
claims give them a call at 800 -693 -4800 or
go to their website legalhelpforveterans .com.
If you'd like to support Veterans Radio please
go to our website veteransradio .org and click
on the donate button. All right let's get into
today's program here. All right as I mentioned
earlier on our guests today are retired Brigadier
General Carol Ann Faustone. She's a veterans
advocate for probably her whole life, I bet.
She's my source of any questions I have on what's
going on on the benefits side. She's the one
I want to talk to. Carol Ann, welcome back to
Veterans Radio. Well, Dale, thank you so kindly.
But it's just not me. It's our entire team. And
the credit goes out. And if we don't know the
answer, we'll certainly help you and get it.
And I'd like to also give a shout out. Dale during
the month on September 24th, we held the 16th
annual Veterans Summit. It was in Westland. I
give a huge kudos to the Canton Foundation, their
Alliance. The room was packed and I was privileged
to be one of the speakers along with my good
buddy, Christina Darrow, our attorney at the
firm. We answered many questions and I think
you know maybe one of these years it would be
great to get Veterans Radio out there and be
live and interview some of these individuals.
But it was a great day so I really want to say
thank you to all that supported us. Okay so I
should mention also that Carol Ann was and still
is a nurse because I think it's sort of like
Marines once you're a nurse you're always a nurse
right? Right. And also joining us today is my
partner Jim Falzone. And let me give you a little
background on Jim here. Jim served with the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA,
from 1976 to 1980. Went to law school on the
GI Bill. Married his college sweetheart, Carol
Anne Falzone. He was admitted to the, let's see.
What you do you went to law school at Gonzaga?
University law school. So he has a graduate University
of Michigan College of Engineering Member of
the National Organization of Veterans Advocates,
which we're going to talk about a little bit
as we get going With that so Jim is a pretty
good lawyer from what I understand He's helped.
I heard good rumors. He's allowed. He's uh, let's
see. He's admitted before the United States Court
of Appeals for Veterans Claims, United States
Supreme Court, Michigan Supreme Court, as well
as various federal district courts. Ta -da! That's
why they call it the practice of law, Dale. No
matter how long you've been doing it, and I've
been doing it 40 -some years, we're still practicing
what we hope to get it right. I know, unless
you're still learning. Yes, absolutely. It's
constantly upgrading. And I'm sure you have to
continually take these continuing ed classes
and so forth to maintain your license and all
these other things So anyway, I wanted to bring
you both on today to talk about what's going
on And Jim, I'll start off with you a little
bit. We know that the government shut down. I
think it was Wednesday And there've been all
kinds of stories flying around out there about
what's what's affected what's not affected And
I was wondering if you could kind of lead us
along into what you think has happened so far
and what's going to go on. Certainly. Yeah, we
were wondering ourselves Monday, who's going
to answer the phones at VA? Are they going to
issue any decisions? Is the board going to continue
with hearings? Is the court going to continue
scheduling hearings? And the answer to all this
has turned out, yes, they are. So we're pleasantly
surprised that now withstanding the shutdown
that the VA benefits group is is seen as essential
and that We are still getting decisions and finding
folks on the other end of the phone Hard to tell
and I think this is just human nature, but it's
hard to tell how much this is impacting productivity
I have to believe it is. I think in any business
where there is talk of layoffs or reduction in
force or payless paydays, there's a lot of water
cooler talk that goes on among the employees
about, hey, what's going to happen? What are
you going to do? So it's got to impact productivity.
But we'll start the good news being we were pleasantly
surprised to see that the benefit side was still
moving forward. as planned. Carol Ann, you may
want to talk about the health care side because
you've been in and out of contact with the hospital
folks and the pharmacy folks and all that kind
of stuff. So maybe give us some observations
as to the shutdown and its impact on the health
care side. You know, I don't think there's been
any bubbles, any issues. Matter of fact, They
seem to be faster. And all the providers are
there. And between the lab work, now this is
at the Ann Arbor VA Medical Center. And it seems
like it's as usual practice. And I haven't seen
anything. Matter of fact though, and I don't
know, Dale, if you've seen this, it seems like
the halls are quieter. You know, and I don't
know if that means there were cancellations,
but I saw busloads of veterans being dropped
off. I saw people in the halls for their appointments,
and particularly the primary care area was busy
and people were, you know, being received on
time. So, Jim, I... also think the veteran world
is very happy that they're going to get their
pay. Those were some of the remarks, you know,
as people sat there and were talking to one another,
it was, oh my gosh, thank God, we're going to
get our benefits and our paycheck because I think
that's really significant. Well, I think a lot
of it has to do with how long this thing goes
on. I don't know. I got something off of Military
Times This morning that says what will and won't
change and it just basically It you know, it
kind of repeats what you both just said says
medical centers and outpatient centers are all
open They're not not to be impacted at all Processing
and delivery of claims benefits including compensation
benefits. Yes Burials at the a national cemeteries.
Yes Let's see, some that might be impacted might
be slowing down or ceasing of providing transition
program assistance and career counseling. Those
offices will be slowed down probably. The VA
benefits regional offices, it says, would be
closed, which doesn't make any sense to me, but
that's what they said. Public affairs and outreach
to veterans will cease, including social media
and vet resources. Emails and responses to press
inquiries may not get answers. That's nothing
new. You're right. They're not going to respond
to the press. Oh my goodness. Yeah. I think what
you hear is a list of like nibbling around the
edges and stuff, but the main services, because
we haven't heard any. You know, we have a nationwide
practice with a couple of thousand folks, uh,
spread around and we've this week I was expecting
get flooded with, Hey, I can't get in for this
or that. Didn't hear any of that from our folks.
Nope. Nope. Not at all. No, it's not the, uh,
the national organization of vet VA attorneys.
Um, said they haven't seen anything unusual.
Um, as long as you've been, you know, It says
I said what to do in the government shutdown.
Don't panic. Yeah, I think that's good advice
that that organization known as Nova organization
of veteran advocates Nova is sort of the Controlling
Bar Association for veteran advocates. So I'm
a member of Nova is our other attorneys that
has requirements for continuing legal education,
specifically in the veterans field. It has a
couple of major conventions and educational things
each year. And this lets me get into another
topic, if I might, Dale, and that is, if you're
lining up somebody who's not a county counselor
or not a state employee or a designated national
VSO, Veterans Service Officer from say DAV or
VFW, be very careful. There's a lot of scams
going out there, a lot of claim shark companies
who don't use attorneys who are not members of
NOPA. Ask them, hey, do you have attorneys? Are
you members of NOPA? And run in the opposite
direction if they won't answer those questions.
We have seen an increase in struggling social
media posts, Facebook ads from organizations
that don't participate in NOVA and the requirements
of licensure and whatnot, and who promise, oh,
we're going to get your claim done in 14 days.
And then they let slip that, well, if we don't,
we're going to give you your money back. Maybe
we're going to give you $500 more as soon as
somebody wants to charge you for this upfront
run in the opposite direction. Carol Ann's had
to battle this with some folks that she knows
recently who have been solicited, even folks
even coming to your house to pick up a check
and get claim forms signed. That's ridiculous.
So NOBA is the gold standard organization that
veteran advocates, claims agents, attorneys should
participate in. and and watch out for scams that
somebody's asking you to pay them money to help
you get your benefits pay your pay money up front
i mean uh that that's not the appropriate practice
that's a no no there should be no cost to file
a claim right no and there should be and the
other issue that we're seeing on a rise is and
we've talked about it here nobody should charge
for aid in attendance and I ran into somebody
the other day who we might assist and we might
not but they were really put off because they
paid $1500 upfront to get aid in attendance and
they are still waiting for an answer and my heart
breaks when I hear those things because You know,
nothing should be charged. And that's the beautiful
thing about, I would say, us, VSOs, county counselors.
They don't ask for any money until you get a
claim. And if it's a new claim, there's no paying
an attorney or anybody. please call in, ask the
questions, say to them, show me your certification,
and are you in NOVA? And ask the critical questions.
And a lot of times these come to light, Dale,
because the daughter or the son reaches out and
says, mom or dad did X. Something just doesn't
sound right. And those are even worse because
now mom or dad are embarrassed. having to explain
to their son or their daughter that, yeah, I
shelled out X dollars and these people have ghosted
me or the promises they made have this done in
14 days. If it's not, what's that old slogan?
If it sounds too good to be true, it is. That's
what I'm talking about. So I started to go on
that rant, but. Well, no, I think that's kind
of an important rant because, you know, you,
whatever. platform that you utilize for your
social media. I mean even if you look on Facebook
if you look at one ad for even life insurance
you know the next thing you know everything is
filled up and you know they're offering you twenty
thousand dollars they'll erase your credit card
debt this is and it's free and blah blah blah
just tap your age and you know as soon as you
tap your age they got you and you know that the
life insurance what were the other ones that
i've been hearing about lately Most of them are
debt relief, erasing debt, and all kinds of things
like that. And if anybody calls you, soliciting
your claim just because you're a veteran, hang
up. Okay, that moves me to my next thing I want
to talk about. We've talked about this before
on Veterans Radio, and we've had programs on
it. We have podcasts on it. I think we talked
to AARP on it. we're getting to that point of
the year where veteran scams increase, right?
End of the year, people are thinking, well, I'm
in a charitable mood. Let me do something here.
And you're going to start to get phone and email
solicitations on veteran scams. VA benefits just
put out a broadcast on this September 16th, so
it's fresh from them. there's a number of new
scams which this is I wanted to bring up one
one is the overpayment scam where they reach
out to you and say oh you've been receiving benefits
you've been overpaid you need to send us a check
because you know you've been overpaid $2 ,000
or $5 ,000 and if you don't do it we're going
to take the money from your account VA has said
these suspicious communications alleging to be
VA have increased and you can verify the authenticity
with VA at 1 -800 -827 -1000 or contact the VA
Department, I'm sorry, VA Debt Management Center
at 1 -800 -827 -0648. And obviously the scammers
are focusing on the most vulnerable people. They're
focusing on that person who doesn't hang the
phone up on them right away, right? So don't
walk into the these scams apparently there are
now Scams VA's this is from the VA notice on
bereavement scams Falling to exploit vulnerability
of grieving family members contacting them for
personal information that will later be used
to create fake debts or uh inflated funeral expenses
uh mail scams involving text messages uh alleging
to be shipping from companies or the post office
attempting to make a delivery demanding delivery
fee payment or a gift i think many of us saw
the the uh unpaid toll tech scam that ran earlier
earlier this year va's again pointing out hey
that's going on don't Don't fall for those. Because
we don't have any tolls in Michigan. Right. We
have no toll roads. You know, you drive through
Ohio, you drive to different states, you go,
well, did I miss a toll? Could that have been,
you know? So again, VA is very worried about
this. And I think it's good of the benefits administration
to remind us. So that time of year again, be
careful on these kind of scams. And also, just
to piggyback, Jim, we're hearing to, oh, social
security. So put social security in that. same
vein with our veterans world. You know, the other
sad thing that happens is when these organizations
come up and they stick a piece of paper in front
of you and you sign, they're sending it into
the VA. And whoever was your POA, the sad thing
is, then the VA stops that, and it might delay
a claim that you have, and then we have to go
behind. If we say something, oh, you didn't want
us anymore? And it's like, what are you talking
about? And so then we have to go through the
process of putting you back in and having the
POA reestablished. So yeah, there's a whole bunch
of issues. So just be careful. Right. POA was
power of attorney. When you file a claim, if
you don't do it on your own, you normally give
a limited power of attorney to the service office
or somebody to file your claim for you and take
care of all that stuff. So be very careful. Since
we're talking scams and charities, I'm going
to plug a podcast we did earlier, Dale. OK. So
so we did a podcast back in August, August 19th,
that was posted. And you can find this on any
of your podcast platforms. Go to look for veterans
radio with that in quote to help pull it up.
But it's a veterans for charity. We talked to
Rick Berman, who was the founder of it, and what
Vets for Charity does is it takes for the top
200, 250 national veteran -centric charities,
goes through all of their IRS data that's publicly
available, and tells you they actually rate every
company of these charities if it's recommended,
highly recommended, or not recommended. I mean,
the black and white, they just tell you not recommended
too much of this money goes to the wrong things.
So it's kind of an interesting approach. Now,
this is only the larger ones and talking to the
chairman, Rick Berman, he was sort of saying,
you can't believe how many times somebody's called
me up and wanted me to change the ratings. I'm
not changing the rating. These are statistics
generated right from your filings. If you want
your rating changed, do a better job. Cut your
administrative costs out. So if you're curious
about whether or not you're giving to a good
charity, a recommended or a highly recommended
charity, you might go to vetsforcharity .org
or go listen to this Veterans Radio podcast that
we published in August of 2025. I think that's
really important. I got a question about that
last week. Somebody asked, what's a good veterans
charity to donate to? And I'm going, I don't
know, Veterans Radio? Fisher House, one of the
local ones around here. probably thousands of
them out there nowadays that people have set
up. And I think it's so important. We need to
do a little background checks on all of these
folks. And that's what this Veterans for Charities
does. And he said, hey, anybody could do this.
I said, whoa, wait a minute. Most of us aren't
CPAs. Most of us can't find the IRS form 990s
and then. do the division and figure out all
the percentages that said no you're doing a great
service here so yeah I think that's a good place
to refer people to if they're looking for hey
who's highly recommended yeah no it sounds like
a plan to me you know some there were a couple
of charities a number of years ago they got in
trouble because of their high administrative
costs you know you figure you're working for
a charity you're not in to get rich but some
people were Yeah well then let's take a quick
break here and do our Medal of Honor segment
and when we come back we'll just continue talking
about what's going on in the world right now
and you know in the idea of veterans health care
and veterans benefits and if there's anything
that we if you have a question please give us
a call 734 -822 -1600 you're listening to Veterans
Radio we will be right back. 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.
Second Lieutenant Darwin Kyle charged an enemy
in placement single -handedly killing the three
enemy soldiers. 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. When his
platoon had been pinned down by intense fire,
Kyle completely exposed himself to move among
and encourage his men to continue the advance
against North Korean forces strongly entrenched
on Hill 185. Inspired by his courageous leadership,
the platoon resumed the advance. but was again
pinned down when an enemy machine gun opened
fire, wounding six of the men. Kyle immediately
charged the hostile emplacement alone, engaged
the crew in hand -to -hand combat, killing all
three. Continuing on toward the objective, his
platoon suddenly received an intense automatic
weapons fire from a well -concealed hostile position
on its right flank, again leading his men in
a daring bayonet charge against this position,
firing his carbine and throwing grenades. Kyle
personally destroyed four of the enemy before
he was killed by a burst from an enemy submachine
gun. 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. Every warrior
needs support. I did. After my time in the military,
I struggled with mental health and some substance
abuse. That's when James called the Veteran Navigator
Program and was matched with me. Our navigators
help any veteran who served in the military,
Coast Guard, or National Guard, regardless of
discharge status or how long they've served.
James and I talked on the phone and set up face
-to -face meetings. He shared his story and struggles.
And because all navigators are veterans or family
members of veterans, I could relate. From the
first call, James knew I was there for him anytime.
We helped connect him to the mental health and
substance abuse care he needed. I'm proud to
be a United States veteran. And I'm proud to
serve veterans like James and their families
with compassion and care. Get connected to a
veteran navigator at michigan .gov slash walking
with warriors. A message from the Michigan Department
of Health and Human Services. We're back here
on Veterans Radio and we're talking with Jim
and Carol Anne Faustone from Legal Help for Veterans
trying to Figure out what's going on out there
in the veteran community regarding health care
and benefits with the especially with the shutdown
that's going on and Jimmy you had a question
that you if you wanted to mention yeah, I wanted
to bring up a recent survey or finding About
the Michigan veteran veteran homes at Chesterfield
Township now the state has three I think it's
three veteran homes most states have veterans
homes these Many of these date back to the starting
of the Civil War time. But the American Health
Care Association and National Center of Assisted
Living just ranked this new home for veterans
in Chesterfield Township, Michigan as the number
one nursing home in the state of Michigan out
of 422 such rated homes. The Grand Rapids veterans
home was number 11 and the Jacob Betty veteran
home up in the UP was number 19. They also all
got five -star quality ratings from the federal
CMS, which is something Medicare, I don't know,
I can't even tell you what it is, but Carolina
knows a lot about this. So I think it's a benefit
that people don't realize exists. You know almost
if not every state I know you've written an e
-book on this Carolina think it's every state
But maybe maybe you can comment about what veteran
homes are and what this benefit is Well, this
is a phenomenal benefit and a lot of people don't
even know for placement so you're in the hospital
whether it's chronic or acute and you need to
go let's say to a rehab place the veterans home
will accept you you have a disability benefit
or or not and they will evaluate you and you
That's one of your options is the state veterans
home. So the interesting thing about this, and
Jim is right, we brought up Grand Rapids and
Marquette. Those were the only two. And when
I was at the state, we had so many people from
the East Side driving seven to 10 hours to get
to Grand Rapids to see their loved one. Well,
you could only stay there for a certain amount
of time because you need to get a whole. and
so now with the placement of these veteran homes
in different parts of the state, and Jim is right,
this is the third one, hopefully there'll be
more. They are excellent facilities, think of
a hospital, and then you stay there. This is
your room, this is your bed, and it might be
your last home, but it's a great opportunity.
And with that, It's been the last two weeks and
it became very apparent at the Veterans Summit
that people, individuals who are 70 % or greater
have a disability. You are eligible now for long
term care from the VA, which means you don't
pay for a placement. The VA will approve where
you're going and you're not going to have to
pay for long term care. Another situation came
up. It broke my heart. This family for two years
put out $7 ,000 because they were unaware that
their dad was a hundred percent and didn't say
anything. The VA is not going to tell you, Hey,
this is $7 ,000 a month. Right. Yes. Yes, correct.
And this family, they attended the Veterans Summit.
You should have seen their face when I told them,
oh my God, I wish you would have asked. So this
is a plug out there and we've helped just recently
several other families get placed all over. You
might have the opportunity to go back to a VA
medical center like Saginaw or Battle Creek if
they have a long -term bed. But if not, the nursing
homes around you. And please remember the state
veteran homes. We only have three, but like Florida,
Florida is up to 11. They are, you know, all
over the place. And I hope once again, Michigan
adds a few more of these veteran homes. Obviously
it's, Dale, it's about capacity, right? Yeah.
There are only so many beds at each of these
veteran homes, whatever state they're involved
in. So it's a capacity issue. But you also may
have to just get on the waiting list. Correct.
So it's easy to overlook this. And I want to
highlight something Carol Ann said, which is
you have to ask. VA's not going to say, oh, I
hear you're struggling. How can I help? It doesn't
work that way. You have to ask them about, hey,
can I get this covered? Or can I get that covered?
Or can you place me in long -term care because
of my rating? We've talked about this on benefit
issues in other areas. If you don't ask, you'll
never find out. They're not going to call you
up and say, oh, you're entitled to these six
additional benefits you don't know about. It
doesn't work that way. No, and that's one of
the reasons that we're here, is hopefully to
bring these items up to let people be more aware.
So does this long -term care, if there are no
beds available in veterans homes and stuff, do
they have authorized other nursing homes that
you can go to? Sure and dale the VA has certified
other places it might be the place right down
the road that you love so you bring up and your
social worker on the team would say okay you
want to go to this new chesterfield they only
have a hundred or hundred and fifty beds they
have redesigned these homes because when i was
in grand rapids at the state with. Grand Rapids.
Grand Rapids was one of the largest veteran homes
in the country. It had 609 beds. Now it is reduced
to, I think, less than 200. But, so what will
happen is, I just helped a family. They wanted
to go to the Saginaw VA and be there permanently.
There were no long -term beds. So the social
worker said, Where is closest to your home and
so they turned out to give them three nursing
homes and two of them were veteran approved and
so they were admitted. There's a bed and it was
a rehab long term care facility and it worked
out perfect for this family. Obviously working
with the VA. They have not gotten any bills and
they've been there now. a couple months after
having a serious accident while they were on
a trip. So they're back at home where their family
could visit because the poor wife was traveling,
you know, five, six hours only able to stay with
her husband for like four days. And then she
went home. And that's traumatic on everybody.
Well, this is obviously an important benefit
to know. So who would help me with this if I
were in this situation? Who do I contact? Do
I contact you? Do I contact the VA itself? Well,
hopefully you belong to a team and you've been
getting care through the VA. So you talk to your
team, the social worker, you know, ask your provider.
Your provider will fill out the form, the simple
form that says admit this person. to find them
a bed in a long -term care. So, yes. And if you
don't get anywhere, I guess, Jim, cover your
ears, call me and I will help you get in. And
we do, we're around the country and I've received
phone calls. Okay, okay, stop, stop. This is
how you get yourself into all these calls. What
I would also do is direct them to our legalhelpforveterans
.com website. go to the ebooks electronic short
electronic books there's an ebook on veteran
homes and that ebook explains it a little bit
carolyn wrote it but more importantly it lists
the the contact information for all 50 states
so if you're listening in kentucky and you're
looking for hey what do we have in kentucky you
can find the website in the in the phone number
and start your dialogue there with hey this is
my veteran this is a situation are we entitled
and do you have beds available if you don't have
beds available how do i get the va to to cover
this so that that certainly would be a place
but your your health care team at the hospital
or the outpatient clinic will have a social worker
affiliated in that that person is also the resource
starting point they kind of start with your primary
care yes yes yes Okay. Well, I think that's very
useful. I'm going to bring this up at my next,
at our next meeting. Yeah. Most people don't
understand, you know, haven't heard of it, don't
understand it. And, and, and particularly in
a time of crisis, right. The veteran might know
it, but maybe the spouse doesn't. Well, the veteran
might be unconscious. That's the problem about
waiting till a time of crisis to say, Hey, if
something happens, I ought to think through these
steps. So, just a little seg seems like we've
been doing that, but I want to get a plug in
there was an article that came out within the
last week that we've talked on this on veterans
radio benefits week. Dale, what a great. research
center and all the research is being done in
the VA is probably the best in the world will
they just launched a new area and this is one
thing you would want to ask your provider to
and it is regarding veterans with chronic. pain,
pain anywhere. They're looking at, you should
ask your provider, could you be included in this
research? They will analyze where your pain is,
what medications you've been taking care of,
the therapy. So this is going to be really interesting
for the country because I swear all of us have
pain, whether it's back, whatever. Pick a body
part, it's in pain, believe me. The older they
get, right, Dale? Absolutely. So mention that
to your provider also to see if you could get
into this national research with the VA. Yeah,
this jumps out of the VA Million Veteran Program,
MVP, Million Veteran Program, where they're,
and VA does this great research, but they recognize,
hey, we have this big, huge pool of data. about
various conditions, what can we learn from it?
And that's where the research scientists and
doctors are working. And I found that particularly
interesting in that they identified some, this
is way beyond my science knowledge, 125 genetic
regions linked to pain intensity, including 66
that were previously unknown. This insight helps
scientists better understand why some people
experience more severe pain than others. Okay,
maybe I have a genetic predisposition to certain
types of pain, but then they're also saying,
hey, this information, there are existing medicines
that could potentially be repurposed to treat
chronic pain more effectively in the future,
now that we know these genetic markers are there.
real interesting stuff. And again, when you think
about the VA healthcare or VA benefits, you don't
necessarily think about all the research that's
being done to help veterans and how important
that is. And it's not just veterans. Ultimately,
this information will support the whole community,
the whole country, if they can find some better
ways to deal with pain. And I think it was In
September, we did a program with the National
Association of Veterans Research Education Foundation,
NAVREF, talking about this, and this came out
of a longer podcast from August 5th of 2025.
But when people, you hear people running down
the VA, veterans or friends of veterans, when
you hear them running down the VA for whatever
reason, you ought to remind them about how, about
how important this VA research is. And I think
this, the potential for pain management here
is just huge. I mean, as older, I'd get more
pain I got. So maybe, maybe that's why I think
it's so important. So I think one of the things
we have to continually remind people of, especially,
you know, and veterans who do not use the VA
facilities is that, you know, they're at the
top of the game with, you know, the different
types of treatment that they're utilizing. You
know, it's not just to go see your doctor. You
may, there's some holistic. treatments going
on there, there's acupuncture, there's chiropractors,
there's all kinds of things that are available
to you, and if you meet the criteria, it doesn't
cost you any money. That's kind of a really big
deal, I think, to be aware of. Not everybody
is going to be 70 % or higher as far as their
disability percentage is concerned, but there's
an awful lot of benefits out there for you. Almost
anything really you can't hear guess what free
hearing aids You can't do this guess what free
this so I think it's just Again, it's incredibly
important, you know, and I know we're probably
talking to our audiences It's kind of like talking
to the choir here, but maybe you know somebody
Who hasn't bothered to sign up? for their VA
benefits yet because they've got, you know, they've
got that same old thing. Well, I don't want to
take the benefit from somebody else. Well, it's
for everybody. And one of the things that I noticed
about this shutdown as far as the government
is concerned is that most of the VA stuff is
pre -funded and they've actually got their money
already. And so they're not going to come and
get that and take it away from you. Right. Right.
One of the things they've done well is I think
it's a two year funding budget now so that you
don't run into these kind of annual price use
at the FDA. Yeah, I can remember back when we
started this program, it was an annual fight
to figure out how much money we're going to get.
What can we do? We got about three minutes to
go. Are there any other things that you wanted
to bring up? So Dale this one thing just to clarify
the long term and the coverage starts at 70 %
or greater but how many veterans know that once
you hit 50 % you get all of your health care
through the VA. So I think that's huge. And hopefully
you have a great communication with your provider
and your team, nurses, social work. Just ask
the questions. If you don't know, please just
ask. Yeah, I'd echo that. I think the biggest
problem is it's such a big bureaucracy and there's
so many benefits available to you that you may
not know about. ask if you have a particular
problem. And I would also encourage people to
take their spouse or their significant other
to these things so that again, if the veteran's
in crisis, that person who's on your emergency
contact form, they know what to ask or who to
ask. So the day after the heart attack and you're
in that private hospital, they know who to call
on your primary team. Make sure information gets
across so don't do it all alone We all need help
and you know, there's there's plenty of help
available I think that that's the main thing
to point out to everybody that's listening to
our program today It there's a lot of help out
there for you whether it's you know, your local
veteran service office It's it's a organization
like legal help for veterans There are plenty
of places out there that you can get to help
just reach out and they'll do it and you know
They're not going to give you a hard time, but
again, don't fall for the scams that are out
there. Nobody's going to call you and say, Hey,
guess what? No, we just $1 ,000. I can help you
get your blah, blah, blah benefits. That's right.
And we're not going to give you any more blah,
blah benefits with any of this stuff that goes
on. So we're coming up to the end of our program
today. I wanna thank Jim and Carol Ann Faustone
for joining us during our benefits program. Another
reminder to you is if you wanna be, have a question
asked on the first Sunday of every month, tune
in or send me an email, daleatveteransradio .org
and we'll do everything we can to answer your
question or find out what it is that's going
on. I did wanna make a quick announcement that
we are now being carried. on the Big 740. It's
WTJBFM. It's on the border of North and South
Carolina. It's the Big 704 .com. So until next
week, this is Dale Thromery for all of us here
at Veterans Radio. Thank you so much for listening.
Until then, you are dismissed. God bless America
Land that I love Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with the light from above From
the mountain to the prairie To the oceans white
with foam God bless America, my home sweet Home
God bless America, my home sweet