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.
Welcome to Veterans Radio. My name is Dale Throneberry,
a CW2 helicopter pilot in Vietnam in 1969. I
want to welcome you to our monthly benefits program.
So if you've got a question for us today, you
can call us at 734 -822 -1600. That's 734 -822
-1600. Just a quick reminder that right now we
are live, but if you're going to be listening
at any of some of our affiliates across the country,
normally those programs are Today's program is
pre -recorded and we ship it out to you folks.
But if you want to get in on this on the first
Sunday of every month is when we have our live
benefits program. So again, that number, if you're
listening right now, is 734 -822 -1600. On today's
program, we've got a couple of interesting things
going on. We've got a guest who's going to be
talking to us about guardian angel medical service
dogs. We were going to talk about this last week,
but snowstorm occurred all over our area. And
so Brian was not able to make it. And of course,
we've got Carol Ann Falzone from Legal Help for
Veterans here to chat about things that are going
on with the VA. We've got some VA news. There's
a couple. I just got a thing this morning from
someone that there's been a change near the top,
not the top top of the. directors, assistant
directors, and so on. So we're going to talk
about that a little bit as well. The other thing
is that we're going to be promoting the Medal
of Honor Society's convention that's going to
be in Detroit at the end of September, beginning
of October. And I've got a little segment that
we'll play later on that my partner Jim Fasone
split together where he talks about what to look
for. at that. So I am excited about that. Before
I bring on Brian to talk about guard dogs or
service dogs, I got to make sure we thank our
sponsors. Can't do this program without them.
So number one, of course, is Legal Help for Veterans.
Legal Help for Veterans specializes in veterans
disability claims. Give Legal Help for Veterans
a call at 800 -693 -4800 or go to their website
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.
For more information, go to their website, nvbdc
.org. Give them a call at 888 -237 -8433. 46
and the Charles S Kettles Vietnam Veterans of
America chapter 310 both of Ann Arbor If you'd
like to support veterans radio, and we would
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That's veterans radio org and click on the donate
button We can always use that you know it unfortunately
it costs money to produce this program and get
it distributed across the country so And your
deductions may be tax deductible need to talk
to your tax advisor about those things. All right,
so right now let's bring it on the air with me
is Brian DeLong. Brian is the regional coordinator
for Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs. My
mouth isn't working so well this morning or this
afternoon. So anyway, so Brian DeLong regional
coordinator for guardian angels medical service
dogs He's retired Air Force first sergeant and
I thought I was the only one that counted days
in the service He said he was in for 30 years
four months and 11 days. I Was only in for three
years seven months and two days, but who counted
so Brian. Welcome to veterans radio Thank you.
Thanks for having me on It's a pleasure to have
you on so tell us about guardian angels medical
service dogs Well, we're guardian angels medical
service dogs We breed rescue raise and train
highly skilled service dogs to mitigate disabilities
Our dogs are trained to help with diabetes seizure
disorders traumatic brain injuries PTSD Mobility
issues a myriad of other things We've been around
for a little, just a hair over 15 years. Last
year was our 15th anniversary. We have, when
we connect these service dogs with these veterans,
we have a 59 % reduction in symptoms, anxiety,
depression. We have our recipients of our service
dogs, there's only a 3 % divorce rate. And of
all the dogs we've paired, just a hair over 450,
I think we're at 452. There are zero veteran
suicides, which as a veteran is the reason I
took the job when they offered to me. You know,
that speaks volumes to me. And if I can do anything
to help with that in any way, shape or form,
by golly, I sure will. So yeah, that's kind of
what we do. We raise these dogs. We're a non
-profit. We've been around for 15 years. A friend
of your show, Keith King, always supported us,
always took care of us. In fact, we've had quite
a few donations rolling in in the past few weeks
in honor of Mr. King. I see as they come in on
my daily updates. So we appreciate all those
who donated and we appreciate you remembering
Keith, a really good guy. Absolutely. He was
a good friend of Veterans Radio as well. NBVDC
is one of our bigger sponsors. He was a good
guy and I know that in talking with his wife,
how much he supported the Guardian Angels program
that you have out there. In fact, we have a board
member on Veterans Radio who has one of your
dogs. She just loves her dog. The dog's name,
the dog's name is Kat. You know, I don't know.
But anyway, and Kat goes everywhere, which is
great. I know the dog. There's quite a few up
there in Michigan. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. So
tell me what does it take to get a service dog
from Guardian Angels? So you have to have a valid
disability that's been certified by a Buy a doctor
can be a VA doctor has to be a licensed physician
and you go on the website and apply. It's that
simple and all of our dogs obviously are donated
to to the veterans that get them. These dogs
cost us about to pair to train a dog dog takes
about two years to train to train a veteran and
pair the pair the veteran meaning flying that
veteran to Florida, housing them, feeding them.
Whatever it takes for the the two weeks. They're
going to be in training initial training with
their dog It costs us about thirty seven thousand
dollars for which a veteran never pays a dime.
So it's as easy as applying and The ladies that
are our recipient coordinators if for some reason
you don't qualify for our program or it's not
right for you They have lists and names and phone
numbers of you know, hey, I don't really want
a service dog you know, now that I've read up
about it, even though I applied, I really just
want a companion, you know, companion animal.
And, you know, they do good referrals. So we
help in any way we can with whatever we can.
So when you're talking about a disability, are
there certain disabilities that you're looking
for? Or is it just anything that's service connected?
And it doesn't even have to be service connected.
You could develop non -service connected diabetes
after you know after the service um because as
we know sometimes with the VA nothing service
connected but but but uh you could you could
just be a diabetic and be a veteran that served
three years flying helicopters risking their
life every day for for three years and uh and
you know we could we could hook you up with a
dog we've done um we've done some you know outside
the box stuff uh back in 2019 a young man was
actually accidentally shot. He was eight years
old. They had to they had to put up for lack
of medical knowledge. They had to put a fake
piece of skull on this young man. The problem
was at eight years old, you have, you know, the
energy, same energy I have is eight cups of coffee.
Well, Carol, our founder, trained him a dog.
The dog's name was Alice. Alice was by his side
all the time and was trained to lay down underneath
him if he fell. Okay Or if there were swelling
to his brain the dog would alert so the parents
could go get get him to the hospital and in 2019
Alice dog that we trained was actually the national
dog of the year as voted by like the American
Kennel Club and and all the all the breeding
associations and The police canine association.
She was the hero dog of the year for the entire
country. But yeah, we We can do things outside
the box. The biggest thing is the zero suicides,
but the other big thing is these folks regain
their independence. If you're incapacitated,
you're in a wheelchair. How humiliating it is
that you're trying to watch the ball game and
you drop the remote, you have to yell across
the house, hey honey, can you come pick up the
remote? The dogs are trained so well, they don't
even have to be told. So if you're in a wheelchair
and you drop something, the dog picks it up and
gives it to you. Or if you need the house keys,
the dog can go to the kitchen and get the keys
off the counter for you. I mean, so, yeah, it
doesn't have to be service connected disability.
It could be it could be darn near anything. There's
only a few things that we don't do. I mean, and
they're all trained by by your sense. So it's
it's it's a wonderful process. Yeah, maybe I
can get maybe I can get the general up to Williston
one day and we'll meet. And we'll take a tour
of the campus. I would love that, Brian. This
sounds extremely interesting. Being a nurse,
how do you connect? Because I've been involved
with some other service dog agencies. And they
had a rule that they selected the dog that best
complements So, you know, maybe I like that Bernadoodle
over there, but they say, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
it doesn't have the personality like you. How
do you match up the personality? So part of our,
so part of our process is after you apply, we
interview you, we say to you, so we're just going
to tell you that you, you know, um, as many veterans,
you've been shut in your house and you've had
anxiety for two years, but you're going to go
back. To a semblance of what you used to do.
What does life look like? What do you really
want to do once you can go outside and And so
we kind of do that sometimes age pairs into it.
So we have a gentleman up here he was 72 when
he got his service dog and he said I'm just real
laid -back, you know I like to go on walks and
I like to sit on the side of the lake and fish
and so You know, we had a dog in training that
had a little bit less energy, wasn't so driven,
didn't want to chase the ball all the time and
things like that. So we do really fit the right
person to the right dog. Another, because this
is extremely interesting for me, I sometimes,
how do you handle the veteran who lives by himself
or herself, has no family around, and if there's
an incident, what happens to the dog? How is
the dog cared for if something happens to the
veteran? How are you alerted? It depends on what
happens. to the veteran. If you're talking about
an injury, we've had one a couple of weeks ago,
one of our older veterans here in Pittsburgh
slipped and fell, had to go to the hospital.
The dog's in the hospital with the veteran. On
occasions, the dog's in the hospital bed with
the veteran. So our dog's in our name says medical
service dogs. Our dogs are licensed medical equipment.
It's just like dragging an oxygen tank around.
So if they got to pick you up in an ambulance,
the dog goes with you. If not, there's a little
card that most of our dogs or our recipients
carry. If something happens, call this number.
And I'm kind of, I have myself and we have, you
know, all sorts of people all around the country
that are always willing to help if something
terrible happened. If there was a death, if the
veteran became deceased, we would send one of
our traveling trainers up to recover the dog.
We're talking here with Brian DeLong. He's a
regional coordinator for guardian angels medical
service dogs and Just asking questions here as
we go along Are there a certain types of dogs
that that you folks use or does it is it any
kind of breed? Well, we we breed German Shepherds
and in the rescue program They will rescue just
about any dog The German Shepherds the actual
bloodlines that we've bred. There's 100 markers
for what makes a good service dog. Generally,
our dogs have 94 to 98 of those markers. But
there are certain things we look for, like hunting
dogs are really good at hunting and tracking,
but they're not really good at alerting a diabetic
that their sugar is low or high, that Carol's
found over the years. Sorry, Carol's our founder.
and CEO she started by by training a dog for
her son who is an Iraqi War veteran her father
was also a Korean War veteran and and so she
she does do it from her heart for all the right
reasons, but She also does what they call a temperament
test. So we'll go and get a Labrador mix at the
rescue at the shelter. We'll bring them back.
They'll test them out for about Sometimes, if
it goes bad, sometimes they'll know as quickly
as two weeks, but up to a month. But on the plus
side, if the dog doesn't make the program, they
have a dog that's so well -trained, that's so
easily adoptable that they're like, if it fails,
call us back. Because then all of a sudden they
have a dog that can sit, stay, down, heal the
whole bit. So if it does go in the wrong direction
with the dog. Other things like We we look at
it as you know, a lot of the veterans are retired.
We don't want dogs that need a lot of grooming
We don't you know Huskies, you know, and especially,
you know heck if you're a disabled veteran and
you know It might be hard for you to get that
that husky or that poodle to the groomers, you
know every other week or so, so There's a lot
of a lot of things we take into account. Like
said miss Carol's she's she's wonderful. She's
been doing it for 15 years. She's She's been
involved with animals her whole life. So, um,
yeah, we, we have a good way of picking them
out and we have a good way of breeding them.
So, so if I wanted to get a dog, could you kind
of go through the process of, I know you mentioned
it earlier on, but take me through the steps.
If I want to apply to get a dog, if you want
to apply to get a dog, you go to medical service
dogs .org and it says apply. and you fill out
a one -page application and usually within about
36 hours Connie will call you and say okay we
got your application now I need to send you the
full application because we don't want you disclosing
stuff up front on that first application we're
just asking you are you disabled name address
phone number type things and then they start
the process and you know like I said it It's
very thorough. They're very good at what they
do. I've only worked for them for two years.
I've been raising money for them for about six
or seven through my VFW post. But yeah, it's
as simple as that. And they'll call you and then
they'll email you the whole, the full application
packet. What's your disability? Send us a copy,
a letter from your doctor, things like that.
And then they move on from there. You go on a
waiting list right now. Right now our waiting
list is about a year to a year and a half because
the size of our our facilities in Florida We
can only pair about 50 dogs a year out of there
Which is also why I'll bring up. We're we're
building a second campus here just on the outskirts
of Pittsburgh We believe that we'll be able to
do about 70 or 80 additional dogs a year with
our ultimate goal being 90 days from the time
you apply to the time you get your dog um and
in 90 days is still reasonable because we still
want to do a background check we still want you
know you have to have financial means to be able
to take care of the dog you have to you have
to be able to feed it you know um so um so that's
a review we know now we can just go to your website
medicalservicedogs .org and i might have asked
this already but Do you have to be a veteran
to apply? No. Are you going to be an EMT, a police
officer, anybody? You mentioned the young man.
We technically will do anyone with a disability,
meaning anyone. The way it breaks down though
is 94 % of our applicants are veterans, about
4 % are first responders, and the remaining are
just regular civilians. Well Brian, thank you
so much for being on the program and obviously
it's it's a great idea It's a great service that
you're providing not only to veterans but to
anybody else who needs service dogs And there's
a lot of people out there that need help and
I keep thinking I can't remember the author's
name but there was a book that I we covered a
long time ago called until Tuesday and It was
about a veteran whose dog was named Tuesday and
it saved this poor guy's life And I'm sure there
are many stories just like that. So thank you
very much for our audience. It's MedicalServiceDogs
.org. They're down in Florida, but they're also
going to be out in Pittsburgh, hopefully, shortly.
And Carol Anne's yelling at me. I got a question.
OK, go ahead. I want to say Brian this is awesome,
but can you tell our audience if if I want to
donate and how Where should I send money to if
I want to contribute to this building of this
new place in Pittsburgh? So that's that was my
comment Dale. Where can we go? Well, we'll go
right back to medical service dogs org and It'll
give you all your links to donate Whether you
want to do a monthly donation, a lump sum donation,
there's all kinds of ways to donate. Check with
your tax advisor. RMDs are now fully tax deductible.
If you have to take a required minimum distribution
and you donate that to a 501c3 like ourselves,
it's tax deductible. Excellent. Thank you. Just
go to the website and you can donate there. Dale
knows how to get a hold of me now. If all else
fails, get with Dale and he'll get a hold of
me. I've got the secret number. Yeah, you do.
You do. And if you're in Pittsburgh and you'd
like to help, June 6th, our VFW holds our annual
service dog fundraiser. June 6th. All right.
Should be thawed out by then. Yeah. One would
hope. Thanks very much, Brian. Yeah, thanks for
having me. Thank you, Brian. Okay. MedicalServiceDogs
.org. That's the place to go to help out with
these dogs. I'm going to play a little segment
that Jim Falzone recorded talking about the Congressional
Medal of Honor Conference that's coming up in
Detroit at the end of September. So we recorded
this, and he's talking about the event itself,
and he's also talking about a Medal of Honor
recipient. So Derek, whenever you're ready, you
can go. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society
Convention will be held in Detroit from September
29th to October 3rd of 2026, featuring the largest
gathering of living Medal of Honor recipients.
It brings together as many as 60 living Medal
of Honor recipients for a series of public and
private events aimed at sharing their heroic
stories and promoting the values of the Medal
of Honor, such as commitment, integrity, courage,
sacrifice, citizenship, and patriotism. This
event will also include community engagement
activities allowing recipients to connect with
the local Metro Detroit students, veterans, and
active military members. This convention represents
a unique opportunity for the City of Detroit
and surrounding area to honor its military heroes
and foster a spirit of patriotism and community
engagement. You can learn more about this upcoming
convention at medalofhonoredetroit .com. You
can go there to support it with financial resources
and volunteer support. Let me tell you about
one of these men, James Livingston. He grew up
in rural Georgia at a time when the area was
still recovering from desperate economic times.
He went on to Auburn University in Alabama. He
was admitted to the Naval Reserve Officers Training
Corps. That's N -R -O -T -C. It allowed him to
prepare for the future in his education and ultimately
become a Marine officer. He earned a Bachelor's
of Science in Engineering. and went on to do
two combat tours in Vietnam. It was the events
on May 2, 1968 in the hamlet of Dao Do that would
define and place him in a military history. He
was a captain commanding marines in a brutal
engagement deeply entrenched in North Vietnam
forces. The fight was savage and the terrain
offered almost no cover. Captain Livingston repeatedly
led assaults across open rice paddies swept by
enemy fire, personally destroying enemy positions,
rallying the Marines, evacuating the wounded
under fire, and refusing medical evacuation himself
despite serious wounds. For these actions he
was awarded the Medal of Honor. Livingston's
military career continued. He retired as a Major
General. and he became a vocal advocate for veterans
and improved military readiness. He co -authored
a book called Noble Warrior, a compelling account
not only of his upbringing, but the fight that
focused him into history. Through these deployments,
Livingston continued to have a strong family
life, and to his daughters he is remembered not
as a general, but as a father. And to his Marines,
he is remembered not as a distant figure, but
a mentor. You can learn more by going to the
Congressional Medal of Honor Society site, cmohs
.org, and remember to visit medalofhonoredetroit
.com. Okay, so mark your calendars, folks. That's
going to run from September 30th to October 3rd.
It's the Medal of Honor Convention in Detroit.
We'll be there. Hopefully we'll see you there
as well. I think it's going to be a great opportunity
for us to talk again to many of the surviving
Medal of Honor recipients. There have been a
little over 3 ,500 Medal of Honor recipients
over the years. and luckily here at Veterans
Radio over the last 23 years I think we've talked
to 12 so far and I'm pretty excited to be able
to maybe see some of these face -to -face that
we had the opportunity to talk to earlier on.
So today, as I mentioned before, is our benefits
program and joining me right now is retired Brigadier
General Carol Ann Faustone from Legal Health
for Veterans. She is a nurse and she was, as
I say, a retired brigadier general in the United
States Air Force. Nurse person, very active locally
in the veteran community. In fact, This is a
little tootin' her horn right now, is that the
women's clinic at the Ann Arbor VA, Charles S.
Kettle's Medical Center, is named after her.
So I think that's very cool. So you can tell
she's had a big influence. So Carolyn, thank
you for joining us again today. Thanks, Dale.
And going back to when you started the program
with Brian. So I served 36 years, 11 months,
and nine days. And I think we remember those.
And I think we would all, three of us, go back
and do it all over again. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Although I think I'm a little bit smarter now
than I was then. You never know. No, absolutely.
And just listening to Brian and Jim's presentation
about the Medal of Honor, I sit back here and
I think, how could we get the word out more and
more about the benefits, education, and the opportunity.
I mean, we're on the air all the time. Organizations
are out there. Our veteran service communities,
VFW, DAB, American Legion, they try to get the
word out. But it seems like... you find out when
it's too late that a spouse, a widow didn't know
about the substitution and there were claims
out there that now have died after a year because
nobody told them that they could keep them alive.
And that's always discouraging to me when somebody
is struggling and they don't know about the benefits
that are afforded to them. Well, I you know,
I think what's be interesting and I was just
thinking about that I don't know if we could
ever get a commercial radio station to agree
to you know Have us go, you know, wouldn't it
be great to go on your local talk radio? Program
wherever you live and you know have somebody
like you or Brian or somebody else another VSO
type type of person that can, you know, do a
five -minute segment once a quarter or so on,
you know, just to remind people that these things
are going on because, you know, most of us don't
pay attention a lot of times or we don't share
the information that we have. And there's, as
you mentioned, there's a lot of widows and widowers
out there that could be missing out on things
that they're entitled to. You know, I think the
VA is trying more and more with the echelons
of care, doing the clinics and the reach that
it would be great to put out maybe something
from on high down out there. So the veterans
know what their benefits are and you know we
think when they are leaving the service the young
men and women today that they are briefed and
I want to tell you I think if you ask a hundred
of the veterans from my era global global war
on terrorism Vietnam Korea all they want to do
is get home and yeah they were probably briefed
but who was really listening you know I don't
think that ever happened. And then when you find
out 20 years later, you know, Brian mentioned
burn pits. I mean, that is huge, that exposure.
And you never realize what it does to your health
10, 15 years later or a traumatic brain injury.
You know, all of the TBIs are not. initially
acquired. Some are three years later, five years
later when you're struggling. And just to hear
Brian talk about the dogs and the suicide rate
with his organization, that was such a blessing
to hear that because the suicide rate is one
of the fallouts from the PTSD and the lack of
reintegration, let's say, into society. Well,
yeah, I mean obviously that's true and I you
know most of us when we got out of service it
was the last thing we thought about all we wanted
to do is get home and put all that behind us
and Unfortunately in many cases, you know as
you mentioned five ten twenty thirty years down
the road Something comes up and they're going
to did were you ever exposed to some toxic thing
and you go? Yeah, well Here it is. You've got
this now. And I think that that's something that
we have to constantly remind people. I know the
VA is doing, I don't know if they are doing some
sort of podcasting. I saw on the website the
other day, I don't know if they're doing podcasting
like we're doing where they record it and they
upload it to a particular platform, but there
are some audio files. on the website that talk
about certain types of issues. And I know that,
like you and Legal Health for Veterans, you have
a whole series of ebooks that you've got out
there talking about every almost every conceivable
question that a veteran could have. Well, you
know, when I'm down in Florida, I'm teaching
the veterans class and there's no charge for
any of those. It's to explain to veterans all
over what they're entitled to. And you know,
the classes, I've been doing this now seven or
eight years. And it's really interesting when
the veteran comes, and I love it when the spouse
comes, because they ask so many questions, and
then I get the follow -ups. And the majority
of those will seek help, whether it's at the
local VA medical center, or a clinic, or a county
counselor, a VSO. They will call and attempt
to find out what benefits fits they're entitled
to. So I think that's so important. And I know
they call in to us at Veterans Radio to ask questions.
And I think that's really important to do, too,
to keep the lines always open to all of our veterans.
Yeah. Well, Brian is still hanging around. And
so I'm going to bring him back on because, Brian,
you had mentioned before we went on the air that
you're kind of the VSO for your local VFW. Oh,
no, no, sir. I'm the actual commander, but our
our VSO, but by VFW rules, we can't call them
that anymore unless they're accredited. Ours
is not accredited, but he does happen to work
in the benefits section for the VA. Well, in
Pittsburgh, with your group, what have been some
of the most, not the most important one, but
most consistent claims that your groups are making
these days? Well, with the younger guys, it's
a lot of the Vietnam Agent Orange, you know,
impact stuff. I got a lot of guys, you know,
developing COPD. And I get from what I heard,
I didn't read up on it. But from what I understand,
COPD wasn't wasn't covered on the in the PACT
Act. But he did a little homework for himself
and found out there was asbestos on his ship.
So he was able to get help that way. So the older
guys, it's a lot of the aged orange things. The
younger guys, it's a lot of musculoskeletal problems,
bad backs, bad necks, the leg meat, bad shoulder,
things like that. A lot of them, you know, especially
with a lot of our troops that... You know, I
wasn't that was why I joined the Air Force is
I wanted to fly in a plane. I didn't want to
jump out at once. So yeah, a lot of the guys
that are our younger veterans here at our VFW,
they've got a lot of the musculoskeletal musculoskeletal
issues, you know, backs, knees. Another one that's
that's kind of become prevalent only because
people didn't know about it was plantar fasciitis.
You know, I've had foot pain since, you know,
since a year after I got out. And you know, they
don't they don't list foot pain in 38 CFR, but
they do list plantar fasciitis. So even thought
about those darn boots we had to wear all the
time. Correct. You know, Brian, I think the importance
that we always we bring it up here, going to
an accredited, knowledgeable individual, because
if you're working the cases all the time, now
you brought up the COPD. So then those would
say, okay, is there asthma related, the respiratory
issues, cardiac issues? And I bet you with the
agent -orn presumptives, we could help build
a case to what you were exposed to. And so. You
know, I think that's the experienced person that
has been doing this, that knows how, as I would
say, to peel the onion back, to do an assessment,
just not do the one thing that the person walks
in and says, you know, I can't hear, I need hearing
aids. And the truth of it is we should be asking
more questions. What was the era? What was your
MOS? How many years did you serve? Where were
you located? And to do the big picture. And everybody
is different. And so I wanted to bring up with
the respiratory issues, because Brian, I think
you brought it up when we were talking offline.
The VA is coming up. I haven't seen the final
list of some things that they might be changing
in the near future. And one of them, believe
it or not, is sleep apnea. So if you're diagnosed
today, I believe, if you're diagnosed with sleep
apnea, the CPAP, the whole shooting match, you
come out with 50%. They are looking at changing
that. I don't know what that means. But there
are several diagnoses in the past that would
obtain a certain rating. That's why it's real
important when you go for your exams to talk
to the provider exactly what you're going through.
Don't be afraid to talk about your pain. Don't
be able to talk about your mobility, your limitations.
And I just completed Dale, my, I think it's the
34th ebook and it's all about the CMP exam and
what to go in and do when you get the call or,
you know, how to relate to your examiner. So
I think that's really important that you really
talk to the provider about what you're going
through. Oh, it is important because we know
from personal experience going off for some of
those exams, they didn't do anything. You go
in for a high blood pressure and you drive an
hour to get this exam and you're not even arrested
and they take your blood pressure and you're
done and nobody asks any questions. I wanted
to go in to ask a couple of questions of either
one of you. It's not these major conditions sometimes
that... That you may be entitled to compensation
for it might be something like all right. Maybe
you have high blood pressure But also that goes
through, you know, you know eye problems it goes
into Other issues, you know even in DED and those
kinds of things that high blood pressure can
cause You know problems with and so don't let
it go away or don't let it end just if they say
well Yes, or no as far as your high blood pressure
claim is concerned There's so many different
things that are involved with that see and and
Dale that would be going back to what Brian and
I would mentioned earlier an Expert or person
that's been experienced in this, you know might
ask the question. Okay, you have diabetes What
else goes along with that? your vision, wounds,
feet, the whole shooting match, your stomach,
your GERD. So it's peeling that onion back. And
those are called secondary diagnoses. And I'll
tell you, those could add up very importantly,
IBS, irritable bowel, you know, the GERD, the
eating disorders. I mean, PTSD could cause a
lot of issues that people don't even think about,
but an experienced individual, a veteran service
officer, somebody that's been dealing with this
will know what questions to ask. Yeah, no, it's
true. And I think, you know, we've here on Veterans
Radio and we do these benefit things we've been
talking about, you know, not to necessarily you
know, just go on and fill out the form on the
VA's website. Because as Brian mentioned, so
many people we've talked to is that they don't
get any, you know, they don't get any response.
In many cases, or they, you know, it gets, it
gets outright rejected because they forgot a
particular form or you know background information
from their doctors and so on and so forth and
I and I'm agreeing with what you say Carol Anne
is you know you you got to you know have a checklist
that you have to go through and say is this form
in there is that form in there and so on and
so forth and talking to your even telling to
your fellow veterans at your vfw hall or your
american lesion whatever it is that's a great
source of information for people that have been
successful let's put it that way, and getting
their disability claims approved. I just got
an email from another organization, much like
Legal Health for Veterans, wanting to know if
they could come on and talk about some of the
problems and issues that they've run into. So
there are all kinds of sources out there for
our listening audience. We're not just talking
amongst ourselves here. This is to make sure
that you, your veteran, and your family especially,
aware of what you may be entitled to, or maybe
they're aware of what you've already received,
and you know that some of these benefits can
continue going on. Right. Thank you. Speaking
of which, I just got a little note here that
says we didn't run our Medal of Honor segment
yet. So we have to do that. So we're going to
come right back. Again, we're talking with Carol
Ann Falzone from Legal Health for Veterans. We're
talking with Brian DeLong, who is from the Medical
Service Dog Organization, but he's also with
the VFW out there in Pittsburgh. So each week,
we play a Medal of Honor segment honoring these
men and women who have received America's highest
award for valor. So here's this week's. The Medal
of Honor is the highest award for valor in combat
given a member of the Armed Forces of the United
States. There had been over 3 ,400 recipients
of the nation's highest award. This is one of
them. P .S .E. Eugene Obregon pulled a fellow
Marine to safety, then shielded his body with
his own. 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. While
serving as an ammunition carrier for machine
gun squad that was temporarily pinned down by
North Korean fire, Obregon observed a fellow
Marine fall wounded. Armed only with a pistol,
he unhesitatingly dashed from his covered position
to the side of the casualty. Firing his pistol
with one hand as he ran, he grabbed his comrade
by the arm with the other hand, and dragged him
to the side of the road. Still under enemy fire,
he was bandaging the man's wounds when hostile
troops of approximately platoon strength began
advancing toward his position. Quickly seizing
the wounded Marines' carbine, he placed his own
body as a shield in front of him and lay there
firing accurately and effectively into the hostile
group until he himself was fatally wounded by
enemy machine gun fire. Obregon enabled his fellow
Marines to rescue the wounded man and aided essentially
in repelling the attack. The Medal of Honor series
is a production of Veterans Radio. Military veterans
touch everyone's life. I'm guessing right now
you're thinking of a veteran, a close friend,
relative. Maybe it's you. Even the toughest of
us sometimes need help but don't know where to
turn for support. You don't need special training
to help a veteran in your life. We can all help
someone going through a difficult time. Learn
how you can be there for veterans. Visit veteranscrisisline
.net. VeteransCrisisLine .net, a message from
the U .S. Department of Veterans Affairs. We're
back here on Veterans Radio and we're talking
about benefits and we're talking about how do
you apply for benefits and we're talking about
how do you hopefully that you don't leave any
of those benefits laying on the table. Our guests
today are Brigadier General Carol Ann Falzone
from Legal Health for Veterans and we've got
a friend along Brian DeLong who is a regional
coordinator for the Guardian Angels Medical Service
Dog Organization. And so I don't know where Carol
Ann went. I'm right here. We just lost our video
connection there. Has there been any changes
that either one of you are aware of for 2026
that you've heard of? I think we're waiting.
I've heard there might be some changes in leadership
not with the secretary. But I'm waiting to see,
Dale, as I spoke earlier, some of the rating
changes, the scheduler, you know, what you're
going to get coming out of the shoot. And the
first one that I heard was sleep apnea. So we're
watching that. Excuse me. But, you know, I think
Just going back, tell our veterans to enroll,
go into the VA Medical Center. If you are on
a team or have a number or color, talk to your
provider. Let them know what you're going through.
Because I'm getting calls all the time regarding
the aid and attendance, the caregivers, how could
they get some of those additional benefits that
are out there? That's a question that I was thinking
about Brian when you were mentioning that that
when you were looking for I guess people's financial
ability to take care of the dog Self once you
know once they've got that is there a program
or I wonder if there is a program through the
VA that that helps with that There is not current
literature says that the VA will provide a service
dog An actual fact they will provide you a list
of service dog providers And our founder and
our COO both work closely with a lot of the folks
in Washington DC Trying to help change that to
see if the VA will fund service dogs or a portion
thereof or even if it's for Something as small
as having the VA Fund the veterinary care for
the dogs, which we take care of as well. So yeah.
Oh you do already take care of that. Yeah Yeah,
the the We're very, we're very transparent. The
veteran pays a small monthly amount and then
a deductible, but anything after that, I mean,
we've had some dogs that have cost us, you know,
$10 ,000 to get them fixed, but we pay that the
veteran doesn't bear that cost. Okay. Well, maybe
that's something that we can talk to our local
representatives about to get them to, you know,
to help. you know, defray the cost of having
a dog in a house because, you know, dog food's
not cheap. Nothing's cheap right now, it seems,
but, you know, to get the proper care and everything
else that these dogs deserve. You were mentioning
that there was a change at the top a little bit
and that of the Food chain at the Department
of Veterans Affairs. They said that Chief of
Staff Chris Cyrick is going to be leaving the
VA for a private sector job, but he was talking
about They were talking about what they've accomplished
over the last year So, you know take some of
this all this stuff with a grill good, you know
a grain of salt But I think it's really important
to look back. They've the VA is cut said that
they've cut back the backlog of veterans waiting
for benefits by almost 60 percent. They've eliminated
the backlog of veterans families waiting for
VA health care, said that they've processed record
numbers of disability claims over what they say
reaching an all -time fiscal year high of three
million claims processed by September 30th of
this year. They've opened 25 new health care
clinics. They've got 1 .9 million appointments
outside of the normal operating hours for veterans,
meaning that they have appointments for early
morning, evening, and weekend appointments, giving
veterans more opportunity. And they've also stated
that they've permanently housed almost 52 ,000
veterans in physical year 2025. That's pretty
good work. It's nice to see that there are things
that needed to be changed. And I think they're
working on it. There was an article about the
case with the Los Angeles, I guess it's West
Los Angeles VA, that they're being required to
provide more housing for homeless veterans. Evidently,
they have a huge campus out there. I was thinking
about that when I read that article and saying,
well, you know, here in Ann Arbor, Our VA hospital
is landlocked. It's got two roads that go all
the way around to get enough for the hospital,
a fisher house and a parking garage. That's about
it. But where I come from in New Jersey, the
Lions VA hospital is huge. It's got enough room
for a whole golf course on it. And I was going
to ask a question for anybody out there, not
today, but if you could send me an email, tell
me a little bit about your VA. building and facilities
that are available to you. If you're listening
in, send me an email. That's dale at veteransradio
.org. And I'd like to find out a little bit,
kind of an unofficial survey of what the veteran
VA hospital facilities are like in your area.
So can you do that? Dale, you bring up an excellent
point. An article that I read the other day.
talked about billions of dollars that were going
to be spent in different components. And one
of those was literally to go out in those areas
where the market the service area for the veterans
was really high, and they were looking at redoing
some facilities, getting the services up to a
really high grade of service for those high populated
areas. And that was really nice to see. I think
if I'm not mistaken, it was something like two
billion was going to be set aside for facilities
and upgrades. And I thought that was pretty interesting.
It was interesting and they're also looking to
hire a uh where does it go they're looking for
somebody to lead the Veterans Benefit Administration.
We had a Deputy Secretary Paul Lawrence who had
been on our program in between the Trump administrations.
He says he can't talk to us right now because
he's working for the VA but they're looking for
a new Veterans benefits administration secretary.
So things are happening, you know, and I think
it's all good. And we just got to keep our voices
coming out loud and clear and letting people
know what veterans need and what we, you know,
what we're trying to do for our veteran community.
I agree. I agree. And please, if you're out there
and you don't have a disability benefit, but
you have served this country, go find a VSO,
go into the VA. They have veteran service officers
there. Enroll. Ask your provider. There's benefits
out there for you. But if you don't ask, or for
your family, if you don't ask, they're never
going to just give you stuff. No, they don't
voluntarily give you that. So we've got a minute
to go. So I want to thank Brian DeLong here again
for sticking around. He's with the Medical Service
Dogs organization. That's their website, medicalservicedogs
.org. Doesn't make a difference if you're a veteran
or not. If you qualify, they'll give you a dog,
which is great. They'll train you and the dog.
Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Dale. All right.
Thank you. Carol Ann, thank you. Thank you again.
Thank you very much for being on again Carol
Anne and we'll be talking to you soon. I hope
okay Thank you. Have a great week in a month.
No, I'll be back. All right, so today's great
God bless America is sung by David Bray It's
a little bit different version of it But you
all know that I play God bless America or some
other patriotic song at the end of all of our
veterans radio programs So remember we're still
living in the greatest country in the world Until
next time, this is Dale Thromberg for all of
us at Veterans Radio, you are dismissed.