(upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome to The Journal, I'm Steve Kendall.

As we approach Memorial Day, a day reserved to remember and honor military veterans who have died while serving in the armed forces, we thought it would be a perfect time to talk with those who provide resources to those who have served.

We're joined by Frank Cline, a veteran service officer, of the Hancock County Veteran Service Office, and Zach Migura of the Wood County Veteran Service Commission.

So gentlemen, welcome.

Thank you for coming in today and talking to us.

Zach, just talk a little bit in general about what these organizations do.

Each county generally has some version of this.

Talk about what those things generally provide and then we can talk about, in detail, about all of those services and resources that are available for our veterans.

- Oh, sure Steve.

So the Ohio Revised Code establishes that all 88 counties will have a veteran service commission.

So the common pleas judges appoints five veteran service commissioners.

So those are rotating on a five-year term.

Every year, they stagger, but then there's also the staff.

So executive director, I'm dual headed as an executive director and County Veteran Service Officer.

And then you might have other employees, full-time staff or part-time staff.

They could be financial assistance, transportation drivers, county veteran service officers, or office admins.

So we're there to help do a whole wide array of things.

One of the biggest misconceptions is that we are the VA, and we're not.

So we are county funded.

It's set up in the ORC that way.

So we are advocating on behalf of veterans and their survivors that are eligible for any kind of federal, state, local benefits.

We're trying to help educate our clients and then help them navigate the waters also.

So as a county veteran service officer, we're a lot more lawyer-esque than we are social workers.

So we look at, every veteran's situation is different, so when they served what happened when they served, do they have any, you know, long term residual disabilities?

Then you can look at filing claims with the VA. We try to get in into VA healthcare, private healthcare, look at benefits, look at cemeteries.

So we we try to look at anything and everything that they're eligible for.

So yeah we do a widespread, that's just in the VA realm.

We also provide financial assistance.

So every county does things a little differently and that's up to the veteran service commission.

It's not so much of a supplemental income type situation, it's more of an emergency situation.

So and again, each county does it different.

- [Steve] Right.

- We provide transportation to VA appointments.

So here in Wood County, we contract with Black and White para-transit.

So they'll take our veterans door to door to their VA healthcare appointments.

- [Steve] Now Frank, you're a veteran service officer.

What is typically the things that you would deal with in terms of like a typical day for you when you're when you're on the job, basically.

- Okay, I'll keep this short.

- [Steve] Go, you've doing plenty of time.

Go right ahead.

- So I do hold multiple rolls also with the Hancock County Veteran Service Office.

I am also the financial assistance manager.

- [Steve] Ah, okay.

- And that aspect of the of the veteran service office has nothing to do with the VA. That's actually comes from the counties directed by the ORC.

And I'm also the current president of the Hancock County Memorial Squad.

Typical day, come in, and first thing I do is check my appointment list.

I don't, some people look at it before they go to work.

I don't.

I come in and check it the first thing in the morning.

But it's an array of things.

It could be, it could be something as simple, something as simple as a change of address in the VA system.

Okay, and there are forms to fill out.

To a full blown claim.

I've had them come in for a general benefits counseling, which is usually about an hour long to review everything that the VA has to offer benefit-wise, and it could turn into a full blown, 12 or 14 different service connected claims, and end up being an hour and a half, two hours.

Okay.

One thing I would like to reiterate, and Zach touched on, we are not the VA. One of the things that popped in my mind was, a lot of misconception for veterans is that, "Oh, I wasn't in combat."

- [Steve] "So therefore I'm not," - Yeah.

- [Steve] "I don't Qualify For and of this."

- Absolutely.

And then a lot of our procrastinators, I was a procrastinator.

I went 40-something years before I filed.

I worked at the office two years before I even filed.

So that's, we procrastinate because - [Steve] Sure.

- Cause a lot of veterans out there, both men and women, they think the VA is for those poor soldiers that really got messed up, but actually it covers all of us.

You don't have to be in combat.

If you served in the armed forces, the U.S. Armed Forces, and you were honorably discharged, or under an honorable discharge, or a general discharge, we always say, " make an appointment, come in our office."

Okay, and we'll sit down, and we'll review everything that the VA has to offer.

- Sure.

And, and what we have an in our county office.

- [Steve] On, I was gonna say, cause there are, as you said, there are VA benefits, there are state benefits, - State benefits, local.

- [Steve] Then there are the county benefits.

- Absolutely.

- [Steve] And you want to make sure whoever is eligible, takes, not advantage of them, but what they're entitled to have.

- What they're entitled to.

Actually, and that's the key word right there, - Yeah, right.

- they're entitled to it, they deserved it, they earned that.

Okay, it's not being given to them it's something they earn.

- [Steve] Exactly.

- And we do have a resiliency manager officer.

We have programs that have been developed out of our office, and some of them are national, like Battle Buddies, GI Tunes, Discovery of New Life, my favorite, Guitars for Vets.

- [Steve] All right.

Okay.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- [Steve] So kind of explain what each of those is a little bit.

- Okay.

- So the Guitars for Vets and Battle Buddies.

- I'll go, I'll go.

- Yeah, kind of, yeah.

I'll go to, I'll go to, I'll go to, and so Battle Buddies, is we just, we just actually got it going again.

And that's why we hired in Ed.

Ed...oh my God, - [Zach] Newton - Newton.

Sorry, Ed - [Zach] That's okay.

- Hired in hired Ed Newton.

He's a re resilience manager.

And that program actually was given, we developed it, it was given to an outside source, and it kind of went to the wayside, as well as a couple other programs.

So basically Battle Buddies is, I'm qualified, went through the training and everything like that, and we are there for veterans who are suffering from anything.

- [Steve] Okay, yeah.

- Okay, we're there to back 'em up.

Okay, and to get them the help they need.

GI Tunes, great program.

They basically, you sit down with a clinical psychologist, and you review what makes you feel good, what makes you feel bad, music-wise.

They put together a great music selection, and put it on a iPod whatever they use these days, and then you actually can come in every two, three months, or whenever and change that.

Guitars for Vets, my favorite, I'm the 36th graduate.

Zach graduated from Guitars for Vets.

All service connected veterans, 10 weeks of lessons, they give you a loaner guitar, and after the program, you graduate, you get a free guitar, a case, the strings, everything you need to continue.

We have in Hancock County, cause every county has a chapter, or we'll get a chapter, hopefully.

We just meet like the last Thursday of every month, and we meet at the DAV, the Am Vets, or somebody's house, and we just go over a lot of stuff that we've learned previously, and here's a good thing about it, there's no cost.

No cost to a veteran whatsoever.

- [Steve] Okay.

Right.

All this is is free to the veterans.

- [Steve] Okay.

When we come back, we can talk a little bit more about, because obviously there's a lot of areas, a lot of things we wanna make sure that veterans who have earned this, take advantage of what's available to them, that get what they, get the things that they've earned.

- So absolutely.

- So back in just a moment with Frank Cline from the Hancock County Veterans Service Office, and Zach Migura from the Wood County Service Commission.

Back in just a moment here on The Journal.

Thank you for staying with us here on the journal.

Our guests are two representatives from county veteran services commissions and offices.

As we approach Memorial Day, of course, veterans have earned a huge number of benefits, but not all of them take the time to find out what resources they have earned and to use those.

So Zach talk about some of the misconceptions that veterans have when it comes to being able to access these services and whether or not they believe they're eligible to.

- [Zach] Sure Steve.

So the, you know, like Frank said, some are hesitant for a wide variety of reasons.

Some think that by not applying for benefits, that they're entitled to, that they're saving it for someone else.

Yes some veterans need help more than others, but the way the funding structure is from Congress is they're entitled to it.

And the way the healthcare system works is if veterans don't apply and enroll in VA healthcare, they're not gonna get that funding.

- [Steve] Ah.

- So in the perfect world, as many vets that are eligible, apply and enroll to get in the VA healthcare system.

Because healthcare and benefits are two different worlds of VA. - [Steve] Okay.

- Then every veteran has a different situation.

So one of the saddest things is that veterans wait decades before they file a claim when they could have been eligible right outta service.

- [Steve] Ah.

- We see a lot of times when veterans are sometimes on their deathbed or already passed well, and yes, we can take care of a claim at that point.

It makes things a whole lot easier through the whole process.

- If it happens earlier - As soon as possible.

- in the curve than then.

- Right.

- Right.

- Our job is to present as favorable of a claim as possible to the VA while preventing fraud.

So we get some vets coming in saying, "Get me 200%," and it's like, no our job is to get you all that you're entitled to.

And we make sure that the rules, the regulations, the evidence, it's all there.

But the big thing is just to say, "Hey, get it on record, get in the VA system."

Yeah, then what you do from there is on your own decision, but we're just there to help advise and guide that.

- [Steve] Yeah.

And, go ahead, Frank.

- To add onto that, and it's just not the veterans, okay.

There's surviving spouses.

- Sure.

- And in some cases there're dependent children.

- Right.

- Especially veterans who have passed away, of a service connected injury or illness.

We have a lot of clients that are surviving spouses, and if they make the eligibility aspects of things, they can apply for survivor's pension.

If they end up in a nursing care facility, assisted living facility, the eligibility is there.

They get aid and attendance.

Okay.

And they get a special monthly pension on top of the survivor's pension, if they are deemed eligible based on their healthcare, okay.

That they need, they need help with medication.

They need help showering, somebody has to cook for them.

They have to do everything for them.

So those are there also for the dependents of the, of the, whether he is deceased or not.

There's benefits there for them also.

So one of, go ahead.

- [Steve] No, no, go ahead.

- So one of the things is health care.

Healthcare is a big thing in the VA, and I always get veterans in all the time, and they basically say, "Hey my buddy's in the VA. How the heck did he get in the VA when he retired from Cooper Tire or he retired from (inaudible.)

- [Steve] The private, yeah some other.

- Absolutely, so the misconception in that, in the VHA system which is the veteran's health administration, those veterans are all service connected.

They're not.

The vast majority of veterans in the Veteran's Health Administration, in the system, getting VA healthcare are usually in priority group seven and priority group eight.

There's eight priority groups.

- [Steve] Okay.

And priority group seven is those that meet exactly at the national threshold income level or below that.

- [Steve] Okay.

- And priority group eight is everybody that's above that national threshold, but they make the GMT table threshold levels that are set by the state and by the county in which they live in.

In other words a single veteran, and the numbers change in 2022, they always go, they seem to be, the trend is, they're going up.

As the cost of living index goes up, they go up also.

- Yeah.

- So in Hancock County, a single veteran that makes $44,672 a year, I believe, don't quote me on that exactly on that.

- [Steve] Sure.

- He may be eligible for VHA healthcare.

- [Steve] Ah.

- And it's not an insurance it's a benefit.

A married couple, which most of them are when they come in the office, a married couple, it's around 54,000, $55,000 a year.

And they qualify for priority group eight.

Now there are some minor co-pays involved in there, but they do qualify, they would be eligible for the benefit.

- [Steve] Yeah and depending on what county you live in, those numbers would be - Absolutely.

- The numbers would be different.

- Absolutely, absolutely.

Absolutely.

If you look at one of the things is, and I get this all the time, my buddy's in Putnam County and he's in the VA system, and I can't get into it here.

And he makes more money than I do.

Well, that's why.

- [Steve] That's why, because of the geographic location, - Right, absolutely.

and whatever the income levels are in that county.

- Right.

- But one little factor, what the VA healthcare system will always take care of are things that are service connected.

- [Frank] Absolutely.

- So it could be that the veterans never filed a claim.

Then they get in, they file a claim.

They could make a million dollars a month, And if they're service connected, the VA healthcare is gonna take care of that.

- [Steve] Right.

It's really hard for veterans to say, my buddy gets this, cause we get that all the time.

- [Steve] Sure.

- We can't go off what your buddy's situation is because your situation is your own.

- [Steve] As you said, everybody's unique.

- They're all different.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And, and, and the other one too is, and Zach hit it, you could be 100% disabled through the veterans administration still work.

You still hold a job, okay - [Steve] Yeah.

- So and it's all service connected.

- [Steve] Now when it comes to getting in contact with you folks what's the simplest thing?

Just to pick up the phone and call each of the offices?

I mean it isn't like you have to go on a computer and do something?

You can, simply - You can.

You can do it through our website.

- But it's just as simple?

You still do it the old style way?

Pick up the phone and call.

- [Frank] Absolutely.

- And that sometimes helps.

The phone call can help because, you know, we kind of triage right there to know what you're coming in for.

So we can kind of prepare you to come in.

We really wanna work by appointments because, like Frank said, it's a good hour, usually of sit down.

- [Steve] Right.

- Even if someone's just coming in for a state, veteran's ID card, we still want to have the whole conversation, - [Frank] Absolutely.

- because a lot of veterans just don't know what's out there.

- [Steve] Yeah and probably in those conversations, you pick up things that they may not have thought of, and you say, "Well wait a minute, tell me more about that."

It's something they may not have, would have qualified - Absolutely.

- them for something or that they thought was something they were even eligible for.

- Absolutely.

- If you do have somebody who just walks in, you'll be able to work with them, given what you, the timeframe that you have.

Right?

- Oh, absolutely.

- You're not gonna turn anybody away who knocks on the door.

- Their DD214 usually tells me a lot.

The DD214 is their discharge.

- All right.

Thank you.

- That's their discharge.

That's what they get when they leave the service.

And that has their military history on there.

Not all of it, but it has a good deal of it.

A lot of veterans that do come in, that make the phone call and do come in and sit in for a benefits counseling, they don't actually know what they want.

They just want to see what's out there.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- And it's our job to find that stuff to, - [Steve] To, yeah.

- And once the, once the veteran gets relaxed, and we start talking, I look at his DD214 and I say, "oh, you're 11 Bravo 20, and that was an infantryman.

- [Steve] Okay.

And heavy machine gun, and of course, common sense, and, of course, I'm a veteran, I'm ex-military so we understand this.

But common sense tells you, the noise level.

- [Steve] Yeah, and right away - Absolutely first thing I ask them, "Do you have issues with your hearing."

"Oh yeah."

"Do you have ringing in your ears?"

"Oh Yeah."

- But, but they just feel that's normal.

That should just be how it is - They think it's normal.

- There's no treatment.

- That's Right, that's right.

They think it's normal.

And, and then we, and we go from there.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- You mentioned that we don't turn anybody away.

Even if we can't do as much as we'd like to at that current time, we can still do some things to say, "Hey, we're gonna save the date, get a follow up appointment."

Cause at least get the clock started.

- [Frank] Absolutely.

We can buy, it's an intent to file, If there's even a potential of a claim.

That gives us a year to get things together.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- That's, that's one thing that's kind of automatic.

We do automatically.

- [Steve] Sure.

- Because we're meeting this veteran for the first time.

A lot of my clients they've been out for 40 plus years, memories aren't there like they used to be.

- [Steve] Sure.

- So we do an intent to file and a POA, which is gives the veteran actually, is giving us the right to represent them.

And that gives us a whole year, because more times than not, I've had veterans had great conversation with veterans.

Found a few things, and then three, three days later, a week later, two weeks later, he calls back, and like, oh, I forgot this happened here in 1967.

And we we've got that date saved.

- [Steve] At least you got a, you put a flag down there - Absolutely.

- to say okay we started here.

- Absolutely.

- We'll come back in a moment, obviously, a lot more to talk about.

- Yeah.

- Back on The Journal here in just a moment.

Thank you for staying with us on The Journal.

Our guests are two representatives from county veteran services, offices, Frank Cline from Hancock County and Zack Migura from Wood County.

And we were talking about obviously making sure that veterans get access, take advantage of the things they've earned through all of these systems, obviously to, there are things that you, as you said, you deal with VA related things in a lot of cases, but there are things that fall outside of that.

And you have other connections with other agencies to help to route people, to things that maybe isn't your office's job to do or, or your office, but you can still help them with those things as well.

- [Zach] Right.

Yes.

From where we sit there are some things that we definitely shouldn't get in the weeds with.

And we try to make that good solid contact handoff.

- Whether it's jobs and family services, they have people that do employment there or just any of the other services that anybody would qualify for.

We're trying to make good, good, good warm handoffs.

So that it's not just, Hey, go call this whole list, And hopefully you get one of 'em it's.

- [Steve] Right.

- Hopefully that good smooth process.

- [Frank] And, and hitting on what Zach said earlier too, when you call our offices, you're not gonna get a, "No, we don't do that."

- [Steve] Right.

- [Frank] I have spent several hours on certain situations that just pop up, okay?

We're not gonna let them go off by themselves, not knowing which direction they're gonna go to.

So we work with all we're hand in hand with all the, all the services we have in Hancock County.

We do have a program and I think all 88 counties have financial assistance.

And that's, that's what one of my dual roles is, financial assistance manager.

And that has nothing to do with the VA.

There is eligibility criteria there.

- [Steve] Sure.

- With obviously honorable discharge.

And then there are some income levels that we have to pay closely attention to due to the ORC.

But everybody runs into problems now.

And then, and they can come to our office.

We'll help 'em out.

That's what we're there.

Whether, whether we get 'em set up with ODJFS, or if we get 'em set up for financial help in certain situations, that's what we're there for.

But they are not going to walk away or leave the phone, not knowing which direction to go.

We'll take care of that.

- [Steve] And that's a really important thing for them to understand.

And I know in the way you've discussed this demographically, it looks like you probably don't get, do you get a lot of like younger veterans, like their in their twenties, thirties, or is this, I get the impression that it's really takes a while for a lot of veterans, even at that age to say, well, I need to contact this office.

They they wait as you were describing.

- It really depends.

It seems like generationally, the Vietnam vets, one I've, that's probably the biggest population that I've seen overall.

But in general it seems like the recent vets getting out I'm still in the army reserve, and I've deployed in '14 and it was a part if our process to know, here's what your VA benefits are.

The whole process is getting better understood through the department of defense.

So we do see a lot of younger vets, especially the ones that are banged up.

- [Steve] Sure.

- Yeah.

We, oh, go ahead, Frank, sorry.

- We, yeah, Zach's exactly right.

The younger vets they're of course in this, in the age of technology, they are well more informed.

Some of 'em come in my office and it's just, they're there just for the formality of filing, and they've already got a whole list of things that's wrong with them We still review everything cause even they may miss something.

- Or absolutely.

But I just, I just did a claim about three weeks ago for a 96 year old World War II veteran.

- [Steve] Oh my god.

- Okay.

So, and talk about procrastination now.

I didn't think any was there Korean War veterans, but yes, I do have a lot of Vietnam veterans.

That's my era, era in that era there.

And when we left the service, we all say we all have the same story.

We don't remember a whole lot about it other than initialing things and goodbye.

- [Steve] Yeah, see you later.

- Yep, and see you later.

So there was no, there was no outtakes.

There was nothing.

- [Steve] No exit interview.

- No, no, absolutely not.

- Orientation to say, - Absolutely not.

Hey.

And when you leave, here are the things you could do this right away.

Here are the things you're, you you're earned.

Absolutely.

On that kind of thing.

That's good to know though that that's improved at least.

So they're aware when they're discharged that they, that where to start if they, if they indeed wanna pursue it Right.

That second.

- And you mentioned if I could jump in that.

- [Steve] Yeah.

One of the biggest problems we run into, if the discharge can't be found, and we can't prove veterans status, that's gonna make it almost impossible for benefit.

So one of the best ways to safeguard a military discharge is to get it recorded with your county recorder's office.

- [Steve] Fantastic.

- [Frank] Good point.

- So if that doesn't happen, we go to St. Louis the national archives administration, but sometimes that's, especially during COVID, it was a big mess.

- Takes a slow process to be.

- A slow process.

So the best thing anybody could do is record their military discharge and also let their survivors know, you know.

Have a game plan, have a folder to say, when something happens, here's where it is and here's what you need to go see.

Cause we're we wanna be as proactive as we can with all this.

- Yeah.

And that, And that's the first piece of paper you have to have, or first document.

You have to be to find and say - Without it, you're not a veteran.

- Without it, it becomes difficult to - Absolutely, without that you don't, we do have, We do have access.

In my office, I do have access and, so does our assistant director.

We have access to a government database system called DRIs D-P-R-I-S. - [Steve] Okay.

- Any veterans that left the United States Army from 1996 forward, I can usually find that.

- And usually about 10 or 15 minutes.

- [Steve] Ah, okay.

So, and then, and each, each service has a different time date.

Like I think the air force is 2003 Navy and that's where it's going into now.

Okay.

Anybody before that, we, like Zach said, we have to go through the NRP N PRC and because of COVID they actually shut the doors and didn't they open, didn't open the doors really until March of this year.

- [Steve] Ah, so.

- And they were, 500-some thousand requests behind - [Steve] Behind - And yeah.

And so patience is what you need at this point.

- And I know this is going to be a ridiculous question but what happens if you can't find that document?

There's no, there's no other thing, no other group of documents you can put together to prove that.

- It it's almost like private eye work to try to figure out historically.

- [Frank] Absolutely.

And I have to, and I have had to do that before.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- And it takes, and it takes time.

But then again, you enlist the help of the veteran.

I mean, it's his claim.

Sure.

So he's got a stake in it.

So, and letters from his buddies.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- Pictures.

All that stuff.

- That's absolutely.

We can piecemeal even, even the NPRC, so the national archives had a fire in 1973.

Some of the records were burnt.

- [Steve] Were gone.

- Most of them ware actually damaged by water.

- They still have a crew in to, to this day, still piecemealing these things together, back together.

So, and that's basically what we'd have to do also.

If the NPRC does not have anything, we actually have to piecemeal this thing together ourselves.

- [Steve] Find things that say yes, pictures, photos.

- But even pictures and photos, don't say the character of discharge, because a lot of (inaudible.)

- Good point - Absolutely.

- Depend on, was it honorable or was it other than honorable.

- So you really have to start going back and almost backtracking and to find something that can maybe in somewhere along the way, you find a document that does give you a piece of that.

- The older generation, my generation.

And even the older than that.

And we, cause conversing with my veterans, they told us one thing we all remember when we got out of the service is when we finished processing, and we signed that DD214, back in the day was the old onion paper.

Right?

So they rip off those copies and everything like that and gave you a copy.

And we remember them saying, this is the most important piece of paper you'll ever hold in your hand in your life.

When you get back home, go to your county courthouse and have it recorded.

And a lot of us did.

A lot of the older vets come in, " I can't find my DD214."

Call the recorder's office and nine times out of 10 it's there.

- [Steve] Wow.

- Because that was our, that was our last standing orders.

And for some reason we did, we obeyed them, right?

- Good.

Well, yeah.

Well, real quick cause we got just a little less than a minute here, if people want to get in contact with any of their county offices, but you guys specifically the number, is in the phone book, it's online, you can find you can find the number.

That's one of the ways to start, just pick up the phone and call.

- Absolutely.

- And say, here's my question.

And they'll and somebody at that office will get them to one of you guys or whoever they need to talk to.

- We have a website, Facebook page, Hancock County Veteran Service Office, like us, all the information's on there.

Our websites is: hancockcountyveteranserviceoffice.com And our phone number is (419) 424-7036.

- Good.

And we're at: woodcountyvets.com (419) 354-9147.

So we do, you can submit things to the website, but usually a phone call is a good way to do it because then we're gonna have a dialogue, and you're better prepared to come into that appointment.

- [Steve] And you'll find out things, you'll find out the questions you didn't know you were supposed to ask or things you could have brought up.

- Absolutely.

- Well, Frank Cline from Hancock County, thank you so much.

- Thank you.

- Zach Migura from Wood County.

Appreciate you guys being here.

- Absolutely.

- And feel any time to get in touch with us to talk about this.

- Great, Steve.

- Anything we can do to help.

You can check us out at wbgu.org and you can watch us every Thursday night at eight o'clock here on WBG PBS.

We'll see you again next time.

Good night and good luck.