Welcome to the Hot Dish, comfort food for rural America. I'm
Heidi Heitkamp. And I'm Joel Heitkamp. Monday was Memorial Day,
a day we give thanks to the heroes of this country
who dedicate their lives to service. That's
absolutely true, Joel. And I hope that, you know, one thing that we
can do is encourage people, you know, you get a day off. I get
it. Just every community has a celebration of
our veterans. You know, go out to a cemetery, show your support for those
people who are working really hard to make this a special day.
But also in memoriam to so many people who have
given their lives. And so today, Joel, we're lucky
enough to have a few veterans from around the country join the
show for this episode, and they're going to discuss what's most
affecting them right now and and how it affects the rest of us
as a result of things happening right now to vets. You bet,
Hyde. One of our board members for the One Country Project,
former Indiana Senator and member of the Committee on
Veterans Affairs, Joe Donnelly, spoke with a panel of
three veterans based in rural New York. Lieutenant
Colonel Coulter, Master Sergeant Morales, and
Brigadier General Austin. And I was also truly honored
to talk with Bradley Aune, a Marine who
works to help veterans readjust to civilian life once they've
returned home. Your conversation with Bradley is
particularly poignant, Joel. And so we're gonna hear
from Staff Sergeant Jessica Petrick from North Dakota Army
National Guard. And I think these conversations are so
important to have to expose people if they - I mean, you and I grew
up with veterans in our life. In fact, I think every one
of our uncles, with the exception of one, put on the uniform and, and served
their country. And trust me, when you come from a family our size, that
is a lot of uncles, and these are amazing veterans
and amazing families who have sacrificed. Now let's hear from
them.
You know, this is a real thrill for me. I get to visit with Bradley
Aune. Bradley is a retired military veteran who
now, you know, uses that past to work with
transitioning service members and homeless veterans, assisting them
in overcoming barriers to employment. It's. It's important
work. Bradley, a veteran himself, a little bit intimidating, ladies and
gentlemen, with what he earned in service to this country. You
know, it's a great honor to, to welcome Bradley to the Hot Dish. Good
to have you on, Bradley. Hey, thanks for having me, Joel. I appreciate it. You
know, before we get started, I just want the listeners
to know that personal experience. Talk to me about that. Tell people
about your services as a Veteran. Well, I enlisted in the Marine
Corps in 1985, went through infantry school, went through a bunch of
different schools, you know, survival skills training in the jungle
and mountaineering schools. I was in combat
in the Persian Gulf in '87 with Operation Earnest Will, escorting
oil tankers in the Persian Gulf. When I left the Marine
Corps after my enlistment, I went back home to Mayville, to
Mayville State College. Got my degree there. And while in college,
I enlisted in the Army National Guard in North Dakota. Did
18 years with the Army National Guard and while serving in the Guard was
deployed to Iraq for 18 month deployment. And
I was the First Sergeant for the, for that unit when we went to Iraq
in 2004 and '05. And I earned the Bronze Star Medal for my
leadership of that unit while in Iraq. I told
you ladies and gentlemen, how intimidating it is. Thank
you for that service to this country. It just amazes
me the, the price that, that individuals like yourself
pay for all of that. And Bradley, just for the record,
I, you know, I've been on a number of Honor Flights, and what I've
learned on those honor flights with you Marines is not to say you
were a Marine. That's right. Once
a Marine, always Marine. Exactly. You know,
the daily work you do, the work you do each and every day on behalf
of veterans, describe that to people. Well, I get the opportunity
to work with vets. You know, I go into the,
you know, the homeless shelters, different venues where they hang out
at, drop in centers, downtown, on the street,
wherever the vets are at, you know, we get to go visit with them. They
come into my office, you know, and some are homeless. Some
are transitioning out of the military, some are transitioning from one job to
another. Some may be laid off or fired or just coming out of
college or in college. I work with the Veterans Service Groups,
our veteran - Student Veterans Groups on the campuses, locally here.
So all shapes and sizes of veterans.
So it's a great variety of folks to work with and try
to help them get where they want to be. What incredible
rewarding work that must be. But you get a
chance to sense it and to know it from a firsthand experience.
If you could explain that to folks. You know, meet them where they're at. You
know, some are, you know, at high levels of education and looking for something
else. And others, you know, came out of the service and maybe
physically or mentally treated those
situations with alcohol or drugs and found themselves
in the prison systems or wherever. And, you know, we
do outreach at the Cass County Jail, the Jamestown Correctional Center. So I meet
vets in there and trying to get them out of there. I'm meeting a vet
tomorrow that's involved in Veterans Treatment Court up in Grand Forks.
So you know, they're working their way out of situations and we try to
get them on the right path or, you know, connect them to resources in the
community. And part of that is getting them employed,
you know, and then I connect them with people to find them housing and, and
get them where they need to go. Before we get into,
you know, the money - what it takes to run a program like
this, what it takes to make sure you have the ability to achieve the goals
that you just talked about. What I want to visit with you about is how
hard is it to get that veteran. I mean,
I have so many friends in my life that are the way you just
described, but how hard is it to get them to admit that they
need that help? Yeah, you gotta, like I say, meet 'em where they're at. You
know, some are to that place already and are, you know, through other avenues,
they've decided, hey, I need to get there, need help. Some
are not quite there. You know, I went through my own struggles with PTSD
and I have a degree in psychology and I,
you know, think I have my act together and I was struggling with PTSD
myself to the point where I was like, maybe I need to
talk to somebody. And I reached out to the VA myself and, and ended
up going through PTSD treatment like 13 years ago and, and still
go to groups that, you know, maintain my mental health.
So, you know, we don't always see it ourselves and, and
you know, family members, support systems - some people don't have support systems and
they find their support in the bottle or in drugs or alcohol,
you know, whatever. So just trying to find a
support system. And that can be your local veterans
organization, it could be the VA,
the county Veteran Service Officers, it may be whoever that can
help you get to the right place and connect to the community. I've had them
sitting at my desk and say, you don't need a job, you need to go
talk to someone at the VA. So to do that,
you know, it takes a commitment. It takes a commitment by the government
that quite frankly, the individuals you're talking to
actually served, you know, all of us. Now the cuts that they're talking
about to federal funding for veterans, families,
I mean, these have to be devastating for you, Bradley. They are, you know,
personally as a veteran, you know, when you look at these cuts that come down
the line, you know, they, they start talking about these programs - the suicide hotline,
they're cutting funding to that, you know, are talking about
it or have done it. You know, from one day to the next, you know,
stuff's being cut or has been cut. Benefits for SNAP programs,
Medicaid, Medicare. All these funding sources directly
affect veterans as well as everybody else. They talk about
federal jobs. All these funding sources typically
start at the federal government and whittle themselves down to local entities.
You get all these housing grants that we get at the local level
come from the federal grants. And so then there's no housing. So then they talk
about, we have homeless vets. Well, it's going to make more homeless
vets because there's less grants, less money to house
vets. What about North Dakota just going through a
legislative session. I know that you track this quite a bit.
Did they come through? Did they understand the need? Did they put their
money where their mouth is? I know they did put some
money on the table and that's appreciated. But the federal money is the
big money and that's where the problem comes in. Because these
HUD VASH, the HUD money, then you have VASH, is the veteran side
of the vouchers. And that's where all this money
gets portioned out, so to speak, for the veteran side. And,
you know, I'm not an expert in that world at all. I'm more on the
employment side of things. But I know it all trickles down and
they start cutting programs when it comes to housing,
you know, even like employment programs, money
starts to start chipping away down the line and training
programs get cut. And, you know,
then it just starts with the widdle whittle away at the opportunities
that folks have, you know, and veterans. I know 30%
of the federal workforce is veterans.
Well, let's talk about the employment side of this, because
everywhere I go, people are looking for workers. You know, how do you
place the individual that you've met who
could use that employment and fit that into the life and what
they're going through? I mean, how do you put those two together? Well,
I, you know, like I said, I get all random veterans coming through. And
so when they come in, you try to see what their skill set is. And,
you know, veterans, you know, the military has every occupation in it. You
know, so I get a, someone who might be a purchasing agent in
the military. They come in, but they might not have a degree. They might
have done this job for 10 years. They might be excellent at it, but they
don't have a finance degree. So then it's like, oh, you may have to go
to college now, or I can try to talk an employer into maybe taking this
person on. But you know, a lot of times you got to go to school.
So then we got to get them in the GI Bill or the, you know,
some type of funding source, the VA Voc-Rehab. But then they have to get
a VA disabilities to get that to go to school
and then try to get funding and live while they go to school. So when
they start cutting all these benefits or if they do cut
benefits to veterans for housing, or if it takes
forever for them to get a service-connected disability, qualify
to get benefits for education or to get to a service-connected
disability so they qualify for VA Voc-Rehab. You know, it just kind of
slows down the whole process and muddies the water for them
getting education or credentials to get that good job that they
want. The other part though, that instantly popped into
my mind is older than average students. You know, how do you
deal with that? Well, I was a 23 year old
Marine vet and I was an old man at that point,
you know, going there and with these kids and
it was a culture shock to go walk in there, you know, after being around
the world on a ship twice and in combat and,
you know, it was, I, luckily I had a good mentor.
My advisor just happened to be teaching college in
Subic Bay, Philippines for the past 10 years and he took me under
his wing and kind of got me, you know, stabilized there. But, you know, they
have the Student Veterans Programs at NDSU, MSUM, you know, those kind
of programs. And then, but that takes people that care
and people that put, you know, programs, they have grants that help support
those programs as well, or the campus has to put
effort and time and money into those. So I, you know, I'm lucky.
I just kind of stumbled into it and I grew up there, so most of
my professors I knew from growing up there, they might happen to be my Sunday
School teacher or something like that, you know, so. So
that kind of helped me along the way, yeah. I'm, I'm curious
about this. Had you made up your mind before you
left active service? Did you know what the game plan was?
Well, I know I needed a degree. I had planned on being a U.S.
Marshal. That was the plan, you know. Well, I wanted to
re-enlist and be an Embassy guard, but they wanted me to do another deployment
overseas before they sent me to Embassy school. And,
and I'm like, I just did. I spent two and a half years on ships,
I've got three deployments already. Like, you need one more deployment? I'm like, well, I
already did three. Well, the first two don't count, you know, I'm like, what the
hell? Those don't count? Okay. So then I'm like, well, how about this Early Out
for Education deal. So, yeah, yeah, you can get out. So two weeks later, I
was out of the Marine Corps going, what the hell just happened? You know, so
I'm like, oh, I want to be a U.S. Marshal or work for the CIA.
I had some great ideas. So I got, I'm going to get this degree. And,
and so I was on, I told my advisor, I'm like, I'm on a four
year plan, not the five year plan. I need to get the hell out of
here because I got the GI Bill. And. And then I started taking all these
psychology classes. I'm like, well, maybe I should be a counselor, you know, that kind
of thing. And, and then I ended up being a Juvenile Probation Officer
for 15 years. And then now I'm a job counselor. I'm like, I
don't know how that all happened, but it worked out pretty well. So, yeah, and
that was another transition too, because when I came back from Iraq, my
mentality had changed and I went back to that job and I was not fit
for that job anymore. My mental health had changed and I had to find a
new career. And that's when I transitioned to helping veterans. And
that was a good transition for me for sure. So let's talk about
money again. I want to bring it back to that, Bradley.
You're sitting there in a position where you know you're getting the job done.
Let's just acknowledge that, you know, there's a need and you
have the ability to have the results, whether or not they have that
employment that they're going to succeed at, advance at all of
that, I have no doubt that, that, that's not the problem. The
problem is having the money to do it, to just
do it. You know, there's a lot of people that are listening to us here
on the Hot Dish who are really good at walking up to people like you
and thanking you for your service. Right? I mean, they are. I'm not
trying to diminish that. But the one way they can thank
you for your service is to make sure, you know, that your
program's funded the way it damn well should be. And so I want you
to talk to the public about that. Everybody that's listening to you on the Hot
Dish. Well, and I do appreciate when people do come up to me
and say that and other veterans do as well. But the contract
we all signed, and when you signed a contract with the government, you give up
your rights to your constitutional rights. You have the UCMJ
and you become property of the government with that contract.
That's a lifetime contract with the government. You know that you have
access to the VA for health care. You have access to government
programs like the GI Bill, the home loan guarantees,
those kind of contract benefits that are given to you for
the rest of your life. And so I know we're talking to vets
now, they get offended when they hear
the government saying, well, we don't think - we might want to reevaluate the
service connected disability stuff, you know, these are "entitlements." They're
not benefits. No, they're benefits because we signed the contract
with you when we were 18 years age. You know, they get
frustrated when they start removing rights. Constitutional, you know, when you say, well,
the Constitution, this and that. No, we, we took an
oath to the Constitution. We took it seriously. You've been on the Honor Flights. You
see these guys take it seriously. They're nine years old, they still believe in that
oath. And then those guys, I see them when I go to the VA, I
get all my health care at the VA, you know, and it's frustrating. I was
there for some dental stuff here the other day and I got my next appointment
and I got to have some reconstructive stuff done on one of my
teeth and I gotta wait till September, the next available
appointment, because they're down a dentist and they can't get one because of the
hiring freeze and this and that. And
you know what makes me the most, Brad. Again, I realize
we're going back to the Honor Flight and that's an
experience I think I can bring to it to that would relate to
some of what you went through. But the people that do this, you
know, the people that are working at the VA they're, they're working in fear.
I mean, they really are. Right now they're sitting there wondering if they're going to
have a job tomorrow, if they're going to get cut. They look around at each
other and say, well, which one of us is more valuable? Which one of us
costs more? I mean, nobody should have to go to work every day that way.
Oh, I know. I have, I know for a fact I have friends, I have
former clients who have been let go from the VA for no reason other than
they are on probation. And probation - and a lot of people are not aware
that every employee starts the federal government on probation.
That's just a thing. It's up to a year. And sometimes
when they get promoted, you could be the best in that position, if you get
promoted to a supervisory position, you're now on probation for that position.
So when they go in and say a blank swipe and say, if
you're on probation, you're basically fired. Probation is not a bad
thing at the VA. It's a structural thing. It's a procedural
thing. And so that kind of clean sweep kind
of...Then they're like, oh, we shouldn't let all those people go. Then they try
to hire them back. You know, that kind of whiplash, kind of craziness that is
affecting people's lives, it's affecting veterans
healthcare, it's affecting veterans benefits. It's
scary, really. You know, Bradley, every day
you get up and you make a difference in veterans lives and you've got that
experience. I hope that the Hot Dish helps you here
in terms of getting word out, because it isn't just
your state, but it's a lot of states that are listening to you.
What would be your advice to that veteran that's struggling
with some of those same issues that you are? I would just, you know,
tell them to advocate for themselves, advocate
for all veterans, to all, for all people anyway. And
talk to your county Veterans Service Officer, no matter what county you're in in
America. Talk to your local VA folks, try to support them,
talk to your politicians, let them know what you really feel. And just
talk to your local leaders, you know, and rally the troops. You know, those
veterans. You know, if you get a room full of veterans, people
will listen. I would say thanks for your service because you've earned
it. But I will tell you this. The one thing I've learned many walks
through my life is don't piss with a Marine. I've learned that big time.
Thanks for giving us the time today, Bradley. Appreciate it. Appreciate you all. Thank
you.
My name is Jessica Petrick. I proudly served as a Staff
Sergeant in the North Dakota Army National Guard
for six years in the 957 Multi-Role
Bridge Company that included a deployment to Iraq
in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom from early
2003 until about mid 2004.
My deployment took place my last semester of my senior
year. So as my peers were preparing
for graduation, I was kind of in the unknown overseas in
Iraq. Also, as a female soldier, there were a lot
of challenges. Obviously, being a female in the military
is not easy. Maybe it's gotten easier since I've been in. It's,
it's been quite some time since I was in. But of course
I faced a lot of challenges of resilience,
testing my strength, really commitment to the people,
my soldiers and the people that I served with, and of course to the
mission. Memorial Day really means
perspective. The service that I have done
has given me that perspective on life, on freedom,
on what really matters. And Memorial Day is
really a reminder of what comes at a
cost and what that cost is. We've lost
a lot of people since we've been home from suicide.
And you know, I don't want to go to any more of those funerals,
but I will continue to carry each of those
individuals' memories with me every day and continue
with that perspective. You know, my deployment really helped
shape my life and really gave me a deeper
appreciation for what service really looks like. You know, I'm
really grateful for the people that didn't make it
home. There were quite a few were injured or
killed while I served in Iraq and really their
courage and sacrifice and their legacy has really
left a lasting impression on me and I carry that memory
everywhere also. We have a very strong bond between
those that I served with, especially the women that I
served beside. We really did this together
and we leaned on each other in those hard moments. I mean, there's
been a long or a lot of times since I've
been home that, you know, people have just reached out to me and just
needed somebody there. Just really showing up is what they need. And a
simple thank you really goes a long way. Think about how
important those around you are. You know, I've really started
to really focus on just myself and my family and
the mission of the nonprofit that I work within.
We have about 650 employees. We
serve individuals with developmental disabilities
and low income families through West River Head
Start and early intervention services.
It's a great place to work and it really gives me a purpose
now that my kids are grown and don't need me as much
anymore. So it's a great place to be and be a part of.
I have worked a lot of jobs where I wasn't provided
health insurance and so I've had to rely on
Veteran Services and access is,
is hard. You know, the closest veterans hospital and a lot of those
services are over three hours away.
So it's not immediate. But you know, I have gotten
the services that I need. I was diagnosed with bladder cancer, which
I do attribute to being within Iraq. And the
VA has helped through that process. Does
it need improvement? Absolutely. Is it a service that's needed?
Absolutely.
Hello, everybody. I'm Joe Donnelly, former US Senator from Indiana
and a One Country Project board member. Today I'm
speaking with three retired military veterans. They have served
our country so extraordinarily well, and we want to talk about the issues they're
facing right now with veterans care and with veterans issues.
Talking with me today, I have retired Brigadier General
Art Austin, retired Master Sergeant Francisco "Frank"
Morales, and retired Lieutenant Colonel Sean Coulter.
A quick rundown. Lieutenant Colonel Coulter served
honorably for 23 years with assignments in many, many places,
including Iraq, and was a Senior Advisor to
the Afghan Army, former Professor of Military Science at
St. Bonaventure in Olean, New York. Master Sergeant
Morales is currently the Director of of the Militarily Assigned
Student Program at St. Bonaventure University. He
was awarded the Silver Star Medal, which was bestowed for his heroic
actions on August 26, 2006, when
Morales' Unit was ambushed by 60 Taliban.
He was inducted in 2024 by State Senator
George Borrello in the Senate Veteran Hall of Fame.
Brigadier General Austin served in the Army from 1977
to 2014. He served during the Cuba
Fefugee Crisis, Operations Desert Shield and Desert
Storm, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for Operation Enduring
Freedom and for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Austin
has also received numerous medals and awards and is an inductee
in the Michigan State University ROTC
Spartan Battalion Hall of Fame. He currently
lives in the small town of Cuba, New York, located about
70 miles south of Buffalo. To all of you veterans, to
all of you people who have cared for our country so much, thank you for
being here with us today. Thank you. So
when you look at what the VA can do, what the
government can do for our veterans, because it was earned with your
blood and with your treasure, what were you hoping for and what
are you seeing? General, would you like to go first? I went to a
course that they called, we basically called the
Charm School for the Army. And we had the
leader of the VA process get up and talk about,
you know, improvements at that time. And that was around
2011 or so. So I had
the concept and idea that, you know, once I get
out, I'm going to make sure that I get into the process
to see what is actually being done versus what I've heard.
And I had heard a lot of issues as far as patient
care availability and those kind of things. Frankly,
when in 2016, my first contact
with the VA system, I was
disappointed. I spent a lot of time following that,
trying to figure out what right looks like, right folks, and that kind of thing.
I'm glad to say that there has been improvements from that time, but
it's a journey. It's a journey. Master Sergeant? So I
retired in 2010. I had no idea
what was available to me. When we're
in active duty service, we're really not thinking what's
next. We're thinking three, six months, a year ahead at the
most. But crossing that gate into the civilian side of our
lives, into the VA portion of it, we don't get a lot of
information when we're getting out. We have basic information of what's going to happen
for us, but there's no clear path on what kind of
medical coverage is there for us for being retired, if we're getting some
kind of disability rating to help us out financially,
how that works with retirement. And around that time, there was a big
change going on with it. So there was a lot of, a lot of unknowns,
especially when, you know, you know, I was 38 years old,
retiring from 20 years of active duty service, married,
three kids. You know, I'm still wondering what I was at that point,
still wondering, how is my medical stuff going to be coverage, how much
money am I really going to be making? What are they going to be covering?
And active duty army doesn't have a lot of time to really
put all that information together on that process out, so,
so there wasn't a lot until you actually are thrown into the
water, so. Lieutenant Colonel? Yeah, slightly different
take, I think. Rookie retiree,
2023...or 2021, I got out, so I was a little later than these
guys. And a lot of changes on the Army side of the house as far
as how they handled the retirement process and educating people as they're
transitioning from the military. Had the benefit of a very good
transition class based out of Carlisle Barracks down in, down in
Pennsylvania. Learned how to spell VA, so big success
for them on their part, I guess. But having, you know, 10 fingers, 10 toes,
didn't think a whole lot about medical care. But, you know, another big benefit I
had is, you know, guys like Frank, guys like General Austin kind of showing me
the way as I got out and kind of looking back to how we all
operate in the military. Military, it's a bureaucracy like anything else. I mean, no one
does anything alone in the military. You rely on trusted advisors, your
battle buddies. You know, people to your left and right that have gone before you.
And for me, that's how the system has worked. You know, these guys helped lead
the way, showed me, you know, to go left when I should be going right
and connected me with the right people in the process. And I've, I've
had a very good experience up to this point between the VA disability and the
healthcare. So in effect, you learn, you learn as you go, as you
need something. Yeah, I never asked really the VA, I'd always talk
to these guys or there's a couple other folks in the area who have helped
me out. Now to help my wife out as she goes through the VA for
disability process. Is Buffalo the primary VA center for
some of you? Yeah, somebody knows. I think Bath is another site, right?
Yes. Okay. But mainly Buffalo. One of the challenges. I
live in South Bend, Indiana. One of the challenges we had was
we have a significant amount of veterans and for
most any care of significance, we had to travel about two, two and a
half hours to Fort Wayne. We were fortunate that we were able to
finally get a VA health center in the South Bend area to take care
of most everything except for the hospital related type things.
So the goal, I think for the VA has been how
do we make it available to folks in rural areas and
what other ways can we extend care in rural areas?
So as far as care in rural areas, as I mentioned, my
wife is going through the VA disability process. She was a veteran, got out after
seven years, eight years, didn't do anything VA related, you know,
until just last year. One of the biggest issues I, I did have when I
went through the process, I traveled three hours to Cleveland for a PTSD
checkup or something like that. A lot of trips on Buffalo for very routine
things that we could get done in the local area. Now my wife just got
a letter from the VA and they've got another subcontractor that they're working for them
that her appointment's right here in Olean. So I think the message is getting out.
You know, plenty of doctors here, there's no reason why the VA couldn't subcontract through
them to do the CMP checks or what do they call? Yeah.
So looks like they're the silver lining to some of the work that you've been
doing. Is it pretty important to be able to get it right there locally when
you can? With a city like Buffalo, especially
from November to April, you know,
8ft of snow in Buffalo, I'm not going, so.
Right. It's, it's. Your town's about what, 70 miles
away from Buffalo? It's 70 miles away, but it still takes an hour and 40
minutes to get there. So what do you think
is the best way as our service members are heading
toward retirement or heading toward getting out? How do we get the
word out the services that are available, you
think from the VA? I think it starts with big Army.
Before you leave the active service, they need to have the
right folks with the right message taking care of the soldiers before
you leave. Because once you get here, you know, the
biggest problem that I face with the VA is they have civilians,
great hearts. You know, they are dedicated to
duty. However, they don't know who they're dealing with.
They don't speak army speak. They don't understand the service behind it.
And I would say that was my, my biggest issue. That's what I faced in
2016. And in our area here is that we do have a
VA clinic, but there wasn't a lot of information that you could actually
go to the clinic and apply for to get into the
VA through the clinic itself, we're supposed to use,
like, the American Legions, programs like that are supposed to be out there
to help veterans get into the system. But the issue with that is
a lot of veterans won't go to the American Legions because there's
a big stigma that the Legions are just bars. And
nowadays a lot of vets don't want to go to the bars, you know,
the smoking areas. And, you know, we need a
different type of building in our area that says, hey, come here, and
we'll help you get to what you need, you know, and, and yes, it
should be like a, like a bigger version of a clinic here compared
to the hospital where, you know, there's just not enough
information of us to be able to go into the clinic and register,
you know, because we were sending guys to Buffalo all the way up until about
four years ago, until we found out you can actually do some stuff at the
clinic, but you don't know until you kind of stumble into it.
Right, so do you have a - is there a county
VA officer who kind of tracks everything for all of
you? There is. There's a county VA officer, and then
we have a state one as well. But they're not always as easy
accessible to be part of. And then also
you have to make an appointment, so there's only one or two people there,
and veterans don't want to go somewhere and find out, well, you can't see, I
can't see you because you need to make an appointment, you know, so that's another
deterrence when that veteran probably took the day off to go there and
just let it know because our VA representative is
not out in the community letting people know, hey, come and see
me so I can help you, so I can provide these services for you. You
know what I think has been interesting is my general
impression is that the vets, they like the
VA, that they like the people there who
they know are trying, are trying to take good care of their veterans
and care about the mission. And so
I've often thought it would be great if the American people understood
that they're not perfect, but the
veterans really do. Like you said, General, they don't speak the
exact language, but they speak it a lot closer than most everybody
else. And you know, the other thing that I
thought was when they say, well, this happened or that happened and it's the
VA, probably in terms of operations and
medical treatment and such, provides so much more than
almost any other medical group in the United States.
And I think their record stacks up pretty well. And I got to
give props to the VA hospital up in Buffalo. I've been there for a couple
of routine checkups as I was starting on the process. And you
go to the parking lot and it's cars everywhere, parking garage is all
full. You go in there and there's no lines, everything's
organized. I'm sure there's some place where I didn't see a whole lot of people
because I never went there. But just look at a very well oiled machine,
nobody yelling at each other. You go to the pharmacy, you know, you sit there
and wait. But it's not crazy like if you go to the local hospital here.
Yeah. What you find too is, Master Sergeant,
I'm sure you find this too, or that the people who
work at the VA, for them it's more than a job, that they love their
veterans. And a lot of times, you know, there are
veterans who are actually working in those positions. So when you're talking,
so when you get lucky and find someone like that, you know, it's, it's
pretty much hassle free. But you know, you, we talk about our rural
area, you know, we're making a two hour drive to get
there for something that took literally, and I'm not exaggerating,
literally five minutes. Five minutes! You know, and
then we're like, okay, that's it?
Again, I guess it's, no news is better than bad news.
I was going to say, I think there's two ways to look at that. You
know, that's where like the issues we're having are not necessarily at
the big hospital in Buffalo. It's the fact that we got to go
there. And there was a program out before where
we were allowed to see a local doctor, but the
red tape to get all that done was a nightmare. And there's a couple
of times for me personally, like I was getting charged by the
civilian hospital or clinic because paperwork
wasn't done correctly or - And/or the VA assumed that I knew how
to navigate that part of the road where, like,
listen, you, you created this program. I shouldn't have to navigate anything
but myself to that place to get checked out. You know, I shouldn't
have to report anything back. The entities need to communicate to each other.
So that way, the veteran, I mean, I semi know what I'm
doing. So figure a gentleman who doesn't know how to utilize
his smartphone doesn't know how to utilize his computer. How are they
supposed to know? They're not going to know. Yeah, you're ahead of me, I think,
on a lot of that stuff. What are the kind of things you hope the
VA can do? When you look, you go, boy, it'd be nice if they could
do this or if they could do that. And I think one of them you
just mentioned, which would be, how do you make it so that you can go
locally and it runs smoothly? And I've had a
positive experience with that, but I've been a driver
at it, you know, so it's been pretty easy for
the most part, you know, but like Frank says, there's certain things
that I still have to go to Buffalo for. When I get there, they're
pretty squared away. You know, I get there, have my appointment
time, they get me in pretty quickly, get it done. And
we learn how to embrace the suck, wo we
make a day of it. You go up there, you go do something else. You
know, take, take the wife out to lunch while I'm up there, you know, that
kind of thing. I want to tell all of you how grateful we are for
your service to the country. When the country called, you stood up and
said, count on me. That is something that, when you look at.
That's what's kept us free for all these years. That's what's
given us the chance to have the wonderful place that we
live in. And so we're very grateful to all of you for what you've done.
And with that, I want to wrap this up by saying how
grateful we are to General Austin, to
Lieutenant Colonel Coulter, and to Master Sergeant
Morales and go Saint Bonaventure, right?
Yeah. Go Bonnies! Go Bonnies!
It's so important. Not only around Memorial Day, but all year
long to keep veterans in our minds and in our hearts.
You know what, Heidi? That's true. And we hope this episode helped
explain what veterans are facing right now. If there's
truly something you or a loved one is experiencing that you'd
like to address, you know what, you got to let us know. Yeah,
no lie. And you know, there's going to be so much to talk about. We've
got this the Big Beautiful Bill making its way through, which
is going to have huge effects on rural America. The
retreating of this Administration from deploying FEMA
to help people who get hit with really devastating hurricanes
and devastating tornadoes. I mean, there's just a lot going on
and a lot to talk about. But, you know, it's one thing for Joel and
I to tell the stories, but it really is important. If you have a story
to tell, you should reach out. And so I'm hoping you can email us
your stories and your thoughts. Our email address is
podcast@onecountryproject.org. You
know, please also reach out on Bluesky and Substack.
I want to thank you for joining us on the Hot Dish, which is brought
to you by One Country Project, making sure the voices of the
rest of us are heard in Washington. Learn
more at onecountryproject.org. We'll be back in
two weeks with more Hot Dish, comfort food for rural
America.