CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Wyoming is home to many military veterans that live in places far from the cities. Some don’t know that they are entitled to benefits related to their military service, including help for maladies from that service. Other vets feel they don’t deserve these entitlements.
Decades later, they may make the decision to look into possible benefits.
The Wyoming Veterans Commission and the Wyoming Military Department make it simple and efficient for veterans to do so with outreach offices spread throughout the state’s rural areas, in addition to its main office in Cheyenne.
Bob Stall, state veterans service officer with the Wyoming Veterans Commission serves the Guernsey, Torrington and Wheatland area. His counterparts provide the same free and confidential service throughout the state’s small towns.
“The rural nature of Wyoming may make it difficult for veterans in the smaller communities to make it to the bigger cities, and they don’t really know what’s available for them,” Stall said. “So they’ve come up with these programs to take the program to them. We take the operation on the road.”
While he encourages vets to address issues early and, for the younger ones, as they come up, Stall also said a lot of veterans balk at investigating their benefits because they feel they didn’t have it as bad as someone else, or they don’t trust the system.
“But as time passes on, they may come to realize they should look into it, and that’s where the Wyoming Veterans Commission comes in and makes its services available to those vets,” he explained. “Sometimes in the rural communities, there is a trust factor. They have been holding onto things for a long time and never shared it with anyone. They may feel the need to visit a few times and get to know us, and build that trust. That’s why we do outreach.”
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a good example of an ailment veterans often do not want to discuss, even if its symptoms are negatively affecting their life. Friends and family are often times key in encouraging the veteran to visit the WVC.
“It’s very difficult to get some of these soldiers to step up and accept the fact that maybe they do have PTSD and file a claim for it. To get them to go to a psychiatrist and get an official diagnosis can be difficult,” Stall said. “If we feel they may, and they feel they may, then we kind of let the VA do that process. Through the compensation and pension exam, let them determine if it is PTSD or just depression or something like that, and let them make those calls. It can be a touchy situation.”
For Vietnam veterans, Agent Orange exposure is prominent and one the VA has a good handle on now.
“They’ve been studying Agent Orange for 40-some years now, and they’ve got a pretty good idea of what kinds of ailments are caused by that, and they have some that are actually called presumptives. If you were in Vietnam at any given time and were exposed to Agent Orange, and you have one of those ailments, or cancers, or heart disease or whatever, it’s pretty much a given that it can be verified and get done,” Stall explained.
Previously, receiving benefits because of Agent Orange exposure required proof, which could take time and many of the illnesses linked to the agent are terminal. Sometimes it’s too late before the VA hears about it. That’s not the case now.
“They pretty much assume if you were in country, you were exposed,” Stall said.
While there is no guarantee that a veteran will receive benefits from the VA, their odds increase significantly by going through the WVC rather than trying to file on their own.
“It’s quite a difficult process. I’d say, and this is a shot in the dark, there is an 80 percent failure rate; or people don’t quite get the outcome they were hoping for simply because government forms are hard to understand and people might not understand what they are actually looking for,” Stall said.
Additionally, when a claim is filed through a service officer it is processed and quality checked by service organizations, such as the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Disabled American Veterans. They have offices at the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center in Cheyenne, with the Veterans Benefits Administration.
“So we file the claim with them, they download them, and review them, make sure everything’s ready to go, then they submit them to the VA and then become the veteran’s representation with the VA,” Stall explained. “That way, if there are any problems or appeals, those organizations have representation all the way up through Washington and the court of appeals to represent them through the entire process.”
Stall said the military, including the National Guard and Reserve, is doing a better job than before at setting veterans up for success when they are discharged. The importance of conducting line of duty investigations, and keeping medical records is encouraged more than it was in past eras.
“So if something happens, say someone gets shot or goes through a roadside bomb, obviously, there will be records of that. There will be EVAC and stuff like that,” Stall explained. “But, say someone sprains a leg or gets something in their eye and now they’re having trouble seeing, they’re pretty good about doing those LOD investigations and will provide the soldier with those documents before they leave.”
Regardless of length of service or hardships experienced while in the service, Stall and the rest of the WVC are standing by to help generations of veterans in Wyoming.
Veterans officer outreach schedules are available in local newspapers or by calling the WVC at 800-833-5987.
| Date Taken: | 10.01.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 10.30.2014 16:29 |
| Story ID: | 146611 |
| Location: | CHEYENNE, WY, US |
| Web Views: | 74 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Wyoming veterans get help from state veterans commission, by SFC James McGuire, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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