Thursday, June 2, 2011

Fearless Fridays

We as veterans can understand how difficult it may be to get get someone on the phone at the VA office on Fridays.  It can be very frustrating trying to get yur issues taken care of when you are trying to call them in the time frame that they say they are open and you get their recording that they are not available and to call again during regular business hours.  It is a shame.  We intend to help you get your issues answered not only in a timely fashion but also when you need the answers by.  We will assist you in doing whatever is necessary for you as a veteran to adapt to civillian life with as little problems as possible.  On fridays i have even called in to the VA 30 minutes prior to their closing and found that they have already gone home for the weekend.  It is very hard to accept that when you need help.  Our goal is to alleviate that  problem for veterans by letting the VA know that we are aware of this issue and use congress to get them to live  up to what they are being paid to do.  Sounds impossible right?  Well it actually isnt.  Its very easy to do.  The VA corporate office in Washington D.C.  has no idea that this issue exists becasue no one informs them.  Well that changes now.  We will not only inform them but we will make the issues known to the public via televison and internet postings.  They will have to listen.  With the public eye on them, they will have to act and act fast.  No government agency wants to be held accountable to the public for something so simple so it will be dealt with rapidly and correctly.  So have hope, help is on the way.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Welcome and Introduction

I want to extend a warm welcome to all veterans. I invite you all to write about issues and problems that you are having and we will respond to you with the appropriate information that you need.  I understand that it is extremely hard for some to admit that you need help.  I do care.  As a veteran myself, I also understand what it is like to have to depend on yourself when it seems no one else is going to help you.  I have been there.  I am also familiar with the phrase, “Hurry up and wait”.  I know about how you have to wait in line for hours and sometimes just simply get turned away without any answers.  Well, I am here for you and to listen to what you have to say.  I understand because I am a veteran myself, we need to be here for one another.  It is simple, once a brother, always a brother and family is always there for one another.  Whether it is just to listen to you or to help you find the resources that you require to live, I am here and I offer every resource that is available to me to you. 

One of the reasons that I am so knowledgeable on the subject is that I was once in your shoes.  I was injured in desert storm overseas and I was shipped home in a cast and dropped off on my mother’s doorstep.  I wasn’t even taken care of in the cast I was in.  After several months of waiting for a phone call that was never going to come, I took action on my own.  I started the slow and painstaking process of trying to get help from the VA where I was being turned aside every place I visited.  Fortunately for me, every place I visited there was a veteran there that was giving me pieces of a puzzle that would eventually become whole and lead me to where I needed to be.   Finally after 15 years of collecting puzzle pieces, I finally begun to get some help from the VA, but even then it was still going very slowly as things needed to be done in a timely fashion and other documents needed to be filed and unless you had knowledge of these things you were not getting the necessary help you needed.  So finally after 20 years, I am at a place where I am on top of the paperwork game.  I have been able to help several of the veterans that are local to me.  Now that I realize that I had those few here, I can only imagine how many are out there.  So, I have started this blog to reach and help as many as I can.  I look forward to hearing from you.