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Veteran resources highlighted during club meeting

March 09, 2022 - 05:00
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Medina’s Faith and Freedom Club met earlier this month for a regular meeting, during which many resources for veterans were highlighted by various community and club member.

Leader Vicki Shroyer presented a recap o group’s project for homeless veterans. She said that their first veteran was a 37-year-old Airforce vet. They had an RV ready to move but had to put new tires on it to get it to Medina.

Shroyer welcomed Vietnam Veteran Lee Johnson to the meeting and thanked him for his service. The theme of the meeting was about honoring vets and showing what services are available to them in Bandera County.

Dennis Birchall, Bandera County Veterans Service Officer, and Susan Junker, American Legion Post 157 Commander, spoke their organization’s benefits to those who served.

Birchall spoke about his job as Veterans Service Officer for the county assisting veterans, their widows and securing benefits. Fifty-eight percent of Bandera County residents over age 18 are veterans, according to Birchall.

Birchall that the most important thing that veterans can do when seeking benefits is ensure they have original copies of their discharge paperwork.

Eighty percent of the work in the Veterans Service Office is assistance with disability claims, according to Birchall. Ten percent of the work deals with dependent compensation, and ten percent is about burial reimbursement.

Birchall assists veterans with the benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Department of Veterans’ Affairs is composed of three agencies: VA Healthcare, the Veterans Benefits Agency, and the Cemetery Administration. Unfortunately, Birchall says, those agencies do not communicate well together. He can assist with any of these agencies.

Birchall recommended vets with disability benefits consult with the Veterans Service Office before taking even part-time employment. He has many sources of guidance available. Veterans can call him at 830-460-1643 or email at dbirchall@ banderacounty.org.

The second speaker on the program was American Legion Post 157 Commander Susan Junker, who spoke about how the legion can impact the lives of veterans.

Junker stated there are 2.1 million members of the American Legion, along with one million auxiliary members and 360,000 Sons of the American Legion. Bandera’s Post 157 is one of 13,506 American Legions in the world, founded to provide a “hometown connection” for soldiers.

The Legion was the first organization to put together a U.S. flag code and was also the precursor to the Veterans Administration. Many VA Hospitals began as American Legion Hospitals before they were turned over to the Veterans Administration.

The American Legion has sponsored many studies that investigate veterans’ issues like the Agent Orange study begun in 1983. There is also a study in the works on the effects of exposure to “burn pits.”

The local Legion helps veterans with resume writing, presents educational programs to local school children, sponsors participation in Boys State and Girls State programs, sponsors a select style baseball team representing the Hill Country and assists with Scout groups and the Junior ROTC Unit at BHS.

Local American Legion members have judged UIL contests and provided several one-thousand-dollar scholarships to seniors in Medina and Bandera school districts. The Legion is ready to help with patriotic programs like Wreaths Across America or flag retirement. The Legion even provides a quarterly community breakfast.