 Think Tech Hawaii, civil engagement lives here. And Aloha, welcome to another District of Hawaii Uniform. I'm your host Calvin Griffin, and thank you for joining us again. For those of you who may not have seen the program before, here we talk about military veterans issues and trying to keep you updated on what's happening past, present, and possibly what's happening in the future. Today, my guest is Mr. Dennis E. Gaye, who's been on the program before. Dennis, thanks for coming in. Again, just to recap, for those who may not have seen you or known of you, which I can't imagine who out there doesn't know about you, but a little bit of background about yourself. I know you're an activist and all that good stuff. Well, thank you for having me, Calvin. Well, this all began a long time ago. And basically, you increase my thoughts about activism by allowing me to share your thoughts on the air with your studio audiences. So I'm totally turned on now until I get too old to do this. Hopefully that won't happen very soon. Most I started out here. I am the chapter president for the National Association for Uniform Services, which is soon to become the Uniform Services Association. They're re-identified themselves. And we are a voice on Capitol Hill in Congress through the National Military Veterans Alliance. And that's an umbrella group. There's two of them, and this is the other one. So single-purpose, multi-purpose veteran service organizations, not necessarily agreeing with the largest ones. But we get our job done. And we do our best to just keep going because we have to. I think it's with all the different organizations out there that have the National Alliance or the Coalition for the different groups. That's what the Coalition does. The member groups are invited and they become delegates. And so now we have rather than just one organization and its members making the decisions of where they want to go with the Congress members who are elected to represent their interests, keep them interested in doing that. There's a whole bunch of them. So after we make our decisions at our meetings and we focus on those things, then all the member organizations, they follow up with their favorite members of Congress. I know that you go back to Washington frequently. And do you travel around the country? As far as the whole, what does it take? How are the organizations really effective when they go up and talk to these people in Washington about the different concerns of the active and veteran community? I'm not sure about that, but I know I am. I noticed that there is a movement in the administration to try to modernize the VA to better serve the veterans. And it seems like the veteran service organizations are totally opposed to that. Once we find out who's really running the VA, making it function the way it does, then maybe we'll finally get around to modernizing it. The latest situation, Senator Tammy Duckworth, who everybody knows, got the rules of Congress changed so that she could bring her baby with her to Congress. And she's a call for a veteran who lost some limbs in a helicopter accident in that war. I had a conversation with her when she was still working for the VA, which is just a short walk from the White House. And the issue was consolidation of veterans' health care record keeping with the Pentagon where all of the veterans come from to the VA. While at that time, former President Obama had got the two secretaries to shake hands on the idea. So now the idea has been turned on its head, and the VA is being encouraged to abandon its VISTA record keeping program, software program, in favor of the pentagons or something there, too. And what that does for the VA, since our health care industry uses this program that the VA adopted, they're going to be out in the dark even more. So in terms of consolidating health care services with our health care industry and the VA, maybe it's a step backwards. But it seems like all the major veterans' service organizations are in favor of this step backwards. So like I say, I believe we have to first discover who's running the VA. And then it's obviously not the secretary, so it seems like they get fired every year. Yeah, so with the VA, oh, one quick question. You mentioned that Duckworth was going to be able to bring her baby into the sessions. She did. So now she gets two votes instead of one? No, no, no. The baby's just there as an interpreter. Okay, got it. That's just a one. We're going back to the radio days, Calvin. Yeah, okay, yeah. Yeah, as far as with the VA anyhow, I mean, as I mentioned in the past before, we both commented on it. There are a lot of people out there in the VA that work hard and try to do what they can based on the information that they're, you know, have to work with, but still in all, like I say, it seemed like time and time again, we have the same things that go on where we either got a position, we got something in place that works, and then they want to go ahead and change it and bring in a new system or whatever. And again, it's musical chairs where what is what's going on, you know? And the bottom line is how is it affecting the veterans and their families, you know? I think a lot of people, I mean, we're at that point where, you know, the frustration builds in, you know? And that's why, you know, we get there's so many things, issues that go on where, you know, a health, I mean, we talked about in the past, suicide rates, things of that nature, also with the way things are happening with the families, you know, where again, with the frustration sets in when you're trying to get part of the system, get something that you earned. And then you turn around and you got to, you know, a song and dance about why they can't give it to you. And then when you do get it, either you're under, you're under, you're underappreciated, I'll put it to you in a monetary sense anyhow, you know, for something that you earned. And this comes back to, you know, affect the families because if they're not getting the benefits that they're entitled to, especially like health benefits, things of that nature, then it turns around and comes out of pocket for the families, you know? And that's why, you know, we talk offline a lot about what's going on, the frustrations, you know, that we hear out there, you know? And again, not to be negative about it. But again, you know, we just, you know, over and over again, and you hear some of the horror stories, there's a lot of people that have been being taken care of, okay? But there are a lot of people out there who are not being adequately handled in certain areas, you know? And I think, again, the frustration with the, we'll say the systemic problems that need to be corrected, you know? So that's the way I see it. Well, we do know that all of us that contributed, at least 40 quarters, we do have a Medicare card and a Social Security card, neither one of those cards has our photo ID on it. And that's proof of health care insurance, the Medicare card. Now, the VA's photo ID that identifies those of us veterans who are enrolled in their health care system, we have a photo ID card that here locally, it's not accepted or it's not going to be accepted. Originally, the 1st of June, and my last trip to Washington, D.C., I surprised, I didn't surprise our U.S. senators that this was going on out here, and they promised to do something about that. Well, it seems like they were instrumental in getting the effective date of the changeover where veterans who do not have the Army-issued ID will not be allowed on campus. That's been set back till October. Now, hopefully, the next thing that will be done, it will be set back to next year, and then maybe forgotten about it. Is this the CAP card you were talking about, or? Right. Yeah. Okay. Everybody's, all the veterans who don't have a D.D. form two, they won't be allowed on campus at Trippler unless they have an Army-issued ID that's acceptable at the gate. Yeah. So, for them, forget about Motsanaga Clinic, right? Yeah. Now, we do have another stealth CBOC out on Fort Weaver Road co-located with Queen's Hospital. Yeah. For those who may not be familiar with the term CBOC, could you explain that to them? Community-based outpatient center, and they're located on the fifth floor at the Queen's West Medical Clinic on Fort Weaver Road. However, you won't know this unless you watch this program and hear me tell you that, because there's no sign. Now, when I asked the VA what's up with that, they said, well, we're only renting. And I said, yeah, you're renting from St. Francis Hospital. Yeah. So I called St. Francis Hospital. I said, you know, would it be appropriate for the VA to put a sign out on the street so the veterans drive you by? I said, oh, there's a CBOC. Well, I can go there and be treated. It's right in my neighborhood. And wrong answer. They're not accepting anybody who didn't already sign up. Yeah. And how long has the CBOC been out there? Probably as long as Queen's has been out there three, four, five years. Excuse me. And they're on the fifth floor, hidden away. The gate guard, he'll let you know that it's out there and you just keep driving till you see the sign and you go in the parking lot. And they're on the fifth floor. Maybe they're claiming they did. They're understaffed or they don't have space, but the whole fourth floor is being renovated. And if they'd been a little bit more thoughtful, they might have rented, you know, decided they want to rent the fourth floor. Yeah. Well, see, that's what gets me a turnaround. It's just like, you know, plausible deniability. I mean, you know, they turn around, they say, well, what do you have in place for the veterans? You know, it's like, okay, well, we got this. All right, do they know about it? You know, no, is there anything out there? Like, say, the indicates like, say, the new services are there for, I mean, that the weather location is, you know, and it's like, you know, it's, it's one of those things where again, they turn around, they, you know, you ask about something, they say, oh, we got it, but we're not going to tell you where it is, you know, or how to get it. Yeah, or you can't get there. Yeah. They won't, they won't enroll anybody new. If you live in Ewa and you were farmally treated at Motsanaga on the Tripler campus, and you can't go there anymore because you don't have the proper ID, they won't treat you at the other one either, but you could go into the Queen's Hospital emergency room and they'll take care of you and they notify the VA up on the fifth floor. Oh, by the way, we, we had a veteran had to come into our emergency last night. Just thought you'd like to know. Yeah, well, let's say you begin to wonder, let's say, what exactly is going on as far as with the, it's like a shill game, you know, where, you know, the, where's the P at, you know, where are my benefits, how do I get them and all that, you know, and again, it's just the frustration you hear so much with our elected officials and even with a lot of the organizations, how much they care about the veterans and then you turn around when you do hear these, you know, horror stories or, you know, the situations out there that are pretty frequent, you know, they begin to wonder, let's say, do they really care, you know? And again, with me, it's like a level, I try to maintain as far as commenting on the VA because my personal, some of my personal experiences with them, you know, so I don't want to, you know, color, I mean, just present the facts that was happening, you know, but I do, I can relate to the frustration, you know, and the anger in a lot of cases about how they're being intruded anyhow, you know, because you just hear a lot of times it's lip service. I mean, they're like, say, good programs out there, but like, say, for those following through the cracks, I mean, that the ones are out there when you're, you know, when you're personalizing it and you have somebody out there, like, and a lot of times it's going to be a case of life and death, literally, you know, and when they're not being adequately taken care of, I mean, I mean, we hear it. I mean, offline, we hear about these stories, you know, and a lot of things, like, say, are not brought to the public's attention. And that's what, you know, I think needs to be done, you know, not the blame game or anything like that, but just to make sure, like, say, that the accountability, these people are held accountable, you know, and that's what, you know, my frustration gets sometimes when I hear these things and, you know, and see firsthand what's happening. Well, actually, I think right now, they're holding themselves accountable. Well, we do have, we do have supposedly an advocate here, the State Office of Veteran Services, and they're supposed to be our advocate. They meet with us tomorrow, as a matter of fact, at the Oahu Veterans Council, and every county has a Veterans Council, I think, on the Big Island, they have two of them. But in fact, the State Office of Veteran Services, they publish a nice newsletter for us to read about what's going on statewide. Our viewers digest that information, I'm going to take a short break and then we'll come back and continue our conversation here on Hawaii in uniform. Thank you. Hey, baby, that's you. I want to know, will you watch my show? I hope you do. It's on Tuesdays at one o'clock, and it's out of the comfort zone, and I'll be your host, R.E.B. Kelly. See you there. I'm Jay Fidel, ThinkTech. ThinkTech loves energy. I'm the host of Mina, Marco, and me, which is Mina Morita, former chair of the PUC, former legislator, and Energy Dynamics, a consulting organization in energy. Marco Mangostorf is the CEO of Provision Solar in Hilo. Every two weeks, we talk about energy, everything about energy. Come around and watch us. We're on at noon on Mondays every two weeks on ThinkTech. Aloha. Yeah, okay, you're back with Hawaii in uniform, and again, my host, I mean, I can get that mixed up. My guest is Dennis Igay, anyhow. Great. Okay, before we took that break, we thought you were talking about the veteran services or whatever, and counseling, everything else. What exactly did they do? I mean, I'm familiar with it, but in your own words, tell me, explain to the audience exactly what they do or supposed to do. Oh, the CBOX? No, no, the council. Oh, the council, okay. They have delegates from the local, each county has veteran service organizations representing the interests of their members, and they sit as delegates at this council, and in fact, even the advisors sit as delegates, the Veterans Administration, State Office of Veteran Services, Senator Hirono sends a representative from time to time, and then there are other various and Sunday people come in. Some of them host, we have PTSD, we had retreat graduation lunch, where we recognize the efforts that the PTSD veterans have put in to try to get comfortable with their disorders, right? Okay, let's talk about that real briefly, and then on the PTSD, okay, I've been to several of the meetings anyhow for the graduates, and these are people, some of them have been out of service for quite some time before they get into the program. So if there's any viewers out there, like say you went through or been diagnosed with PTSD, get in touch with the VA to get enrolled in the program, and it's never too late to try to go ahead and do something that's gonna help you to correct it. Help you help yourself. Help you help yourself anyhow, yeah, but it takes a lot of courage, like I mentioned before, going into combat, taking orders, that's one thing where you have to do what you gotta do, but when you get out and you recognize that you do have a problem, and it's affecting you, the community, and everything else, and you decide to go ahead and step up to the plate and say, okay, I need help, I need to get into some sort of program, and it takes a lot more courage to do that sometimes than it does to go into combat. And those individuals I've seen who graduated from the program, I mean, it's a major change in their life. And they can say, there are programs out there that are beneficial, and it's not knocking everything about the VA, but the thing is to make sure, like say, if there's any programs that are helpful, that they either need to be expanded upon, or at least the public needs to know what the veterans in the military community need to know, what's out there, how they can access it, so they can take full advantage of it, you know, that's what I see. Well, this is true. Remember my grandmother told me once that, to her mind, when she observed Civil War veterans sitting around outside the bars, he said, boy, there's just some grumpy old men, and so those of us who have been in combat, we understand why, but in those days, they didn't understand the trauma, how the trauma affects the brain, and it just comes up with a mental disorder. And I have a couple of friends, one guy, I mean, he asked me just the other day. He said, am I hard to get along with? I said, we've both been in the military, we meet so many diverse personalities through that experience. He said, for me, I've just learned to stay away from the places you don't like to go, and there's plenty of other things that we can enjoy together without me having to pick on you in these areas that could be trauma-related, we don't know, and he was happy with that answer. Well, as far as these different syndromes, I'll touch on this real quick anyhow, they've got so many different syndromes now, let's say that you could be diagnosed with, because one example that one gentleman I ran into, he was discharged because he had immature personality development, and he did like four combat tours, and then all of a sudden now, it's like, we find that you're too immature for the military, so therefore, thank you, but bye-bye, you're out of here. And a lot of these different syndromes that they come up with, you gotta find out what's behind it, especially when it's costing the veterans as far as their benefits, what they need to do. And I think that's not being adequately addressed, when you have somebody that's been in for quite some time, and then all of a sudden you're summarily dismissed, where do you go through? Now it becomes a burden on the society, or as far as the local communities, because they're not being treated at the VA or other federal levels, then it has gonna come back, like say for the taxpayers of the local level, to go ahead and pick up on it. So that's what I see, and I think again, I hear a lot of frustration with a lot of veterans out there who have been dismissed after doing their job, serving their country, and then come to find out, because of some disorder, and now you are not entitled to what you thought you were, that you were gonna get. So all your time and sacrifice, that's what a frustration builds up also. Well, Tabby told me in our discussion, a few years ago, maybe eight years, I don't remember how many years, your VA benefits start the moment you're sworn in, some of them, others you earn through experience, you experience something in a military and another benefit kicks in. People who really know how to work the system in the VA, they do quite well, but so few people really know how, and then they don't, apparently they don't get the help they need when they ask questions. Yeah, well that's another thing though, like say you and I, again, we've been around for a long time, talked to a lot of people here, a lot of things out there in the field and everything else. And one thing, one of the dirty little secrets that's out there, and maybe have some little bit of validity to it, that sometimes it's who you know in the system that helps you to get what your final, the out final outcome is. And if that feeling is out there and floating around, then again, that adds to the frustration and the different anxieties when you feel that you have to know somebody to get what you've earned. And then that gets back to the council. What do they do? Because I'm frequent at the place quite often anyhow. And it is the message getting out. It was the council really being effective. I mean, I got dedicated people that attended council, but as far as a cohesive type of effort within these different organizations to disseminate that information because a lot of them, they get out there and they get the information and it's like, okay, well this is just for my members, I'm not gonna tell anybody else. So when you have that and you have the grassroots people out there close to 120,000 give or take veterans here in the state of Hawaii at any given time, you have 30,000 Vietnam veterans here, okay? And then like say, how are they getting the word? Is it getting out there? And I mean, I didn't know there's a lot of different programs, hopefully, like say they're disseminating that information, but apparently there's still a shortcoming as far as how it's being spread. You really have to know somebody before you're gonna get the help that you need or the benefits that you've earned. Right, well, good numbers, 130,000 vets, huh? Let's presume there's one in every household. Okay. 130 households got a one vet in it, only one. There's only 400,000 households in the whole state. So you can still walk out and pick up your newspaper in the morning and you can look across the street and probably two of those houses across the street that are in your line of sight that early in the morning, there's probably a veteran in there. So we are, in fact, have the largest per capita community of veterans at anywhere in the nation. Now, California obviously has, statistically speaking, they have 10% of the veterans living in their state because they got 10% of the country's population, but they don't match us. So we have an awful lot of veterans here. I think at the grassroots level, the people who providing the services, they're doing a pretty good, pretty darn good job. I've gotten two or three or four people to sign up. They were very reluctant and now they're happy and they have their ID cards. Yeah. And they'll be good anywhere except at Mount. What that ID card needs to be transformed into is exactly what the Medicare card is, proof of insurance. So you're a veteran with this card. This is another form of insurance provided you in recognition of your service to your country, selfless service. Yeah. Well, yeah, a lot of things that definitely still need to be addressed anyhow, and again, not knocking those individuals who are in the system, but systemically, and then it goes back to Washington. Like I say, those are the ones who set the tone in the tenor for what trickles down anyhow. But yeah, we still have to keep fighting it, but as long as I've been around for quite some time here, and it's always the same, seems to be the same thing about certain issues about the hospital. We don't have a veteran's hospital here. No, that's why we all got choice cards. And the thing, and before I understand that the money was allocated, like say more than a decade ago, but what happened with that? And why wasn't there a follow-up? And again, holding certain people accountable who profess to be looking out for the veterans. And I want to keep beating that same drum, but the thing is, there are people out there who are in positions of responsibility then that should get out there, get up off their hind legs and whatever they were sitting on, and do what needs to be done. But I think it also takes like saying effort on the veterans themselves to go ahead and start raising a little bit of help. I mean, make the phone calls. Find out like say who's in charge of these different committees. Like say that how affecting, in that to have an effect on your life. So again, it's not all doom and gloom, but we need to go ahead like saying, make sure again that these people are, that the system is being corrected as fast as possible. So, but yeah, before we get into anything else, I want to keep beating on a positive note here. On the 9th of June, there's going to be a hearing law solution for veterans. This is something that I believe is sponsored by the VA. It's going to be at the Oahu Veterans Center. And that's down at 1298 Kukila Street down in Foster Village. So it is a good program if you have problems. They provide, we'll tell you how to get free or no cost equipment if you do have a hearing problem when you're of course on the phone or whatever. So they'll give you instructions. But if you want any more information about that, you can call 422-4000 and talk to Claire. She's down at the, she's an executive director for the Oahu Veterans Center. There's a difference between the center and the council. But they do have, they're starting to pick up on some programs that I believe are beneficial. So if you're a veteran or dependent or just this open to the public, go down and find out what's going on. You may be able to do something that will help to benefit a veteran in your community or at least try to alleviate some of the stress on the taxpayers anyhow. So by getting the word out there, but there's going to be a council meeting this Saturday. Tomorrow morning, come on out. Every veteran is welcomed by definition. Good. Dennis, we're down to the wire anyhow. Any last things in 30 seconds or less? Nope, I've been having a great time. And if it gets any better, I'll buy into that too. Okay. Thank you for having me on board today. Yeah, as I mentioned before, like I said, we try to be positive about what's happening here as far as the information. And sometimes the frustration you may detect in my voice is not out of anger. It's just out of concern for a lot of people that's out there that can't be here to speak for themselves anyhow. So that's what I know you try to do. I try to do it. There's other people out there unsung heroes that do the same thing. But anyhow, thank you for tuning into the program again. And God bless and until that time.