 Good morning everybody. My name is Catherine Becker VanHaste from Senator Sanders Office. I want to start out by welcoming everyone and thanking you for being here today. I hope you've enjoyed all of our great organizations who are out front. I really thank all of them for being here and thank you all for coming. I know for some of you this was a bit of a drive, so we really appreciate you making the time. Before we get started, I just have a couple of housekeeping announcements. After we finish, we'll go through, the Senator is going to speak, then we'll be joined by Matthew Schuman from the American Legion in Washington, D.C., our great Vermont panelists. After that, we'll have some Q&A, so please think about your questions as they're speaking. After the question and answer period finishes up, we're going to have boxed lunches available. You will see on your table, there are some topics that you can join in on for those. We've got some great folks who are going to help facilitate those conversations, but really anything that you want to talk about, feel free during that lunchtime discussion to really talk about whatever is on your mind. We will also have the resource tables open again during that period so you can visit with any folks that you didn't get a chance to talk to then. I would also mention that if you have specific issues with your own individual cases, we have folks from the VA, from the Senator's Office, our casework team, as well as the Vermont Office of Veterans Affairs, our Vermont Veterans Outreach Program, the VSOs. So if you have individual specific needs that we can help with, that would be a great time to talk about those particular individual instances. So with that, I want to again thank you all for being here and introduce you to someone who needs no introduction, Senator Sanders. Thank you, Katie. Now how would you like to go through life being introduced as someone who needs no introduction? See, other people get these flowery, great introductions. They say no introduction. All right. Katie did a great job in organizing the event, and I just, let me start off by, of course, thanking the men and women in the room who have put their lives on the line to defend our country. And our goal here and hopefully every day is to make sure that your sacrifices and the sacrifices of your families are not forgotten, and we do everything we can to make life as good as we possibly can for our veterans. And I want to thank all of the organizations. It just blows me away and makes me very proud that as I walked around the room there to see so many great organizations of people who have dedicated their lives to trying to help Vermont, New Hampshire, and veterans all over this country. So I want to thank all of the organizations who are here. I want to thank our panelists today. You're going to be hearing from Matt Schumann in a bit. Matt is the legislative director, national legislative director for the American Legion, the largest veteran service organization in the country. He does a great job as the other service organizations and he'll be talking to you about what's going on in D.C. And I want to thank Don Doctor, who is the adjutant of the Vermont VFW. John Minow is with the Vietnam Veterans. John is not here today, unfortunately. Perry Melvin will do a great job subbing for him. Heather Morris is with the Vermont Veterans Outreach Program. Fred Lutours with the American Legion of Vermont. And Dr. Brett Rush, as you may know, is the acting director of the VA Center at White River. Let me be just very informal and say that what we want here is for you to learn as much as you can. And in any way, my office or the VA or any of the service organizations can be of help to you, do not be shy. That's what this meeting is all about. In my view, and I speak to you as a longtime member of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs and the former chair of it, I think that this country has a moral obligation to make sure that we do everything possible we can to provide the help and support that the veterans of this country need. There has been a lot of controversy and discussion about the VA. So let me give you my feelings about the VA. And that is to say that like any other medical organization in this country, VA has its problems. And nobody here will deny that. But what I will never forget, as long as I live, I was, Matt, you may remember this, I was chairman of the VA. And we had the American Legion of the VFW and the DAV and the Vietnam Vets and every major service organization right up in front in a hearing that was nationally televised. And I asked all of the organizations, tell me truthfully, when people get into the VA system, do they do a good job? And without exception, every single one of the veterans organization said, good, good, excellent, very good, whatever it is. And I, in my experience here in Vermont at least, can tell you that the veterans of our state are very proud of the quality service they get from the staff at White River. And I want to thank that staff very much. And over the years, we have made some progress in expanding the number of community-based outreach clinics, CBOX from three to five. We added one a few years ago in Browderboro and one up in Newport along with the ones we have in Burlington and Rutland as well. So let me talk a little bit about some of the issues that are taking place and some of the concerns that I have. All of you are aware, and I don't mean to be political here today, and I sincerely don't, that there are differences of opinion of what we should be doing with federal programs. There are folks who would like to significantly cut or privatize social security. The President proposed a trillion-dollar cut in his budget to Medicaid, $500 billion cut in Medicare. There are people who want to move to the privatization of the U.S. Postal Service. And the Veterans Administration is also part of that effort. So right now, what we have in Washington is an effort on the part of some people to say, hey, we got a $200 billion VA budget. Wouldn't it be better to kind of move toward the privatization of the VA and take more services outside of the VA? And let me tell you my view. My view is that at a time when we have 30,000 vacancies in the VA, the most important thing that we can do right now is to fill those vacancies and make sure that the VA is providing the quality care that it needs. Second of all, there are programs out there that need to be strengthened. Some years ago, when I first came into the Senate, I worked with others, including a Senate named Jim Webb of Virginia, who was very active. And what we worked on is improving educational benefits for veterans, something we have to continue doing. The other thing that we did is develop what is called a Caregivers program. People familiar with the Caregivers program? Now, one of the issues that we don't talk about a whole lot is that if a veteran comes home with a severe disability, either physical or maybe emotional, who is taking care of that veteran? 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Often it is the wife, sister, brother, family member. And those family members by the tens of thousands have devoted their lives to taking care of those disabled veterans. Now, what happened is a number of years ago, we finally passed something that we called the Caregivers bill. It's not the end all, but what it said for post 9-11, just for the post 9-11 veteran generation, that the Caregivers who were taking care of the disabled from 9-11 on would be able to get Caregivers benefits. What does that mean? If you are taking care of somebody who has a disability, you got to be on duty 7 days a week. You don't get any help at all. It means the world if you can get a replacement to come in for 1 or 2 days. It means the world if you can get a modest stipend, because many of those people, mostly women by the way, have given up their own careers. Bottom line is to recognize the sacrifice not only of the veterans, but of those people who are caring for the veterans. We made progress. We have a Caregivers Act for post 9-11. It has got to be expanded to all generations. That means going back to World War II, to Korea, to Vietnam, etc. Now we're making some progress on that, but in Washington things are very complicated because you've got an authorization process and then you've got an appropriations process. The authorization committee, which I'm on, can do all kinds of great things, doesn't mean much unless we have the money to fund it. Right now what we are trying to do is expand the Caregivers program for all generations and to make sure that the funding is adequate to take care of the needs of all generations. There's another issue out there that I have worked very, very hard on with not the kind of success that I wish I could tell you about. I happen to believe that when you talk about health care, you are talking about dental care. Now right now, as you know, the VA does provide dental care for service-connected oral needs. They do not provide dental care for non-service-connected needs and I tried very hard. We wrote a bill some years ago which was the most comprehensive reform of the VA in modern history supported by all of the veterans organizations, which would have included dental care. Unfortunately, we were four votes shy of getting it passed in the Senate, but that's something that I will continue to work on. There is another area where, in fact, the VA and the DOD have been leaders all in this country in terms of health care. I don't have to tell anybody in this room about the terrible, terrible opioid crisis that is sweeping this country. We lose over 100 people a year in Vermont to opioid overdoses. New Hampshire is even facing a more serious crisis. What the VA is trying to do and has for a number of years been trying to figure out ways to deal with pain, which is a very serious issue for veterans, in a way that makes sure that these men and women do not get hooked on opioids. The VA and the DOD, for that matter, have been leading the country in looking at what we call complementary approaches. How can you deal with pain without getting people hooked up on powerful drugs? They've been looking at acupuncture and they've been looking at massage and they've been looking at all kinds of different yoga, all kinds of different therapies, which might seem strange, but in fact are scientifically tested and in fact can make real progress for veterans. That's an area that we want to expand as well. Another area that is getting more attention obviously as more and more women join the military is to make sure that women get the health care, their health care needs, adequately taken care of. And I'm proud that a few years ago we started the women's clinic at White River and my understanding is that clinic is doing a very good job for the women of our state. So there is a lot that is going on and a lot of the debate in Washington has to do not only with veterans issues, what is the proper role of government in our society? Do we believe that retirement security through social security should be a right or should we privatize that? Is health care through Medicare and Medicaid a right or not? Veterans issues the same thing. So with that let me again thank everybody for being here. The goal today is to get as much information as we can to you. Please ask questions. Please take advantage of the many organizations who are here today and without further ado let me introduce Matt Schumann. Matt is really one of the more knowledgeable people in this country on what's going on in Washington and veterans issues in general. Matt thank you very much for joining us today. Good morning everyone. Good morning everyone. This is the room of veterans I expected to be just a little bit louder. Good morning everyone. There we go. Listen I've never had anybody ever tell or tell a room of people that I am the more knowledgeable person. Instantly right off the bat I'm very uncomfortable. Let me real quick thank everybody here. I know all of you were invited to the royal wedding and you guys chose to come here this morning instead. I really appreciate that. Let me also extend a very sincere and kind and genuine thank you to Senator Sanders for inviting me here. He's a very staunch supporter. What he's already mentioned to you is a very brief very very topical of everything that's going on but before the Senate and the House in terms of veterans issues. You guys are extremely lucky to have not only a senator who is a former chairman of that committee but also someone who genuinely cares. Just this week I was sitting in his office with other veteran organizations and this man walks in and with gusto behind them is like how can we get this done what can we work on what do you need from me and had very sincere and genuine questions. You don't see that a lot so if you guys could just join me real quick and a round of applause for a man who does great work for Vermont. I am a United States Army veteran. Can I get a holla from anybody. There we go. I was a former military police officer. That's where the booze where the booze come in. I left the MP Corps and was honored to join the honor guard and provide military funerals and things of that nature throughout my service. In my role now as the legislative director for the American Legion as Senator Sanders said we're the largest veteran service organization not just in the country but the world and to have that honor bestowed upon me as a post on 11 veteran is pretty fantastic and something that I just go home energized and come to the office energized except for when I'm tired and I'm working late. You know the American Legion has 13,000 local posts throughout the world. That's more locations than Walmart. I like to tell people that just so you have the general sense of how large this organization is that's because of the people who have joined us. We have 2 million members. It's no shock that those numbers have decreased over time. Younger veterans aren't joining the veteran organizations but it's something that we have to change. I don't know if you guys know this but the American Legion created the original GI Bill and every single time since we've been at the helm of making sure along with the other organizations at this table to make sure that the GI Bill is extended to take care of those veterans and the people in this room. We just passed the new GI Bill thanks to someone like Senator Sanders that removes the timeline. When you got out of the military sir you only had 15 years to use your GI Bill before it dissipated and went away. A couple months ago we made it a lifetime benefit and things like that is what we need to be doing all the time. Sort of the theme for this conversation that we're having now is there's a principle we all learned in the military. It's to leave our area of operation better than the way we found it. Am I right? And that's what we have to do every single day. You have to get engaged to make sure that the services and the benefits that we get as veterans are better for the next generation. So one of the questions that was proposed to me is why are why are VSOs why are veteran service organizations like the American Legion important? Easily said we can you know we do a lot of work for veterans. My job in particular is to lobby Capitol Hill. Let's go to Capitol Hill and meet with people like Senator Sanders and your other congressional officials and help them review legislation ideas that they have put in the text and pass a bill. It's not as easy as Senator Sanders saying I've got this bill and I want to help you know get dental services for veterans but you heard him say that it failed by four votes. So we come in and we come in together with the VFW the DAV and the VVA and we are a powerhouse and we go to every single member of Congress all 535 and say this has to happen for the people that have selflessly raised their right hand to defend this country. Quickly want to just sort of shift into the conversation of the VA. I'm 29 years old a lot of people say you don't even look like you're a veteran one I'm sexy that's why but younger veterans the perception is they don't want to go to the VA. They hear all these different stories and Fox News and CNN saying how bad the VA is. Would you guys be shocked to hear that 82% of veterans who use the VA want to receive their medical services at VA? See you guys know that but Fox News and everybody else is reporting different stories. See when the VA messes up one time it's going to be on TV. Why? Because they're a federal agency and they have to. They have to be transparent. But the local hospital on the street they're a business they don't want you to know that unless you go to your local TV channel and tell them. Another stat that I find really telling and there was a nurse I was speaking to earlier this morning 62% of clinicians receive some level of medical training at the VA. That's amazing the VA is one of the biggest research agencies in the in the world. The VA you think about sort of battle-borne illnesses sort of three things that come to mind TBI PTSD and prosthetics. The VA is the world leader in prosthetic research and care. The world leader not Pfizer not someone else not another country. The VA the VA created Tylenol they created the nicotine patch they are doing wonderful and magnificent research that actually impacts the medical community not just here not just for veterans but for the world and it's relatively amazing and people don't really understand this. Battle-borne illness is a conversation that should be had. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a veteran going out to the community down the street to get some type of medical service. But it's so often that a veteran will go into their private clinician and have symptoms of PTSD and their doctor says oh you just got anxiety you're just you're nervous you know here's some ADHD medication or something and they get misdiagnosed but you go to the VA and these people are trained to take care of veteran medicine. These people are trained to understand and actually be able to sit down and talk to you and hopefully understand what you're going through and hopefully let you know that they genuinely care about you and that it's not 30 seconds with a private clinician. That's what this VA is about. We've got people as Senator Sanders said who want to privatize the VA let me draw what that looks like real quick. That's a VA who's just going to be an assurance company. When was the last time you actually met somebody from Blue Cross Blue Shield? We fight for the red, white and blue not Blue Cross and Blue Shield y'all. We don't want the VA to be privatized we don't want them to just pay for our medical services. We want them to provide our medical services. We want to be able to go to the VA and say listen I'm having some issues man and they're not asking you point to your face what happened and corner you in your room and try to badger you to get more information. They understand and they are sensitive to those topics. They're saying that we don't want to talk about. Private clinicians want you to do that. The VA needs to be a robust. It needs to be a very thorough system and it needs to always be there for veterans to get the treatment they need. In short the simple reality is we need to be engaging members of Congress like Senator Sanders and supporting them who are truly fighting to make sure the VA is a robust and a brick and mortar system. I understand if you want to go down the street and get treated for a cold that's cool but the VA needs to be the world leader just like they are prosthetics with TBI and PTSD and the more money that we take out and send to the community is not going to help them get there. So why should you care beyond the fact that you're a veteran, beyond the fact that your spouse is a veteran and you're helping take care of them because we need to make sure just as I said earlier that we leave this system better than the way we found it. The VA has a 200 billion dollar budget. Senator 10 years ago wasn't even that am I right? Because we've got people like Senator Sanders who sit down and say you know what I'm not I'm not going to do that. We need more money for the VA. We need to make sure that the caregiver program is expanded. We need to be able to make sure the choice has the funding that it's not going to run out in 12 days. Simple reality is there's ways that you can do this. You don't have to be an expert. You don't have to go to Washington D.C. But what you need to do and I beg of you is join a veteran service organization. I'm not going to advocate just for the American Legion. But join one of these organizations. What we have is the power and the ability to affect change on Capitol Hill. When someone comes to us and says hey you know what I've heard the stories. We've all heard the stories of how bad army dentists are. But we need to make sure that these people get the dental care that they deserve. And I need your help to get it done. And next thing you know you've got thousands of American legions. You got thousands of DAV and BFW banging on the door of these members of Congress who don't want to do anything. Don't want to spend any money on veterans. I don't know about y'all but when I raised my right hand I didn't say you know what to this limit right. If I get broken you better dang all fix it. It's that simple. The reality is we got to care. You guys need to get involved. When was the last time you guys called Senator Sanders office. What was that a week ago. He calls too much doesn't it. Don't call it a week sir. Catherine is a busy woman. What was the last time every single person here. I want you to ask yourself what was the last time you engaged a member of Congress and said hey listen this benefit matters to me. I want to make sure this benefit is better. Some crazy guy came to me several two years ago said why don't we get rid of the of the cap on the GI bill and make it a lifetime benefit. And I was like it's a good idea. We need people like that. You have the ability to do that. You've got a senator who's got some influence on this committee. Y'all need to start engaging members of Congress and supporting them. I can go to Senator Sanders office. I can go to Paul Ryan's office and say hey this is what I'm hearing from my members. But if he can't say you know what I'm hearing that from people in Vermont. It's not going to do anything. Y'all need to get active. Y'all need to tell your members of Congress what you see what you're feeling. Not just when it's bad. We're all so quick when we go to a restaurant to tell the manager when the waitress or server has done something wrong. But we're never the ones to tell them that they do a great job today. We need to start doing that. We need to start telling members of Congress when the VA does great by you. Yes the VA has problems and they are slowly they are slowly getting fixed. But we as a community of veterans our service does not stop and did not stop when we left the ETS out of the military. We have a different type of drive in us. Y'all are here on a Saturday instead of being at the Royal Wed and I'm telling you. So let me let me end with this. I want to thank each of you for your service. I want to beg you get to tenure your service. Get involved. It's not the sexiest thing in the world to go join an American League and post for a VFW. But lend your support. Don't stop when you left the military. I want to thank Norwich. I think it's pretty spectacular that we're having a conversation about veterans at a university that puts more commissioned officers in the military second after West Point. Go Army. And I'll close with two things. One I wanted to again thank Senator Sanders and his entire staff for putting on a wonderful event. I think more senators I was telling them this earlier more senators need to get involved and start doing things like this and I think we'll see a different type of VA system that is actually there for veterans. And then I'll say this one last thing. I already said it. We need to leave the services and the benefits and the programs better than the way we found it. That is your job. It didn't stop like I said when you left the military. So get involved. Get active. Except for him. Everybody else needs to start calling Senator Sanders office and let him know what's going on. I thank you guys. Thank you Matt. Don Doctor is the adjutant of the Vermont the FW Don. Thank you Senator. That's going to be a hard act to follow. Like you said my name is Don Doctor. I'm a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars State of Vermont. I'm past state commander 2015-16 current adjutant which means I pushed a lot of papers. The Veterans of Foreign Wars really really is against privatization of also privatization of the VA health care. Little story of when when I was state commander it was the anniversary date of all the blow up with the VA's where they're actually patients were dying like in Phoenix and in Denver VA. And because it was the anniversary one of the local news stations reporters was there on the campus of the VA a hospital White River Junction. We happened to be there that day because our commander in chief of our national organization out of Kansas City was there. We were interviewing the we were doing an interview with the interim director of the VA the the lady and I can't remember her name she was pulled and sent down to Phoenix to straighten that mess out down there. And so he was telling us this interim director was telling us the story of this local news reporter and she was told not to go into the hospital itself and interview veterans. So she waited on the periphery of the parking lot and we sat there and watched her and a veteran would come out she'd interview him for maybe 30 seconds he'd be gone and this went on nine ten veterans all of a sudden one veteran come out and he was doing this number you could tell he wasn't happy guess what was on the news that night it was it was that guy yeah so don't believe everything you can say but I hear about the news there's organizations such as us the American Legion which I'm a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Fleet Reserve Association there's many of them that you can get information of what's going on and what our Senators are doing in DC so and Matt was right we're fortunate that we have the legislators that we do have here in Vermont looking or watching out for us veterans what they're doing for us is is phenomenal. Bernie knows that we have every March the Veterans of Foreign Wars has a legislative conference in Washington DC the purpose of that is is we send our our leaders down there to meet with each of our two Senators and our congressmen about our concerns of Veterans and Ferris and they bring us into their offices and we tell them what's what our concerns on and and they take it to heart it's like Matt was saying what can we do how do we solve it and and they can take it um like I said I'm a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars we are 1.7 million strong Matt says they're the strong they're the they're the largest veterans organization they are I'll give them that we are the largest combat veterans organization in the United States so I have to put our plug in there Matt um the uh and including with our auxiliary we're about 2.5 million strong that makes a difference when you go down to Washington DC and they see a name tagger hat that says VFW or American Legion on it they listen because they know they there's a pretty good voting contingent there and like Matt was saying you need to get involved not only in federal but local like what's going on in local in Vermont um Governor Scott just put on put a bill on there about exempting military retirement pay while the general consensus going around with our legislators is how they make enough money they don't need another break um I'd like to I did 20 years I'd like to have them live off my pension they ain't going to happen so um we have our own Veterans Affair VFW Service Officer in White River Junction his name is Joel Leperle he's a retired first sergeant United States Army and he has an assistant named Jackie um the DAV and the American Legion also has service officers down there so if you're putting in a claim it's highly recommended I know every one of these and in the state of Vermont has three uh service officers work working out of Montpelers I did see Paul Perot here earlier there he's in back but uh and I was here I lived in Vermont 15 years before I even knew we had veteran service officers for the state of Vermont so they're there utilizing me if you're putting in any type of claim with a VA nothing against the VA but it it I would definitely encourage you to get with one of these veteran service officers make sure it just hastens the whole procedure they make sure they the tease across and the eyes are dotted before you go forward with your paperwork okay on the privatization of uh uh I um Thursday the house just passed the uh bill on um of the VA mission act um and I'm reading out for our action course weekly the house and senate committee on Veterans Affairs to improve VA health care fix ongoing issues with the current choice program consolidate community care programs expand caregiver benefits to pre 9-11 veterans and improve VA's infrastructure to better serve veterans they passed that Thursday now it's up for the senators and I'm sure Senator Sanders is going to be all over that because that's got to be done by May 31st to go into the fact correct so um back in 2016 um they did a commission on care they made 18 recommendations uh the veterans of foreign wars organization um did um they went along with all but all 18 all 17 of them with the exception of one and that was the private privatization of healthcare I'm going to read you what our findings were the VFW believes VA needs leadership not management by committee similar to the commission on care the governor's board would include political appointees the majority of whom would be civilian health care executives and veterans who do not use the VA benefits system the VFW recommends reforming the congressional appropriations process to ensure VA receives the resources it needs to meet veterans health care needs instead of limiting how much care VA is able to provide I'll read that again the veterans health care needs instead of limiting how much VA care VA is is able to provide there should be no limit to that funding if uh if a veteran needs needs help they should be getting it okay the secretary of veterans fair and the president must continue to provide oversight and management of the VA healthcare system with or without governance board this means that the vh health vha leadership will have an additional management and reporting requirement which will only serve to further stymie the needed transportation process why do we want to have the VA health care in the hands of somebody that has never worn the uniform in the united states thank you thank you dawn and now representing the vietnam veterans of america perry melvin perry senator senators i want to say welcome home not just the vietnam veterans but all veterans we really appreciate what you've done thank you the vietnam veterans of america really began in the 70s we are the smallest organization we're only 97 000 strong but again strong and work indiligenally one for not just benefits for uh vietnam veterans but all veterans but initially our organization started out to take care of ourselves we felt that that was necessary but then we have adapted the motto of never again will one group of veterans leave another behind so we've extended our services to all veterans from our world war two on down to our present veterans knowing that they need services whether it's a vsl veteran service or officers or it's just benefits in general information on a national level we do everything from benefit programs i'm fortunate to be part of that committee so we look at everything from compensation to pension not only how it's going to affect vietnam veterans but again all veterans making sure that that expands and includes all legislative work become familiar with our house and our senate bills supporting them some cases promulgating them and supporting our senators and our legislators and certainly uh senator standards has been a big help to us and we appreciate what he's done agent orange again our bills have gone in with agent orange initially were just to affect the vietnam veterans to support them but now it's expanded to include our recent bills everything from the veterans who were exposed to burn pits to ones to the radiated artillery that we've used during in afghanistan to everything because again these veterans as well need that services they need to be covered incarcerated veterans we have we have chapters we don't have one vermont we have one in hampshire we haven't throughout the country we have veterans in prisons and they need support so we have chapters and we support those veterans to make sure when they get out they help they have us along with whoever else is there to support them family to get them on the right to pass health and welfare ptsd every all of our veterans are suffering from their certain extent so we want to ensure and continue to ensure that that that program is supported and that benefits are rather our veterans are getting that appropriate benefits women's services i had a fortunate experience of being able to sit down with several and chapter up rather state council presidents who are women who are nurses and they told me when they first went to the va there wasn't even a a bathroom for them let alone services so they work diligently along with other all other organizations to provide services more extensive services to women as senator sanders talked about the the program that we have at the va now which is fantastic i've heard great things from a a lot of people my wife is a just retired as a nursing professor and she hears good things from other people about what's what it goes on at that program in some ways wishes she could access that but she's not a veteran i do want to share something i think it's important when i was um i went to school graduate school washington university in social work and my first experience in getting some you know outreach in the community and be involved in a program to be able to extend my training was at john cochran va hospital i sat there in 1978 with every type of health care personnel in a circle and in the middle of that circle was a patient and his family we didn't talk around that person we talked with them we asked them questions we asked them to tell us about their health care needs we asked them to tell us about what they needed we developed a plan to route them 15 years later in a hospital in in what in uh massachusetts where i was the director of social services that program started it took 15 years to get out into the the public but it was a va that started that really putting the patient first as the center we've our watchdogs we're looking not only the national level of what goes on in terms of congress for bills but we're looking locally we have a lot of important ones ones were mentioned before house bills in 626 which is benefit and benefit pensions again we are seeing many of our veterans leaving the state because once they retire whatever they have for pensions and or rather for benefits whether it's pension or it's compensation and they get social security they can't live on that in vermont so they're going to florida they're going to tennessee they're going other states where one they're getting all kinds of reductions in their taxes so that they can one they're spending their money in the states the states that they're going to adopting that they've adopted are getting the money back but it's creating jobs it's maintaining jobs it's creating new businesses but we're not doing that here in vermont we're losing our our our veterans and we need to keep these veterans here in the state have them spend their money here as opposed to leaving the state because they can't support to live to be here so again i support our our all these bills that are going on in the state level and we and again i ask you as has been requested before join a veterans organization doesn't have to be the vva of course you can unless you are a veteran one last thing i want to point out the vna v vietnam veterans average age now is 68 so what we're in the process of doing is we're looking at dissolution we will disappear we will turn out the lights at some point in time so we have two major committees going on one committee is looking at when and how do we close up shop and disappear as an organization and secondly looking at how we can take all of what we've learned and put it into an organization that's not vietnam veterans it's a general pass it on to our young veterans and we're talking to them now and say take our experience and take our resources take everything and run with it we're not going to tell you what to do and how to do it but take that because it's important that you have something to work with and that we can pass something on to you i appreciate this opportunity to talk to you and thank you very much and again welcome home you know perry reminded me of something and that is and you know and that is what matt and others have uh don have talked about change doesn't take place unless people get involved all of you remember the story of asian orange remember what happened there we had people coming back from vietnam who are dealing with his very very heavy duty chemical you know it's designed to wipe out forests to wipe out life and now chemical and others say oh this is perfectly safe you remember that no problem and then people were suddenly coming back and they were developing all kinds of diseases terrible diseases and the struggle took place with some good people in congress the fellow named lane evance in illinois was a good friend of mine who was since passed away the vietnam era veteran and it took an enormous amount of work very that right for va finally to acknowledge the lethality the danger of this chemical compound and what it did to so many thousands of our brothers and sisters who in vietnam so but that didn't happen by accident that happened because not only vietnam veterans but the other service organizations correctly informed there was a lawsuit i think it was literally a lawsuit brought forth i don't know who's the america legion of the up who forced the va to finally acknowledge it but that's how change takes place when people stand up and they fight for it all right now we have heather morris who is working with the vermont veterans outreach program and here's a program does very very important work and heather will describe it but one of the concerns that some of us had is that when veterans come home from conflict especially in a rural area like vermont they can isolate themselves they're dealing with a problem and they for whatever reason one of the symptoms of the problem is not seeking help and we thought it was a good idea to get veterans themselves to go out into the community to talk to veterans to get them into the va if they needed to get to the va or other type of medical help so heather is doing a great job i'll please welcome heather morris with the vermont veterans outreach program heather thank you for the wonderful introduction i got the longest one i feel kind of special so far so yes my name is heather morris i currently work for vermont veterans outreach i've been on board about a year and i told my bosses the other day it is still my dream job so i'm a veteran i served in the united states navy from 2000 to 2004 and i'm kind of surprised i'm the only female up here at the table but pretty honored at the same time so i hopefully i do a good job ladies um i came to work at vermont veterans outreach because i came back to vermont um and finally enrolled in the va and you know all that other stuff self-identified after 14 years of being separated from the navy um honorably just throw that out there and um so uh i went to college and i was like i'm gonna use my gi bell and um i started an exercise science and was like wow of anatomy and physiology is really not my thing so i went into the psychology fields and um just decided to go to a club meeting there on campus for the veteran service organization on campus and was the president like a month later they realized that i really like to talk and i could keep a room entertained so it was a really great experience and i absolutely loved it and through that work with the veteran community completely on a volunteer basis i realized that this is what i want to do with the rest of my life i want to help veterans um and now i am integrated in my community and i get to meet new veterans every single day and then i get to see all the ones that i recognize at all these wonderful events which is just as fun um but being able to speak on the phone with a world war two veteran who just doesn't have anybody to talk to today is really fun and then meeting a veteran who just came home from afghanistan and he doesn't really want to go to the va he's just as much fun to talk to so i really do have the greatest job in the world um and i'm honored to be here today um a couple of things i wanted to bring up i'm not um as much on the political level as everybody else up here at the table i'm the one that's here in vermont meeting the veterans in the community i also live in the nek which is um orleans essex county in the northern half of caledonia that's my part of the map on the team there's 10 of us throughout the state we cover the entire state um we are a one stop shop for veterans um no matter what a veteran says to me i'm going to find the resources and the information that they need and then i'm going to follow up and i'm going to make sure that they've contacted the department of labor and written that resume and i'm going to call and follow up and make sure that they made their appointment at the va um and i'm going to call and follow up and just check on them and see how they're doing i don't always call normally i get to go visit them as well which is a lot of fun um and i go to my community partner meetings and i educate things like the hunger council and i educate um the community partners the agency of human services on veterans needs within our community and the reason that i get to do this is because i am a veteran and i work for this wonderful organization um so some things going on in vermont um that i see is obviously the transportation issue to the va hospital i love the va hospital it's really great sometimes i don't get somebody to answer the phone but otherwise we're good um but getting veterans from my area up in the nek on the canadian border to an appointment can be very very difficult and unfortunately our organization is no longer able to transport veterans so um that's a huge issue another issue that um i take personally because it took me 14 years to finally say hey i'm a veteran um is that women self-identifying as veterans when they leave the service being proud of that um i actually met a really amazing woman in florida her name's nadine noky and she started something as simple as a clothing line for women veterans it's called lady brigade please call and order shirts um they're awesome but it's something as simple as being able to wear a t-shirt that says this is what a veteran looks like and people kind of stop and turn and they're like oh really and you're like yeah and then you get to tell your story about how much fun you had while you were in the military and i was 14 years old when i decided i wanted to join the navy i had to wait until i was 17 to be able to join the navy and i don't regret a second of it um and i'm really proud to be dedicating my life and be a part of this amazing team that gets to help veterans within the community here in vermont so please stop out at our table talk to us take our business cards um spread the word about us we want to assist all veterans in the state of vermont thank you so much thank you head of your dedication uh fred le tour is from the american legion of vermont fred i think it's old age here it takes me a while to get up here uh thank you senator for this very important summit uh it's nice to have all these veterans organizations uh helping the veterans we the american legion are very concerned about veterans issues that's why we have matt in washington dc doing a great job uh what do we do in the legion here in vermont we help the veterans and their families let me give you one for instance i had a female veteran that was concerned about her tires on her car uh with her kids in the car and everything and i had a project when i was a state commander i got many thousands up to help veterans and we bought her four tires and you know to do things like that something simple so that those kids could be safe on the road again thank you for coming to this summit i'm going to make it short and sweet have a good day thank you again senator well you know fred says that that's just the simple thing the truth is enabling that family to get tires on the car so they can drive safely is no small thing there's a lot a lot of families around the especially families with kids who don't have that 500 bucks that they need and so a lot of what the uh veterans organizations do is help out veterans on a personal level and that is much appreciated uh as well last but certainly not least is the gentleman who is now the acting director of the medical center at white river uh as you know we've had some turnovers recently and the turnovers ironically well because our directors were doing an exceptionally good job and we needed elsewhere and you know in some ways we are appreciative that they were doing such a good job or somebody mentioned before deb amner miller remember deb and deb did a great job and she was sent to phoenix where the there was a hospital that had the most critical problems of any in the va center washington tapped her uh to go to phoenix uh so right now uh brett rush dr brett rush is the acting director he is doing a very very good job have had the opportunity to meet with him and his staff on several occasions a brett why don't you come on up and tell us what's going on at white river so thank you senator for having the va here today and i think it's just so important for the va to have a seat at the table for this kind of meeting you know going last has its benefits and i was sitting here listening to the stories of all of the work that has been done here over you know the past years if not decades building up the types of services that we're able to provide in white river junction you know yes that was a lot of work you know on the side of excellent directors in white river junction like deb amner who helped to move our organization forward but really as you listen to these stories what you hear is that everybody in the room everybody in vermont worked together you know with a unified mission to try and ensure that veterans in vermont provided or provided all of the services that they need to be successful and to have a high quality of life and in some ways when you think about it this is really the path forward for all of the a right is exactly this being in rooms engaged with the community working together with a unified mission that we all agree on and yes the va has had problems and there's no questions about that right but this is this is the path forward these are the solutions and i think that vermont has been showing the rest of the country the entire time how to do this i i think you all believe that you have a pretty great va system here in vermont you know i hear that you know when i when i talk with veterans when i talk with you know medical providers both within the va and outside of the va i hear this right and so you know how do we how do we take what has been working here in vermont and continue to move that forward and knowing that this is a time of change you know both in our country and as it relates to the va and how we approach veterans issues as a country how do we make sure that we can continue to move forward you know this this va the white river junction va health care system is able to provide specialty medical surgical and psychiatric services that very few other va's of this kind or other rural health care systems would ever have a hope of being able to provide and that's because of the work that everybody in a room like this has been doing for a long time we don't want to lose that right we want to continue to move forward if anything we want to continue to build up and provide more services than we've ever been able to do before and i think that that's actually what everybody is here for today is to think about how to do that and to learn what we're doing right now so that we can make sure that veterans in vermont are getting what they need one of the examples i'm a doctor right so i'm going to think about things like this as a doctor i'm a psychiatrist specifically i think about suicide prevention this is really the biggest clinical priority that the va has right now we we know that we still have 20 veterans who are committing suicide every day in this country we know only six of them are getting services within the va that means that 14 out of those 20 veterans that are dying every day have not experienced the benefit or the potential for benefit that va services can provide we need your help we have to work together right so if i only focus on what's in front of me the six that are in my system right now you know we're not going to get very far if we all work together we can actually do quite a bit but the other thing that i know is that veterans who receive care within the va are far less likely to ultimately have their lives end as a result of suicide as the ones who haven't come into the va before so why is that i think it's two things one it's because the va is full of professionals that are specially trained and understand veterans issues ptsd traumatic brain injury substance abuse opioids etc chronic pain it it matters expertise matters and you have providers within our va and in vermont here who are experts in these things we have the national center for ptsd at white river junction that matters right and so i don't we want to partner with the community but at the same time we have to understand that the va has something to offer that the community can't provide and that's i think how we have to think about some of this what's the second reason it's because the va is one of the only organizations left in this country that really continues a mission to providing whole services to an individual into a specific type of individual right being the veteran most places don't do that anymore right and we're still that is still our mission all of the things that are going on notwithstanding that is still our mission you can't replace that right you can't send that out and sort of hope to get that replaced someplace else um you know we're we're here to provide care for the whole person to provide services for the whole person for the whole veteran so you know these are just things to be thinking about again we appreciate being at the table here today we want to work with you we're all part of the same team here and uh i just appreciate again the invitation to be here and this opportunity to move forward together okay thank you very much dr all right what i'd like to do now is just open it up uh to folks questions and comments if you could tell me who you are and then be loud and ask the question let's do it we've got three microphones around so hailey in the middle kate over at the end and erica right here so flag them down and they'll come around to you with a mic um jeff haslett um my father was a veteran my mother was a veteran god bless you both i love you and i'm a veteran all of us got service with the va in vermont and the service is outstanding here in vermont it is the clinic that i go to in burlington and um one of the reasons is because i think everybody i've ever run into for two decades really cares about people and about servicing we we as as veterans in that regards to the rest of you distinguished gentlemen at the table i would like to make a suggestion i'm so glad to hear all of you talk about privatization privatization will be the gate that opens up the flood of corruption that is now systemic in our political society with the few exceptions of a marvelous human being like bernie sanders and i would encourage all of you as a group to get together and do a mailing and a public promotion event asking all of us to increase your membership by getting all of us involved to contribute that we start a movement we don't when we're not we're not passive we must be active not just talking to ourselves we ask you organizations to start a movement okay to make sure that the message is loud and clear don't dare privatize the va thank you jeff let me just pick up on jeff's very good point there is no medical institution in the world that is perfect va is not perfect but what va's function is about is not making billions of dollars in profit va's function is to serve veterans and in doing that many of the people who work at the va are veterans themselves or have family members who are veterans what i hear not only in vermont but all over the country is that for the people who work at the va what they are doing is not a job but a mission and there's a lot of difference between somebody who's at a job to make money and somebody who understands that the people walking in the door are their brothers and their sisters and that's what the va and the va is there because you the va is you and you got problems there is the director of the va all right his job is not to represent stockholders right it is to represent you do they do it perfectly no nobody does anything perfectly but that is their job and as jeff's just said we have got to be involved we talked about suicides well there are people today in vermonts and all over this country who are isolated who are alone whose part of their illness is they are afraid to reach out and we have got to bring those people into the system if they get into the va can we guarantee that they won't commit suicide no but it's dr rush just indicated the number of people who are in the va who commit suicide is a lot less than those who are not that correct all right so that is all of our jobs all right let's keep going i got a question over there kate okay yes sir my name is uh jonathan i'm from randolph uh this is for you senator um i was forced into retirement in december because of medical issues diagnosed and treated at the va you guys do a bang up job thank you so very much um i was encouraged by the social worker to put in my claim for social security i began paying taxes in the 70s so i've got my i've got my quarters in i think um is there any effort underway or can there be an effort underway to streamline that process for medical disability claims that originate from va medical staff and what can i do to help and i know i'm not the only one in this situation is there any way to if it weren't for the people at ssvf i'd be living on the street right now okay uh before i answer that let me mention again the va has people here yeah and we have in my own office rich staff members uh bernie sanders staff members raised hand all right all of these guys work five days a week on veterans issues so if anybody here has a personal issue please contact my staff one of the ongoing issues uh with the va for a number of years has been the time it takes to process a claim period uh the truth is that in recent years uh there has been a substantial improvement uh when i first came into the senate i think almost all the records were still in paper and then there were these famous stories of warehouses actually sagging because of the thousands of pounds of paper uh that they had uh obviously in recent years that has changed so to answer your question we are there to help you move that claim along as fast as possible uh but that still remains a problem within the va but i think in recent years uh dr rush would you acknowledge that i think the va has made a little bit of progress in in expediting the claims situation they have made progress because referring to the social security administration oh oh social security very well um well thank you for asking that one all right but here is no no here is the issue there if you do not like and again i don't need to be political here this is an issue i've been deeply involved in if you do not like social security if you want to get rid of social security the fastest way to do it is not to hire the people the staffing that you need in order to process claims to answer your question you're looking at the guy who in the recent budget got 480 million dollars more for the social security administration so they could hire more people to deal with the claims that are coming in and that will mean among other things more staffing here in vermont there was a piece in the washington post about a year ago this is what it said it said that 10 000 americans every year die while they're waiting for their disability claims to be processed can you believe that all right so we made some process some progress we have 480 million in i just spoke to the acting social security director they're getting that money out to the field but we got a lot more work to be done um yeah sure yes uh dr rush i'll direct this to you i'm a graduate of the 2007 inaugural peer support specialist training in boston and i'm wondering if you can give me an update on the outlook on increasing the peer support specialist program at the va thank you so so the peer support back to speak into the mic right there so the peer support program is actually very important throughout the va there's uh evidence that shows that peer support specialists being involved in a veteran's care as it relates to depression and PTSD improves outcomes and so it is something that's we're taking very seriously uh you know certainly i would say you know here in vermont we would like to you know push that forward and to have more of a footprint of of peer support counselors here um the we're we're balancing having the right mix of people to make sure that we have both enough therapists and enough peer support specialists so that that full spectrum of mental health care is there matt did you want to say i just want to quickly brief our comment real quick there's a bill also moving through congress right now believe it's past the house and it's it's waiting for action in the senate that sort of on a more narrow area increases the number of peer to peer support just for female veterans alone i think we all understand that this is female veterans in particular the fasting fastest growing demographic within the veteran community and to make sure that not only is there peer to peer but that they are exactly you know female peer to peer is really going to increase that so working on that too um hopefully to expand that program as well okay other questions yeah hailey yep hi i'm larry rogers i live over in brandon on the other side of the state i'd like to give you a half-hearted approval of privatization okay i have many things wrong with me i'm currently seeing probably 10 doctors on a fairly regular basis i see one va doctor in rutherland i see a lot of specialists okay they are all non non va because it's impractical for me to drive to white river junction to see these people everything's working just fine except that these civilian specialists are prescribing me drugs which are currently costing me something over six or seven hundred dollars a month i would like to be able to buy my drugs through the va okay the choice program apparently gives me a path into this but i have not got complete details i'm still trying to learn about this i can't afford to continue to buy some of the drugs so i just stopped taking them quite frankly all right now is this a bad thing am i pushing for privatization bernie okay good point let me just say a word about that the va forever has had situations where people go outside the va for example in the middle of the winter time if you're living 100 miles away from right river should you be having to go into white river for a you know a checkup the answer is obviously not uh if you have a particular problem that the va is not able to deal with should you be able to get your care outside of the va the answer is absolutely yes and the va has done that and if you are wanting to get into a va and you have to you're told you have to wait month after month and you need care should you be able to go outside the answer is yes i don't think anybody disagrees with that the fear is that there are some people very intentionally who want to destroy the veterans administration and there are ways to do that through privatization that's not what you're talking about so the answer is yes people should be able and do today take advantage of community health care and we want that but we don't want the door opened so wide that all of the financial resources are now coming into the va are diverted to outside care and there's nothing left for the va that's the issue and in terms of prescription drugs find out more the va has a strong prescription drug program uh that could very well be of help to you so find get that answer out today okay don't leave here without getting uh that information on a broader issue i don't have to tell anybody here if you're a veteran or not that the prices of prescription drugs in this country are totally outrageous that people by the millions cannot afford the medicine that their doctors prescribe and this is an issue that has to be dealt with and we have some ideas on how to deal with that yeah i also just want to comment real quick um and this is a plug for vfw they are they have just recently partnered with express scripts that if you're a member of vfw you also get a discount on prescription drugs uh i'd also just want to say that it's a position of the america legion and in price understanders that no veterans should ever have to pay a nickel or penny any type of money for any service connected disability for any medication so we should definitely work on that um to a bigger scale in terms of choice you'll notice that my legion cap says phoenix arizona i live right on the street from where i used to live right on the street from the phoenix va my brother still utilizes that va it's gotten a lot better i will tell you this senator uh standards mentioned a few minutes ago that there's 30 000 vacancies within vha that number could be as high as 50 000 we're not sure because va at the natural level isn't sure themselves but the reality is is when you have that many clinician vacancies that's why choice has to be there because that means there's not a cardiologist at this one particular hospital they have to go out we need to fill those vacancies so that the services that are needed by veterans are indeed at the va okay uh yep my name is john turner i live over in bristol um my name is john turner i live over in bristol uh for the last almost 11 years working with the veteran community throughout the country has been an adamant part of my reintegration process and one of the things that i've constantly noted um around the country is that there are a number of veterans post 9 11 that have severe difficulties with the reintegration um a few of the panelists touched on that before but one of the things that i really want to put a emphasis on is to really work to empower the veteran to move beyond dependencies and these narratives that keep them in a hole and that's that's something that that's very difficult to do but senator sanders you touched on yoga and acupuncture and there's a number of programs out there and there's a number of people that are willing to help these veterans and their family members appropriately reintegrate so that they don't become a statistic and vermont over the last 10 years has been difficult at times to watch some of these programs flourish but i can't say um having had really good days at the va and really bad days that there is a great effort to push this program forward one of the things that i think is has been most cathartic for my own process is agriculture and utilizing the soil biome to actually release serotonin and to help rebuild communities and to help veteran farmers know and understand that they still have a community that they can serve through resilient food systems or whatever that looks like this past week the farm bill failed which i think is a godsend because a number uh a very large amount of funding for veteran farmers and young farmers was had was decreased so standing here as a farmer as someone who works with the veteran community and who has a decent understanding of what's important to community i would highly encourage you to to speak on behalf of the farmers of the farmer voter and coalition all the other veteran farmers in the state to help push that agenda forward so that way there is funding for the veteran farmers thank you very much john for what you're doing and what john is talking about and and there is a table out there is you know people come home and being able to work in agriculture getting their hands dirty being part of a community uh sometimes brings a lot of peace to a troubled mind um i want uh dr rush to say a word uh also if he could uh on a couple of programs that don't get attention where in my view the va is doing a tremendous job i mentioned earlier about the crisis of opioid or heroin addiction these guys have one of the great programs in the state of vermont dealing with addiction a program that would cost somebody many thousands of dollars i mean it's like a betty ford type clinic uh right here in white river uh dr you want to say a word about that and say a word also about the va effort we've heard a little bit about this today to reduce the the level of opioid use so that our veterans do not get addicted yes there there's sort of walk closer to the mic please there's two elements to this so the the first program that you're referring to is what we call the residential recovery center which is a 14 bed residential recovery unit that we operate in white river junction the building in white river junction where this unit lives is you know it's standing green building it actually has um optical trails that has sunlight come down you know from the roof into the into the building and they've done just an excellent job of having a space where a veteran would feel comfortable checking in for 30 days or 45 days or whatever it is for that uh for that individual to to be able to stay and to receive the the care that's needed and um we we serve veterans from vermont and new hampshire there uh i would i would actually say just because i've worked in mental health settings throughout the country this is one of the nicest most successful residential centers that i've ever seen doctor in the private sector how much would that type of treatment at 3045 day if we were talking about out of pocket costs or if there wasn't an insurance program that would pay for it that could easily be more than ten thousand dollars for a program and how much does it cost at white river i mean we free yeah it's part of our service all right so again when people talk about the v8 they have an outstanding program available to any veteran who needs it and it is cost is virtually free so so the second part of that though is that you know that this is this is a two-pronged approach right we provide you know care for addictions and we provide appropriate care for chronic pain which are two separate things that oftentimes come together but we've we've made a decision over the last few years to really look at you know treatment of chronic pain and rehab you know as a single as a single unit right and to uh we we've we have pain specialists who have been working at with veterans who are who have been prescribed high doses of opioid pain medication for a long time to bring those those doses down because we know now what we didn't know before which is that a lot of that is not safe and you know we have an obligation to make sure that we you know in a in a humane way help veterans move to an area where their pain needs are met but the treatment is safe and we do that by you know working on the medication side but also by providing those integrative wraparound services that we know from an evidence perspective are part of the solution for chronic pain syndromes we're working on developing an accredited pain rehab program so that we can really provide intensive care to veterans who are ready to take on that challenge okay thank you okay um we've got the yep thank you senator bob tortellani from bradderboro recently retired family physician and a vietnam veteran recently we've started through the american legion post in bradderboro a a reach out program to veterans so we have a coffee hour every tuesday for an hour hoping to help reduce the isolation of our veterans this has been going on for about two three months now it's successful it's growing and it's very good we talk about anything without a specific agenda and my question senator has to do with the fact that so many of our veterans who are getting most of their care through the uh through the va uh are having difficulties with confusion regarding explanation of benefits we all have that problem that's not unique to veteran population we all can't figure out the explanation of benefits let's say a veteran who gets his services through the va has to go to the emergency department because of an emergency he gets uh he gets a bill explanation of benefits unclear it can even happen to someone who's totally disabled and gets a uh gets a bill can't understand it and all of the veterans in this group say they're having the same problem it could be a small bill a large bill they don't have anybody to turn to to understand the explanation of benefits and i thought we could figure out with our local clinics perhaps some designated person could be there to help them thank you good uh that is an ongoing problem there's no question about it uh the va is a uh a bureaucracy and it takes a lot of determination to make it through that bureaucracy and that shouldn't be the case it should be a lot simpler uh which is why you know frankly my view is and why i like the va is you would let simplify it open the door you got a problem you come in and you get treated that's it you have to fill out 800 forms okay uh with uh yeah kate hi my name is serena um i'm a veteran i'm a cold war veteran and i'm a female i'm also a whack some of you might know my question is for your organizations there what organization would i join if i wanted to be in one of your organizations mind you i'm a cold war veteran not wartime years oh my years of service is 7070 79 as far as the american legion is concerned congress determines who can join now if you were in during the non-war year you probably will not be eligible for any of our organize well maybe the at least for the american legion now vfw is the same way we we're only authorized to allow members in that the congress lets and and obviously veterans of foreign wars is exactly what it says you have to have had served in a foreign war overseas i'm just saying that you know there are a there are a group of us who were in the cold war but we weren't active in regards to like vietnam i went in two years after vietnam was shut down um and then i got out before it what was the next one does a storm or something like that one of them started up uh renata let mad take a shot of it so i'm just wondering if there's any organization that someone who has like me who's a who's a veteran could join to help out mad well well first let me let me quickly say thank you for your service and i know what the women air corps is and i think it's really awesome that you're that you're our army air corps um so it's really awesome and so let me they're absolutely right they mentioned that congress sort of sets the standard so we're congressional chartered organizations which means that congress sets the deadlines and dates of entry for us there is a committee within the american legion to engage congress now to figure out if we can expand that not only because membership is shrinking but just because you have very you know very validated concerns and issues right i mean so it's not fair for you not to be reckoned be able to join an organization and be recognized to be able to have the influence who uh you know sort of influence congress so know that we're working on that um it's it's a conversation that we are having at a very senior um national level and hopefully something will come out and i know that we'll probably be engaging senator sanders on that somehow sometime in the near future unfortunately it somehow deals with the irs and so you know how convoluted that system is about how the money is received from us and how it's utilized so we're working on that and and it's only a matter of time before i'd like to be able to say that i will pay for your first year's membership at the american legion all right thank you okay yeah hello hi um so just to kind of piggyback on what you said i had the exact same issue when i came off active duty um i actually joke with mike charquette from the vfw we go way back about um i was in dc on nine eleven why can't i join the vfw well it's not a conflict then i say you know my father served in vietnam he was uh um eod in the navy actually and i can join the auxiliary um department of the vfw um under my father's service but then i say but i served i want to join something from my service um i did join organizations such as the farmer veteran coalition um because i am a farmer maple syrup um and i also joined the student veterans of america um because i was a college student they're a national organization they assisted with the forever gi bill there are a lot of grass both sva is not really grassroots anymore but there's a lot of grassroots organizations here in vermont that you can join and have just as much of a voice here in vermont as you can with the legions and the vfw's but i also encourage you to join the auxiliaries and still be a part of these amazing organizations um so that's but definitely there is a lack of women veteran organizations um but there are some there are ways that we can help out so um we can talk after we'll help you try to find your niche what you're interested in farming or you know school whatever and uh we'll figure it out okay um i've got uh we're we've got i got some hand okay way in the back there yeah um my name is ron griffin um everybody in this room has heard about the opioid crisis ptsd tbi i am what it's look like what it looks like okay a month ago i was in a coma because of diabetes it's brand new to me and because of my support team at the va vfw and so on i told my doctor no more i don't want that oxycodone stuff enough enough is enough is enough because i had support and this past week i finally did five laps in the pool and ran a half mile first time in five years my simple point is if you know your neighbor is a veteran if you know a veteran if he doesn't get into the system with support his neighbor will medicate him and that's where the trouble comes so if you know that reach out to your neighbor and just say hey i know a guy if if you don't get in touch with him i will you're gonna get a call if i have to drag you by your cuff of your shirt you're going to get help don't ever leave anybody behind there's a bunch of people in this room that literally love their veterans and that includes senator sanders i was near suicide a year ago i wasn't gonna cut myself but i was certainly couldn't care if i woke up or not senator sanders office and his staff literally saved my life and that's why i'm here to thank him in person thank his staff in person i'm what ptsd tbi and the opiate opiate crisis looks like but when somebody reaches out and says hey we love you we got your mac thank you ron thanks for the courage to stand up and say that and that is what all of us have got to do i mean the message that we're hearing is the va alone can't do it if people don't get into the va there's nothing that they can do and our job is to reach out and you got a 20 different organizations out there in their own ways of doing that we got to work together to address these issues so ron thanks very much uh hello you got somebody okay hi my name is dav blodgett i'm a disabled marine corps veteran i'm also a postmaster for the postal service like the gentleman that just spoke i am here for mainly two reasons opioids and also ptsd hey dav everybody in this room is with you and you're among friends this is the first time i've been out of my house in a week i live in my basement i have a wife that i haven't slept in the same bed in in four months because i attack her in my sleep i've hit her i've taken her arm bent back almost broke her arm and i wake up and don't know anything um i'm not here to make accusations i'm here for solutions i am a 60 disabled veteran um i don't want to make this about me but i had surgery on my neck vertebrae replaced a few months ago my lower back needs to be fused um i tried to file online in august of 2016 and i included ptsd and also for each of my conditions you have a form that's 13 pages long for each condition so i took it to my physician for my primary health care he said i'm not filling that out you need to go to the va so i go to the va and doc says i'm not going to fill it out you need to take it to your physician and then i'm in the tbi program and i actually go to manchester rather than than white river i don't need to go into reasons why but um i try to file online and i have to upload each of those pages that the doctors either can't or won't fill out and then um for ptsd i see a physician and i'm told well you have to file online i work for the va i can't give you a diagnosis i can't say that you have ptsd okay davis is i mean i think we've heard this this is a problem so you're here today there are people here don't leave today unless you have the name one number of somebody who's going to call you up in a few days all right so let's see if we can work on your issue today and real quick for the opioids a lot of people everything is cut you know um everybody needs to be aware they're there for a reason there are people that legitimately need it i have almost migraines every day and i don't know if this took or not but i feel like my head is going to explode and my lower back needs to be fused they've cut my medication i was i don't sleep every time i turn i wake up they cut me from six pills a day of oxycodone 20 milligrams which is a lot i understand that but i'm not going in the street and asking okay i got cut from 20 to 15 to 10 and now from six to five okay when i don't sleep i'm in so much pain i take the medication i run out a week early it's it has to be understood that it is there for a reason yes i understand there's abuse yes i understand all these other things but there are situations and the doctors are afraid they could lose their license mr sanders just if you can understand there are people absolutely no one argues with that day absolutely okay i mean the goal is yeah okay thanks very much for sharing that day okay other questions yep okay hi i'm george johnson um i really thank everybody at the white river v a has been absolutely fantastic um i see everybody from cardiac pulmonary three different surgeons um and everything else they've been unbelievable now i do have to just one dispute about the claims process in that nonsense i've been fighting my battle since 1999 and then i gave up at about 2003 and i wouldn't even go near the v a or do anything then i heard on the radio around 2006 bernie was doing a open house and i took everything within me to actually pull into that parking lot and then i saw bernie and he told me don't ever give up and of course it's been going on since then took down down to 2011 uh bba judge said okay he's awarded any and all compensation here by granted b a comes back gives me 150 bucks a month this is after i lost my house and was homeless for five years because of this and bank walked away with 120 grand in equity that was awesome and finally took till 2013 14 where they ended up giving me the 100 but nothing retro and been fighting it ever since and finally i had to bring into the court of appeals for veterans claims in dc which told the v a to compensate me that got remanded back there a year ago and i also they've had a claim in since 2013 get a hold of the bba they go oh we're working on 2015 cases but yours dated 2013 so when are you going to hear my case no answer could be another year or two and the thing is what i found with the claims is they had a huge backlog and initial claims and then basically what they did was turn around and deny them so then it goes to the appeals process and we can go oh see how many claims we've cleared up and believe me i know more about the veterans law than i really want to know my case file is over 4 000 pages and you know the service the all of the s l guys they're doing their damnedest but they're swamped ask them how many people they have to deal with in claims and it's just and now they started this new thing out of jonesville wisconsin where all your i just went through it three you know three months ago send it right to the board of veterans appeals you do sats there now they send it up to jonesville you can't even find out if it made the deadline date i mean it's that's my big complaint but i want to thank everybody in your help especially and your staff has been great and anybody and everybody from janitor on up who works in white river they're awesome so thank you thank you or maybe uh yeah just a couple more yeah hi i'm i'm arthur trezeis from faced in vermont and i'm a veteran from the korean conflict 1951 to 50 52 and i just came this morning from the veterans for peace meeting at the hunger mountain co-op and this lady in the front who spoke a few minutes ago you may join our organization today no problem we have women and men both in the organization and the point i want to make today is is that we've been parading all over vermont for years and the complaint from many of our members is is that we try to promote the idea of making peace rather than war and i've never met a more committed group of veterans in my life than they have at these meetings they've been there from the time of the vietnam war the korean war and the conflicts in the middle east and they all come back with an appreciation of the horrors of war and they try to do something about it so we're going to be in the parade in middlebury and in virgins on armistice day with a banner that shows the size of the military defense budget in comparison with the budget for the diplomatic section or the department of state and in in in comparison with the veterans benefits who have been in all these wars and the size of the military budget is so grossly out of proportion to the other two that i mentioned that we're showing it in a banner that goes for about 40 feet if we can get that much space in the parade and it shows how much goes for the military and war mechanisms which go far beyond defense and we feel as though we never get any traction in these presentations because people don't seem to be aware of what's going on in the preparation of the military budget because it's all engineered by insiders who are corrupt and this was the comment of the very first person that spoke tonight today he said i'm disappointed in the corruption in government and we veterans should all be more active and we citizens should be more active and this lady that wanted to join the veterans group we meet at the hunger mountain co-op on the third saturday of every month from 10 to 12 and we're trying to do something about the corruption okay thank you thank you very much let me just pick up on our author's point my experience as a senator not only meeting with veterans organizations obviously i meet with department of defense folks as well and interestingly i would not have necessarily told you that's a long time ago do you know who some of the people who are most concerned about getting how many women dragged into another war are military people who have lived through those experiences they know what war is like and i that was a surprising revelation to me okay maybe one more question you got cake back that yeah sorry thank you thank you for having me um i work i i served nine years thank you i served nine years in the army as army paratrooper i spent 27 months in afghanistan in kunar province and i was injured on my second deployment and like some of the younger veterans like john turner said earlier the reintegration process has been a difficult one for a lot of veterans i've been out three years and i feel like i'm still reintegrating into society and i've been lucky enough not necessarily through the va the va does have some good benefits and has some good things that have helped me direct direct me in the right path but then also at times i have it's failed me and like many of our veterans we've been at war now 17 years almost and we're coming up on a time where a soldier will spend 20 years of service in three years from now his whole entire career his or her whole entire career will have been spent training to go to war going to war training to go to war going to war and then when you come back home you when you get out of service i got medically retired out of service after my injuries on my second deployment and you go through an a cap process it's a week-long process and they just cram a thousand things into one it's not specified to a veteran with disabilities or just a veteran that's getting out of the service and then when you get out you come back and then there's some help reintegration but then you're just kind of left and it's almost like a part-time job trying to work the va system trying to get your benefits right it's very difficult especially if you're trying to get back on your feet and get your family settled right and it's the reintegration i think should also be at a va level where veterans are coming back i i work for a non-profit here in vermont called vermont adaptive skiing sports and we do 100 free veteran activities every single week we've served over we've done 300 individual activities in the last five months for veterans that go skiing snowboarding ice climbing sailing everything across the board and that's a process that helps veterans reintegrate the va has rec therapists that could partner with organizations like ours and other adaptive sports programs and stuff like that through the state and burlington lakeside has done a great job at that and we had some help from white river but it there there could be improvement and where we aren't losing our veterans i call them the veterans in hills because that's what i was on v i was on going to the hills i bought land up in the hills here in vermont so i could isolate and disappear off the grid and luckily one of the peer supports josh gershmoth at burlington lakeside grabbed me up before i disappeared because i made three appointments and it wasn't working for me i was on disappear and luckily he directed me into a community-based program that's free for veterans like my john turners and there's many more veteran-based programs but i think there needs to be a bigger push towards that healthier living style because we got 78 percent of veterans that are overweight right now and is that due to opioids is that due to the psych medications that put on weight and then they create isolation in itself you go into the va you isolate you go into your house you isolate okay thank you thank you all right let me um all right the people here are not going to disappear so if you have any other questions or comments uh they will remain here but uh let me just conclude this part of the uh the day by thanking all of the panelists for their presentations and making everybody here aware we got staff here uh who are here precisely to take your names and your phone numbers we will be back to you next week if there are any issues that we can help out with so thank you all very very much