 Thank you, Joe, for that kind introduction and for your unwavering leadership of DAV. What a year you've had. I heard exactly what you said about the PACT Act, and it's true that without the veterans in this room and the work that you did, that historic piece of legislation would not be the law of the land today. So I thank you all, and I thank you, Joe, for that great work. I also am thrilled to see the turnout. It's so great to see so many veterans, members, spouses, auxiliary members here today. We have no more important partners than you and the team here at DAV. Every single day I see the real impact of your work, of your devotion to veterans, and your partnership with all of us at VA. I give a special shout out to Dan Clare, who almost exactly 15 years ago first blew the whistle on the dangers of burn pits while he was deployed to Joint Base Ballad in Iraq. And thank you for your courage for your continued service on behalf of your brothers and sisters in arms. Let me also just acknowledge a couple of other people real quick, Randy Reis, your fantastic executive director, who's a nice guy except when he's not. And usually when he's not, it's when we're screwing something up. DAV's incredible service officers who've been working tirelessly to support the influx of vets filing PACDAC claims, and of course each of you, the DAV members. It's so great to see so many of you here today. Before I get into my remarks, I want to share a letter that I received last night from my boss. He says, I send my warmest greetings to everyone here gathered for the Disabled American Veterans 2023 National Convention. Every veteran is a link in a chain of honor that dates back to the very founding of our nation. For generations, these heroes have helped forge and defend the very idea of America, a promise of liberty, democracy, and justice. DAV knows more than most that freedom is not free. And that new battles of recovery often begin when our heroes return home. I remain in awe of the determination, resilience, and grit your members show day in and day out, continuing to fight for the dignity and respect you deserve after sacrificing so much for our country. You embody the soul and spirit of our nation, brave and big hearted, determined and devoted, selfless and steadfast. By providing support and services to our veterans through persistent advocacy on their behalf, DAV has dedicated itself to helping our nation fulfill our sacred obligation to prepare and equip those we send into harm's way, and to care for them and their families when they return home. The First Lady and I take this obligation personally. It's a debt we owe to all our veterans and their families and one we can never fully repay. As I said to you last year during your 100th convention, we owe you. We owe your families. That is why I was so proud to sign the PACT Act into law last year, creating the most significant expansion of benefits and services for our veterans in more than 30 years. By funding new facilities and making better research and expanding care and compensation for veterans exposed to burn pits, age in orange, radiation and other toxic substances during their military service, we are doing our duty to care for those who have given so much for all of us. This historic law is just one of the many actions my administration has taken to improve care and access for our veterans, which would not have been possible without the staunch support advocacy of DAV. As Commander-in-Chief, it is my great honor to thank all the members of DAV for their selfless sacrifice and service to our nation and for their continued support of veterans across America. May God bless you and may God protect our troops, signed Joseph R. Biden, President of the United States. When we got together last year in Orlando, I talked about the promises our country makes to you. And I promised you that the year, and I promised Joe personally, that this year would be an execution against those promises. So first, I know, I want you to know that we are fighting like hell to end veterans homelessness. Second, we are fighting like hell to end veteran suicide. Third, we are fighting like hell to get vets timely access to world-class care. Fourth, we're fighting like hell to deliver for toxic exposed vets, and I read just one more time, underscore my strong agreement with what Joe said at the start. This law would not be law were it not for DAV. Now my fifth and final point in this short update is that we are fighting like hell to hire and we are hiring at an unprecedented rate. And we're able to hire because of new authorities you got us in the PACT Act. We're able to hire because of generous budgets we've gotten from Congress, which you have insisted upon, but we're able to hire first and foremost because people want to work for our nation's heroes. People want to work for you. So this has been a powerful year of execution, but this execution isn't because of me. It's because of you, and it's because of the nearly 450,000 VA employees in your communities, your neighborhoods across the country, who keep vets at the heart of their care. People like my friend, LaShonda. Good morning, how are you? I am LaShonda Carter Decree. I work for the Department of Veteran Affairs, the Newark Regional Office. I am the supervisor for the public contact and the rating team. I am so excited to be here. I just want you to know that the reason why I joined this family in order to serve you, I want to be very transparent. It's not because, oh, you know, I wanted to serve, no, my children needed to eat. I needed to, I had two children that needed to eat. But after I began to interact in my encounters with you, my veterans, I was able to have my purpose was solidified in terms of serving you. Not only was my purpose solidified, but also my mindset in my heart was transformed in terms of who my vets are. You're not merely veterans to me. You are, which is very powerful in itself, but you're not just veterans. Who you are to me are my babies. You are my babies who I protect, who I hold dear to my heart. Not only do I protect you and I hold you dear to my heart, but I hold your family members, your spouses, your children, dear to my heart. I serve you. I serve you. I have worked for the Veteran Affairs for 25 years and am committed to continue to work for the Department of Veteran Affairs to serve you and your families. I am honored to serve you because you first served me. You first served this country. You have sacrificed. You have served. You arose. You rose to the call of duty. And so that we may have the liberties, that we may be protected, that we may eat. So now I serve you and I serve you in the capacity of educating you in the process. I serve you so that you may eat. I serve you that homeless veterans may find a place to sleep so that you may be heard, that you may be cared for, for honor and integrity and in excellence. I want you to know when part of my purpose is to make sure you're educated, so now we're going to talk about how important the PAC Act is. It's so important and how it impacts you, which is very important. It is one of the most important pieces. What it has done is allowed us to expand our scope and our create opportunities for our veterans to receive VA benefits that they were not able to receive before. Through the examining lens of exposure, your exposure to environmental hazards, our VA, the Department of Veteran Affairs, the Newark Regional Office family, as well as myself, is very passionate about educating you, advocating for you, and your family members to ensure that you are receiving care, support, benefits that you so richly deserve. So richly deserve. We at the Newark Regional Office want you to know that we are hard at work, we're diligent in making sure that we process the claims. We're processing voluminous amounts of PAC Act claims. Our veterans are benefiting greatly since the onset of this law, since the implementation of this law. I would like to share a success story because it helps bring it all in to your awareness and help you to be able to connect with the PAC Act. So there was a veteran, his name is, I'm going to call him Ron because his name is Ron, and he, we were able to grant him benefits through the PAC Act. We was able to grant him benefits, was delighted my heart so much. He is an Army veteran who was in Iraq, who served in Iraq. He has neck cancer, and he is now struggling to make sure that his health is okay, making sure that his family is okay. Well, we was able to give him a sign of relief, a sign of peace, so that we were able to grant him 100% service connected. Not only was we able to give him 100% service connected, he was able to be able to grant benefits for his kids to go to school, which is dependency education assistance. Not only that, 100% exemption, tax exemption, which helps him to save money on his house. Now he has one last thing that he has to worry about, and if he should transition, he can leave his family in a secured state. So he no longer has to worry about that. He can go on vacation with his family. He can enjoy them knowing that they're going to be all right, that they're in good hands with the VA. They're in good hands with our government, that they're in good hands and he can enjoy himself. And so I'm so delighted with his family. I was also able to speak with him, to follow up with him. We just don't leave, you won't regret you. We are able to connect with some, sometimes after that, and they know that they have, that they are, that they're loved, and that it's not just about, okay, we finished with you. So they know, so now he tells us that he's happy. He's thanking us very much for our service towards him, and that he is going on vacation. He's enjoying though, and he's able to provide for his family, even though he cannot work. So we are happy about that, and we're excited, and we continue to love all of you. You are still my babies. You will always be my babies. So thank you so much for your service. And now I put you in the wonderful hands of Dr. West. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. Thank you, LaShonda. And good morning, DAV. I am so happy to be here. My name is Dr. Beryl West. I'm an internal medicine provider at VA New Jersey Healthcare System. In addition, I'm chief of ambulatory care. I oversee a group of providers who serve you all day, every day. Been in the VA 30 plus years starting as a student. Have to add that. Resident at those 30 years. And then as an attendant, I didn't know how long I was going to stay in the VA, but I kept on being sought out to be involved in a lot of projects, whether it was weights and delays, access, creating workflows for acute coronary syndrome, a host of things. But one of the projects that I'm very proud of, I was involved with a team that built, piloted, and put out there across the United States, the Airborne Hazard and Open Burn Pit Registry. It is homegrown in New Jersey. As you know, the registry program assesses veterans for their exposure issues and addresses their issues associated with that. Since the PACT Act, we've increased in the number of requests for Airborne Hazard evaluation, as well as Agent Orange evaluations. I'm from a family of veterans. My grandfather was a World War I veteran. He was a corporal in the early 1900s. That was huge for an African American back then. He's buried here in Beverly National Cemetery. And he worked hard, but he did have some issues that we felt as a family were associated, it was before my time. With his military career, but they weren't fully addressed. He had three sons, my uncles, all military, Air Force, Army, and Navy. They utilized the VA. One, the VA was totally his primary healthcare provider, but it was an uphill battle for him to get the care that he needed towards the end of his life. He did die in a veteran's home peacefully. But now with the PACT Act, I'm here to tell you, and I'm a witness that the VA is fighting to address your issues now, anywhere, any place, so that you get the care that you need and deserve. In addition, they're educating providers like me to address your medical and psychosocial issues associated with your deployment. This is why the VA was creating. This is the care that distinguishes us, the VA, from the private sector. This is care you need, you want, and you absolutely deserve. I'll end with a short story. I'll call my patient, Mr. Jones, a 78-year-old African-American Vietnam that he served from 67 to 69 in Vietnam proper. He has a family, he's been married for over 50 years. His daughter, Elizabethan, with her family, and he works at Lowe's to supplement his income. He's 20% service-connected due to diabetes, reluctant to go and open a claim because he did have some presumptives. Hypertension has been a presumptive for quite some time even before the PACT Act, and I tried to encourage him to go. But as a result of the PACT Act, he finally went working with his VSO officer. I generated, of course, a nexus letter. I've never generated so many nexus letters in my life as I have this year. Fast forward. He comes back to my clinic, and I reviewed the chart. Three months, he comes back and I, you know, she feels, Lisa, oh, so how's your claim going? He goes, Dr. West, I am now 90% service-connected. Not only was he service-connected for his exposure issues, he was service-connected he was service-connected for issues inherent to serving in a military, meaning hearing loss and musculoskeletal issues. So the VA is working so hard as a result of this PACT Act, not only to address your exposures, but to improve your overall care. And thank you for listening to my story, the story of my healthcare team, and I'm going to give it over to Scott. Thank you. Good morning, DAV. How are we? My name is Scott DeDeyen. I am the Community Outreach Specialist for VA New Jersey Healthcare. I am a US Navy veteran. I served from, thank you, I served from 2001 to 2006 on board the USS George Washington's, a nuclear aircraft carrier, and my job was in nuclear power. I worked down in the engine room. I had a lot of education to do the same thing as a steam plant mechanic, but that's okay. When I got out, it was December of 2006, I remember very clearly, I got out December 15th, December 16th, I went to the regional office in Newark. I walked up to the front desk. I said, hi, how are you doing? I'm a veteran. And the guy said, and? No, like today, I got out yesterday. So, you know, what do you guys do for me? We do a lot. I know that, but like, back and forth, back and forth. So, I finally get handed up to the fourth floor with anyone from New Jersey who's aware, fourth floor, that's where the VSOs are. And I got to speak with a gentleman from DAV. He helped me, yep. He helped me to get my service connection for a shoulder injury in place. He explained to me the process of a discharge upgrade. I got out with a general under honorable's condition. Due to being overweight. Turned out my ship did the wrong thing. It was supposed to be honorable. So, the upgrade process was, sorry, the Navy screwed up. Here's your new DD214. But this VSO from DAV really explained to me what I was entitled to, how to go about getting those benefits, and getting me on the track to actually feeling proud of my service. Because when I got out, I didn't want anything to do with being called a veteran. I didn't want my mom telling people I had just served. I was ashamed because I got removed and I was injured. So, thank you to all of you that are VSOs for those who represent DAV and do that work because I'm a success story of yours. So, fast forward from there, 10 years later, someone that I went to college with messaged me and said, there's an opening at the Vet Center in Seacawka. So, you're interested. I said, yes, what is it? And he explained to me what outreach was. I had no idea. And it's basically exactly what I'm doing right now, going to rooms full of veterans and talking to them about their benefits, what they're entitled to. Specific to the Vet Center, for those who may not know, Vet Centers do mental health counseling for the VA, specialized to trauma-based and expanded to family therapy as well. So, in that sense, not only was I working there, I had been a Vet Center client for my own issues. So, I believed in what I was talking about. I was a success story of the Vet Center, being able to go out and say, this is why you may want to go and get your own issues addressed, right? I got partnered up with the, at the time, VA outreach team and talking to the gentleman, Frank, who's one of my predecessors. He said, so do you use VA for your healthcare? No. Why not? Well, when I got my service connection and I went and enrolled at Lyons in New Jersey, I got bad info. The young woman who took my picture and everything said, now only come back here if it's for your shoulder. I don't know any better. Okay. I didn't have a problem with my shoulder. It was hurt. It was what it was. So for 10 years, I used private healthcare that I had for my job and I didn't know any better. Well, Frank lost his mind and he yelled at me and he said, go make a primary care appointment. So I did and I've been using VA New Jersey for my healthcare ever since. I did the burn pit registry because even though in the Navy, I was not on land exposed to what you consider the burn pit, I did have forced ventilation on the aircraft carrier. I was inhaling jet exhaust, diesel exhaust, ionized oil in the reactor plant. So I went and did a workup at our war related illness and injury study center in New Jersey, East Orange, which is the center of research for burn pit and other exposures for the post 9-11 veterans. And from, excuse me, from what we were able to find in that workup, I've been service connected. It is at 0%, but thankfully it's there for the allergic rhinitis. And I need to go forward with more claims to work through some of the presumptives from that exposure. But point of where I'm going with all of this is as a veteran and as a VA employee, I see both sides of what the PACT Act did. It expanded what I am able to claim and how I'm able to be supported by the organization that I work for. And it makes it easier for me to come out and confidently talk to veterans because I'm not selling, selling. It's free if you don't know, it's free. I'm not selling something that is fake. I'm not as seen on TV. I'm a success story and I'm comfortable to sell that and give that information to my fellow veterans. So just like my peers did, I'll share one quick story other than myself. In New Jersey, we, as we were required to do by Secretary McDonough, we ran a PACT Act event at East Orange. And it was such a success, we had so much interest that we said, we need to keep doing these and try to get to all of our facility or all of our area in VA New Jersey. So the second one, I'm sorry, not the second one. The fourth one was the first time we were outside of a VA facility. We did it out in the community. I had a veteran come in who's a Desert Storm vet, a Marine. He had never addressed anything because of the somewhat standard veteran response. I came back in one piece. So save it for somebody else who's in worse shape than I am. But his wife was telling me that he really needs help. And some of my co-workers were concerned by his appearance. And those of you who know it know exactly what I'm talking about. He was looking down. He was not comfortable. He was sitting with his back to the wall. I knew what that meant also. So I went over and introduced myself. I talked with him and his wife. He broke down crying that I should be stronger than this. It's been 30 years and I'm still suffering. So I listened to him. I let him talk his way through it. I told him about the Vet Center because it was something that worked for me. I shared my own story with that. I told him about VA Health Care. I told him what PACT Act did to expand and acknowledge what he may have gone through. And we got him on the path for all three VA Health Care putting in a claim for everything that he may be going through and referral to the Vet Center where I used to work in Sea Caucus. So a couple weeks later I got an email from his wife just exuding thanks and gratitude. Not only that we got him connected with what he deserved and what he was owed but that I took the time and spoke to him like a person. And that I gave my own information for them to follow up. It changed the perception of the VA as it's this monolithic organization where you just go there. They do what they do and you're on your own. It's it has changed even from the time when I first connected in 2007. It's changed and it's because of people that have an attitude like I do like Dr. West does like LaShonda do and many other of my colleagues we do this job because we want to give back to the veterans we serve or our fellow veterans which is my point of view. I got bad info. I want to make sure that doesn't happen to anybody else that I meet and that's what keeps me going. So thank you for your time. Thank you for having me here. I'll give it back to the Secretary. Now you see now you see why I'm so excited to be part of this team. These three people, amazing leaders represent the very best workforce in the federal government. Most passionate, highest performing public servants. Folks who want to make a real difference in the lives of veterans in your lives. And I'm blessed to call them colleagues. And you heard them. They each share the same deep devotion to serving vets that characterizes DAV and that characterizes each VA employee. The reason I come to your convention every year is to hold myself and all of VA accountable to you. If you hear or you experience that we're not living up to the highest ideals the ideals exemplified by LaShonda by Dr. West and by Scott I want you to let me know because Lord knows that Randy your executive director is going to let me know because vets meaning each of you have earned and deserve our very best and will never settle for anything less. With that, let me close with a final request of you to all you vets, your family members, caregivers and survivors in the audience. Please apply for your toxic exposure benefits right now, right now. Applying on or before August 9th this year that means next Wednesday means benefits will be backdated to August 10th of last year. The day when Joe was in the White House with the president when he signed the law we're only a few days from that deadline so don't wait. Apply today, reapply if you've been denied before for the VA care and the benefits that you've earned. There are people out there who will try to tell you that you need to pay somebody to apply for your VA benefits. That's not true. Do not pay anyone to file your initial claim with VA. Working with VA or a VSO like this awesome team at DAV it's free and easy to apply. In fact, we have a claims clinic here at this conference so please stop by the claims clinic to meet with VA claims representatives will help you file a PACDAC claim and answer any question you have. And between now and August 9th please reach out to every vet you know. Reach out to your old Vietnam battle beltie with hypertension. Anyone who may have been exposed to Agent Orange reach out to every trooper you know who fought in Central Command over 30 years of war. Members of the First Division in Saudi Arabia in August 1990 and one of the last divisions to leave Afghanistan 30 years later can I get it all the way from any 82nd Airborne Troopers in the audience or any of the brave soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines who served in the many years served at war in the many years in between. Reach out to your brothers and your sisters your parents your neighbors sons daughters have every vet you know get a toxic exposure screening and file a toxic exposure claim. We need every single person in this room to help communicate with veterans and families to get the care they need and the benefits they so deserve and have so richly earned. We simply can't rest until they do. And with your help with your help we're going to keep our sacred promise to those who served and sacrificed to serve all veterans as well as you have served us. God bless you all God bless our nation's service members our veterans their families caregivers and survivors Thanks so much