 Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of Recruit Military Live, a continuing series of live broadcasts covering all things military transition, veteran employment, mill spouse employment, and much much more. My name is Lucas Conley, retired U.S. Army officer and former TAP program manager here to share with you the ins and outs of navigating your transition from military service to civilian life. You're in search of meaningful employment while Recruit Military is in your corner. Please visit rmvets.com slash live to learn more. All right folks, let's kick off the show. A great show today, we got two guests for the price of one. All right, are you a veteran or a transitioning service member with questions about your benefits and concerns about employment? Polls indicate those are the top two issues facing transitioning service members and veterans alike. Do you like to learn more about an organization in your community that is advocating for all generations of veterans and their families in a positive life-changing way? Well, today's topic is a DAV, supporting veterans for life. If you want to know what DAV is doing for veterans, young and old from coast to coast and more importantly, what DAV can do for you, you're in the right place. So sit back, relax, whatever you do, don't touch that mouse. Our first guest today started his military journey when he enlisted in the United States Air Force in 2005, transitioning two years later to the U.S. Army where he joined the Tropic Lightning, that's right, the legendary 25th Infantry Division and served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Following his service, he joined the professional ranks of DAV as a National Service Officer Training. Later he became a National Service Officer Supervisor and eventually rose to the rank of National Employment Director. In that role, he leads the organization's job fair program which connects veterans and transitioning service members with employers who value military talent. Our second guest today served as a combat engineer in the U.S. Army for more than 20 years with four combat tours in Afghanistan serving with the equally legendary All American Airborne Division, the 82nd, as well as assignments and support U.S. Special Operations. Transition for military service to civilian employment by way of our own Recruit Military DAV Skill Bridge Internship Program, culminating and being hired for his current role as a National Service Officer with the DAV. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming Mr. Ryan Bergus and Mr. David Cruz to the show today. Ryan, Dave, thanks for making time to come on the show today. Oh, of course. Good morning. Good morning. Thanks for having us. Hey, it's great to have you here. All right, folks, now that you know who we are, we want to know who you are. Hit us up in that chat window. Let us know where you're watching from, who you are, who you're with, who you serve with, what your status is, active in transition, veteran mill spouse, caregiver or something else. We haven't thought of. We'd like to hear from you. Throughout the broadcast, please feel free to jump into the chat with your comments, questions and concerns, time allowing. We will address them. All right, folks, let's get underway. Ryan, let's hear a little bit about your journey, especially the part where you made the very intelligent decision to leave the Air Force and join the most powerful army in the free world. Sure. Thank you for having me again. Well, like you said, you know, I started when I started in the Air Force right out of high school and just so happened, you know, this man did two years. There's happened to be a force reduction happening in the Air Force. So I did a blue to green program transferred over into the army. I come from a long line of military family members. My grandfather was in the Marine Corps. My dad and my mom were both in the army, you know, and I was contemplating joining the military. All I knew is I didn't really want to go to school at the time. And like any good father, my dad, 24 year retired army veteran, he said, you know, go join the Air Force. So it's exactly what I did. Just so happened though, they were doing that force reduction and made a real important transition into the army. And like you said, 25th Infantry Division. Nothing else needs to be said about that legendary, legendary unit. Now, David, I did mention that you served with the 82nd, but you closed out your career in the story of 10th Mountain Division, where I also serve the most forward deployed unit in the army in the whole Department of Defense, from what I understand. Tell us a little bit about your journey from growing up in the shadow of Yankee Stadium to where you are today as an NSO with the DAV. Long story short, I mean, 20 plus years ago, I was in a bad situation back in the Bronx. If I would have stood there, I don't even know where I would have been right now. My army career kind of like started with me just walking down the street and I followed somebody into the recruiting office because I was just trying to, you know, like maybe talk to, you know, talk to somebody. I went into the army office 20 years later, you know, I'm here, did an internship with you guys at Recruit Military and I ended up here, you know, working at Disabled American Veterans and I'm in a great situation and, you know, I love what I do. Awesome. So let's start talking about DAV. There's a lot of folks out here that out there that maybe they've never heard of DAV. Maybe they've seen the shuttle vans or maybe they've seen some information out there, but they don't really know what DAV is, what their organizational mission is. Ryan, can you break this down for us? Sure. So to say we're American Veterans, you know, we've been around for over a hundred years now. We like to consider ourselves as a one-stop shop for service members and their spouses when they're making that all-important transition off of active duty. You know, everybody knows that DAV is there to help with claims work. We are the subject matter experts in filing claims for disability benefits, essentially getting these service members the benefits that they're entitled to from their service. But I mean, there's more to transitioning off of active duty. They need meaningful employment opportunities as well. So that's when our employment department stood up. It's been almost a decade now and it's our job boards that we have. There's over 270,000 active vacancies that's on there right now. We have our strategic partner, Recruit Military, who we attend job fairs with all over the country. In fact, this year we had over 100 job fairs that's in person and virtual events. But we also, we have our transition service officers. These are the individuals that are boots on the ground, on basis, in these TAP classes and educating service members on the importance of filing their disability benefits claims. And DAV, another important aspect is our legislation department. These individuals, nothing would be possible without these guys. They're on Capitol Hill on a daily basis, fighting for additional veterans benefits. And we also have our membership department where all of our services are free. Representation is free. Membership, of course, is paid. However, I was on a call the other day and I heard a veteran say that I didn't join DAV, DAV joined me. And I like that statement simply because we meet the veteran, that spouse, exactly where they are and we represent them to the fullest. That's awesome. That's awesome. Now, David, Ryan's been around for a hot minute. You're pretty new to the team. Is a newly minted NSO. What are some of the things you're doing for veterans in your role? Every day besides just educating them because a lot of the times we just don't know. You know, I found this firsthand in my transition. I was like, what the heck is the DAV? Actually, I didn't know what the DAV was until Lucas told me what the DAV was because we would say in our recruit military speech, like, hey, welcome to the DAV recruit military. How can we help you? I was like, what's the DAV? So when you went over everything, I was like, wow, you know, it's pretty good. Seems like pretty good company. I found out more. I educated myself. I went on DAV.org. And I mean, as far as like my position right now, it's all about claims is helping veterans understand what's hurting and what conditions they might have incurred during their military service, how to, you know, get their compensation for it. Benefits that apply to them that they might not even know of, even when, you know, knock on wood, our time passes for everybody. When they pass, you know, some of the stuff that could be passed out to their families. And correct me if I'm wrong. You said a lot about education there and I hit on this and I recently experienced this myself when dealing with the VA and I had been informed that the condition I have in my right shoulder, for example, I don't want to get medical records, but somebody told me that the way in which the VA rates that had changed. So is it safe to say these standards, these regs benefits, they change frequently? And so it pays to stay in the know? Oh, yeah, absolutely. It does. I mean, just recently we changed one out of us, but like the VA changed their representation form. And it's just, you know, at data or whatever, we're working those and I'm like, it's a revolving cycle, you know, everything changes. You got to stay hip to the game. You got to, like I always tell everybody, you got to make sure you're educating yourself. You don't know how are you going to, you know, be in a better position. So whether you served 10 years ago or you're a Vietnam veteran, someone can call you and take a claim from zero to decision. Absolutely. Whether you serve two weeks in basic training and you got put out for bunion on your toe to doing 20 to 35 years in the army, DAV, we're here for you. That's amazing. That's amazing. Ryan, it seems like every time I turn around, I'm seeing something else on LinkedIn, I'm getting solicitation emails, I'm getting messages. It seems like there's more veteran services organizations and self-proclaimed veterans advocates out there that then I can even count hundreds, maybe even thousand. How does DAV stand out in an already very crowded field? You know, for one, like I said, DAV has been around for over 100 years and we are the most prolific service organization out there when it comes to helping veterans obtain their disability benefits. However, all of those other organizations, they are still a good advantage for our service member community simply because their voice makes the veteran benefit voice on Capitol Hill that much louder. We can always use additional veterans benefits and all those service organizations that's out there, they assist with that voice. However, it's also important to note that we want to make sure that our service members are getting these benefits free of charge because that's vitally important. You mean to tell me that there's some people out there that are charging for this? There is. We recognize them as claim sharks and it's very important that service members realize that they shouldn't have to be paying for these benefits. It should be a benefit that they've earned through their service. They shouldn't have to pay somebody else to do some paperwork for them. That's what makes DAV the best thing. We are the subject matter experts. Like I said, representation is free. It can't be free. We know what we're talking about. So if there's a service member or a veteran listening that's kind of on the fence that didn't really know which angle they want to go yet, look into DAV. We've been around this long for a reason that we've helped this many veterans for a reason. We know what we're doing. All right. Well, you're going to have a chance to show it here in a second because Rob Aguilar has a question for you. Now I can't read it. Question for the group. Did the VA change the rating for sleep apnea? I was diagnosed while on service, yet the VA rated me a 0%. Feedback? David, did you want to take that? All right. So there's a lot of things to consider here. I mean, he's saying he was rated while, I mean, there has to be more to consider here. Like I know typically right now for our service members that they're, you know, they're getting diagnosed with sleep apnea and they're getting a machine that's 50% right there, right, you know, right off the back. So for this veteran to not be receiving anything for sleep apnea, there's more to consider than just we've got to look into his specific case and see, you know, what's going on here. Yeah, there's a lot of reasons why the VA would issue a 0% rating. He could already be rated for a respiratory condition already. And by him receiving, you can't receive multiple percentages for multiple respiratory conditions. You can only receive one percentage for one respiratory conditions. So I mean, like for asthma is respiratory condition. So he could potentially the higher rating could be for asthma. There's a multitude of things to consider. Definitely encourage him though. Please visit it's called benefitsquestions.org. You can locate your nearest DAV national service officer. And if they're not already, your advocate, they can become your advocate, and they can look into your exact issue and hopefully make sure everything is rated correctly. All right, Rob Aguilar, great question. You heard the man reach out, contact the DAV and somebody like David will connect you, will help you, will be there to educate you and to support a new claim or an updated claim. David, your job. And when I talk to people about my job as well, I tell them, you know, how great it is to continue to work with service members, you know, it's a, I think my, my favorite thing about being in the military was, was taking care of soldiers, you know, and I had a mentor very early on in my career that said to the whole formation, if you were in bars or stripes, take care of soldiers, what you do, everything else comes secondary. And that's stuck with me now 20, 25 years later. If someone's interested in following your footsteps and becoming an NSO, can you talk about your experience? Can you talk about the process? Sure, absolutely. I'm about to give all our viewers watching and, you know, the keys to the Lexus, the answer to the test. Basically, long story short, when I talk to veterans, I always give them two of my business cards. Why? Because I want that veteran to have my point of contact information and I want him to share that card with one of his buddies, that's also a veteran. On the card, you're going to have my name, number to reach me at, you're going to have the company email for him to, you know, send me anything that he wants me to process, look at. And then you're also going to have DAV.org. And that's pretty much where everything started at. Doing my CSP with recruit military, I basically went on DAV.org and like right away, I was, you know, constantly linked up with some from upstate Fort Drum, New York to right now, I'm by Fort Jackson. You know, I love it down here. Last week, we had about 70 degree weather. I mean, it's cold right now. It's maybe 50. I can still go outside in shorts, but I love it over here. Don't rub it in, Dave. It's 30 degrees out here today. I don't want to hear about it. Right on Fort Jackson, I get to, you know, I still get to talk to soldiers and, you know, educate them. So I kind of, you know, I'm giving back to the Army community, to the military community in general. And that's one of the best things that I love about my job. Awesome. Hey, here's a case here that we ought to take a look at. We have a service member here who is getting out in six months. Can you talk for a second about the difference between a BDD and a claim filed after you leave service? Now, with six months left in service, what do you think here, Kim Woodcock should be doing? So I think with six months left on active duty, you'd file a benefits livery at discharge. And the purpose of that is it's exactly for what that acronym stands for, to deliver those benefits to you upon your separation off of active duty. Once you separate off of active duty, the claims process changes to what's called a fully developed claim. And this just changes how the VA processes each one. But don't do yourself that disservice. Use this time that you have left on active duty to take care of yourself. You've spent X number of years taking care of everyone else is time to take care of yourself now that you're coming off of active duty. Absolutely. And Dave, do you find that you talk to people who are hesitant to file out of some sense of not wanting to be seen as looking for a handout? I've seen some hesitancy in some people. We see a lot of it because you get those NCUs that didn't want to go to sick call. And you're like, why didn't you go to sick call? You should have went to sick call. It's your body. Why deny yourself getting the care that you need? And even today, like veterans, they're so hesitant to say, hey, I need that handout. I need that reach out or whatever. We go through everything that might be on their service treatment records. And we try to connect the dots. We try to say, hey, you had this diagnosed in service, you should be getting treated for it. Where does it hurt? Who do we link them up with to start getting a treatment form or start looking at what's aching them to start filing claims? Awesome. Now, Ryan, for the folks that may be getting ready to head to a career fair for the first time, that's a great thing that we've been able to partner with DAV. The career fairs are absolutely fantastic for someone who maybe has never attended a career fair before or maybe who has been out of service for a while. And these are skills that they haven't had to knock the dust off of. What advice do you give them before heading to that first career fair? I think that the biggest thing, know your worth. Know what you're bringing to the table. All the companies that attend our job fairs or career fairs, they all know what veterans bring to the table. And I tell this to employers all the time that companies nowadays, they're paying thousands of dollars on an annual basis to try to teach leadership, to teach time management skills. These employers that are attending the events, they know what you bring to the table. They know that you're going to show up to work on time. And just in my engagements at every single job fair, the number one thing that employers are looking for, somebody to show up to work on time. And I can promise you that a veteran or a spouse, they've got those time management skills. If they're not 10 minutes early, then they're 10 minutes late. So know your worth. Come prepared. Have your elevator pitch down packed. And if you have any questions at all about prepping for an event, you can always reach out to us. Jobs.dav.org on the recruit military page. There's also a pre-event tips that's on there as well. But stop by our table too. I can't tell you how many times I see veterans and spouses walking around. They're there for five or 10 minutes and then they're ready to leave. It can be overwhelming. These employers are hungry. They want to hire you. And there's a reason why the veteran unemployment rate is lower than any other employment rate there is. And that's because they know what they bring to the table. It's leadership and time management skills that's second to none. And we almost never take a sick day. That's right. Kim Woodcock says, thank you very much for the advice. I'm certain based on what you told her she's going to get after it. And if I'm not mistaken, she's one of our future interns. Anthony Pruitt says, great stuff, Ryan. Appreciate it. One last question, Ryan, as we wind it down. Let's imagine for a moment you have 30 seconds, just 30 seconds only to talk to a transitioning service member or a veteran about what DAV can do for them. What would you leave them with? We are here to help you get the benefits that you've earned through your service. Don't be too hesitant. Like I said before, you want to make sure that it's time to take care of yourself. And you've spent X amount of years on active duty, taking care of others. Now it's your turn to take care of yourself and make sure that you have a meaningful work opportunity when you separate from service and that you have your benefits taken care of. And it should be something done free of charge. And also, like I said before, DAV, yes, you're welcome to join DAV. But like other members have said, DAV joined him. And that's very important in the fact that, you know, we're here to meet you where you are, get the benefits you're due, and do so with a smile on our face and stay in the same prolific service org that we've always been. Fantastic. All right, folks, you heard it here first, assistance with your claim, education about your benefits and amazing employment opportunities. Gentlemen, on behalf of Recruit Military and the folks that joined us today, thank you so very much, Ryan and Dave for being on the show. Thank you. Now, Ryan, if folks watching at home want to learn more about DAV, where should they start looking? Well, if you're looking for service, you need assistance with your benefits, benefitsquestions.org is the place to go. All you got to do is type in your zip code real quick, and it's going to link you up with the closest national service office in your area. To give a hold of myself and my members of my team, it's jobs.dav.org. That's where you've got all of our resources on there from mentorship opportunities, entrepreneurship opportunities, and all important job board that's on there as well. So it's jobs.dav.org. Fantastic. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. And folks out there in the audience, if you haven't already done so, do yourself a solid and get registered at www.recruitmilitary.com for over 16,000 employers with 250,000 plus job opportunities around the world and around the corner. Well, that about wraps it up today and it's a wrap for 2023 for this last edition, 2023 of Recruit Military Live. It's been a great year. We're looking forward to more great content, more great guests, more great information for you folks in 2024. This has been Lucas Connelly for Recruit Military Live, and until next time, happy holidays and a very happy new year.