VA has a new push to reach and service vets

Agency opens new center in Honesdale

By TOM KANE

WAYNE & PIKE COUNTIES, PA - Veterans aren’t getting what’s coming to them.

Recognizing this, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs is establishing vet centers in 12 counties in Northeast Pennsylvania in order to improve its reach to veterans who are in need of services.

The move is part of a recent federal government effort to assist recently released Iraq War veterans, as well as older veterans who have served time in combat theaters. In the media recently, stories have appeared about the lack of consistent aid to those who are casualties of the Iraq War, the principal scandal revolving around Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC.

The combat theaters that are covered are World War II, Korea, Viet Nam, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, the first Gulf War and the Global War on Terrorism.

“We learned recently that 70 percent of veterans in Pennsylvania are not getting or not seeking their benefits,” said John Galvin, Pike County Director of Veteran Affairs to the Pike County Commissioners last week. Wayne County Director of Veteran Affairs Tom McDonnell said basically the same thing to the Wayne County Commissioners on July 19.

Joseph Wideman, a licensed professional counselor from the Scranton Vet Center, told the Wayne Commissioners that a vet center will be set up at the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce building at 32 Commercial Street in Honesdale.

“The center will be opened on alternate Thursdays, beginning on August 2 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon,” Wideman said.

Other centers will be opened at the Tobyhanna Army Depot in Monroe County, in Allentown, Tunkhannock, Carbon County and several other locations in Northeast Pennsylvania, where readjustment counseling will be offered, as well as assistance for all other benefits eligible to veterans and their families.

In New York, The River Reporter has learned that a vet center will be established in Orange County next year that will serve Sullivan County. The VA Administration in New York State could not be reached for confirmation.

Why such a high number of un-reached vets?

“When veterans come home from the war and get out, all they want to do is go right home. They’re not interested in staying around to hear what their benefits are or anything else,” McDonnell said.

For the past few months, Gavin has been visiting every veterans club and every senior home in Pike County to let veterans know of their benefits.

Many of the benefits that are available to the veterans are also available to their widows.

An example of a benefit that many don’t know about is that social security compensation will accrue to a veteran for the time he or she spent in the service. Veterans at retirement age, whose assets are less than $80,000 a year, may be entitled to a benefit of $770 a month.

There are other benefits as well. “Most veterans know that they get an educational benefit for college,” Gavin said. “What many don’t know is that they get the same benefit if they are in training for a career or a new job. A veteran can get as much as $750 a month while going to training.”

Veterans should contact their county director of veterans’ affairs periodically to see if there are new benefits coming to them from recent legislation.