Veteran Services Officer Provides a Bridge Between Vets and Available Services
Veterans in Auglaize County have a point of contact to talk about benefits they earned from serving their county. Rob Wiss is the director of Auglaize County’s Veteran Services and has been a Veteran Service Officer the past eleven years. As a veteran himself, he had an experience with a Veteran Service Officer in a different county that made him want to help fellow veterans. “I do what I do now because of how I was treated in a different county. I wanted to serve,” said Wiss.
Wiss outlined that the purpose of his office is to assist veterans to navigate a complicated process of dealing with the Department of Veterans Affairs. “Our job is to assist Veterans with the red tape land mines that the federal government is,” said Wiss. He also noted that in addition to federal benefits, the county also has benefits that are tax-payer driven. “That is transportation, and financial assistance. We can help with current monthly basic necessities of living like rent, mortgage, electric, food, and heating primarily.”
Wiss didn’t hold any punches when he talked about the challenges veterans face with dealing with the Department of Veterans Affairs. “When I say we fight the VA, that’s what it is, it’s a battle, we battle with them,” said Wiss.
In recent years the VA has moved much of the process online, a challenge that not all veterans are equipped to handle. “Imagine a Veteran who is older trying to fight for their benefits,” said Wiss. Recently congress passed the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act. Wiss said that the PACT Act has righted some wrongs for Vietnam veterans. “Veterans who
served in Thailand, and who served in smaller countries were denied, because the VA said that there wasn’t Agent Orange there,” said Wiss. Wiss outlined that the Agent Orange exposure areas now also include Thailand, Guam and its territorial waters, American Samoa and its territorial waters, Johnson Atoll or if the veteran served on a ship that visited the Atoll. In addition to this Laos and Cambodia are also included, but is currently limited to certain areas and during certain times.
“The PACT Act also added two new illnesses for Agent Orange; Hyper Tension and Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance (MGUS),” said Wiss. “The PACT Act also opened up benefits for veterans who were exposed to radiation as well,” said Eric Pugh, another Veteran Service Officer with Auglaize County. Pugh outlined that these could be Veterans who were exposed in a variety of ways, including if they were involved in cleaning up wreckage, or dealing with unexploded ordnance.
Wiss said that while the PACT Act is having a positive impact, that some other veterans were left out.
“I think we left out some Korean War veterans. Agent Orange was used then too,” said Wiss. Wiss noted that currently the VA recognizes that if you served in a unit near the demilitarized zone in Korea, you can file for Agent Orange exposure, as long as you served from September of 1967 through August of 1971. “Near is fuzzy, they’ll only do one mile. The VA isn’t taking into account prevailing winds, groundwater, etc.,” said Wiss. Wiss said that he believes that they won’t expand eligibility. “They won’t expand to those who are eligible because of the money it would cost.”
The PACT Act also addresses the most recent batch of Veterans, those who are veterans of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). This group of Veterans faced health risks associated with Burn Pits that spewed toxic chemicals and smoke, as well as environmental ones from the sand and dust particles they inhaled. “The VA now recognizes fourteen cancers as being connected to service,” said Wiss. This means that if a veteran who served down range during the GWOT has any of these cancers, it is automatically assumed that they came from serving. Those cancers include: head, neck, respiratory, gastrointestinal, reproductive, lymphoma, lymphomatic, kidney, brain, melanoma, and pancreatic.
In addition to this, many respiratory diseases are also now on the presumptive list. That list includes; asthma, chronic bronchitis, copd, constrictive bronchiolitis or obliterative bronchiolitis, emphysema, granulomatous disease, interstitial lung disease, pleuritis, pulmonary fibrosis, sarcoidosis, chronic sinusitis, chronic rhinitis, and glioblastoma. Many of these cancers as well as respiratory issues are ones that veterans have complained about for years, and now are seeing the Department of Veterans Affairs recognize their concerns. Other veterans might not know they’re also entitled to benefits as well.
Eric Pugh said that a lot of veterans might not understand that government pensions under the VA range from low income, to nursing home healthcare pensions. “They start any time you serve one day during a wartime period. For many, that is the only benefit they had,” said Pugh. He noted that since 1990, the United States hasn’t been out of a wartime period. “Now we are looking at 33 years of Veterans eligible for that pension part of VA benefits.” Pugh said he would encourage veterans to call and check on benefits every year or so.
“Legislation changes so fast on a lot of these benefits, and even previous denied claims. Don’t be afraid to call and ask if anything has changed,” said Pugh. He noted that he thinks that sometimes when a veteran is told they’re ineligible for a benefit at the time, they never call back to check in again. “The Pact Act has changed a lot of things. If they call back in, they may find things have changed.”
I asked Wiss what advice he would give Veterans who have been denied previously for claims relating to their service. “I would tell them to seek out help. Don’t give up on your claim. Have another set of eyes look at your claim,” said Wiss. He said that sometimes nothing can be done, but that there are also times when something in a veteran’s record may have been overlooked. “Maybe you just need a little more medical evidence. Sometimes what you were filing for has become presumptive since you were denied,” said Wiss. The Auglaize County Veteran Service Officers are located at 209 S. Blackhoof St., Room 202, Wapakoneta., OH. They can be reached at 419-739-6750.