Taking Care Of Veterans

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- Part of The American Legion’s job is to make sure Veterans get the benefits they’ve earned and deserved.

Places like American Legion Post 69 in Columbus, see some of the issues that Veterans face on a daily basis.

This place serves as a helping hand to Vets and works to make sure their needs are taken of, whether it deals with healthcare, finances, or helping families while their loved ones are overseas defending our country.

American Legion National Commander Denise Rohan is one of the ones fighting on the front-lines, pushing Congress to maintain Veteran benefits.

“A lot of us, when we went in you know, were told you’re going to get free healthcare, you’re going to get this for life, the G.I. Bill, which gives you your education, and home loan possibilities, and things like that. As our benefits go through budget cycles in Washington, D.C., they start talking about well, ‘let’s see, can we get rid of this? Can we do that,” says Rohan.

Rohen says making sure lawmakers in D.C. understand Veterans issues and reminding them the importance of those benefits are very important.

The National Commander says the American Legion and Veteran Organizations save the Government millions of dollars by volunteering at Veterans Hospitals and other organizations in communities and is 100% for saving VA Hospitals.

“We also understand that there are veterans, who live in rural communities, who are distances away from the hospital and they may need to travel farther to get see a VA Doctor, or get to a VA Clinic, so the choice part of that, being able to go to a doctor in your community, so you don’t have to go so far, that’s an important part of the budget process also.”

Luckily for veterans in the Golden Triangle, they don’t run into that problem.

“We have the Jackson VA. We have a local VA that’s in Columbus. We have a VA that’s in Tuscaloosa and we’re kind of on the line to where as if you’re in Mississippi, you go to Jackson, you know, the services are here, but you just really have to search them out,” says American Legion Post 69 Commander, Calvin Boswell.

Lowndes County Veterans Services Officer, James Richardson, says he believes health care benefits for Vets need to change by the Government opening up those benefits to all Veterans.

“When the Veterans were signed up many many years ago, they were told they would have VA Healthcare for the rest of their lives. However, now it’s based on either you’re service connected, or you have a low income to qualify for VA Healthcare and there’s a lot of Veterans out there, that don’t fall under that catagory that should be able to get VA Healthcare.”

Rohen along with the American Legion family is taking their message to Capitol Hill next week.

She says she will be testifying before a joint session talking about Veteran issues.