Where did you serve and what did you do?

Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm.
I was a Heavy Construction Equipment operator assigned to a Combat Heavy Engineer unit. We had many missions such as repair and maintain main highway arteries to ensure troop movement throughout the theater of operation and that it went smoothly. As a part of that, we constructed a convoy rest area, asphalt parking lot, the size of 3 football fields long and 2 football fields wide.

How are you Still Serving?

I am the Benefits Resource Officer for LA Dist. 5 and Kinder Post 12203 as well as the Post 12203 Adjutant. I am Still Serving by assisting veterans in navigating the VA Claims process. I have built a workshop style presentation that I conduct at least 5 times a year throughout the Dist. 5 area as well as assisting many more that have not attended the workshops. I break down who the veteran is filing the claim with, what information is needed, where to get the information, when things need to happen within the process, and how the process works. I provide the outline of the process and I am always available to answer questions and help motivate the veterans to persevere when they feel like it is not an achievable goal. IT IS!

Why do you do it?

When I decided to engage in the claims process I learned really fast that "I don't know what I don't know!" It was frustrating and it didn't take long before I wanted to quit, again. That's when I decided the VA wasn't going to win, again. I emersed myself into learning the VA's process. Not what I wanted to do or how I wanted to do it, but how the VA wanted it done. Hours and hours of videos, reading and research. Once I "won", I was done. I didn't want to waste the education that I had obtained, so I condensed all the information down to an hour long presentation that I can present to other veterans that "don't know what they don't know!"

I started doing this so that I did not waste the knowledge I had gained. I keep doing this because it is changing lives for the better! As of this writing, in the three years I have been doing this workshop, I have assisted 288 veterans with 38 getting increased percentages in their rating and 18 of those to the rating of 100%. Lives are being changed for the better!