DETROIT, MI — The release of “American Sniper,” a film based on the true story of Navy Seal sharpshooter Chris Kyle, sure has brought more attention to the needs of military veterans.
With approximately 22 million veterans in the U.S., and 660,000 of those in Michigan, there are always opportunities locally to give back to those who served.
There are over 330,000 veterans in Oakland, Macomb, Wayne and St. Clair counties who utilize or are at least eligible for services at the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit.
With so many veterans eligible for services, help is needed daily across the state to make sure the process they go through is comfortable, efficient and accurate, Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency Director Jeff Barnes said.
“As an agency, where we’ve really focussed our efforts are in four areas: education, employment, healthcare and quality of life,” Barnes told me. “And quality of life is a big bucket — pretty much anything that doesn’t fit into the first three.”
I’m learning quickly that anyone can play a role, and I encourage you to help.
Starting Wednesday, I’ll be a weekly volunteer at the Dingell VA Medical Center and will commit to reporting as often as I can about issues pertaining to veterans services.
If you have any ideas, feel free to email me at elacy@mlive.com or share in the comments section below.
I’ll also try to share with readers ways they can get involved — no matter where they live in Michigan. The Dingell VA welcomes volunteers of all kinds.
The Dingell VA will host on Feb. 7 a “Hiring Our Heroes” job fair for veterans and their spouses that is expected to host up to 75 employers ready to hire on the spot.
The Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency has service centers throughout the state and is constantly trying to promote the free services it offers veterans and their families.
Barnes can’t stress the services enough. He served nearly 10 years as an armored cavalry officer in the Army and went on tours in Korea, the Balkans and Iraq (two tours).
“Not a week goes by where we don’t run into a veteran that is in an advanced stage of cancer or diabetes who is fully covered under the VA, but they are either forgoing treatment or rationing meds because they don’t really have a good way of paying for it,” Barnes said. “They would be fully covered under the VA if we were just able to make that connection.”
For more information on how to make connections with services and the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency, contact your local county veteran counselor or call 1-800-MICH-VET (800-642-4838).
You can also visit MichiganVeterans.com.
