Pearl Harbor Day and Veterans Services

Welcome to Community Stories, I'm your host, Melissa K. Today's show continues with

our Veteran series. We're going to start with a brief interview with VFW State Senior

Vice Commander, Ty Letto. He was in attendance at the VFW post 2534's Pearl Harbor Day

program. December 7th marks an important moment in our nation's history. On that day,

in 1941, Imperial Japanese forces made a surprise attack on the American forces based at Pearl

Harbor, Hawaii. This attack led to the escalation of World War II. The United States declared

war on Japan on December 8th, 1941. President Franklin Roosevelt stated that the bombing

of Pearl Harbor was a date which will live in infamy. It's important that we remember

these pivotal moments in our nation's history. In my conversation with Senior Vice Commander

Ty Letto, he shares with us the role of the state VFW, the importance of veterans joining

these organizations so they have a voice in Congress, and also the importance of remembering

and learning from history so we can move forward as a nation. Following this interview,

we'll hear from Brock Larson, Wood County Veterans Service Officer. But first, here's

my conversation with Ty Letto. I'm Melissa K with Community Stories, and I'm here

with Ty introduce yourself Ty so I don't mispronounce your name. No problem. I'm Ty Letto.

I'm this state senior vice commander. And tell me a little bit about what that means

to be state commander. For me, to be honest with you, it's a big honor. It's something

I didn't expect in my life and something that kind of, people approached me, asked me if

I'd be interested in doing it, and I was happy to step up. Really what the job entails

is working with the VFW posts across the entire state to ensure that we're getting veterans

taking care of on a daily basis, that we're meeting their needs, and that we as an apartment

able to post to be able to meet those community needs throughout the state. That's really

what the job is. It's a three, it's a three year process. You start off as junior vice

commander, then you move into the senior vice commander, and then the third year you are

the state commander, setting the vision, the strategy, and the goals for the state to

achieve. And it's all four veterans advocacy, veterans issues, and to make a difference

I like to say our posts make a difference in the life of a veteran every day.

And with that in mind, what would you say to veterans who have not yet joined an organization?

I would say two things, especially the generation that just got done fighting the longest war

in our nation's history. We understand that you may not be able to make the meetings,

do all the community events, and do all the work because you have families. We get that.

What we need from you is your membership. We need you as a number and as a body. And

the reason I say that is because Congress does not listen to organizations that are less

than a million members. They just don't. We are able to go every march and have two hours

with the Veteran Affairs Committee of Congress, and be able to talk to them about veterans

issue and push veterans advocacy. By being a million members and more stronger, we have

that voice where that 800 pound gorilla in DC, okay? We need you, your body, and your

number at a minimum because that helps us push those issues in DC. The second thing I

would say is for those that are interested in certain what the VFW offers is camaraderie

that common language, that understanding of what you've been through. I know there's

a lot of vets out there that don't think they deserve to be in the VFW and you do. You've

earned that right by your service. I know there's a lot of female veterans that are hesitant

to join just because of the male dominance of the organization. And what I would say to

them is I challenge you to help me change that next year as State Commander, okay? So

those are the two major reasons I would say to join the VFW.

And talk a little bit about the importance of this ceremony here today and do you know

how many other ones happen across the state today? So I can't tell you how many are happening

across the state. This one is, this is very important. I mean, as President Roosevelt said,

you know, this is a data to live an infamy. We were deliberately attacked, similar to us

what being deliberately attacked in 9-11. Different circumstances, different time, but very

similar. We were attacked. We need to remember these days. History repeats itself. We need

to pay attention to history. There's a lot of events going on in the world today that

are very similar to events that we're going on around World War II. We need to pay attention.

And we need to be vigilant and we need to be mindful of it. And as you know, coming

up through the education system, being able to understand your history helps you move forward.

Is there anything else that you'd like to share with our listeners today?

You know, I want to thank the community. Is really what I want to do. The community across

the, well across Wisconsin is so supportive of veterans. They're very supportive of veterans

issues. And I thank them for that and I encourage them to continue doing that. And what I would

also encourage them to do is if you see a vet, talk to them, say hi to them, maybe learn

a little bit about them. Because there's a lot of stories out there. There are amazing

stories of very, very quiet people that have done great things. And they did it all for

service to their country and their comrades.

Well, thank you for talking with me today.

Welcome.

Stay tuned. We'll be right back with more stories from your community.

Welcome back to community stories. This next story is from our veteran service officer

here in Wood County, Rocklarson. Not only is his story fascinating, he also shares the

many ways he is able to help veterans with services they may not even know about. I'm

Melissa K and here on Community Stories is veteran, Rocklarson.

Well, I'm here with Rocklarson. Hi, Rock.

Hello.

I'll ask you to introduce yourself and tell me about the veterans organizations you're

involved with.

Okay. My name is Rocklarson and I am the Wood County Veteran Service Officer. So I work

for Wood County working on veterans issues and veterans organizations I'm involved with.

I'm a member of the American Legion, the VFW and the disabled American veterans, which

are all have different chapters here in Wood County. And they all have different criteria

to be a member, which is set up by their charter, which is through the United States Congress.

So there's a method and reason to the way they're set up.

Okay.

Okay.

What prompted you to join the military when you did?

Oh, boy. I was a young 17 year old in Green Bay, Wisconsin, trying to figure out what I

might want to do with my life. And I had a friend who had joined the Air Force and then

another guy and I were talking about it. And we ended up joining the Air Force together.

The second two of us, we went through basic training together. We took different routes

after basic training. Okay.

I went in under a electronics contract and I had looked at the Vry Institute way back

then and I was thinking about going there and then looked at the price and said, well,

maybe I'll just join the military. So I joined the Air Force and under an electronics thing

and then when I got down to the military entrance processing center in Milwaukee, they said,

hey, your color blind. And I not blind color wise, but I do have some deficiencies when you

get the little dot thing with the, I don't see many of them. So I'm also challenged. So it was a

good thing that I spent a lot of my life in the military because they didn't have to try to match

a shirt, a tie, a belt, a pants, you know, give you a leg up. That's interesting. What you're gonna

wear it again. But I went in under a wide open contract, meaning what's open at the time when I

get there, they'll kind of figure out where I'm going to fit. So I ended up in military communications

analysis. Okay. And foreign communications. So basically, I was an intel analyst. Okay. And this is

what year? 1974. Okay. So what did that job entail them? Oh, what you can share with us.

And I can share lots of it has changed since then. It involved taking communications that other

people intercept operators, whether it was Morris code or voice, what they gathered and then

trying to make sense out of it and exploit it to our advantage. So interpret it and see how

it can be used. Right. See what's going on and always step ahead. So it's kind of interesting.

Very interesting. How long did you serve in that capacity? Okay. I served in the Air Force for four

years, stationed in Japan for an Okinawa Japan for a year and a half. And I was supposed to go to

Taiwan. And then we started formalizing our negotiations with mainland China. And so the day I

shipped all the stuff I owned in the world, I went into work that night. And I was like,

a couple of weeks before I was going to go on. And I had no orders.

All my stuff's going to Taiwan. I'll never see that again. But it did show up. And because it was

such a short turnaround, I ended up going back to the United States to San Antonio, Texas and worked

in the Air Force Communications Security Center, which dealt with trying to protect our communications

and our operations from other countries exploiting it. So just the other side of.

So what you learned in your previous job. But trying to make sure that we didn't

need the loose lip syncships type thing of World War II is sure today. Still. So that's what I did.

I worked in the headquarters. They had several branches, a couple of units in Europe,

and in the Far East, and another unit in Texas there. And did you stay in Texas the whole time?

For the most part, I did some because I worked at the headquarters. I only went out when

the line units needed some assistance. So I went back to the Far East. I went to Korea for a month.

Oh wow. And tap telephones went to. Oh, so like when you say tap telephones, you were putting a tap

in the phone. Right. Well, because we own the mainframe, we would go into the switching and just

tie into certain lines that we wanted to see if anything. Because once it left the switching,

then it would go out whether microwave or data streaming or whatever. So it was easier than

sitting out there trying to collect it, trying to just go through the bandwidth. I mean, we targeted

specific operations. So did that. Wait, before we leave Korea. And we got to jump back for a minute

too, because one of my favorite questions for everyone that has served overseas. How was the food?

When you were in Japan, you said you were there for a year and a half. Right. Did you eat the

local cuisine? Yes, quite a bit. Did you like it? That was pretty good. Yeah, for the most part.

What was it like? A lot of rice. Not true, but I mean, that was rice, but a lot of seafood or

it was, you know, Okinawa. I'd gotten there just a couple of years, about two years after the

Japanese had taken it back. So it was very Americanized from World War II to 72. It was, you know,

some, I mean, you could, but there were, you know, something similar to Hu-Hot, I mean,

Mongolian barbecue. There were just basic ramen type places, noodles and company year. But

the ramen was excellent. It was this place we'd go and spend a dollar, which was a lot of money

back then. So I want to think I got like $360 a month, something like that. Oh, wow.

But the food was good. The ocean was beautiful. Coral Island, I mean, did snorkeling and

scuba diving. Oh, wow. So then when you were in Korea, was the food different than it was in Japan?

Oh, yeah. And it didn't have a lot of English translation. Most of the places I'd go to places,

a friend of mine, it was really weird because when I lived in Okinawa, we had one wing in the

barracks. The airborne platform had another wing and the, the insect people had another wing. So

I knew some of these people that I was TDI with. I met up with them in Korea. And TDI is like your

off time. Temporary duty. Oh, okay. Temporary duty. So I was stationed in San Antonio and they said,

hey, guess what? You're going to, and I had the, because we were the headquarters, I had a couple

choices. Because they were doing a world war world wide study on, but better leave that alone.

So the, so I already banded Japan. I couldn't, I mean, I could have gone right back to Okinawa.

Right there, probably stayed in the same barracks and saw some of my friends or whatever, because it

was only about five or six months after that. After I had left. But I said, I want to go someplace

different. So I went to, went to Korea. And food was really good. But I remember going in because

I worked nights because I was not there guy. I was the guy from headquarters. So I got the crap.

Do we, you know, crap work? Well, not just, you know, Korea at the time had a curfew from midnight

till like five, 30 or six in the morning. I mean, nobody on the streets. Wow.

So I would go into work before that curfew, but probably about 10, 30 so that they could get out and

do whatever they're going to do. And so I was kind of on my own. And I walk into a restaurant

and the dirt floor and they have this little concrete thing that they cooked in and set you

at. I mean, it was pretty bizarre kind of rustic itself. Yeah, very rustic. And I just point at

the menu and how hungry I thought I was. Okay. And I'm pretty hungry while spending a dollar.

Am I not, you know, and, uh, or I'd point at somebody else sitting there and they, you know,

the, I'd go to this restaurant probably a couple times a week. I was there for a month.

And the lady would just shake her head, you know, because you knew I had no idea what that

I was ordering. And I never really got it. The worst meal I had while I was there is I made a

mistake and ordered pizza on the local economy. Not good. Oh, no. That was a bad idea.

An idea. Local food was better. And I remember another time going through a mark, you know,

and go through the market. And it's a dirt floor market and boxes and stuff laying around.

And, uh, I had been in talking to some people and I got in the back of this restaurant once.

And there's just a beaten with a rusty hammer on the rib bones to make a, to pound it up and,

and put it in a soup. It was just very different. But I didn't get sick. And yeah, I'm still here

today. So that was good. Good. Was it hot? Spicy hot? Not too much unless you asked for it. Okay.

The kimchi and it's pretty good, but, you know, so the food was good. Good. Not as good as when I'd go

later in my life to Germany. Their food is amazing. Totally different. Their bread. Their

bread is totally amazing. I believe it on. Don't go anywhere. Rock story will continue after this

short interlude. This is Community Stories on WFHR. Thank you for tuning in to your community.

Okay. So then you were in Korea until you why? Then what'd you do after that?

Came back. I did a couple more missions. I went to Bergstrom Air Force Base, which is in Austin.

I went to Homestead Air Force Base, which was southern Florida. I don't think that's open anymore.

It might be a National Air Guard or Air Force Reserve Base, but it's not an active base anymore.

Did the same thing. So we go around and work on special projects and see if we were just

getting leaking out. And then they do a big overall report. Then I got out. And this is what you're

now? I got out a month early, not quite a month earlier. It was August of 1978 to go to college.

So I came back to Wisconsin. I went to St. Norbert College in Dupier. I'm originally from Green Bay,

so it's kind of fit. My mother was still sick, she had cancer. Finished there in three years with

a degree in business and psychology. She was going to grad school at the University of Wisconsin,

Oshkosh, and the Vietnam Euro GI bill was still paying my way. Kind of. I had some student loans

and whatever. I'm sitting there looking through the school newspaper and there's an ad for

Tri-1 in the Army National Guard. So I looked around to the Air Force in the Air Guard and they

had units and the Tri-1 was for prior service of individuals. So I went and the Air Force didn't

have what I did in the state and they didn't have a unit in Oshkosh. I mean what do you mean Milwaukee

or Madison? So I called the guy and Tri-1. I became an infantryman and they trained me on the

spot. I didn't have to go to Fort Benning and if they do any of this stuff. And the Tri-1 was

basically you know one year if you like it fine. If you don't find type thing kind of liked it.

It was okay. Different. Then they had a deal going on then where you could if you re-enlisted

for six years. Pretty sure what six might have been for. They would give you a bonus,

a student loan or payment bonus. Well I had some student loans out. So I okay and I kind of

just liked what I did that. And in the meantime towards the end of my graduate work at all the

coursework done was plan around with my thesis. My mother got seriously ill and I dropped out.

I moved home to do alcohol hospice. Did that and I never quite got back into my thesis.

Started doing odd jobs to make ends meet and all of a sudden these positions opened up or

they wanted to retrain me from an infantryman to a chemical ensue nuclear biological and chemical

defense ensue. I was like sure. They sent me like two months to Fort McClellan, Alabama. Getting

up at O'Dark 100 running up this big hill every day. Big hill. So now we're in the 80s somewhere

right. We are early 80s that would be probably 82 or 83. Okay. Might have been yeah probably 83.

Came back you know some doing the weekend drill stuff. Doing some bar tending, doing some moving

furniture for allied bandlines and this job opens up for a nuclear biological and chemical ensue

full-time back on active duty for the Army National Guard. So I throw my name in the hat.

Okay. I get that and I move to Warsaw and I'm back on active duty wearing a uniform every day

don't have to worry about matching stuff again. Oh really. Now and that was in an armor

battalion so I worked in their operation center and just helped set up all the training and things

like that. Two and a half years later, position opens up and I can't remember if it was for an

infantryman or chemical ensue as an E7. So I've been it was back in the Army as an E4

got promoted got promoted then went on active duty same level at E6 and so I took this job in

Hartford, Wisconsin at a rear area operation center which is kind of like a 911 center

for the rear area of in this case it was a theater. So the European theater during the during

the Cold War. So worked out of Hartford but we'd go to Germany three times a year. We'd go to

California. The Germans would come to California. It was just a neat as opposed to going to Fort

McCoy every summer or so. So did that for quite a few years. They moved the unit in the in there

I got married and had a couple my wife was a widow a couple of stepchildren and then we started

had a couple of children of our own and then we're spent quite a lot time there went to

state headquarters as a lateral transfer which was closer to where we lived because they moved my

unit and I was driving 60 miles one bit one way then I've got down to driving back 50 miles to

Madison but I got put in a higher housing area so got more money. Thanks. Then guy who worked

with in Hartford years earlier was the state command sergeant major and called me down to his

office. Hey we got this E8 position opening up in O'Claire. I'm like I don't want to drive. I'm

a year and a half from retirement. So I didn't take that and then he calls me up down again

and yeah Sergeant Major what are you? Well the guy from Appleton took the job in O'Claire and that's

where he was originally from. I said well Appleton that's only 80 miles. It's only for two years

because you need to keep a rank for two years to retire with it. It's not actually I'm driving 80

miles one way to work to Appleton. So I'm back in the infantry battalion that I originally

started with a different armory different different the headquarters unit but I'm back there for

my final two years. During that time 9-11 happens. Actually going back to when I was in Hartford

and working one of the better parts of this job was the unit I was in was a composite battalion.

The state had just put all these other units under us during desert storm in the 90s early 90s

and three of my units went and I was their personnel and CEO. So I took care of those people

fix their pay problems, talk to their family members. I mean it was a great if you weren't going

to be at war it was a great support thing. Not that being at war is great but that's what we did

every day. We trained to go to war so it's kind of what you do. But 9-11 comes. I'm in Appleton.

We're doing all sorts of weird stuff. Got a bunch of people together to do airport security

and stuff and do all that but I'd already had my retirement orders and I kept them and I retired

in July of 2002. So I'm sitting there with as my wife was working we had two small children

and then the two older children they were in middle school at the time. So I'm playing Mr. Mom

looking kind of looking for a job and kind of worried about because desert or we went into

Afghanistan. The act of duty is bringing all these people out of retired reserve which is where I'm

at now and I'm you know E8 newly retired so I'm still physically fit. I'm an infantryman and a

chemical NCO. Got experience in rear operations. Been a battle staff and air ground operations which

deals with managing the airspace and all the missiles and bombs and helicopters and aircraft

and stuff like that. So I've got all these separate little tick marks and I'm just waiting for

the computer to spit out. We need this type of person. Oh here he is. Let that never happened

and it won't happen because if they call me back now because when you're retired it's kind of

also called retainer pay. You're theirs for the pretty much fallpark was like you know till you're

60. Okay well I'll be well beyond that this week. So I think we're good and hopefully we're good

because if they call this old guy back we are in a world where it's going to be some real wrong

because I've been retired for 22 years now. So congratulations. So anyway you don't look

retired rock. No. Okay so back to continue with the story. Okay so I keep applying for these

applied for a lot of TSA jobs but they yeah we want screeners because TSA didn't really exist

before that. I said no I don't want to be a screener. I'm a manager. I'm an operations guy and

so I couldn't crack that egg. And that's like air working at an airport. Airport you know or

in the homeland security hierarchy. Gotcha. Applied for the county veteran service officer

position in Manitawak County. There's 305 people who took the test interviewed for the job

didn't get it. Same thing for the Vialis County one. Only there wasn't as many applicants.

The interviewed for it didn't get it. Applied for the job here didn't really feel great about

the interview. There's 105 I think that took the test here. And then I was actually I had applied

for Shano County was went to the local army that I used to work at to borrow a typewriter to type

this is back out 20 years ago computer forums weren't to type an application for another county

and the guy said they called asking would county called asking about you. So I'm like well

and it was at that point the highest salary one out of the option out of the ones that you know

we're coming up yet. So I took this job and here I am 21 years later.

Wow so yeah that was early 2000s then. 2003 March of 2003 I started here. Wow. So let's take

another quick break and then when we come back tell me about what you're doing now here in Wood County.

I am here with Rock Larson who now has a job with Wood County it's early 2000s. Where are you at

Rock? Well I'm still that 17 year old that didn't know what he wanted to do so he joined the

military so it's just flowing with the flow here. So I start this job and I happen to come in

with walk into the office and here's these two ladies I never met before that were my staff.

Okay and there's no school for what we do here but I was blessed with having these two ladies

neither of them were veterans they're back then for most physicians in the county because it was

a union before the Wisconsin Act 10 back whatever years ago but they were great staff and they knew

the job and they've been doing this a while. I think one had 15 years and the other one had 10

years in this. Oh so they had a lot. They had a trailer. Nice. And they did a good job. It was a

Sharmer Shinsky and Teresa Harches. So we learned together we started doing things

not differently but it's changed a lot since then when I first started most CVSOs didn't use

a computer. Didn't have software from a specific software package or whatever. So you're doing a

lot of things on paper. Right. Still have a lot of paper. We're sitting here in my office and my

death run it over for those who have been. I wasn't going to say anything rock but that's a good

description. Somebody in my past once gave me a little coffee mug that said I was organizationally

impaired and I've learned to grasp that. Yeah but I bet you know where everything is. It's got

it split. No. I used to. We are moving so fast since they passed a Pat a big veterans toxic

exposure act a year and a half ago coming up on two years and we have just been slim since we

are so busy. It's surprisingly quiet today. While I hitch up on a good day then. It is. But that

is an important bill that was passed that helps veterans hugely immensely. A game changer for for many

of our Gulf War veterans, our Vietnam veterans veterans who were not in Vietnam but in during

Vietnam era in certain places. In fact, could even affect me if I could figure out and hopefully I

don't have those get those disabilities. But I was in one of the places that has been conceded

exposure for Asian watch. But so we got sidetracked there. What do we get? So my staff trained you.

And then back then when I first started my job by state's statute state law has to be a veteran.

My assistant in Marshfield the assistant CVSO has to be a veteran by the job description of a

colleague. The other two staff members do not have to be currently they are. All four of us are

disabled veterans to some extent. So they trained me things moved on. Now I will mention what most

didn't have computers. I have two screens here. You do. What one's the federal VA. I can get into

once the veteran gives me the proper release in a couple days that I can go in and actually see their

entire VA benefit side package. Not their health care. I have to request that's a whole separate

different. But you can help them navigate. Our job here is to help one help them understand

what benefits they may be eligible for. Apply for that benefit. A veteran who called me today

didn't quite understand what's going on with the claim decision he got, which was just

he got a decision for his disabilities. I looked at all the supporting evidence, all the medical

exams that the VA conducted for this and said, no, this isn't right. So you went to bat forest.

So we appealed it. And actually we appealed it two different ways because one, some issues I

thought needed to go one way. Others could go a lower level way. And I said, hey, this nurse

practitioner did this exam. This doctor was looking at a different thing, which referred him to redo

that exam for some odd reason. And they don't jive. And the doctor's one says higher level of

disability. And he should be rated higher. And you took the nurse. Why? Probe of valuable. So now

they're just relooking at that and trying to come up with probably getting a third person to weigh

them. And that's what we do. We look at in depth. The VA's VBA wants to do a great job.

But they're so big. And there's so much stuff coming at them that they've got to streamline.

To be they can't spend two, three hours looking at an individual's file that I can.

Right. And if I'm successful on that one appeal that alone the other one, the other one won't

matter then, but it's always best to. Well, if you can attack from two fronts, may as well.

But the difference would be somewhere here. This gentleman, not counting his family's or whatever.

It would be the difference of $1,500 a month every month. That's the difference.

And health care for his family and education for his family. And so there's a lot of things

hanging on the fact that I looked at this and said, yeah, this isn't right. And you need to fix it.

Well, and it's good that they have a person like you that can act as that liaison to assess all

those things. Not every state requires them to have a county to have a veterans representative.

And not every county in Wisconsin, we all have to have a CBS. And what does CBS so stand for?

County Veteran Service Officer. Okay. So there are 72 of them in the state. There's 11 tribal

service officers. But then what goes on after that could be anything. Some people are great at their

job. Some people, not so great. Maybe they didn't have such a great staff to frame them coming in.

Right. Or they just don't have the passion or whatever for it. Some just don't have, I have more

staff than Milwaukee County does. Wow. They just send them to the VA has a regional office

in a hospital. They send them to them. But obviously Brown County, Racine, Kenosha, the whole Fox

Valley, that whole 41 corridor, Dan County, which has a much bigger staff, but still per veteran.

We've had four people in Wood County since the 50s. Wow. But I can tell it might even be a little bit

before that. But I know it's back to at least the 50s. And we have fewer veterans, but we're doing

more in-depth work. I mean, we've got the VA law sits on our desk every one of us. We dig into it.

We use their their law to fight for our veterans. I mean, because the people at the VA, they're just

going through. They've got a not the law. They follow a manuals kind of an instruction guide.

And just because they've got it probably short, yeah, short cuts to knowing what and where they

truly want to do a great job. They're just, you know, and I was I tell clients, is it there's not one

of me for every veteran in Wood County. And there's certainly not one VA employee for every veteran

in the United States. I mean, it's just you can only do so much with what Congress gives them

and Congress only can do so much because we don't want to give them our entire paychecks.

So I mean, they're trying to make the best with the economy of resources.

Yeah. You as your available resources to the best ability.

So we just I think my staff is great. I'd like to say I train them, but for the most part,

my assistant lead I was trained them. And I'm just kind of poke my nose in all, you know,

and she does a great job. But but I am still the only department head in the county that's also

has a full caseload. I do, I just giving one of my sisters, how come I saw more veterans are at

least annotated more than you and the rest of everyone else each did separately. That shouldn't

be that way. It just happened to be that month, you know, a couple vacations, a couple sick days

and whatever that I do more people. But I'm doing my monthly report for our oversight committee

into the county board. Because that's government employees. We are accountable. Well, as any

employee you're accountable for the bosses and whatever. But try to give them enough information

to say, okay, Rock, you're doing a good job. You can stay.

Well, it doesn't sound like you have retired much during your retirement here.

Well, I am retired from the military. Okay. 22 years. I'm old. You don't look that old.

This week I will be 68. I would not have guessed that, Rock. So, so I am old. I'm not the oldest

CVS old. There's one that's got more time in than me. And I'm not the longest more time on the planet.

Okay. And there's one that has more time being a CVS old than I have.

But so we're up there. One of these days I'll retire. Would they come in and they'll find me?

Oh, come on now. That was embarrassing. This is radio so people can't see the face I just made

kind of like I'm teal over. I promise you don't want to see that face. Well, if people want to

get in touch with you, Rock, and it sounds like if you're a veteran and you need help navigating

your benefits, this is where you need to come. How can they get in touch with you?

And it's not just VA benefits is mostly what we do, but we also network with all the other

county resources, local resources. So we try to find a fix for a better. But the best way to

contact us is through our phone. And we ask that you please call and leave a message because if

I'm reading two inches of medical records, I can't stop and answer the phone because if I do,

I will never get back to where I was. I lose a train of thought, my notes, and I make

perfect sense. I'm organizationally impaired. Remember that and my staff also. All our offices

looked much better two years ago. Now we're just lists of people to call back. But then again,

if we don't call you back within a week, we can have call us again, but don't call us five minutes

from what you call. Leave a message. And our phone number is 715-421-842-0.

Or if you happen to be in the courthouse for paying your property tax or having

for bid going to court or for whatever planning and zoning or getting registered of deeds or whatever

reason. We do take walk-ins. We prefer appointments, but we do take walk-ins.

Okay. Because if someone's in here doing something and say, oh, I've been meaning to, we want to

stop by Veterans Services. I had a veteran stop in.

And all he wanted was to have this identifier put on his driver's license. So just say

Veteran on his driver's license. And to do that, I've got to look at this discharge and verify

and sign because it'll hang me if I do. Well, you need to make sure that he's not entitled.

And I look at it saying that because of this new bill, you're in the Navy and the Pacific.

Yep. You ever stop at Guam? Yeah. Put in there quite often.

I said, do you have any of these? And I pull out the Agent Orange list from the Vietnam era.

And he's, yeah, I've got my second boat of prostate cancer. It's metastasized. I've got diabetes.

So there, now we've got to claim in to get him all this stuff. And I said, oh, by the way,

do you know that? Because you already had a small little disability for hearing before he moved

to our area. And I said, you know, the VA will pay for because you're disabled Veteran,

talked to your primary care doctor at the VA and they can contract all your cancer treatment.

Wow. So the co-pays will go away and all this stuff. And he's just like still working on his

claim because they can't got to figure out for sure to the ship. And of course, he was just

after Vietnam, but you see, Guam goes to all times. He digs into his pile and pulls out a

slip of paper. That sounds from June of, or from January of 62 to July 31st, 1980. If you were on Guam,

you were presumed to be exposed to Agent Orange. And the territorial waters. So they're trying

to get that proof in that ship log. But the ship logs all stopped being digitized and uploaded to

the VA at the end of Vietnam, which was in the summer of 75. And he started in 76. So they're working

on it. But yes, hopefully he will be here. I just talked to him last week. He's still doing okay.

I mean, he's not terminal or anything. But being able to get help with some of this stuff

has got to just take the pressure off and. Well, the pressure, the financial, you know,

just even if you have great insurance, the co-pays on a cancer treatment. Yeah.

There's a lot here. This gentleman, because he's service-connected, disabled veteran,

you don't pay office visit co-pays. The VA contracted with his provider. In fact, in the past,

I, as a disabled veteran, went to UW Aspirus Cancer Center for some cancer treatment. And I

had no co-pay. They still build my private insurance. But I had nothing. They got money for my

private insurance. Fine. And that's a win for your private insurance, too, because they pay at,

they bill at the Medicare rate as opposed to the PPO rate, which is always higher. So everybody

kind of won, except, you know, and I won because I'm cancer free. And you're here. And you can share

your story with us. So there's so many different things that the VA can do that people don't know,

unless you ask or unless somebody, that's why we love seeing our clients, veterans in our area.

And when they come in, we're going to get them what, if we can, what they came in for. But we also

want to look to see if there's more. Another big thing, a lot of veterans don't know that,

okay, I got rated for this 20 years ago. Well, if it's gotten worse, we can ask for an increase.

You get your new replaced. And it might have been a 0% 20, 30 years ago. Well, it'll be 30%

with a new replacement. You know, other than that, it would go on range of motion. And that's 524

dollars a month and opens up other things. I mean, there's so much involved. So things have changed

in the last 20 years for the better. Well, things have changed. We're better. We've got better

resources. We've got better training. We train ourselves for the most part, our state association.

But we get people from the VA. We have veteran law judges, which are judges that work just on VA

disability predominantly. All sorts of different things. And we're always taking training because

it's 22 years and I still learn stuff. Here's always more to know. I've got a big book. This is

just one section of VA law. This is the rating table says, okay, if you've got this, this,

and this, we're going to reach you at 30%. That's one section. That's two inches tall.

Well, it's bigger print than Ufta. Yeah, about six inches, five inches. Yeah, I'd say it's a good

five and a half inches. Oh, yes, my goodness. That's a lot to know. Oh, and it's, yeah,

and we don't know what we don't know. Right. And veterans certainly don't, I mean, if we can keep

myself energized, engaged, excited about it for 22 years, and I'm still learning stuff every

week or so. I didn't know that. It's a different way to approach that. Imagine that the veteran

just dabbles in it once or twice and all of a sudden life implodes on him or her and has all these

issues going on. So, well, tell us that number again. Because veterans need to get in touch with

your name. Seven, one, five, four, two, one, eight, four, two, zero. Leave a message if they don't

call you back in a week. Call again. Right. Well, thank you for sitting down with me today.

It's a pleasure talking to you and you can take a pile of this. No, you can't.

Thank you for sharing your story with us. It is a great, it's not over yet, but yeah, who knows.

Sooner or later, they'll call and Rock Larson won't be here. Maybe we'll get chapter two down the

road. We'll get somebody. I mean, your chapter two story. Oh, my gosh. I am doing

dabbling in different things, but yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

I'm Melissa Kay. Thank you for joining us for another edition of Community Stories on WFHR.