Welcome everybody to Midday Magazine for this June 12th, 2024.
Have your host James with you and joining us right now, our good friend,
Rock Larson, Wood County Veteran Service Officer.
Rock, it is always good to talk with you, even if lunch by the river running
into each other the other day. That was fun. That was good.
How have you been busy? Good, good. Good. Good to hear.
You have a couple of great topics for us to touch on today.
And one of them to start off with is one.
Our audience already knows how passionate I am about.
I have one very unpopular opinion out there and it is I feel like fireworks are a little overrated.
I kind of feel like if you're over the age of 10, like really, you've seen it.
It's done it all. And to each their own, we love fireworks in this country.
And I love the idea of American celebrating being American.
I'm never going to shy away from that and I like that.
I do think that there are better ways to celebrate.
And I think we're learning more and more not only ways we can,
but why it's a good idea to maybe knock fireworks out of our communities a little bit more and more.
To each their own again, this is just an unpopular opinion I have.
And I'm just speaking for myself right now, but it's important to me.
Now, it's important to me on a number of different levels.
I think of young children like my sister who struggle with this when we were little
and we would go to the park on the 4th of July and she would just freak out and have a very,
very bad time. It did not enjoy herself or the dogs that I would see in the neighborhood
or even currently that don't understand what's going on and have an extremely bad night with this.
But most importantly, I had a grandfather that served in World War II that was in Korea.
And this man had it was made of Teflon.
There was, I seen this man put a nail in his foot and no change, nothing change in his face.
But one firework goes off and he's looking over his shoulder and struggling with it.
And because he was this certain type of person, he never talked about it, never shared any of his pain,
never worked on any of this stuff.
So he spent his whole life, including the last year of his life,
uh, honestly, not really liking the 4th of July that much.
Imagine that a man who gave all so much to this country that put so much into this country
and he doesn't get to celebrate the 4th of July.
It's, to me, that is the opposite of what we're supposed to be doing for our veterans.
It's the opposite.
And again, I understand that this is not the most popular thing to be saying.
But I think that it is, what do we want to do?
Do we want to do the right thing or the popular thing?
Well, and for our combat veterans, I mean, they can choose on whatever night it is,
whether it's the night of the 4th or the Saturday closest to it or whatever the community has fireworks.
Those are publicized and the veteran can knows that they're going to happen and can go or not go.
But it's to prepare for it.
But it's those.
And I remember I had a World War II veteran living next door to me.
And my teenage sons would go out and blow stuff off and it just sent him in a tizzy.
So I mean, it's the unexpected late night when, you know,
some of these, you know, our World War II Korean veterans, they're up there in age.
They're usually asleep by the time it's darn close to getting dark.
And then, of course, our Vietnam veterans and our Gulf War Desert Storm.
So I mean, some consideration, you know, don't come home from the bars or from out to dinner
or over at your friend's barbecue or whatever.
No, I'm just going to blow some bottle rockets or some M80s or whatever there are out there now.
I don't know.
And these people are asleep and loud noises or a bunch of fireworks.
It's on an awful lot like an automatic machine gun going off.
They will wake up and they will be disoriented and just so really it is.
It's a time to be considerate of your neighbors that have served us.
Yeah.
There is actually a military with PTSD.org has a sign that prints out combat veteran lives here.
Please be courteous with your fireworks.
So it's a big thing.
It's not just one or two people out there.
I mean, it is a big thing.
And it's becoming more and more of an issue as we're having more and more of our veterans
able to share these experiences, these feelings.
Many of them have dealt with this for a long time and not shared and not talked about it.
We're getting better about this with mental health and talking about these things.
Yeah, but still it's hard.
You don't want these are veterans.
They serve their country.
They're, you know, supposed to be strong in their mind and they don't want to admit their weakness.
But certainly do not the guy or gal live in next door or down the street or that they
kind of barely don't know.
It may be a little bit type thing, but really let them know as you're thinking about it
that you've got them that on this night, you know, is it going to bother you?
Just be courteous and respectful.
I mean, these people suffer immensely from the weight they carry from serving our nation.
Couple of notes to just piggyback on rock.
One, there are noise ordinances, you know, there is laws that can be broken when you're doing this.
So that is something to keep in mind as well.
There are certain, you shouldn't be light and fog fireworks after in dark or at night or
certain time of night anyway.
So keeping that in mind.
Have you ever heard of anyone getting a ticket for it?
No, no, certainly, but I have seen neighbors in my neighborhood getting a police showing up at one
in the morning because they were lighting off fireworks and somebody one of the neighbors
had mentioned something.
I don't know what happened from there on, but I know that that brought our officers out there.
And here's another part of this where our officers are busy enough.
They don't need this kind of stuff.
This is added problems that they don't need that our community doesn't need.
There has never been a person that wanted a firework at two in the morning that wasn't
lighting it.
Like that person lighting it may want it, nobody else in the neighborhood wants it.
Nobody does.
It is a selfish act and it is not an American act because that is not what we do.
We are not the selfish type that is not about us.
So again, you are not celebrating the holiday right.
Like do you want to celebrate this day right or do you want to just celebrate an act like
a knucklehead?
Like that's where the line is here.
It isn't black and white, but it is pretty close.
Another thing I think is important to keep in mind is something that Rock is really hit
on.
I think really well here.
And when the rafters have on a Friday night and they're going to have fireworks at the
end of the night, they promote that pretty well.
I think it's not a bad idea at all if you know a veteran, make sure that they know about
this.
And certainly there are fourth to July celebrations throughout our area and everything
too.
It is these unpredictable ones that are so important to bring down in our society as much as we
can.
I'm not at all trying to get rid of fireworks, but what I am trying to get rid of is this
idea of lighting them off at two in the morning.
And then some of this.
Rock, I had not heard though about these signs.
That's a great idea.
Where did you say is there some of the people?
W-W-W dot military with PTSD dot org.
I don't know if you can just print them out or what.
Another veteran sent this to me and I said, well, talk about this again because it is
kind of, you know, I deal with people who have stress injuries and combat stress injuries
all the time and, you know, loud noises, even, you know, we don't see them too often
as much now with electronic ignitions on most things, but backfires and stuff.
They can just, yeah.
The subject of PTSD, we're getting more and more information and we're understanding it
better and better, but there's still work to be done on this front too.
And you're only hurting the progress of this subject with these things, like at these
things going on.
We need to not only be there more for our veterans when it comes to these subjects, especially
in my opinion, PTSD, which is one that we're, it's only been what, 20 years or so, we've
been talking about this and it not being something that a soldier has to be at shell shock
or one of these terms that was used.
That wasn't really, I mean, it's been around since Greek mythology, I believe, talk,
Homer talks about it in Ajax.
Yeah, in Ajax.
And by many different names, I mean, it's been battle rattle, there's combat fatigue,
all those things and it's just, you know, your body is put into a situation that is not
normal to, and you are asked to do very non what we teach every day to other humans and
other humans do it to you and it just is, it's, it's, and it brings them right back.
So you really try to be considerate and because once again, I mean, we have enough conflict
in our, in our neighborhoods over any little thing.
So I mean, if you can alleviate that, please do and try to be a little, think twice
before, before you go out on Saturday night after.
Try to consider why we're able to do this holiday, why we're able to celebrate these kind
of things, why we're able to do a lot of this stuff, it is all thanks to a veteran.
And just keeping that in mind, I hope, you know, correct some of this for us.
Speaking of the Rock Larson Wood County Veteran Service Officer, Rock, you have a great event
coming up on the 26th one to talk about.
All right.
Yes.
June 26th at Crossview Church, who hosts, free of charge, the Heroes Cafe, which is veterans.
Police officer.
Police officers, other first responders.
Yeah.
And it usually starts at eight, but on June 26th, that's a Wednesday.
Nine to two, we're going to have a, a veterans expo, Pact Act enlightenment, or event you
want, and the Toma VA Medical Center is going to have a town hall with, with their leadership.
And Toma is the, is the parent hospital for our clinic here in town and the clinic in,
in, was on the clinic in Owen.
So, um, so they're all going to be at, at the Crossview Church, which is in the old shop
coma, all downtown Wisconsin rapids, 1000 East River view expressway.
And we're going to have, um, representatives from the VA regional office in Milwaukee.
And those are the people who do benefit claims, um, the Toma hospital system, which does,
you know, all those wonderful things from, uh, whole health, which has got, you know,
yoga and Tai Chi and all sorts of stuff in it to, um, the women's, their PTSD and MS
military sexual trauma, people, um, the state sending some of their resources, whether
it's the veterans outreach and recovery program, which deal with veterans, uh, in the community
who have substance abuse, uh, issues, maybe homelessness, mental health, uh, so all these
resources are going to be there to talk to.
There's also going to be representatives from, you know, a lot of the veteran service
organizations.
So if you wanted to find out a little bit more about the American Legion in the area,
the VFW or DAV, um, Vietnam veterans of America, they should all be there.
Um, my office and staff will be there and talk about your, um, your experiences.
Maybe you or your family members, disabilities.
The Pact Act is just as huge toxic exposure predominantly, um, bill that was passed in 2020.
Uh, yeah, I was going to say, but it's so vast.
I mean, I just had a lady come in a couple weeks ago, who's husband died of, uh, of, of a cancer.
That's a presumptive for the burn pits.
She applied for dependency and indemnity compensation, which means it's a service connected
death and her and her children would get benefits was denied under the old rules that,
you know, but now this presumptive illness, she gets another kick at the can.
She's going to be getting, oh, I am positive it's going to be awarded.
And it's about $1,600 a month tax free.
We're going to work on trying to get, uh, the education benefits for her now adult
children reimbursed.
So maybe they can pay off the loans they had to take off and things like that.
So there's lots of important stuff that we're going to discuss on this.
And not necessarily just for our listener, but everyone you know, I mean,
did somebody who served in desert storm or anytime since then, or for Asian orange exposure,
they added Guam and Thailand.
No, I mean, there's so many veterans, but also the surviving spouses of veterans who may
be eligible for federal benefits.
And that would bring money into the community.
We just had one that was packed act, just get granted.
And our friend, my, my employee, Lita went to the lady's home.
She's house spawned.
It doesn't get you can't get out by herself.
Need some help and whatever.
And the first words out of her mouth were, now I can stand my home.
I don't have to move and sell it and move into an apartment.
I mean, so I mean, it truly can be life changing for some of these people earlier.
There wasn't a pack-dack thing.
It was just, I think we talked about, and I was working on some cemetery stuff and came across this gravestone.
I'm like, this guy died in 1999, Vietnam veteran, and I knew they changed some stuff.
Added some presumptive illnesses.
And I got the desert certificate.
So I found out, reached out to the widow.
She was still eligible, even though she had remarried, she remarried after age 57,
which is some weird law that Congress put in and VA has to work by.
And it's a good law, but it's a weird law.
And what we did, and she was younger than her former husband.
And it was able to give her health care.
And that $1,600 a month, and the age of 62, 63,
whatever she was, she was able to retire then.
And enjoy life, whereas before she was working for her health care.
Yeah.
So there are lots of moving pieces to these surviving spouses and to the veterans if they're still with us.
And my job is to try to make their life better, try to do it with federal or state money.
And we get that money moving around here in the community.
And then everybody, whether it's the hardware store, the grocery store, the restaurant,
they all get a little slice of those people living a little better with federal money.
And the benefits they deserve, the benefits they have earned.
They have sacrificed for, yeah.
I do want to send a shout out to Lita.
I always do.
I always have to when you join us and load a her and the rest of your team over there.
And I appreciate when this kind of subject comes up.
I, one of my favorite people growing up, my uncle Tim, served in Vietnam.
And when this, when this pack first came out, my Aunt Sherry and my mom talk all the time.
And I remember hearing them talking on the phone about this and this.
And that they didn't even realize that Tim was available for this benefit or this benefit
in some of these things.
Some pains and struggles that he has had my whole life that I had no idea.
I've known my uncle Tim.
He's a rock.
I've never seen this guy get like a, I don't know if I've even seen him sub as tall.
But he was dealing with these pains and these aches and all these different things for decades,
for a long time with this.
And now that there's some relief.
They're not just so much physically but financially with this.
And also, you know, there's a little bit of relief mentally that I'm this way because of serving my country.
I'm not this way just because I'm a weak wreck or that I bet bad luck or this or that or whatever.
I guess the word I'm looking for is a little validation to me.
And if that takes that load, another load off.
I mean, all those little stresses that we have in life, they build up.
And if we can take a couple of way, excellent.
Yeah.
One of the things, one of the reasons, not just I, my aunt and many people didn't realize he was struggling.
And he was in pain, constant pain and all these different things was because his first response,
well, I got back, half my petune didn't.
Like, I don't have a right to complain.
I don't, like, so many are, I don't want to speak for veterans or soldiers or anything.
But I've run into so many that this is the, this is the, this is the response.
Well, I can walk.
I'm okay.
Like, well, no, you deserve better than that.
You know, not only that, but when I get people that say that to me, like they come in,
other people deserve, or need this more than I do.
Big government is always and has to be because it's the only way they can function is about
the numbers.
So more veterans getting the benefits they're entitled to instead of ignoring them keeps
that system robust.
And then it's there's more there instead of we don't have people that don't need the
VA clinic as much as someone who really needs it almost weekly.
Yeah.
Well, when those numbers shrink, those resources are going to move to where the numbers
are.
Hmm.
That's a great number.
That's really good.
And so the more people we get enrolled in using the VA healthcare system, the more people
unfortunately that are using my services because I'm up to my eyeballs and busy makes, you
know, when it comes time to cuts and big government always looks at got cuts because, you know,
that's part of what they're trying to be frugal with our tax dollar.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so you got to have the numbers to justify everything.
So being a smaller piece of that bigger piece puts the numbers I was listening yesterday
to a Congress subcommittee on military or VA technology, they didn't even know the
had one like that.
And this guy advocate from the DAV talking to them and saying, you know, we represent a
million or whatever number it was, disabled veterans.
Numbers speak.
If we're going to say, this is just my idea, I don't know, and there's no numbers but there's
no crowd behind me.
I don't know.
Okay.
Yeah.
Do you know it?
Are you my constituent?
By type thing because that's the way the system works and has to work.
I mean, it's not perfect.
It's better than most.
And but there's strength in numbers.
And if you are part of the numbers, even just a little bit, there's going to be more awareness
for those that truly, truly are devastated by their service.
And so I think that's the strongest point I've heard about this.
I appreciate you sharing that.
And I will piggyback on another thought that you had or another thing that you mentioned
with this of the knowing that you're not alone in this, that part of this is a key part
of it as well.
Understanding that, hey, you don't have to go through this alone.
You're not the only one struggling with this.
That goes a long way too for our veterans.
Rock, I appreciate the information and the time as always.
Can we touch on this event one more time?
What day it is and where it is?
It's Wednesday from 9 to 2.
The hero's cafe actually usually starts at 8.
And 9 to 2 because they're driving from all over the state to be here for our veterans.
And at 11 o'clock till noon will be the Toma V.A. Town Hall.
That's the Toma Hospital Director, Karen Long, the woman that oversees just so
many programs and so much stuff.
I've known her for years, she's always responsive.
But they're big government and it is what it is and they want to get out and talk and
see what people are feeling.
In no middle person, you're just able to write talk, write to them and everything.
That's fantastic.
Rock, if people want to talk with you, catch up on some of the things we have talked
about today.
How can they reach you?
Talk to me or my staff because you don't have to necessarily talk to me.
All my staff are disabled veterans and they're accredited also, which means they're kind
of licensed if you want to be training and the V.A. recognize them.
But our phone number is 920210, wait a minute, that's not it, that's my cell phone.
7154218420 and we do have an office in Marshfield, man by Jason, his number is different.
But if you're in the Marshville area, we'll put you over.
And we're in the courthouse, we do take walk-ins but we prefer appointments so we can plan
stuff because sometimes you get overwhelmed.
Yeah.
Again, that phone number 7154218420.
Thank you, Rock, for everything you do for our community, for our veterans and for hanging
out with us for a little bit.
Thank you for the time.
A pleasure.
Well, a more midday magazine for you tomorrow right here at 975 FM 1320 AM WFHR, locally
grown radio.
