Welcome everyone to Midday magazine for this Monday, December 2nd, 2024.
Have your host James J. Mailoff here and welcoming into the studio.
Good friend of ours, Rock Larson, Wood County Veteran Services Officer.
Good to see you, sir. How have you been?
Well, been good, busy. A lot of projects at home.
A lot of projects in the office.
Yeah, I imagine.
It's that time of year, too.
You're trying to get things in before either winter or the end of the year.
Whether it's at home or at the office, I imagine.
I do want to start off right away, not only thanking you, Rock, thanking the whole team over there.
All the veteran service officers, all the people working at that department.
Greatly appreciate the work being put in by all of you individuals, especially given.
When it comes to services offered to our veterans, Rock, it can be a rocky road.
It can be quite quite a bit there, quite a bit of detail, quite a bit of different, you know,
reading between the lines and some of this.
Definitely. Reading between the lines.
And asking the right question.
Yeah.
Being, you know, it's our policy.
You come in for one thing. We want to do a glance over everything.
Just in case we stumble across.
You know, I've got one guy and he's still waiting.
He just came in to get a driver's license identifier.
I'm a veteran because he moved to Wisconsin.
And he just.
He's got lots of health issues in there.
New.
New legislation that we talked about previously, the past.
Yes.
He just fell right into it and didn't even really know when we're still waiting.
It's like 400 days on his claim, but.
When it comes to that interview, Rock is mentioning if you're curious,
I encourage you to go to civicmedia.us.
Look under shows that interview as podcasts.
And on there, you can find it.
It just search for wood County veteran services and you'll find the interview.
Rock and I had the last time he was in an important interview and very informative interview.
And when it comes to that part of it, Rock, I have the same feelings and thoughts I did last time we talked when it comes to this.
Just speaking for myself, nobody else in the world, but my own self.
I am so beyond frustrated about this.
And I had been since I was a kid when it comes to some of these things.
But one thing I had to learn through people like my grandfather or yourself or anything like that is.
Oftentimes in life, there are no villains.
Sometimes there is no good guy. There is no bad guys.
There's just people and just things.
And I think that a lot of times, especially when it comes to something like this and a sensitive subject like this,
we want somebody to point the finger at.
We want somebody to blame.
And I don't know that that necessarily exists with something like this.
And I don't know how good it does.
I know what would do some good is for more people and more attention to be brought to these things.
And the more we do that, hopefully the more our veterans are taken care of.
And the people working in these departments like yourself and Lita and so many other great people over there have the funding and the proper things that you need to be able to do your job.
Well, and it's, like you said, there's no villain. It's just, it's so huge.
And so there's laws involved and you've got to follow the law whether the laws perfect or not or work in progress.
And the federal VA has got so many things to try to streamline and get through stuff that sometimes are their own worst enemy.
But there are certain ways to circumvent that also.
I mean, I've just last couple months I've gone over the processors heads to someone higher and and got decisions in a day.
So I mean, I saved, saved the maybe not save, but didn't have to go through the the late payments and the mortgage and things help one widow out there.
Another veteran was getting ready to start school on the falls art spring semester.
But in order to get them into the program, I needed to get a rating.
And I pulled, we pulled some strings and got that.
So I mean, they all mean to do well.
They're just so big that they've got to have procedures and it's, it's frustrating.
But I can, we can see that.
And when it's really, really necessary to put someone ahead of other people, there are ways and people we can reach out to.
Can't cry a wolf all the time, or else they won't listen to you.
But it really was nice to be able to call that lady and say, oh, you're going to get a check for.
It was down near $100,000 the next week.
And as we've talked about on these airways many times, we hopefully our audience understands how much that means to ace a veteran, how much that can mean.
So many of our veterans are in rough situations when they get out of the service and everything.
So it becomes even more important when you think of those factors.
Rock, in the time that you've been doing, I don't mean to put you on the spot with this question.
But on the time that you've been doing this, do you see improvement with the, with the services and the things being offered to our, to not only to you and your team, but to our veterans in general?
Well, the new legislation with the PAC DAC covers toxic exposure from the atomic tests on through people in the, in the golf and burn pits and all that stuff, sweeping.
So yes, there's improvements there. The biggest improvement for us to help our clients is we can now see the VA, we had to jump to some hoops and whatever.
But we can actually log in, go into the VA server and look at the evidence that's in the file.
And we can spend a lot more time than the VA people, I mean, because they've got productivity, they've got to meet and whatever, because they're so big and if they've got to, they've got to have those things to, to properly manage such a nightmare that claims processing is.
But we can see it all and we can go through, of course, it makes it harder on us, it takes more time, it used to be, we just send stuff in and hope, hope something came back months later.
But now every day we can go in and see if something's moved on some of our, you know, problem, people that really need things now, we can go through and see the last person that touched it and they don't like us too, but I can secure email that person and say,
what you're looking for is on page 26 of this document, 20 years ago, here's a receipt date, you know, so we can go and laser in.
So that's improved, but it takes time on our part, so we're doing more work, but we're getting better results, which is a positive, but it's also noteworthy.
And I appreciate the examples so much of this or it's important to create that understanding and that empathy in our audience out there that may not have, you know, this kind of knowledge or this kind of history with these things.
And there are checks and balances in there too, I mean, I can't go into like your grandfather's account.
Without his approval, I mean, one we've got to have him sign a document saying that a certain organization that we work with represents him, but even beyond that, there are checks and balances.
And we're not, you know, ethically, we are ethically bound that we don't go into just, oh, I wonder what this guy's got going on.
It's not of my business, none of our business, and we will lose our jobs if, you know, and people have because of that type of thing.
But I gave an example, you know, well, first of how we can go in and look in, you know, the veteran can't even do that.
Yeah, I mean, they can do a freedom of information and ask for their file and whatever, and maybe they'll get it in two years type thing, but I can see it all.
I can't print it out and give it to the veteran because that's another thing.
You can't give them anything that, you know, it's weird, big government stuff, but the, I mentioned something 20 years ago.
That's what I kind of want to talk about.
Yeah.
VA disability, we deal with, you know, education, benefits and health care and all sorts of stuff, but our real hard work is disability compensation.
Yeah.
And what veterans don't know, and especially years ago, they're horrible at delivering the message.
You're not really great on it now.
Now they've got a bunch of legalese, you get a 28 page letter and the guy calls up, or gal, what does this mean?
Yeah.
Type thing.
But just because you got a rating on a disability or maybe even you thought you got denied 20, 30 years ago, as that disability progresses through your life,
give for an example, a knee, you know, you could easily get a 0% disability, which doesn't give you anything for your knee 20 years ago.
Well, now you're going to have your knee, your knee is getting replaced.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You need to come back to the well.
You need to tell the VA, because even if you're getting your treatment at the VA hospital,
the benefit side and the hospital side don't talk to each other, unless we tell them they need to talk to each other.
Right.
So a veteran has to ask for an increase.
And there are certain things, knees, hearing loss.
I mean, you could have a 0% for your hearing loss years ago.
And now it's progressed, even though they give you hearing aids and you can hear fairly well, with the hearing aids,
the disability could be greater, which would be more money.
And in some cases, additional benefits, for example, if you're overall rating of 70% or greater,
you now have long-term care through the VA or through the state veterans homes.
So I mean, there's lots of things you can go with that.
We're speaking with Rock Larson, Wood County Veteran Service Officer right now.
And Rock, when we started talking on this one, it hit home pretty close.
My uncle Tim served in Vietnam and one of my favorite people.
And my uncle Tim has rough knees.
And he would always kind of talk about that and actually share some of the things that he did overseas that led to those rough knees.
But he also, I can remember him.
Maybe not referencing this to me and my nephew, my cousins or anything.
But my grandfather who also served in that, boy, I got off easy or something like that.
Oh, this was all I took from the war.
Well, in recent years, my uncle Tim has been having to do a lot of testing for cancer, leukemia and a lot of these things.
Like many of our Vietnam veterans that we were seeing that, okay, well, we thought that this was a big issue
and actually we're finding out these other things are issues as well or how one thing can lead to another.
It's something that I don't think many people think about in their own daily lives, let alone veterans and thinking about it.
Right.
Especially, there are certain illnesses, both Asian Orange related.
And now with the Pact Act and Gulf War and Burnpits and stuff, there's a lot of cancers involved there.
But things like hypertension for, it's a presumptive Asian Orange.
And often it's rated at 0% because it's controlled with medication.
But there are secondary conditions at hypertension.
Same thing with diabetes that can really, the neuropathy for a diabetic over the years, the kidney disorders for both.
Those things, and now with our favorite internet searches, whichever one you really want to use, I use perplexity a lot, which is kind of an AI thing.
And I ask the effects of this disease or illness on this.
And I get articles, journal articles and stuff.
And I submit that stuff as evidence.
It's like world changing.
The things that anxiety and stress disorders, PTSD, long-term effects on the body and the systems in the body.
A huge thing.
So I mean, if you're having some issues, either asking your doctor or going to Google or perplexity or whichever search engine you really want,
and ask for, does this affect that?
You brought up something.
First, thank you for so much of that.
Again, you're giving us details that most of us don't know.
And I really do appreciate the kind of behind the curtain look at some of these things.
And something pops in my head too.
And I'm thinking of my uncle Tim, but I'm thinking of a lot of the people that I've known.
Just even friends of mine that have served and everything.
And especially when you bring up the mental health part of this.
I hate to use this word, but for lack of a better one.
Is this legitimizing some of these things too?
And I'm not saying that they weren't already legit, but two insurance companies.
Two people that are kind of like assigning the checks, if you will, and some of that.
Like giving a little bit more of like, see, this is an issue.
This is something we need.
My whole life, I've been around veterans.
I've been around people that have served.
And I've never met a person who served that didn't have some kind of something to do mental health wise.
Something that they could have used some assistance with.
Something that they could have used some help with.
And may have not even known that they could have used those things.
I feel like we're getting a little bit more legitimacy to some of this stuff.
We're getting from an outside looking in and from talking to my uncle and some of that.
Are you seeing that?
Well, first off, it's not just veterans.
Mental health is real.
We all get touched by depression, anxiety, different things.
Some are chronic, some are acute, some are situational.
And you really should have either a support network that you can talk things through.
You can't keep it inside.
So I mean, it's important stuff.
But yeah, the resources coming through the VA and mental health.
And first off, mental health resources are limited and hard to find anywhere.
So I really like and I talk to my bosses at the county, the county board members and whatever about this.
If I can use a VA provider or resource, that frees up those needed and scarce providers.
But the VA has got mental health, suicide prevention, intensive case managers, mental health social workers, the vet center, which does readjustment counseling.
There's quite a few resources.
Inpatient, outpatient, residential treatment, which aren't quite impatient, but they're on the grounds.
So yeah, there's a lot more.
I don't want to say legitimately, but resources.
Yeah.
I think they always took it serious.
I mean, it's still way too many veterans taking their life every day.
It's been on the rise this last year.
Veterans and military, people in the military, was going down for a while.
And it's stressful.
Yeah.
And it's horrible to see that I had a good friend this summer.
Did what we did.
Retired.
And I think that person was more.
He just couldn't deal with the body pain anymore.
I am pain management and their way out was shocking to him.
Yeah.
I thank you for sharing that.
I am sorry that you and his love, the people that love him had to go through with that.
I greatly appreciate that, though, because rock, that's why I bring up the mental health when we're talking about this.
It is the idea of that.
And that happening too darn often.
And to someone that you really, you know, it wasn't like a friend every day, but someone I've known for years.
Most often we meet up at conferences and stuff and share stories.
But it was just, it just came out of left field and I'm like, did I miss something?
So shocking.
Had a cousin who served, we lost about two years ago for the same way.
And it is, it is another one.
It took me that kind of thing happening for me to realize how high, how high those numbers are for our veterans.
And when it comes to that.
And why all these things rock and I are talking about that.
And we have talked about in the past are so vital and so important.
One injury can lead to another, just like one thing can lead to another.
And when it comes to you as a veteran out there, you veterans out there listening.
You deserve these services, you deserve this assistance.
And you've done enough, all right?
Let us help.
Let us be there for you.
Let us do our job now.
And as a community, as Americans.
And certainly those individuals like Rock that are working in this industry to be there to help out with this stuff as best we can.
And Rock, when it comes to, I don't know if you want to say, I'm trying to look ahead or any of these things.
But when you're dealing with A, keeping an eye out for B, C, and D and anything else.
It is something that one of the things we want people to take from this conversation.
Right.
We don't.
And my staff complain all the time about walk-ins.
And I'm like, I said, yeah, they disrupt us.
And phone calls.
But God, you know, our phone messages say, please leave a message.
If I'm three, if I'm two inches into a three inch stack of medical records, I'm not going to stop and pick up the phone.
I've got to finish that.
I've got to put my notes together.
Because if I stop, then I've got to start all through again, type thing.
And the walk-ins, but I said, if someone's in the courthouse and they say, oh, I've been meeting the stop in the veteran's office, I want them to stop.
And what we're going to do most times, you're going to come in for A, but we're going to look at X, Y, and Z also, and maybe change your life, plant a seed.
And that's what that's what we want to do business.
We don't want to, oh, you wanted this for him.
Here it is.
Buy.
That's not our job.
Our job is because we do it every day.
You don't know what you don't know.
Right.
And it's worth asking.
These are all things worth asking.
There's no downside to asking.
There's no downside to reaching out.
If you have questions, please do so.
And Rock, if people do have follow-up questions for some of the things we talked about today, how can they reach you?
Okay.
We're in the courthouse.
So it's, you know, and we're also in the wood conionics up in Marshall.
We got another office.
But our phone number is 715-421-8421-8420, excuse me.
So that's our main line.
Leave a message.
And we will get back to you.
If we don't pick up right away, it's like Ben's the only one in the office right now.
If someone's at his desk, you know, that's their time.
But I also wanted to, I totally lost the train of thought.
Okay.
So that happens.
It happens to be almost every once a day on the air here.
But whatever that thought was, we'll get it the next time you come around here.
And again, thank you so much for everything you do for our community, for our veterans, Rock.
Please say hi and thank the rest of your team for us as well.
We'll do.
Oh, yeah.
We're free.
That was it.
Don't go.
If someone's advertising and trying to help you do a claim or whatever, they're...
Yeah.
They're going to get paid somewhere.
We get paid when everybody in Wood County pays their property tax.
Right.
And so use us.
We're your resources.
You already paid for us when you paid your rent or you paid your property taxes.
Thank you for getting that in and remembering that nicely done.
Feels good when you remember those things, right?
It does.
You can find out more again by going to the Wood County website.
You can go to woodcountywi.gov if you'd like.
Woodcountywi.gov.
You can also go to woodcountyvets.com, woodcountyvets.com.
Otherwise, visit them at 400 Market Street right here in Rapids.
And that phone number again, 715-421-842-0.
That is 421-842-0.
We'll be back more midday magazine for you right here at 97-5 FM 13-20 AM.
WFHR, we are locally grown radio.
