Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

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Unknown Speaker 0:42
what's going on Good

Unknown Speaker 0:47
morning, good morning, good morning. Las Vegas. This is Gene Campbell, and I'm sitting in again for David L Watson and David Lee as he's on the hiatus taking care of his health. So I just want to make sure you're putting him in your hearts and minds, because David is the advocate for the community. He loves doing this, and he loves interviewing the guests. I think the last time I looked, he had interviewed almost 80 some odd guests, or so, maybe almost close to 100 now, on this show. This is Veterans Affairs plus at k, U, N, V, that's our radio station now at UNLV. So I want to thank them, and I want to thank Wes our engineer, our great engineer, for prompting me and keeping me in line as I sit in for Dave. Because Dave now professional, and I'm still a Nourse, I'm kind of like an intern. And so I think Dave for for making me an intern, I really appreciate it. With that, you know, today we're going to talk a little bit about Veterans Affairs. We might touch on that for sure, audiences veterans, but it's also the local community. So with that, I thought about a friend of mine. I'm going to get ready to introduce you now, and we're just going to have a light conversation this, this person here is full of energy. She's full of life and and she's she's in there helping others, and she's a world traveler. So I'm going to introduce you miss, miss Gretchen Williams, and she's going to tell you a little bit about herself and maybe touch a little bit on how long she's been in Las Vegas. So good morning Gretchen,

Unknown Speaker 2:28
good morning Jean. How are you great.

Unknown Speaker 2:30
How are you doing today?

Unknown Speaker 2:31
Good. Thank you. Good,

Unknown Speaker 2:33
good, good. Well, Gretchen, how long you been in Las Vegas and and where was home for you before you came from Las Vegas?

Unknown Speaker 2:40
I have been here 19 years. I cannot believe the time has gone so fast. I moved here with my children 19 years ago. We're from Illinois, Springfield, Illinois, and wow, yeah, it's been a long time, yeah. Now

Unknown Speaker 2:57
Springfield. Is that? Where's Abeg from? Is he from somewhere close up there. Okay,

Unknown Speaker 3:03
so Springfield, Illinois claims Abraham Lincoln that he was actually born in Kentucky, but yes, Springfield, Illinois is known as the hometown of Abraham Lincoln. And there's, there's a blanket home his tomb Street, any and everything Abraham Lincoln you will find in Springfield, Illinois,

Unknown Speaker 3:24
all right. Well, I thought so. That is so funny. That is so funny. Gretchen, wow. So you've been here 19 years, and you sure seen Vegas change in that 19 years. Gretchen, you know, one of the things we like to do is we like to talk a little bit about a person's history, work experience and different things. And I know you served in the military and you went on to work in some other fields, maybe you could just give us a verbal resume of anything you'd like to share about either your military or your private sector experience, a little bit about your background, okay,

Unknown Speaker 4:01
I joined the United States Marine Corps at 17 years old. My mom had to sign the paperwork giving me permission. I went to Paris, Island, South Carolina, then was the only place they made women Marines. They've since added San Diego as a place where women Marines go through boot camps. I was a field radio operator, affectionately referred to as a battery operated grunt. We were attached to artillery and grunt units and tank units, and our model was, you can talk about it, but not without it. And then I went on into high frequency, ultra high frequency, multi channel, several different courses of training that all fall within the radio field. And I didn't really I served about three years active duty, and then I went to the reserves active. Duty wasn't for me, not knocking it for anybody else. It doesn't just wasn't for me. I got out and went to college, and still went to the reserves, though, and my actual career field is correction. I started as a correctional officer in 1993 Yeah, think about it, 1993 and worked my way of through the ranks and around the different departments and until I left as a as a prison warden. The majority of my career, though, was in internal affairs investigations.

Unknown Speaker 5:36
Wow, prison warden. Wow. You know what? One thing I knew about you, you have the energy like your Marine. You have that look. I mean, it's something about, am I do do this because I'm in the Air Force? Am I Am I wrong? Do Marines have a special look to him?

Unknown Speaker 5:54
We're known to be crazy, but I don't think I look any particular type of way. That's funny. You said that. Actually, I don't think I look like the marine I was a Marine Corps poster girl when those recruiting posters, yes, back in 1980 1985 I think it was, I was on a recruiting poster. I have. Do not have that poster. I wish I did. Well, that sure

Unknown Speaker 6:17
would be some nostalgia and some fun, fun to share. You probably look a lot like your daughter, then your daughter looks a lot like you were probably back then. And so it's just beautiful. Yes, so would you? Would you share?

Unknown Speaker 6:32
Go ahead. Actually, my youngest children are are in the family business, Dave, my father was a police officer. Or my two youngest children are correctional officers.

Unknown Speaker 6:43
That's right, that's right. And that's something. They fall in your footsteps, and I know you're proud of that.

Unknown Speaker 6:49
I am. They're good people, absolutely.

Unknown Speaker 6:52
So since you're talking about your children, what I what I want to ask you is, is we're going to switch from talking about the military really quickly. We're going to switch over to the to the to the public sector. So not only were you in internal affairs and investigation, but you went all the way through your career, up including being awarded, and now you have your children in that career field. Could you share with our guests, maybe, how you prepared yourself for that, what skills that you had, maybe some skills that you had gained somewhere else transformed into that, that line of work and what helped you propel through the ranks as you did

Unknown Speaker 7:36
correction, was actually pretty easy. Like I said, my father was a police officer. I've always had a sense of fairness and justice. Do the right thing, no matter what anybody else is doing. And my parents also. My father was also into politics, and his model was watching mean service. Watching is my maiden name, and so my entire life has always been dedicated as in the footpath the footsteps of my parents, serving the community, giving back, taking care of people who can't necessarily take care of themselves, or who are maybe having a hard time at this present time. So going into law enforcement just just was natural for me, and I made it my business to treat people, inmates, in particular, with decency and respect. That's not always with taught, but that's how I always carry myself. I referred to most of my career. Worked with male inmates, and I would refer to them as gentlemen or sir. I would speak to them, good morning, good afternoon. How are you with? How was your day? And I always carried a notepad to write down their issues, so that I didn't just get lip service. I actually followed through to see I could resolve issues. So I enjoyed corrections just there was a funny story almost every day, there's whether or not somebody would take a word out of context or try to be impressive using big words that they didn't know the correct definition of, or just interacting also with the inmates families. Now, as I went through the ranks, especially when I became an assistant war and I dealt a lot with family members of inmates, and I made sure that I treated them with respect and dignity. I always made sure that my staff understood that you will not mistreat the mother of an inmate visiting her her child, because no mother plans for their baby to commit a crime and go to prison, never intentionally so you will not mistreat her or disrespect her when she comes to visit so and that carried me quite away. I I feel like I had a lot of respect from inmates and the majority of the staff, just for being kind to people and you. Being intentional with my interactions with them, making sure that I treated people fairly, and I hope that my children are the same way in their interactions at work, I pretty I feel like they are. I've heard really good things about about those two from their peers as well from a supervisor. Well, that

Unknown Speaker 10:16
is just that is just wonderful. I know you're a proud mama, proud parent, and we won't talk about the grandkids today, but, but you're proud of them too.

Unknown Speaker 10:31
Absolutely. I have six of them now. That's just the newest baby is not even a month old. He's in Illinois though.

Unknown Speaker 10:41
Wow, that is so beautiful. I have to see all those pictures. The next time we get together and see all those pictures, I definitely see from time to time, your daughter's pictures come up and and she's in her uniform. And, boy, I tell you, what time does fly? You know, getting back to, you know, preparing yourself. You know, one of the things we do is, I want you to not talk to not only talk to our guests, but you're a woman that served in some non traditional fields, led by women. The Marine Corps was one, as well as its corrections. And you said you also dealt with all male inmates. What, you know, one of the things you were basically talking about being kind to people, being intentional with your thoughts and treating people fairly. But what other skills did you develop? Did you use coming up, and what skills or attributes did you try to share with your children as they apply for those positions.

Unknown Speaker 11:41
Again, a sense of fairness and justice. I like to, you know, I hate to see some wrongdoing, and I, I am absolutely pro police, but I definitely get offended when they act inappropriately, you know, get a little bit power hungry, but that's a whole different issue for a different discussion. I instilled in them. Again, you do the thing no matter what anyone else around you is doing. Be firm, fair and consistent. Be honorable, have some humility. Good work ethic, I will absolutely say they have good work ethic, which they got from myself as and their father, and to just in general, be good people. Try to treat people as you want to be treated. Now that does not mean that you turn the other cheek. I love the Lord and I read the Bible. However, if your back is against the wall, come out swinging. Understand. I

Unknown Speaker 12:46
understand that. I just want to make sure folks know they listen to Veterans Affairs, plus on knuvy radio station and Gretchen. I want to thank you for that information. But one of the things that you do, you know, you see like giving back and helping people, taking care of people, is what I have in quotes from you here. And being a former veteran, you always shared some some insight with some other people about veterans benefits. And we might have some veterans that this is their first time, and saying, hey, somebody told me, Go listen to Veterans Affairs. Maybe I can learn a little bit about, you know, how I look at trying to find out about my benefits or or, you know, other other ideas. Were you interested in your benefits and how did you go about seeking information about them after you got out of the service or sometime later. Okay,

Unknown Speaker 13:47
so actually, after I left corrections, I worked for da D Disabled American Veterans as a Veteran Service Officer. So that's how I learned all the things that I've learned. I absolutely enjoy working with veterans. I'm not at Dave anymore, but I still don't mind answering questions and helping out someone who has issues with the with the system. First and foremost, I would say to to veterans, speak to a professional when it comes to getting your disability information, the worst source of information comes from other veterans. They mean, well, I don't think they're malicious. However, they are generally misinformed, and they continue to pass on that information or information that applies to them only. Everybody's situation is different. So the main thing that people should think of is this, there are three parts to service connection. The very first part is you have to have an injury, illness or traumatic event or some. Thing that happened while you were on active duty, you have to also have the second part is a current diagnosis, and then the third part is the nexus between the two issues. So for instance, say you broke your ankle while you were on active duty, and 30 years later, you have arthritis in your ankle, the VA is going to want to know, well, where have you been for 30 years? Have you been consistently treated for that injury? How do we know something else in your career did not cause that injury? So the mistake that most veterans do is they put together a laundry list of issues or complaints conditions that they have now that they didn't complain about or not documented while they were on active duty. So ask yourself before you go and file a claim, was I seen or treated? Is this medical condition documented in my military records while I was on active duty, with the exception of mental health like PTSD, because that does not go away, and most people don't realize they have it. Other than that, your condition has to be documented while you are on active duty, or you're not going to win the claim. Now, it's just that simple. I hate to say it, it's that's just how it is. The rules are the rules you have to be and that's according to Congress. It has to be documented while you are on active duty, or you cannot come back and claim it. Now you can try with me, buddy statements or layman statements. I haven't found that to be real effective, but it does work sometimes. So I would say anyone who is still on active duty, absolutely, please document any and everything that you think is a problem for you, and it has to also be a chronic condition. So you have to have complained about it or been seen for it more than once. So if you go in with the runny nose, you got a cold one time, you can't come back now and file a claim for it now. However, throughout your career, if you had a runny nose, which is probably allergies or sinusitis or rhinitis or something, and you've continually had issues for it and been seen for it that you could claim as a condition, it would be considered a chronic condition. Temporary conditions probably won't work for you either. Well, let's see appendicitis. If you, if you had your appendix removed, that's no longer a problem for you. So that was a temporary condition that was addressed and fixed by the by the by the VA or the military. I know that's a lot of information, and I talk fast, but no,

Unknown Speaker 17:39
you gave us a lot of good points. You gave us a lot of good points. You know, what I heard is, not only were you with a DAV, DAV is a service organization, so you were one of those people that, if I was a veteran, and I came up to the VA hospital and I said, hey, I'm interested in seeing somebody from the DAV there's some way, either through a telephone number or through signing up through the help desk, there a person who would sign up and they would get an appointment with you. Is that how that works? How would that work? Gretchen, saying it, I know you don't work there now, but how would somebody go about getting help from a from a service officer like yourself, like you used to

Unknown Speaker 18:21
be, make an appointment, but there's also more than one service organization. State of Nevada has veterans, sorry, a Veterans Affair office. They are in the VA hospital. Also Veterans of Foreign Wars. VFW has a component there. And I believe Catholic war veterans has an office there too. And also, you could just walk into the VA they have VA employees who help file claims and answer questions. Typically, those organizations are not going to give you a lot of information. They're pretty much going to file the paperwork that you request to be filed. So they're they're doing their job. I'm not saying that they're not, but they're dealing with a lot of people. So they're going to process your paperwork, help you fill it out, process it and get it moving. Whereas, whereas other organizations like Dave or Nevada Department of Veterans Affairs may take a little bit more time with you to explain how the process works and maybe some other options. So those are the two main ones that I would would recommend. But yeah, you're going to make an appointment, or sometimes they have walk in days, or you can call in and make an appointment, or maybe answer a quick question. Or also, there's email, they will respond to email. Well, that's great.

Unknown Speaker 19:48
That means, you know folks, you can look up the DA view online. You can look up these service veterans online, about a service organizations, veteran service organizations, and you'll see them. Still come up in a Google search, or if you go to the Veterans Hospital out there off of Pecos, I believe it's 9000 Pecos, right there Pecos and 215 that's where the office

Unknown Speaker 20:16
is. I'm sorry, it's 6900 North Pecos, right? It's right now there

Unknown Speaker 20:20
was a nine in there. 69

Unknown Speaker 20:24
You're right. It's actually it's at right at 215 and and North Pecos. You can't miss it.

Unknown Speaker 20:33
If they go to 19, if they go to 9000 they'll be off in the desert somewhere, because it's not built yet out there. Well, thanks for correcting that for me. Well, you know, and there's other services out there too. If you served, I think it's over 90 days and and you have, and you have a, is it a, is it at least a good, good conduct discharge, you might be able to go out there and get your health, health card, if you've done certain time. What is Do you remember those parameters? Gretchen, yes. So

Unknown Speaker 21:06
you have to have served active duty for two years to get most to get assistance. Also, it has to be an A, preferably an honorable discharge. You can have a general discharge under audible condition and a regular, a regular general discharge. But if you have a a negative, a dishonorable discharge, I would check into, depending on what the circumstances were, I would check on getting that upgraded. You'd have to go through your particular branch of the military. It can't hurt to ask, depending on the circumstances that you may get it upgraded, and then you could then file for for benefits, unless there are also, again, particular circumstances that will allow you to apply for benefits with less than two years. But generally it's two years of active duty for reservists, you it's a it's a smaller window, because, again, it has to be, you have to have medical documentation from your active duty time. So that would be for reservists. That would be boot camp and then their military occupational specialty school. So they have a really small window of opportunity to have medical conditions documented, right?

Unknown Speaker 22:32
And so I know that recently, the benefits have changed too to reach out and have expanded, especially as it relates to golf, where Gulf War Desert Storm veterans, as well as veterans who were affected by either nuclear exposure, that would be radiation exposure and or burn pits. And so I know there's been a lot of change for that. Maybe you can touch on that. We got about five minutes left in the program, okay?

Unknown Speaker 23:06
So that would fall under the past act. So, for instance, almost along the lines of they did not understand the fallout of Agent Orange back in the time of the Vietnam War. Now they are finding certain conditions that have a lot of conditions that have come up for those people who served in Iraq, Iran, I'm sorry, Iraq or Afghanistan, Desert Storm, Desert shields, different the different combat theaters. So now they are having an open window, basically, if you if enough veterans are having these same symptoms, the VA agrees, okay, this couldn't have come from anywhere else, and we will address it and and again, you just need to have a current diagnosis and to be able to show that you were in that particular area. That is, if that's called it, they're called presumptive conditions. So as long as you were serving in that particular area, wherever location you were serving in that falls in the areas of the pact act, and you have that particular condition, the VA will presume that it came from being in the military service, and you will be awarded service connection. Ultimately, that's what you're trying to achieve, is service connection. And of course, those run in increments of from 10% up to 100% with most veterans trying to achieve 100% the closer you get to one it gets and the VA does not use regular math, so 50 and 50 do not equal 100 in VA math. And contrary to popular belief, you'll hear veterans say, I've got 200% no, it only goes up to 100 they're using regular math when they say that. And again, they don't. They just aren't aware that that's not how math, how the VA math, is calculated, right?

Unknown Speaker 24:53
They mean Rex, and I tell you what, we sure have covered a lot today. I mean, not only did we tell. Showing your career and who you were and your beautiful children and your six grandchildren. But we also touched on a lot for the for our today's veterans. And so what I heard, you know, veteran, I just want, I mean, Gretchen, I just want to summarize. We got about two, three minutes left here. I just want to summarize that you spoke about the DAV as well as other service organizations, and they can reach out to them online for our guests, or go out to 6900 North Pecos and check out and ask somebody about assistance. I would say this is that if you don't have your records, or you lost your records, that might be one of the first things you need to do if you don't have a DD, 214 and or something like that, you might need to do that. And what else would they do as you as you give us your last point where? What else should they do in any last minute things you like to say to our guest today, Gretchen, okay, the

Unknown Speaker 25:55
VA benefits benefits office can give you a copy of your DD, 214 you'd have to request your actual medical records from your branch of service or from the National Personnel center. You'd have to google that. But again, I'd like to say, get help from a professional when you when you attempt to get your benefits, it's just the best way to go, and you'll get the most you'll get the most accurate and up to date information, because the rules keep changing, and don't give up. All right, don't

Unknown Speaker 26:25
give up. And you know what Gretchen being? I think that must be something in the in the Marine Corps, or just something your daddy taught you, because I know one thing about you is you don't give up. Just, just, just in closing, Gretchen, I want to thank you for taking time for our show today, and I look forward to you sending me more pictures, not only those grandchildren, but all those beautiful trips on that you go on from year to year. Yes, thank

Unknown Speaker 26:53
you. I have been living my best life, trying to see all of the world.

Unknown Speaker 26:58
Well, that's great. Gretchen, Well, folks, I'm Gene cattle sitting in for Dave Washington. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on this Saturday morning, just a little quick shout to all the the October birthdays. Happy birthday to everyone, and I hope you had a beautiful time this Saturday morning. Keep Dave Washington your thoughts and prayers. This is K, N, U, L, V, and this is Gene Campbell. Goodbye. Have a great Saturday morning. You

Outro Song 27:59
Oh, all the smoke in the air till they hate when they stare all the pain that we bear, all you bear.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai