Resources available to help area veterans

Jul. 29--The Montgomery County Veterans Service Commission is seeking ways to get the word out about its mission to help veterans in need of help.

Executive Director Mark Landers, a retired Army colonel, appeared at Kettering City Council last week to discuss how the commission needs to grow its stature around the Miami Valley region.

"I took over as executive director about a year ago, and I was a commissioner for 10 years on the commission," he said. "One of the problems we have is getting out the message as to what we do. Quite sadly, a lot of people don't know that we exist. Let alone know what we do."

He discussed how successful the program has been to help qualified vets with up to $1,000 to pay their insurance deductibles if their home was harmed by of the the catastrophic Memorial Day tornadoes.

"We decided that we would pay $1,000 deductible for any veteran and we did not restrict it to income and we have paid out over $350,000 in the past six weeks," Landers told council. "But what is interesting about this concept is this -- 95 percent of the people that have come into our office and I'm talking Vietnam veterans, Korea veterans, and I'm talking about people of this nature -- have never been in my office one single time."

He added that the prospect of area veterans not using the resources that the commission has available is sad.

"We have a lot of proud people in Montgomery County," he said, noting that the area veterans don't seem to realize that help is available for various needs through the commission.

"I turn away no one," Landers said. "There are 43,000 veterans in Montgomery County. Our commission is diligent and you can get an appointment for help relatively quickly."

Help with disability or pension issues, fiscal problems, medical care, mental health, as well as, help for widows of veterans are just several of the topics that the commission can help with according to Landers.

"We have a lot of veterans out there that suffer from PTSD, brain injuries and other mental health issues," Landers said, explaining that he's very aggressive in helping those who served deal with these issues.

Councilman Tony Klepacz, also a veteran, has used help from Landers to solve an issue that required the commission to deal with the Pentagon. He said he's hopeful that those in need will use the commission for problems they need help with.

"I didn't know anything at all about them and I've been a veteran for 50 or more years," Klepacz said. "There are a lot of veterans like myself that didn't realize that there was someone like you and you're staff out there to help out. I appreciate what you've done for me personally."

Anyone veteran interested in getting assistance from the commission can call Landers at 937-225-4801 or by emailing veteransinfo@mcohio.org.

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