Legion Benefits Centers start with townhall meeting
American Legion Executive Director Verna Jones (left) and Veterans Affairs & Rehabilitation Director Louis Celli talk with a veteran during the Legion's town hall meeting at Post 273 in in Madeira Beach, Fla. (Photo by Lucas Carter)

Legion Benefits Centers start with townhall meeting

View Photo Gallery

After the Department of Veterans Affairs scandal broke last spring, The American Legion began setting up Veterans Crisis Command Centers throughout the country to help veterans gain quicker access to VA health care and the benefits they’d earned.

Those centers reached thousands of veterans at 12 locations over the course of five months, and in doing so helped veterans get close to $1 million in retroactive benefits payments.

The name of the centers has changed to Veterans Benefits Center, and the first one will debut in Bay Pines, Fla., this week. But the mission remains the same: helping veterans get what they deserve.

The Florida effort kicked off Monday night with a veterans town hall meeting at American Legion Post 273 in nearby Madeira Beach. Dozens of veterans traveled as far as 400 miles to ask questions, express frustration or praise VA – particularly the care they receive at the C.W. Bill Young VA Medical Center in Bay Pines.

“The VA, as you know, is a big organization,” said Louis Celli, director of the Legion’s Veterans Affairs & Rehabilitation Division. “They’re not going to do everything perfect. They’re not going to do everything that everybody wants them to do. But they’re going to do their jobs, and by and large, they do their jobs very well. There are going to be some individual circumstances we’re going to try to help you with.”

U.S. Army veteran Jesse Figueroa was at the town hall meeting to start the process of getting some help with his VA claim. He said he filed an appeal on what he feels is a traumatic brain injury and hasn’t received an answer. He’s also been denied compensation for a knee injury and says he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I need some answers,” said Figueroa, the Department of Florida’s 12th District adjutant.

Verna Jones, executive director of the Legion’s Washington, D.C., office, urged Figueroa to come to the Veterans Benefit Center later this week to get those answers.

“That’s what these guys are here for,” Jones said. “You’ll have someone there who will be able to answer your questions. It is confusing, a little bit. We don’t want (people to leave) still having questions.”

During the course of the meeting, one veteran said he’d requested a C-file (VA claims folder) more than two and a half years ago. “All I get in the mail is ‘We’re working on it,’” he said. “Meanwhile, I’m waiting to get into the VA for a problem that happened while on active duty, and I can’t do anything until the C-file comes in. What do we do?”

Craig Sergott, assistant director of VA’s St. Petersburg Regional Benefit Office, said he’d take down the veteran’s name and look into his issue.

Other questions that came up during the one-hour meeting included why a claim or appeal can take as long as three to four years to be resolved, and how to get accredited representation in filing a VA claim.

Harry Rudy, a veterans claims examiner for the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs and Legion-accredited service officer, urged all veterans considering filing a claim with VA to get some form of representation. “We are here to help,” he said. “We can help, and we will help. Please allow us to do that.”

Several veterans said they receive outstanding care at the area VA facilities. One veteran said his father received care in the Bays Pines system and that he now receives care there. “As far as I am concerned, he was given the utmost care I could have asked for,” the veteran said. “They did everything for him. And I’ve had the same experience.”

Ben Droweinga, Post 273's commanders and a former Bay Pines VA employee, also praised the care provided there. “Bay Pines goes out of their way to help,” he said. “You will get the help. The only one who’s going to stop you getting help over there is yourself.”

Several staff members from the Bay Pines VAMC and VA’s regional office also attended the meeting and answered specific questions on the new Choice Card and eligibility requirements.

“It’s important that we present a united front – that people see it’s The American Legion and VA and that it’s not us against them,” Jones said. “It’s all of us together doing what’s best for veterans.”

The Veterans Benefits Center will take place from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday, in the JC Cobb Conference Room, Room 100, at the C.W. Bill Young VAMC, 10000 Bay Pines Blvd., Bay Pines.

At the Veterans Benefits Center, department and national American Legion service officers will be on hand to guide veterans through the VA claims process. Veterans Benefits Administration and Veterans Health Administration staff also will be there to review claims and enroll patients into the VA health-care system.