Vets balk at volunteer officer

Ask some veterans what they think about replacing Jackson County's veterans service officer with a volunteer and their answer is clear.

They don't like it. Some feel slighted.

But that's the plan under consideration by Jackson County Board of Commissioners and Jackson County Council as local government looks to reduce expenses.

"It is a full-time position to do it right and to take care of the veterans," Vietnam veteran Toby Milroy said Thursday. He's commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1925 in Seymour. "We need that expertise. You can't just volunteer and walk in off the street and do it."

Commissioner Jerry Hounshel said Monday the county continues to interview potential replacements for VSO Mike Fink, who's retiring this summer. Hounshel said he thinks the county will eventually settle on a part-time, paid officer.

Milroy, however, questions whether even a part-time position would work.

Veterans groups, he said, have trouble finding enough volunteers to drive veterans to the Louisville Veterans Af-fairs hospital four to six times a month.

Milroy has doubts about whether a volunteer could be expected to commit to helping run the veterans service office.

Milroy said commissioners should shadow Veterans Service Officer Mike Fink for a week and see what the job entails.

"I think they'd say (expletive), this can't be part-time or volunteer," Milroy said.

George Hunt, executive director of the National Association of County Veterans Service Officers, had two words when asked what he thought about the idea.

"Oh, wow," Hunt said.

Hunt, a veterans service officer for 20 years in Moore County, N.C., said he didn't think staffing a veterans office with a volunteer would be a good idea, questioning a volunteer's commitment to working on a daily basis, to attending ongoing training about changes in laws that affect veterans and their benefits and to dealing with the job's stress.

"I understand budget crunches," he said. "Our office (he oversees two other employees) is talking about furloughs next year because of our budget crunch.

"But can you expect a volunteer to be there every day? It's a stressful job. You run into people who are in desperate need."

Fink, who's retiring in July after 16 years on the job, agrees it's stressful.

"You work with people and then they pass away," he said. "I was told early on you can't get personal with these people, but I don't see how you can do it without getting personal. People don't come to us because they're rich or well. It's the nature of the beast."

Hunt suggested that the county consider contacting the VA's educational department to check into supplementing the office with its work study program, where veterans attending college on the GI Bill work part-time for minimum wage to help with a veterans service office's paperwork.

Hunt could not say how many, if any, veterans service officers are led by a volunteer, although he said it's common for Texas counties to fill the position with part-timers.

Fink said a full-time paid service officer is needed.

"I don't see how anybody part time or volunteer could do it," Fink said Thursday. "I have one of the best assistants in the state, and that allows me to get out to where I need to be. They don't understand everything that goes with this. A lot I can't talk about because it's personal and private."

Fink's job is a full-time position. He's paid $27,804 in the current county budget. His assistant, Tawana Guthrie, is also paid full time. She's been in the office for 10 years.

Guthrie, of the Ratliff Grove area between Brownstown and Freetown, enjoys her job and will work with whatever commissioners decide.

"I like what I do," she said. "I enjoy taking care of our veterans. It's my way of giving back to them for what they've done for us."

Her father is a Navy veteran who served in the Cuban missile crisis, and her grandfather was a World War II veteran who served in the Battle of the Bulge.

Fink and Milroy said they'd like to see Guthrie hired as the full-time officer, but state law requires a county veterans service officer be a veteran. Guthrie is not.

Part-time role expected

Commissioner Jerry Hounshel said Monday he thinks the county may reach a consensus on hiring a part-time veterans service officer and increasing the pay for Guthrie. He said he's been told that's working in some other counties.

"I think we're going to have to pay something," Hounshel said. "I don't think we're going to get the service the veterans deserve with a volunteer coordinator. I think there needs to be some incentive there.

"Tawana is very knowledgeable," he added. "The veterans I've talked to think the world of her."

Meanwhile, the county continues to review applicants.

"Jeff Hubbard is going over the applications, and he'll report to us what he finds," Hounshel said. "Then we'll take a look."

One of those counties that are using a full-time secretary and part-time service officer is neighboring Bartholomew County.

"It seems to work real well," Judy Devening of the Bartholomew County Veterans Service Office said. She's the office's full-time secretary, now on the job for five years. The veterans service officer "acts as a liaison with the public" and is a paid a stipend, Devening said. She works closely with the American Legion, VFW and other groups, she said.

Successful benefit filings are up in recent years, Devening said.

"So I think we're doing something right," she added.

Devening said she's had no problems with veterans being reluctant to open up because she's not a veteran.

But Tom Applegate, director of the Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs, said he'd prefer to see all veterans service officers be paid. He said there are probably three or four volunteer officers in the state.

"When they have an assistant in there who has some experience, it works out OK," Applegate, a military retiree, said. "But if they just recently hired someone and they don't know what they're doing, it's catastrophic. There's so much they need to know."

Within 30 days of being appointed, a new veterans service officer must undergo a one-day orientation training and they must attend annual conferences, even if they're not paid, to be certified by Applegate's office.

Indiana's experience with volunteers has been mixed at best, Applegate said.

"There have been at least two counties that have worked on the volunteer system that have returned to paid positions," he said. "I think it's been more a matter of budget. Subsequently, within two or three years they've decided they need to get someone in there full time and pay them. I'm hopeful all of the counties will reach that determination. In order to better to serve the veterans in their county, they need someone in there full time."