Vets Service Commission sees changes

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

It’s appropriate that the term “changing of the guard” is a military one, since it aptly describes the retirement of two Van Wert County Veterans Service Commission members with a total of approximately 33 years of service and the appointment of two new commission members.

Board members Steve Gehres, who served 25 years on the commission, and Willie Eddins, an eight-year commission member, are leaving the board, while Bill Marshall and Joe Hauter were appointed by Van Wert County Common Pleas Judge Martin Burchfield to replace them.

Gehres, a Vietnam War-era veteran of the U.S. Navy, has served during the tenures of three veterans service officers and said he enjoyed the camaraderie and the feeling he has helped fellow veterans receive their earned benefits.

“I’ve enjoyed it immensely,” Gehres said of his tenure on the commission, noting that he has particularly enjoyed supervising the county’s veterans service officers, who he gives high marks for the work they do.

“We’ve had good service officers, they work really hard and have accomplished a lot for the veterans,” Gehres said.

He added that the county’s service officers have been instrumental in making sure local military veterans receive benefits due them from the Veterans Administration because of their service to the country.

“The VA has consistently tried to shortchange the veterans, in both areas of compensation and in the medical treatment that they have, and if you don’t have these local service officers, we probably wouldn’t be having getting half the veterans taken care of in the county that are taken care of, and they sure wouldn’t be at the compensation level that they have been granted,” Gehres said. “You just have to fight them every step of the way.”

Gehres also said the county has had good Veterans Commission members over the years, noting he was particularly honored to serve on the commission with the late Merle Brady, a longtime veterans advocate. “You never met anybody who was more dedicated to the veterans than Merle Brady,” he noted.

Marshall, a Vietnam veteran who served in the U.S. Air Force, said he wanted to give back to veterans by helping them receive the benefits they deserve.

“It’s an honor, first of all; secondly, it gives me a chance to give back,” Marshall said.

The Air Force veterans said he has worked as a membership chairman for a Vietnam veterans organization and knows first-hand how much impact that war has had on those veterans.

“I know the real number of disabilities that are coming through, because I would know when somebody passed away, and what they passed away from,” Marshall said, noting that Agent Orange-related illnesses and Post Traumatic Stress Disease were the leading factors. “I saw the reality of what was taking place.”

Marshall also said many veterans are reluctant to talk to non-veterans about their experiences, making it doubly important that veterans be a part of county Veterans Service Commissions. He noted that, being a veteran provides him with empathy for fellow veterans, as well as the ability to understand where they’re coming from.

“I know what these men and women are going through, with the process,” Marshall said, adding the important, to him of “being able to reach out to them and say ‘okay, I understand, I’ve been there.’”

Joe Hauter, a U.S. Army veteran who retired from that branch of the military after 20 years, served a temporary detail in Vietnam and 10 years in Germany. Hauter said his father, a World War II veteran, died without being aware of any of the benefits owed him because of his service during that war, and added that he didn’t want current veterans in that situation.

Eddins, a U.S. Army Vietnam Era veteran with eight years on the commission, was unable to attend Thursday’s changeover ceremony.