The American Legion Department of Colorado Blog

By: PNC Tom Bock, Your faithful Watch Dog,

I do not want to throw cold water on the “exciting times” we are having enjoying the much touted contract signing between the Department of VA and their construction contractor, but. . .

Then again maybe it’s just me. But am I the only one that saw the “celebration” hosted by the Department of Veterans Affairs on November 21 to recognize the signing of a contract to begin construction on the replacement VA Hospital on the site of the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center as dajavu all over again?

I saw the same familiar faces. I heard the same familiar speeches. I heard the same familiar old story. I felt the same familiar feelings that I felt when they celebrated the purchase of the land and the “Official Ground Breaking” on the same property under a very similar white tent. They actually were “Party in a Tent” – Versions 1.0 and 2.0.

Maybe my expectations were too high. But, I thought someone should have said “I’m sorry for all of the unnecessary delays in building your hospital.” to the veterans and the families of veterans who have died without having a replacement VA Hospital in Denver, and to those who still wait to see its completion.

You see, according to government statistics somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 World War II veterans are dying every day. If that estimate is true, then during the 27 month delay since the “Official Ground Breaking Ceremony” in August 2009 and the Nov. 21, 2011 celebration (that is 820 days – 2 years at 365 days plus 3 months at 30 days), somewhere between 820,000 and 1,230,000 WWII Veterans have died. And have you noticed that the projected completion date of the hospital has been changed from 2014 to sometime in 2015? That completion delay is at least 365 days. So, the 27 month delay has resulted in an additional 365,000 and 547,500 WWII veterans that will not see their hospital being completed.

Why? Who is at fault? Who is accountable? Who should be saying “I’m Sorry”?

For a while during the celebration, I felt that the VA should have provided some of those soft casts for some of the speakers. You know, the ones, that are used to immobilize an athlete’s leg or arm when they think it might be broken. I actually thought for a while that some of the speakers might break their arm, dislocate a shoulder or somehow hurt themselves while they patted themselves and each other on their respective backs. They all seemed that they have been doing such great things and promised to continue to keep an ever watchful eye on the progress of the construction of the hospital. Who was watching for the last 27 months?

It appeared to me that there was a lot left unsaid. I didn’t hear where the construction would begin. Which of the eight buildings would they start first? Would they begin with a parking garage? And by the way, when would they begin construction at all?

They might have mentioned the estimated completion date would be sometime in the year 2015.

Hey, we didn’t hear from the construction contractor! Representatives from the Kiewit-Turner construction team were in attendance. I thought it took two parties to sign a contract. And who has the schedule anyway? Are there timelines, target dates or a measurable performance schedule? Why did we only hear from one side?

Actually for me, the highlight of the event was that we have raised $1,500 for the construction of the new Fisher House that is to be built on the South end of the proposed VA Hospital site. This money is being raised through contributions that are rewarded with a “Golden Shovel” lapel pin with the initials B T D T on them. The letters stand for “Build The Damn Thing” and is rapidly becoming the mantra for veterans when it comes to building the replacement VA Hospital at Fitzsimons. If you want a pin, let me know.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m just an ol’ fuddy duddy and being too skeptical. Perhaps, I should just trust more and believe the promises. After all. . . the money has been appropriated. . . the land purchased. . . a fence is in place. . . signs are up proclaiming the “Future site of a new VA Hospital”. . . and we have had “Party in a Tent – Version 3.0”.

Well, just in case, I will continue to monitor the progress and holler, once again when it slows or stops.

“National commander “profoundly disappointed” by impasse, concerned about national security consequences”

American Legion National Commander Fang A. Wong says he is “profoundly disappointed” that the bipartisan Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (the so-called “supercommittee) failed to reach an agreement to cut $1.2 trillion from the federal budget over the next decade.

“They were given an important job to do, and they failed,” Wong said. “What this means to the future of our military and our veterans remains to be seen, but the challenges have now intensified for those who believe in a strong national defense and want to protect the hard-earned benefits of veterans. We are profoundly disappointed in the work of this committee.”

The failure to reach an agreement triggers $1.2 trillion in budget cuts set to take effect in January 2013. Among the reductions is an automatic $492 billion in defense spending.

In a letter to the ranking Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John McCain, R-Ariz., Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said the automatic cuts would roll back ground forces to pre-World War II levels, leave the Navy with a fleet the size of the one in the years before World War I, and reduce the Air Force to its smallest size ever.

“That may be the worst-case scenario, but it could certainly occur unless these automatic cuts are rolled back between now and 2013,” Wong said. “There is still time to avoid Panetta’s nightmare, but we need to use it wisely in pressuring our lawmakers to make sure the Department of Defense has adequate funding to do its vital job.”

The deadlock also triggers another $492 billion in federal cuts starting in 2013 from health, education, drug enforcement, national parks, agriculture programs and social programs.

“Even if VA is OK, that doesn’t mean all veterans’ support programs are necessarily protected, because not all of them are administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs,” American Legion Legislative Division Deputy Director Ian de Planque explained. In recent remarks to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, de Planque noted the vulnerability of veterans’ jobs and homeless programs within the Departments of Labor and Housing and Urban Development.

“That,” said Tim Tetz, director of the Legion’s Legislative Division, “is another good reason to keep up strong post-supercommittee pressure on Congress. Restricting Labor and Housing and Urban Development efforts on behalf of veterans could really damage VA Secretary (Eric) Shinseki’s efforts to end homelessness among veterans, and even the president’s work to curtail veteran joblessness.”

“Because the supercommittee failed to do its job,” Wong said, “it is critically important for us to do ours as advocates. It is vitally important to the future of our nation that Congress does what it must to protect the safety of our nation and the rights of our veterans.

“Spouse Telephone Support Program Demonstrates Improved Quality of Life”

The Department of Veterans Affairs is implementing a telephone support program to help the spouses of returning Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans, after a pilot telephone support program showed significant reduction in stress for spouses.

“Returning to civilian life after living in constant combat readiness can be a shocking transition, and it is the immediate family, the spouses and children, who bear that brunt of that transition with those who served,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “The more support we can provide to the family, the better the outcome will be for our Veterans.”

The spouse telephone support program, which is part of VA’s Caregiver Support Program, builds spouses’ ability to cope with the challenges that reintegration to civilian society can bring, helps them serve as a pillar of support for returning Veterans, and eases the transition for families after deployments. Spouses in the pilot program reported decreased symptoms of depression and anxiety, with an increase in social support.

Spouses participate in 12 telephone support groups over six months. The focus is on problem-solving and communication, relationships, mental health and resilience. A trained, nationwide team of VA medical center staff members, including many caregiver support coordinators, will lead the support groups.

Typical issues spouses and Veterans face after deployment include communication difficulties, the need to renegotiate family roles and responsibilities and the added stress of combat related injury. Spouses of Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have reported feeling overwhelmed, depressed, anxious and frustrated.

“Providing support to family caregivers is the right thing for VA to do,” said Dr. Robert Petzel, VA’s under secretary for health. “A simple series of phone calls can do so much good. Certainly, those who fought for our nation and the spouses who allowed them to make that sacrifice deserve this support.”

The program is based on research by VA researchers Dr. Linda Nichols and Dr. Jennifer Martindale-Adams, of the Memphis VA Medical Center and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Both researchers developed and studied interventions for family members of Veterans and military personnel. Their work with spouses of post-deployed and deployed military personnel is funded through the Defense Health Program, managed by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command.

Local caregiver support coordinators are available to assist Veterans and their caregivers in understanding and applying for VA’s many caregiver benefits. VA also has a Web page, www.caregiver.va.gov, with general information on spouse telephone support and other caregiver support programs available through VA and the community.

“Cause for Celebration – Not Shovels”

Denver, CO – Today, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter and Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet commended the Department of Veterans Affairs and joint venture contractor Kiewit Turner for finally signing the contract to begin construction for the new VA Medical Center at Fitzsimons in Aurora, Colorado. After over two years of delays since the official groundbreaking ceremony with Secretary Shinseki, dirt will finally be turned on this new state-of-the-art medical center to replace the existing Denver Medical Center. The new 182 bed VA Medical Center will have a dedicated spinal cord injury unit, nursing home and comprehensive in and out-patient services.

“It’s time to turn dirt and build this hospital we’ve promised our Veterans for over a decade,” said Perlmutter. “I look forward to witnessing this project in action on Monday with veterans from around the region. Thankfully, we will be there to celebrate and not shovel. I’m glad the VA and Kiewit Turner worked through the contract details, signed the agreement and are ready to proceed with construction.”

“I’m glad the VA and Kiewit-Turner put pen to paper so that actual digging can finally start on the facility. The veterans, the surrounding community and elected officials have put a lot of time and work into this project and it’s heartening to see our efforts pay off to get the process moving again,” Udall said. “Colorado veterans deserve to get a medical center that can adequately take care of them, and I’ll keep watching to make sure they get what they were promised.”

“Now that the contract is signed, we need to start turning dirt and provide Colorado veterans with a state-of-the-art, stand-alone hospital to call their own,” said Bennet. “It’s taken far too long to get to this point, but I’m pleased the VA is making good on its promise to provide Colorado veterans with the world-class medical facility they have earned, fought for and deserve.”

Perlmutter will join veterans from around the region at the construction site of the new VA Medical Center on Monday, Nov. 21. Below are details of the event:

WHAT: Veterans Administration Hospital Construction Event

WHEN: November 21, 2011 – 11:00 am

WHERE: West Lot, 13929 E. 17th Place Aurora, Aurora, CO

Parking will be provided — details to follow.

“Spinal Cord Injury Center to Be Part of the Complex”

The Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded a $580.2 million construction contract to build the Denver VA Medical Center (VAMC) replacement facility on the same campus as the University of Colorado Hospital complex in Aurora, site of the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center.

“This new medical center will not only help provide Veterans with the care they have earned, it will create good-paying jobs that benefit the local economy,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki.

The new 182-bed medical center will include inpatient tertiary care and ambulatory care, a 30-bed Spinal Cord Injury/Disorder Center, a 30-bed nursing home community living center, a research building, and parking structures.

The medical center will employ approximately 2,000 people and serve approximately 82,700 veterans.

The construction component of the contract totaling $580.2 million was awarded to Kiewit-Turner Joint Venture from Englewood, Colo., on Nov. 17. The facility will be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver certified, making the most of renewable energy initiatives. More than 6,300 jobs will be created during the construction of the medical center.

The completion date of the hospital is scheduled for early 2015.

Gen. John J. Pershing facilitated the creation of The American Legion by permitting Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., and three other line officers of the American Expeditionary Forces to call upon their comrades to gather in Paris in March 1919 to consider ways to improve morale among troops still stationed there, months after the armistice that ended World War I.

Pershing whittled a list of 40 to 20 for a February 1919 meeting to discuss the morale issue, which led to the calling of the Paris Caucus in March of that year. One of history’s most celebrated military leaders, Pershing proved to be one of The American Legion’s earliest and most stalwart supporters, not merely because of the caucus he authorized but also due to the spirit behind it.

His words appeared on the cover of the first issue of The American Legion Magazine, published on July 4, 1919. “The Legion is destined to be of tremendous value in fostering the ideals and purposes for which we fought, and in spreading among our people the lessons learned in the war period.”

At the eighth American Legion National Convention in Philadelphia, Pershing received a rare honor. He was named an honorary national commander of the organization. Not normally willing to speak extemporaneously before crowds, the general made an exception, as Legionnaires cheered his name, a band played, and he was called forward. “Legionnaires, it is a great pleasure to be here, and I want you all to know you can always count on me as one of you, as standing shoulder to shoulder, as we did together during the war,” he told the crowd. “We are not a political organization, but political affairs must interest

Legionnaires because they stand for the things that are right, they stand for good environment everywhere. But it is especially important that you interest yourselves in your local communities to see that your representatives are fine, upstanding, alert, honest men, intelligent and efficient, and not slackers nor demagogues.”

American Legion Resolution No. 334, passed by the eighth National Convention of The American Legion in 1926, conferred upon Pershing, commander-in-chief of the AEF, the title of “Honorary Commander of The American Legion.”

Similarly honored at the same convention, in the same resolution, was Marshal Ferdinand Foch, commander-in-chief of the allied armies of the world war.

Some Veterans who were crew members on C-123 Provider aircraft, formerly used to spray Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, have raised health concerns about exposure to residual amounts of herbicides on the plane surfaces.

After reviewing available scientific reports, VA has concluded the potential for long-term adverse health effects from Agent Orange residue in these planes was minimal. Even if crew exposure did occur, it is unlikely that sufficient amounts of dried Agent Orange residue could have entered the body to have caused harm.

How Veterans may have been exposed

During the Vietnam War, C-123 aircraft were used by the U.S. Air Force to spray Agent Orange to clear jungles that provided enemy cover in Vietnam. At the end of the spraying campaign in 1971, the remaining C-123 planes were reassigned to reserve units for routine cargo and medical evacuation missions spanning the next 10 years.

Crew members had reported smelling strong odors but these odors may be attributed to various chemicals associated with aircraft. TCDD, the contaminant in Agent Orange, is odorless.

Testing for Agent Orange residue on planes used in Vietnam

The U.S. Air Force collected numerous samples from C-123 aircraft to test for the dioxin TCDD. Because TCDD adheres to surfaces and does not dissolve in water, a solvent (hexane) was used to dislodge any remaining residue.

Based on thorough analysis of samples taken from the planes, VA determined that it is unlikely that residual Agent Orange in the planes caused long-term adverse health effects for crew who flew or maintained these planes after the Vietnam War.

Health effects of Agent Orange residue

The health effects of exposure to Agent Orange and Agent Orange residue on airplanes differ from exposure by direct contact with liquid Agent Orange. In liquid or spray form, Agent Orange can enter the body by inhalation or ingestion (such as hand to mouth contact or getting into food). But in the dry form – for example, adhered to a surface – Agent Orange residue cannot be inhaled or absorbed through the skin, and would be difficult to ingest.

Harmful exposure depends on the amount and concentration of contaminated material present, as well as its ability to enter the body. After reviewing available scientific reports, VA has concluded the potential for long-term adverse health effects from Agent Orange residue in these planes was minimal. Even if crew exposure did occur, it is unlikely that sufficient amounts of dried Agent Orange residue could have entered the body to have caused harm.

Research studies on Agent Orange

Research on the health effects of Agent Orange and TCDD continues. Many diverse populations have been studied, including herbicide sprayers and manufacturers, other Vietnam-era Veterans, and those exposed during industrial accidents.

Find out more about research on health effects of Agent Orange.

VA benefits

Veterans who believe they were exposed to Agent Orange or other tactical herbicide residue on C-123 aircraft must show on a factual basis that they were exposed in order to receive disability compensation for diseases associated with Agent Orange exposure.

VA does not presume by regulation that these Veterans were exposed to Agent Orange. VA does presume exposure to Agent Orange for Veterans who served in Vietnam because of the lack of exposure information that is available.

Culminating a strong push by The American Legion to improve work opportunities for America’s jobless veterans, the House of Representatives has passed the final version of legislation that will help provide jobs for about one million veterans who are currently unemployed.

Provisions of the bill, passed by the Senate on Nov. 10, include expanded education and training and transition assistance for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as older veterans.

The VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011, shepherded through the legislative process by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., has several provisions that fall in line with recommendations made to Congress last September by American Legion National Commander Fang A. Wong.

“The final version of this bill passed today by the House, the VOW to Hire Heroes Act, is welcome news to us and to America’s jobless veterans,” Wong said. “It shows us that Congress still knows how to compromise for the good of our country, and we want to thank Sen. Murray and Rep. Miller for their impressive efforts in building the consensus that got this legislation passed.”

The new legislation, once signed into law, will provide tax credits to businesses that hire veterans who are out of work — $5,600 for each veteran and $9,600 for each disabled veteran.

Wong said that veterans should not be held hostage by partisan politics. “The American Legion has been urging Congress to pass this legislation quickly and not jeopardize it by attaching other provisions — like tax increases — that have nothing to do with getting our veterans back into the civilian work force.”

Key provisions of the bill include:

•Tax credit of up to $5,600 for hiring veterans who have been looking for a job for more than six months, as well as a $2,400 credit for veterans who are unemployed for more than four weeks, but less than six months.

•Tax credit of up to $9,600 for hiring veterans with service-connected disabilities who have been looking for a job for more than six months.

•Makes the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) — an interagency workshop coordinated by the departments of Defense, Labor and Veterans Affairs — mandatory for servicemembers moving on to civilian life to help them secure meaningful jobs through resume-writing workshops and career counseling.

•Expands education and training opportunities for older veterans by providing 100,000 unemployed veterans of past eras and wars with up to one year of additional Montgomery GI Bill benefits for education or training programs at community colleges and technical schools.

•Provides disabled veterans up to one year of additional vocational rehabilitation and employment benefits.

•Allows servicemembers to start looking for federal jobs before separating from active duty in order to facilitate a truly seamless transition from the military to jobs at federal agencies.

According to Tim Tetz, the Legion’s legislative director, provisions of the bill are fully paid for by a continuation of existing VA Home Loan fees and other savings within VA. “The VOW to Hire Heroes Act won’t add to our federal deficit. But it does add to what the Legion has been pressing Congress to do for some time — help our veterans get jobs. We look forward, in the very near future, to having President Obama sign this bill into law.”

The unemployment rate for about a quarter-million veterans who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan stands at about 12 percent. Of the estimated one million jobless veterans in America, two-thirds of them fall within the 35- to 64-age group.

By Alan Dowd

Veterans groups on both sides of the Atlantic are voicing opposition to French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to allow energy firms to build up to 100 wind turbines off the Normandy coast. If Sarkozy’s plans go forward, massive turbines – up to 525 feet high – will be planted seven miles off what was known as “Juno Beach” on D-Day. This is a bad idea for at least two reasons.

First and foremost, there’s the historical importance of the waters that lap onto Normandy – waters that delivered the largest amphibious-landing force in history, waters that turned red with the blood of heroes on June 6, 1944.

Claiming that the project will power 4.5 million homes, French government officials promise that the giant windmills will be so far out to sea that they will be like “matchsticks” to those gazing out from the beaches.

World War II veterans and historical societies aren’t buying that defense.

“They will be visible from all the Normandy landing beaches: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword,” Gérard Lecornu, president of the Port Winston Churchill Association of Arromanches, told Britain’s Telegraph newspaper. “D-Day is in our collective memory. To touch this is a very grave attack on that memory.”

How grave? In Britain, some veteran RAF pilots have warned – perhaps tongue-in-cheek, perhaps not – that they might take to the air again to bomb the windmills.

Tim Holbert, executive director of the American Veterans Center, wants the French to rethink the placement of the wind turbines. “Thousands died there,” he told Fox News. “It’s considered sacred ground for a lot of people.”

Given that Juno was Canada’s beachhead on D-Day, Sarkozy’s plans are especially unsettling to Canadian veterans. Calling the Normandy beaches “hallowed grounds,” D-Day veteran Jack Martin described the wind-farm plans as “a disgusting affair” in an interview with Canada’s CTV network.

That sort of reaction has led some to launch a petition drive with the aim of asking the U.N. to designate the beaches as a historically protected area.

According to Rudyard Griffiths, co-founder of a Toronto-based historical group, “To be able to walk those beaches, and see them and imagine them as if it was 1944 is, in some ways, essential to keeping that historical memory alive.”

There’s something to that. Would we want a solar-panel field filling the World Trade Center’s footprint, a wind turbine on top of the USS Arizona Memorial, or an oil derrick sprouting up from Gettysburg’s Little Round Top?

In fact, in an interview with The Daily Caller’s Caroline May, military historian Paul Stillwell noted that something not too dissimilar happened in Gettysburg. “Some years ago,” he explained, “an entrepreneur put up a large observation tower [on the Gettysburg battleground], which was considered a desecration, and public opinion was such that it was finally demolished.”

The planned Normandy-area wind farm is just one part of a massive effort to plant 1,200 turbines along the French coastline by 2020. The French government believes that the $28.6 billion wind-farm project will create 10,000 jobs and generate the electricity equivalent of two nuclear power plants, according to the Telegraph. Best of all, say the project’s proponents, it’s all clean and green.

That brings us to a second problem with Sarkozy’s wind-farm plans: Modern-day windmills may not produce greenhouse gases, but they are anything but environmentally friendly.

As Robert Bryce, editor of the Energy Tribune, reports, wind turbines in the United States kill between 75,000 and 275,000 birds annually. He points out that a county agency in California concluded that a wind farm in California’s Altamont Pass kills 10,000 birds – “nearly all protected by the Migratory Bird Act” – per year.

Writing in Canada’s Financial Post, Diane Katz notes that “Such numbers earned wind-power generators the moniker ‘Cuisinarts of the Air,’ but not indictments.” She adds that in Canada “the wind-power industry enjoys a degree of political favor that would make most other energy executives green with envy. The province of Ontario, for example, actually requires utilities to purchase wind power at inflated rates.”

The double standards aren’t confined north of the border. Bryce notes that ExxonMobil was hauled before a federal court and had to pay a fine of $600,000 when the oil giant pled guilty to killing 85 birds that had inadvertently been exposed to hazardous areas on its property. PacifiCorp, an electric utility, was ordered to pay $1.4 million for killing 232 eagles.

“Yet there is one group of energy producers that are not being prosecuted for killing birds: wind-power companies,” Bryce writes. “And wind-powered turbines are killing a vast number of birds every year.”

To be sure, finding alternative sources of energy is important for Europeans and Americans alike, and U.S. law has nothing to do with how France generates electricity. But if Sarkozy wants to power France with clean, green, bird-killing windmills, he should find someplace else to do it. Given what Americans did for France at Normandy, we’ve earned the right to tell him that.

The Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes and The American Legion are giving $120,000 in Thanksgiving checks to 2,000 wounded veterans and servicemembers

(WASHINGTON) Nov. 16, 2011 – For the second year in a row, the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes (CSAH) and The American Legion are joining forces to ensure that 2,000 military veterans and servicemembers – severely wounded in Afghanistan or Iraq – get to enjoy a special meal at Thanksgiving with those closest to them.

During the week of Nov.14, the two non-profit organizations will be mailing out 2,000 gift checks worth $60 each to disabled veterans or servicemembers across the country, so they can use the money to celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends. The funds come from charitable contributions made to the CSAH, which has been providing emergency financial aid and other support services since 2004 to veterans injured in operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

“Our donors feel very strongly that these brave men and women should not only be assisted with rebuilding their lives, but also recognized for the sacrifices they have made to defend our freedoms. And what better time to do that than on Thanksgiving?” said David Walker, chairman of the CSAH’s board of directors. “We are very grateful to The American Legion for helping us identify so many deserving recipients of these checks, and enabling us to deliver them promptly and efficiently.”

Peter Gaytan, executive director of The American Legion in Washington, said “Once again, we are honored to join with the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes in such a worthwhile undertaking. Thanksgiving is a time when all Americans take stock of their many blessings. One of those blessings everyone should appreciate is the dedication of our men and women in uniform who protect our country’s liberties with their lives.”

In addition to this year’s joint initiative with The American Legion, the CSAH will be providing another 1,000 checks of equal value to severely wounded veterans and servicemembers listed in the organization’s own records. That will bring to nearly 8,000 the number of Thanksgiving gift checks the CSAH has distributed since 2009. The Connecticut-based organization also provides wounded servicemembers with checks of varying amounts for other holidays, such as Christmas and Easter.

About the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes

The Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes is a leading non-profit organization dedicated to helping severely wounded troops from Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The mission of the organization is to enable these servicemen and women to transition from the battlefront to the home front and to provide them and their families with the assistance needed to get their lives back on track.

For more information on how the CSAH can help you or to learn how you can help, please visit the organization’s website at www.saluteheroes.org.