The American Legion Department of Colorado Blog

Thousands of families have been helped through Family Support Network, while more than $500,000 has been delivered through Temporary Financial Assistance grants.

The American Legion’s support for U.S. servicemembers goes well beyond lobbying for better quality of life and higher pay, as well as fair benefits once those men and women leave the military. Since the organization’s inception, that support has been extended to the families of those serving in harm’s way.

Two programs that are perfect examples of that support are Temporary Financial Assistance and the Family Support Network. Temporary Financial Assistance (TFA) is funded through The American Legion Endowment Fund, which was established in the 1920s. Through TFA, a local post can request cash assistance to help maintain the basic needs of veterans’ children. The fund helps families meet the costs of shelter, food, utilities and health expenses when parents are unable, thereby keeping the minor child or children in a more stable home environment.

The Family Support Network (FSN) is a grass roots-based program that puts local Legion posts in touch with the families of activated or deployed servicemembers, providing assistance and referrals to those families facing undue hardships with minor tasks such as grocery shopping, child care, mowing the grass or fixing the family car.

In 2010, TFA disbursed grants totaling more than $515,000, benefiting 530 families with 1,408 children. In one instance, a husband and wife, both veterans, had exhausted their unemployment benefits. They applied for extensions, but the decision could have taken weeks. TFA assisted with keeping the rent current and purchasing groceries to ensure the well-being of the four minor children. In another instance, a veteran returned from his third deployment to not only find out his civilian job was no longer in existence, but that his wife was leaving him and his two children. TFA assisted with the rent and utilities, while local Legionnaires are currently working with him to secure employment.

For more information about TFA eligibility, click here . To donate to The American Legion Endowment Fund, mail checks or money orders, made out to The American Legion Endowment Fund, to The American Legion Endowment Fund, P.O. Box 1055, Indianapolis, IN 46206, or click here to donate online.

Meanwhile, the Family Support Network aided thousands of families of servicemembers during 2010. Like many Legion programs, the real work of the Family Support Network is done at the post level, and many of the best FSN stories never even reach the eyes and ears of National Headquarters because many families in need know to contact their local Legion post first. Those posts have already laid the network’s groundwork by establishing strong relationships with surrounding military families.

To contact the Family Support network, click here or call (800) 504-4098. Calls are referred to The American Legion department in which the call originated. Departments relay the collected information to a local American Legion post, which then contacts the servicemember or family to see how assistance can be provided locally.

House Veterans’ Affairs Committee challenges senior executive, JPMorgan Chase employees to take personal responsibility for SCRA violations.

It was an eventful morning on Feb. 9 for a senior executive of JPMorgan Chase, the giant financial institution accused of violating lending rules that – in several cases – caused military families to lose their homes. Stephanie Mudick, Chase’s vice president in charge of consumer practices, sat alone as members of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee grilled her about the company’s handling of mortgage loan provisions in the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA).

The committee’s ranking minority member, Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., challenged Mudick and fellow JPMorgan Chase employees in absentia to take personal – not corporate – responsibility for violations that reportedly caused emotional and financial distress for a number of servicemembers and their families.

Mudick answered emotionally charged accusations with a “personal assurance” that the institution never intentionally harmed servicemembers in efforts to collect its mortgage payments.

Last month, The American Legion called upon all U.S. financial institutions that handle mortgages for military families to make sure they are complying with provision of the SCRA.

“This is a sad situation, to discover that any bank may be violating a law intended to ease the pressure of financial concerns while people are serving in uniform,” said Jimmie Foster, the Legion’s national commander.

Under terms of the SCRA, provisions are made to cap interest rates on home mortgages for active-duty military personnel. In a lawsuit filed on behalf of Jonathon Rowles and his wife, Julia, JPMorgan Chase is accused of continuing to charge the couple mortgage rates that exceeded the cap after Rowles joined the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and was called to active duty.

Chase is also accused of repeatedly misplacing documents that proved Rowles was on active duty, and of making collection calls the couple considered “harassing.” Both Rowles, now a Marine Corps captain, and his wife testified at the hearing. So did their attorney, Richard “Dick” Harpootlian, known to the public as Fox News Channel’s legal expert.

Harpootlian said the original lawsuit has now been expanded to class-action status and includes those who “received a blighted credit report as the result of their invocation of SCRA protection, those whose homes were foreclosed upon despite SCRA protection, and those possessing installment contracts that were cancelled or resulted in repossession of personal property, such as automobiles, despite SCRA protection.”

At the hearing, Harpootlian suggested jail sentences as appropriate punishment for SCRA violators.

In her oral testimony before the HVAC, Mudick said JPMorgan Chase assumed “full responsibility” for the SCRA violations, characterizing the alleged 4,500 cases of mishandled interest rates and 18 wrongful foreclosures as products of human error. She said lack of internal training left many Chase employees with little, if any, knowledge of SCRA regulations and the intricacies of military documentation, saying that “military orders are sometimes hard to comprehend.”

In response, Rep. Tim Walz, I-Minn., produced his iPad, upon which he exhibited a simple one-page set of military orders. In contrast, he held up a Chase credit card agreement spanning dozens of pages. He called Mudick’s statement “the weakest testimony I’ve ever heard in this committee.”

Nevertheless, in both written and oral testimony, Mudick assured committee members that many “enhanced controls” were now in place at Chase to compensate victims of the SCRA violations and to prevent future occurrences. Among those, she said, was an SCRA telephone “help line” staffed by veterans.

Although Mudick’s appearance elicited the most dramatic moments of the two-and-a-half hour hearing, other panelists spoke as well. Among them was U.S. Army Col. Shawn Shumake from DoD’s Office of Legal Policy. He outlined the legal structure and history of the SCRA, and how military attorneys are trained to deal with violations of the act. Shumake emphasized, as did committee members, the importance of servicemembers familiarizing themselves with the SCRA’s provisions.

Hollister Petraeus, head of the Treasury Department’s new Office of Servicemember Affairs, also testified at the hearing.

“Protecting our servicemembers from suffering devastating financial repercussions for answering the call to service is not only the right thing to do – it is also important to our national security,” Petraeus said. “A recent Department of Defense survey found that servicemembers consider their finances to be the second-largest source of stress in their lives, behind career concerns but ahead of deployments, health, family – and war.”

Petraeus was dismayed to learn about the recent allegations of mortgage-related violations of SCRA. “I hope that the recent attention to this issue will cause all lenders to take steps to educate their employees about the financial protections that the SCRA provides, and to take appropriate proactive steps to ensure compliance,” she said.

Committee Chair Jeff Miller, R-Fla., summed up the proceedings. “Our nation’s war fighters and their families should not have to fight to keep their piece of the American Dream, while they are on foreign ground defending that fundamental right for all of us,” he said. “While I am heartened that JPMorgan Chase Bank is attempting to fix these errors with respect to wrongful foreclosures, and is refunding over $2.4 million in excessive interest charges, more must be done to ensure that this never happens again. I hope this is a wake-up call for the entire financial services industry.”

The JPMorgan Chase case is still in litigation, but is entering a mediation phase.

By Daniel S. Wheeler ,The American Legion National Adjutant

When it comes to inviting prospective members to your post, give them a reason to return.

In my 40-plus years in the workplace, I’ve learned at least two things: The right amount of meetings that are conducted correctly can lead to results, while too many meetings with too much groupthink tends to stand in the way of progress. It holds true whether you’re talking about the boardroom of a multinational corporation or the executive committee of an American Legion post of 50 members. Meetings are a necessary evil and can produce results. But they do not offer up much in the way of entertainment value.

Yet some Legionnaires, when trying to recruit new members, choose a post meeting as the potential member’s first exposure to the Legion. Imagine the situation: a 22-year-old, fresh off a tour in Iraq or Afghanistan, sitting in the background while the post membership goes over the minutes of the previous meeting. Or, the young veteran listens to a line-by-line examination of the post budget. If that young veteran is still in the audience, what do you think his chances are of returning to the post? At that age, would you?

It’s great that you’re getting prospective members into the post, but we need to give them a reason to return. That’s why Denise Rohan, the National Membership & Post Activities Committee chairman, takes a different approach when seeking out new members. During the M&PA Workshop earlier this month, Rohan shared her strategy for bringing members into Post 333 in Sun Prairie, Wis. Rohan doesn’t fancy herself a salesperson; rather, she uses strategy instead of a smooth pitch.

“Instead of inviting them directly to a meeting, I would tell them what the Legion does, and then I would invite them to one of our events,” Rohan says. “When you get them to the event, and they see what wonderful things we do, the next step is to bring them to a meeting. Those meetings sometimes aren’t exactly the most exciting things to come to. My goal was to get people to come to an event, and then bring them into the organization. Once we got them in the door … we listened to what they were interested in and matched them up with a mentor or chairman. Then they would be active. Then they would keep coming back.”

There’s no doubting the effectiveness of Rohan’s strategy. As post commander, she had two 100-percent membership years. It seems like a simple idea, but most genius ideas are rooted in simplicity. Why tell a potential member what the Legion is doing during the course of a post meeting when you can show him or her, in person, exactly what we’re doing? What’s the easier sales pitch?

Invite these veterans, young or old, to an American Legion Baseball game. Having a Christmas party for local children? Invite those veterans to come in and observe – or maybe even help out with the party. If your post has a Legion Riders chapter raising funds for The American Legion Legacy Scholarship Fund, introduce some of the Riders to the potential members.

People want to belong to an organization that does some good. We do a lot. Show that fact off, and others will join.

Plenty of care and aid is available to servicemembers who return from deployments with severe injuries and disabilities, but not as much attention is paid to veterans who separate and have bad financial situations or poor employment prospects waiting for them at home. This is a demographic of veteran that VeteransPlus, a nonprofit financial counseling and education company for veterans, hopes to address and serve. Per a resolution passed at last May’s Spring Meetings, The American Legion and VeteransPlus have an official national partnership.

Under that partnership, VeteransPlus can send licensed financial counselors to Legion posts across the country to conduct financial seminars for area veterans who are interested in improving their credit scores, balancing their budgets, protecting their identities, managing their benefits and staying afloat financially during tough economic times. The seminars are free of charge, and the counselors perform their services without any cost to the posts.

“There are plenty of programs that are out there that exist to help severely injured servicemembers when they return,” said John Pickens, VeteransPlus executive director. “There is a pretty good safety net for them. What there is not a pretty good safety net for is for those folks who come back (from serving) with financial woes – and believe me there is a lot of them – who need a resource.”

VeteransPlus, founded by veterans, can work in conjunction with Legion posts to provide grassroots consultation to military who are struggling to make ends meet or who just have questions or concerns about financial matters. Veterans on an individual basis can also receive advisement by calling VeteransPlus (888) 991-9579 or visiting its website.

“Callers have been interested in credit, identity theft, mortgage issues and basic budgeting to name some popular topics,” said Christopher Fitzpatrick, CEO of VeteransPlus. “Every call we feel like we are very successful because even if we don’t resolve an issue, the budget check-up piece almost always reveals an opportunity for them to improve their financial circumstance… Our counselors reported that two homes were saved (through Legion involvement).”

Fitzpatrick stresses the impact his organization’s financial counselors can have when they visit posts, saying that they can even offer a valuable service to communities that are affluent or without younger veterans. The OEF/OIF veterans aren’t alone in their financial woes, he says.

“Even at posts that are ‘well-healed’ or in a financially prosperous area with older veterans, there is a place for financial outreach to veterans,” Fitzpatrick said. “I’m a Vietnam veteran. Folks in my age group are also struggling with financial concerns because they’ve retired and retirement income is not what they thought it would be. Expenses exceed what they thought they would be when retirement was planned. Many of them are forced into some very difficult financial stressors at an age when they aren’t able to go back into the workforce. They need some very good financial education about how to do a better budgeting plan and how to better understand financial circumstances.”

Bob Madden, assistant director of the Legion’s Economic Division, agreed, saying that, while the Legion’s relationship with VeteransPlus is still maturing, it has the potential to perform an invaluable service to veterans.

“We see that financial literacy and budgeting all play a role in getting people help in these tough economic times,” Madden said. “It’s really good for everybody, whether they’re Legion members or not, to understand the information VeteransPlus offers and to get this information to the masses.”

Posts interested in procuring the services of a VeteransPlus financial advisor can e-mail representatives from the organization at headquarters@veteransplus.org, or call (888) 991-9579.

By: Duane Mercier, National AV Production Manager

Several recruits took their oath of enlistment during the recent Mid Winter Conference in Colorado Springs, CO.

More than 130 enlistees take the oath of enlistment during the Department of Colorado’s mid-winter conference.

More than 130 enlistees from recruiting stations in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Wyoming all took the oath of enlistment in Colorado Springs as part of the Department of Colorado mid-winter conference on January 28.

U.S. Army Reserve Maj. Gen. Steven Best delivered the oath of enlistment to the future soldiers who are on delayed enlistment entry programs. Dignitaries from the Department of Colorado American Legion family were in attendance, as were members of the enlistee’s families.

The annual ceremony is the result of a 2008 agreement between the U.S. Army Recruiting Command in Denver and the Department of Colorado. This year’s was the third such ceremony conducted at the department’s mid-winter conference.

The ceremony was held on the opening day of the conference. During the ceremony, Department of Colorado Commander Richard Friend and National Vice Commander William Schrier encouraged the enlistees and their families to turn to The American Legion for support during and after their service.

The video is now posted to Legion TV

This link takes you to the YouTube version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xCOJENgrLs

“Assessment Key to Preventing and Ending Homelessness”

For the first time, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development today published the most authoritative analysis of the extent and nature of homelessness among Veterans. According to HUD and VA’s assessment, nearly 76,000 Veterans were homeless on a given night in 2009 while roughly 136,000 Veterans spent at least one night in a shelter during that year.

This unprecedented assessment is based on an annual report HUD provides to Congress and explores in greater depth the demographics of Veterans who are homeless, how the number of Veterans compare to others who are homeless, and how Veterans access and use the nation’s homeless response system. HUD’s report, Veteran Homelessness: A Supplement to the 2009 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress <http://www.hudhre.info/documents/2009AHARVeteransReport.pdf> , examines the data in the department’s annual report to Congress in-depth.

“With our federal, state and community partners working together, more Veterans are moving into safe housing,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “But we’re not done yet. Providing assistance in mental health, substance abuse treatment, education and employment goes hand-in-hand with preventive steps and permanent supportive housing. We continue to work towards our goal of finding every Veteran safe housing and access to needed services.”

Last June, President Obama announced the nation’s first comprehensive strategy to prevent and end homelessness, including a focus on homeless Veterans. The report, Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, puts the country on a path to end Veterans and chronic homelessness by 2015; and to ending homelessness among children, family, and youth by 2020. Read more about the Administration’s strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness in America <http://www.usich.gov/PDF/OpeningDoorsOverview.pdf> .

Key Findings of Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness

• More than 3,000 cities and counties reported 75,609 homeless Veterans on a single night in January of 2009; 57 percent were staying in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program while the remaining 43 percent were unsheltered. Veterans represent approximately 12 percent of all homeless persons counted nationwide during the 2009 ‘point-in-time snapshot.’

• During a 12-month period in 2009, an estimated 136,000 Veterans-or about 1 in every 168 Veterans-spent at least one night in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program. The vast majority of sheltered homeless Veterans (96 percent) experienced homelessness alone while a much smaller share (four percent) was part of a family. Sheltered homeless Veterans are most often individual white men between the ages of 31 and 50 and living with a disability.

• Low-income Veterans are twice as likely to become homeless compared to all low-income adults. HUD and VA also examined the likelihood of becoming homeless among American Veterans with particular demographic characteristics. In 2009, twice as many poor Hispanic Veterans used a shelter at some point during the year compared with poor non-Hispanic Veterans. African American Veterans in poverty had similar rates of homelessness.

• Most Veterans who used emergency shelter stayed for only brief periods. One-third stayed in shelter for less than one week; 61 percent used a shelter for less than one month; and 84% stayed for less than three months. The report also concluded that Veterans remained in shelters longer than did non-Veterans. In 2009, the median length of stay for Veterans who were alone was 21 days in an emergency shelter and 117 days in transitional housing. By contrast, non-veteran individuals stayed in an emergency shelter for 17 days and 106 days in transitional housing.

• Nearly half of homeless Veterans were located in California, Texas, New York and Florida while only 28 percent of all Veterans were located in those same four States.

• The report studied the path homeless Veterans take into the shelter system and found most Veterans come from another homeless location and few entered the shelter system from their own housing or from housing provided by family or friends.

• Sheltered homeless Veterans are far more likely to be alone rather than part of a family household; 96 percent of Veterans are individuals compared to 63 percent in the overall homeless population.

For more information on VA’s efforts to end homelessness among Veterans, visit VA’s Web page at www.va.gov/homelessness.

The importance of taking care of your heart! While Women’s Heart Week (February 1-7) spotlights the risk of heart disease in women, heart disease is an issue for all seasons.

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in American women.

“One in 30 women die from breast cancer; 1 in 2.6 dies from cardiovascular disease. Women don’t realize their own risk,” says Dr. Sally Haskell, Acting Director, and Comprehensive Women’s Health for VA’s Women Veteran’s Health Strategic Health Care Group, and physician at the VA New England Health Care System.

Dr. Haskell says women often underestimate the threat and there’s still the misconception that heart disease is more of a man’s disease.

But for women who are dealing with such problems as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes or obesity, the risk is equal, if not greater in some cases.

For example, diabetes increases women’s risk of heart disease more than for men’s.

Another notable difference is that sometimes the symptoms in women suffering a heart attack can be out of the ordinary.

“The presentation of heart disease and heart attack can present a little differently. Women are a little bit more likely than men to have atypical symptoms such as shortness of breath, or pain in the neck or jaw [rather] than typical symptoms such as chest pain,” says Dr. Haskell.

Only recently has women’s heart health come to the forefront of health conversations. In 2008, Dr. Hani Jneid, assistant director of Interventional Cardiology at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, led a study to investigate the disparities between men and women’s heart health care.

The study found that women were less likely than men to receive the early medical treatments and invasive procedures critical to combating heart disease.

“What was fascinating in our findings is that we showed persistent disparities in care in a very large contemporary national multicenter registry, and the fact that women appeared not only to be under-treated but also to receive more delay in care,” says Dr. Jneid.

Taking Control

Since then doctors such as Jneid and Haskell have been focused on educating women Veterans and fellow health care providers about heart disease.

“We educate [women] not to discard these symptoms, to seek medical care early, and to have their risk factors monitored and controlled,” says Dr. Jneid.

Controlling one’s diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol, eating a healthy diet, getting regular exercise and not smoking — all can be critical steps to preventing heart disease.

As part of the Women Veterans Health Strategic Health Care Group, Dr. Haskell has partnered with health care providers to provide patients with methods to control their risks and to be alert to symptoms.

“We are not only educating health care providers about the disease but also educating them in how to talk to their patients.”

And with patients and doctors talking to increase awareness, the goal of better heart health is closer for all Veterans.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is launching the first of a series of new and enhanced services supporting family caregivers of seriously ill and injured Veterans. In May 2010, President Obama signed the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010 legislation authorizing VA to establish a wide range of new services to support certain caregivers of eligible Post 9/11 Veterans.

“Caregivers make tremendous sacrifices every day to help Veterans of all eras who served this nation,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “They are critical partners with VA in the recovery and comfort of ill and injured Veterans, and they deserve our continued training, support and gratitude.”

“DAV is happy to hear that caregivers of Veterans are getting additional support and services to care for our Nation’s heroes and unprecedented new services for our most recent severely ill and injured,” said David W. Gorman, executive director of the Washington Headquarters of the Disabled American Veterans. “We understand there are challenges to implementing the new law; including ensuring that critically ill and injured Veterans of all eras are similarly supported.”

In addition to the new benefits and services for eligible Veterans who were disabled in the line of duty since Sept. 11, 2001 (Post 9/11 Veterans), VA will also begin providing enhanced benefits and services to caregivers of Veterans of all eras who are already enrolled in VA care, including:

• Access to VA’s toll-free Caregiver Support Line: 1-855-260-3274,

• Expanded education and training on caring for Veterans at home,

• Other support services such as counseling and support groups and referral services; and

• An enhanced website for caregivers.

Some of the new benefits of the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act are restricted by law to the caregivers of the most seriously ill and injured Post 9/11 Veterans. Those additional benefits include:

• A monthly stipend,

• Health care coverage,

• Travel expenses, including lodging and per diem while accompanying Veterans undergoing care,

• Respite care; and

• Mental health services and counseling.

VA will take the opportunity to report to Congress in the future on the feasibility of expanding the enhanced services to family caregivers of Veterans of all eras.

While some of these enhanced benefits are available now, many of the other significant newly-enacted benefits will require the issuance of regulations. These additional benefits include monthly stipends, pay for travel costs, medical coverage, training, counseling and respite care designed to prevent institutionalization of Veterans whenever possible. The law requires detailed regulations for determining eligibility, designating and approving caregivers, and providing stipends and health care coverage to primary family caregivers. The complex process required to implement these regulations will provide Veterans, caregivers and the general public the opportunity to provide comments before those regulations are finalized.

“VA has supported caregivers of Veterans of all eras for almost eight decades,” said Deborah Amdur of VA’s Care Management and Social Work Service, “and we know from our experience and research that Veterans are best served when they can live their lives as independently as possible surrounded by caring family and friends.”

Each VA medical center has designated caregiver support coordinators who will assist eligible Veterans and caregivers in understanding and applying for the new benefits. VA also has a Caregiver Support Web page, www.caregiver.va.gov, which will provide general information once final regulations are published.

Legion expresses appreciation to representative from Minnesota for withdrawing proposal to cut VA spending and veterans health benefits.

The American Legion is expressing its thanks to Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., for withdrawing her proposal to cut $4.5 billion in VA spending and veterans health benefits. Her decision came one week after the Legion and other veterans service organizations protested the recommendation.

Bachmann told The American Legion she heard from many of its members after she proposed the VA cuts last month. “Their comments played a key role in my decision to remove that ($4.5 billion) item from the discussion, and I’m grateful for their input,” she said.

“Rep. Bachmann has done what our elected representatives should do in situations like this,” American Legion National Commander Jimmie Foster said. “She listened to her constituents, to veterans, and acted according to their interests.

“We know this is a tough time and that difficult budget decisions are coming, but we’ve all worked too hard to establish an excellent VA health-care system to let it slide now.”

The $4.5 billion in VA budget cuts were part of a proposal (derived from a Heritage Foundation report) to reduce federal spending by $400 billion. The report projected $2.5 billion in savings from a freeze on VA health-care spending and another $1.9 billion saved by eliminating disability payments for veterans who receive Social Security Disability Income.

“Government spending is a serious issue that demands hard work and tough decisions from members of Congress,” Bachmann told the Legion. “We do need to make serious cuts in spending, but not at the expense of our nation’s heroes.”