Ceremony pushes to raise veteran awareness

Veterans, spouses, and family members congregated at Wrangell High School Monday evening for a ceremony that was one part commemorative and one part functional.

The commemoration came first. Veterans were honored for their service to the country with speeches and commemorative coins, part of a longstanding tradition that has risen to prominence among more recent veterans. The commemoration also included a traditional "empty table" memorial display for veterans who could not join the ranks for the memorial, which included a lit candle and a bell.

"Many people say 'I could have done this,'" said Verdie Bowen, the director of the Office of Veterans Affairs for the Alaska Department of Veterans and Military Affairs. "We get to say 'I did this.'"

His boss, Thomas Katkus, a two-star general and the Commissoner of Veterans and Military Affairs for the state, recounted his youth and upbringing in the veteran-heavy region of south-central Alaska he grew up in.

"When I was growing up, I thought everyone was a veteran," he said. "There were so many veterans in that part of the country."

The ceremony was one facet of two new programs aimed at assisting veterans across Southeast Alaska. The first is a state-wide and country-wide push aimed at encouraging veterans to register for healthcare benefits provided by the federal Department of Veterans Affairs. Many veterans don't enroll because they feel they don't need the help, Katkus told the crowd. While a higher number of Veterans are enrolled in Alaska than across the country – Bowen put the number at 43 percent of all veterans – the number is still far less than the goal.

"We really need to try and get that to 50 percent," he said. "I've set it up incrementally, so first we get 50 percent, then we get 60 percent."

The goal is to enroll veterans – Military and Veterans Affairs figures show about 279 veterans living in the Wrangell area – in the VA service before they need it, Bowen said.

"If we can get them enrolled while they're healthy, when they're sick and something goes really bad then we're able to help them instantaneously," he said.

"If I could have 100 percent, I'd be happy," he added.

Some veterans don't register for injuries sustained while in the service, which entitles them to better pay, Bowen said.

The other recent push is to provide infrastructure to local veterans to get services they may need but may be unable to access amid the geographic challenges of Southeast, Bowen said. To that end, the department has started pushing for veterans to use teleconference technology to gain access to mental health services.

The department is pushing for "tele-mental health services on the island," he said. "We started in Sitka."

Southeast will lead the regions for this push, given its unique island community structure, Bowen said.

"I sort of centralized here in Southeast Alaska, because if we can do it here on the islands with the bandwidth limitations, we can do it anywhere," he said.

Vietnam Veterans were honored twice during Monday's ceremony, a measure aimed at compensating them for times when they may have faced a harsh or unwelcoming reaction from a divided 1970s public weary from the Vietnam War.

"We're here to recognize the great work and effort of our veterans and especially to welcome our Vietnam veterans home," Katkus said. "They missed that opportunity when they returned originally and we wanna see what we can do to make that up to at least get out there and thank them for their service."

Some local veterans said they felt honored for the recognition, like Herald Snoddy. Monday's ceremony was held on the 44th anniversary of a ceremony commemorating a legislative citation for his reception of the Distinguished Service Cross, the highest honor awarded to service members of the US Army for combat service.

"I was drafted in 1967 and I got out in July of 1969," he said.

He hesitated to discuss the particulars of his service, but said combat veterans face a host of issues that non-combat veterans may not face.

"There's quite a bit" of difference between the two, he said. "Depending on the type of combat that you're in. It was very intense."

The ceremony meant a lot, Snoddy said.

"It's been a long time," he said. "It's been over 20 some years since Veterans was here."

Snoddy registered for his benefits in Juneau, but urged other veterans to register locally.

One example is Michael Steele, a Prince of Wales Island resident in town to participate in the ceremony. He was attending a Tribal Veterans Representative training session when he said he experienced a severe medical issue. Rhonda Christian, who helped organize the event and also attended the training, insisted that he see a doctor, and then rushed him to the local emergency room.

A Vietnam veteran, he attended Monday's ceremony at the invitation of the Christians.

His registration saved him a lot of money, Steele said.

"I asked the doctor how much it would cost if I was a civilian and didn't have insurance," he said. "The doctor told me thousands of dollars. Because I was registered, it didn't cost me one red penny."