I not too long ago and he says hey you
know I once I got out was able to get it
you know gainful employment and got a
job got a place to live
people say wow you’ve made this
successful transition you’ve done it and
he said I hate I don’t know why people
say that I said I like to say that I
continue to successfully transition day
by day boom light bulb and all of a
sudden I thought wow I can relate to
that
that’s exactly how things were for me so
at one point I go and unfortunately for
me but I had to hang up the uniform and
at that point I started thinking okay
now what I had all these aspirations I
knew I wanted to go to school I was a GI
Bill I one of the reasons why I was
interested in joining the service I knew
all these kind of things but when I came
outside of the gate I finally realized
there are 40,000 service organizations
to support veterans or military or their
families 40,000 outstanding right tons
of support how do I access it is it
focused how do I get to it I don’t know
nobody handed me the book nobody told me
where to go two months out I’m not I’m
sick uh when I go to the doctor what do
I call where’s the pharmacy I don’t have
an ID card when I was in the military
doctor here this is what time it is this
is where you go get this piece of paper
go get your medication get back to work
most of the time on the outside where
all I had I didn’t I had no clue took
forever phone book for those you don’t
know what the phone book is but you open
that up or how you get online check it
out you’re going here you’re going there
you’re trying to find out same thing
with college education I went to four
different schools was in the military I
went to two more outside of the military
I even got my bachelor’s degree it’s not
because I didn’t know I had that it’s
because I didn’t know how to get to it
had no clue so I’m starting to kind of
make this journey and I’m going through
things and all of a sudden them you know
kind of in the car doing my thing and I
look back and I realize my wife and my
kids are here too so if I didn’t just
hang up the uniform we all did little
things that no one ever thinks about
unless you’re in the military all of a
sudden someone tells you oh now you’re
in the state of let’s say Georgia by the
way you don’t have that military ID card
anymore
you better have a Georgia driver’s
license you know when you find that out
most time not in the best of
circumstances because nobody told me and
nobody tell the others same thing with
your children same thing with what
school they can go to what curriculum
they’re in again these are all things
too that we knew 40,000 organizations
out there want to help how can I access
them how can my family access them so
one of the things that I try to do is I
I took this concept of hey let’s bring
something together call it a one-stop
shop call it whatever you will but let’s
bring something physically together that
takes all of these resources and I’ve
done it at the institution of higher
learning where I work and so now I’ve
got people that can come there and say
hey I need to work on my disability
benefits hey I don’t understand what to
do with this College thing
hey I’m not quite sure about VA housing
how does that even work so we’ve got
people there that are trained at
volunteer that come in and if we can’t I
don’t want to say solve your problem or
point you in the right direction we know
who to talk to you you will not leave
without knowing where to go so I can’t
we do that everywhere right why can’t we
scale that there’s 40,000 organizations
in my particular situation do I need to
deal with this one maybe not maybe I
don’t have an issue with homelessness at
this particular time good to know that
it’s out there right that’s that’s a
great concept that’s a great thing but
at the same time how do I get access to
them so the I
again is that if we can scale this and
we can bring these organizations
together and we can say hey when you
come out of the service nobody’s handing
you the manual nobody’s putting you
right in touch with go here go there
you’re going to get the warm and fuzzy
everybody is going to be happy and
you’re going to move right on oh by the
way this is how you write a resume you
never bought a suit huh no never needed
a suit all these little things that
people just wouldn’t think about
normally so these are the kind of things
that that guide that that one-stop shop
if you will and coming out of the
service
can just help guide you in that right
direction just point you nobody’s saying
give the handout and all that kind of
stuff
we’re not talked to about talking about
victimizing the transitioning service
member or their families or anything
like that it’s just hey you got all
these resources everybody wants to help
how about a consolidated effort at least
to a certain extent so with that
consolidated effort I can tell you going
back to GI Bill yes took forever I can’t
even begin to tell you letters letters
letters Oh a computer thing came up
somebody had to show me how to do that
because that wasn’t even a thing finally
yes bachelor’s master’s so on great but
it took forever to navigate that system
add in disabilities add in life
insurance add in things like I said
where do I go get my medication who
knows and it’s literally that it’s
literally that far who knows that
just like the driver’s license what
about the plate
I can drive anywhere I want I can have a
driver’s license my plate on the car can
say Massachusetts all day long you’re
going to get out of the military and
live here they don’t have a Georgia tag
real quick where you going to vote all
these things and it’s things that just
people would normally think about so
when I’m looking in that car and I see
my wife and and my a my both my
daughter’s there all of a sudden what
about them right there health care where
do they go to school how’s the
curriculum change my wife my wife
happens to be in Oh
when you work with the military nursing
license in South Carolina
nursing license in Germany as long as
you’re on the base good to go
guess what not now take that away so
it’s a totally different scenario the
the biggest thing that the biggest thing
that that we run into is again all these
organizations out there so it’s not
necessarily a lack of hey we want to
help hey we want to point you in the
right direction hey we want to help you
make this this positive transition from
military you hung up that uniform into
civilian life which you all are
civilians so into that civilian life but
how are we going to make that successful
reintegration how is it that I hang up
the uniform and wear this uniform or my
children go to school and we’re parked
next to you in the driveway or my wife
is working at the same place that do you
are working at or we know where to go to
daycare we know where to go to the
doctor we know where to go to the
pharmacy whatever the case may be now
we’re starting to align ourselves with
what you all would call normal things so
the end of the day these men and women
have dedicated their lives or at least a
portion of their lives to protecting our
freedoms and to serving our country and
we owe it to them to find out what we can do collectively to help serve them