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CCVS Steve Balczo - Veteran's Services · Brian Thomas

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  Speaker 1: Veteran related needs. Tons of services offered by the Clemon
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  Speaker 1: County Veteran Services, and every county has one. Steve Belzo
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  Speaker 1: is with the Clermont County Veteran Services. They do a
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  Speaker 1: fantastic job and Steve is always a pleasure having in
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  Speaker 1: the studio. Man, welcome back and happy dear to you
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  Speaker 1: and everybody else at Clement County Veteran.
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  Speaker 2: Services, Ryan Brother, thanks for what you do for us,
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  Speaker 2: and it is it's a good new year, so we'll
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  Speaker 2: try above the ground. We're not pushing up daisies. We
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  Speaker 2: may complain about small ailments, right, but yet we're still breathing, right.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, I'm telling you off area here. It's
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  Speaker 1: the seventh of January and we've I feel like we've
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  Speaker 1: already experienced enough profoundly impactful news stories for like six
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  Speaker 1: months worth of.
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  Speaker 2: Life, right right, Actually, yeah, we have news commentators that
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  Speaker 2: are speed reading right now after a teleprompters. There's so much.
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  Speaker 1: Well, there's always though, something positive in all of the mix,
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  Speaker 1: as you just pointed out, so that we're gonna be
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  Speaker 1: positive about going into the new year. So you run
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  Speaker 1: into a little you know, the lemons that life will
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  Speaker 1: hand you make lemonade out of them, or just search
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  Speaker 1: around for something else that is positive, and you'll at
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  Speaker 1: least have that to look at and be thankful for,
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  Speaker 1: which is what I try to do as I live
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  Speaker 1: my life now with that in mind. My veteran friends
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  Speaker 1: out there, we have talked about some common misconceptions, and
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  Speaker 1: it always puzzled me that it seemed to me that
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  Speaker 1: a lifetime worth of health care, which is what you
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  Speaker 1: are pretty much entitled to as long as you faithfully
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  Speaker 1: serve your country and get a DD two fourteen discharge edition,
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  Speaker 1: is kind of an incentive. It's like a pension program.
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  Speaker 1: You know, if there's a job that's offering you a
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  Speaker 1: pension and one that's not, you might consider the pension
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  Speaker 1: job because that's an extra perk that somebody else is
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  Speaker 1: an offering. So you may not make all the money
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  Speaker 1: in the world serving your country, but you're doing something
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  Speaker 1: that's profoundly important. It shows profound respect for your country.
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  Speaker 1: You're defending our nation from adversaries foreign and domestic, and
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  Speaker 1: you also get a lifetime of free health care. Almost
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  Speaker 1: almost almost there are categories. That's why we have you.
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  Speaker 1: But that's right that veterans who are eligible for it,
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  Speaker 1: just pass on it or sign up. This is what
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  Speaker 1: we're going to try to focus on today.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, there's yeah, there's if you can consider this in
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  Speaker 2: this matrix, here's Joe and when did you serve and
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  Speaker 2: how many years? And you're following this flow chart. But
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  Speaker 2: it's what's running in the mind of many veterans. If
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  Speaker 2: you know, there's especially from our older generation, our parents,
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  Speaker 2: the children that grew from parents that came through the depression.
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  Speaker 2: You straighten every nail, you throw it in the bucket,
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  Speaker 2: you pick up every penny. Nothing goes to waste. There's
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  Speaker 2: only a limited amount to go around. There's victory gardens
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  Speaker 2: going in and so those children from those parents, well,
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  Speaker 2: I don't want to go to get to the VA
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  Speaker 2: and get a set of hearing age because I can
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  Speaker 2: hear the TV if I turn it up loud enough.
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  Speaker 2: Well so can three apartments down here in your TV.
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  Speaker 2: But yet they're afraid that if I take those hearing aids,
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  Speaker 2: another veteran needs a more than me is not going
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  Speaker 2: to get their hearing aids. And that's an upside down
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  Speaker 2: way to think about it, because the VA actually gets
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  Speaker 2: their budget off of the amount of veterans signed up
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  Speaker 2: for healthcare, which means they're going to get a bigger
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  Speaker 2: budget and they can afford more hearing aids and they're
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  Speaker 2: not going to run out of stock.
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  Speaker 1: Right, And among my listening audience and my personal perception is,
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  Speaker 1: you know, if there is a worthy expenditure of taxpayer dollars,
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  Speaker 1: our veteran community is a worthy expenditure, you know, because
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  Speaker 1: we're filled with the government likes to pay for literally everything.
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  Speaker 1: Most of it is batcrap and sane, but these are
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  Speaker 1: folks that, you know, literally put their lives on the line.
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  Speaker 2: It's going back to the founding father, maybe Abraham Lincoln,
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  Speaker 2: whether you consider him founding father or not yet for
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  Speaker 2: him to quote, to care for him who has borne
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  Speaker 2: the battle exactly, He's been the presence of America either
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  Speaker 2: on foreign shores for our interests.
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  Speaker 1: So in other words, for that veteran who wasn't getting
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  Speaker 1: the hearing aids turning the TV up, and not only
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  Speaker 1: is that person overlooking the cognitive decline and other health
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  Speaker 1: issues that will go along with that. Absolutely by not
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  Speaker 1: getting the hearing aids the V eight, he's maybe reducing
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  Speaker 1: the likelihood that somebody else is going to get hearing
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  Speaker 1: aids because of funding levels.
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  Speaker 2: Because of funding levels, or he's spending six to eight
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  Speaker 2: thousand dollars out on the open market. That's yeah, I
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  Speaker 2: know for us out of hearing aids, right, I mean
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  Speaker 2: they're expensive.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I like to hope that the government has haggled
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  Speaker 1: and negotiated a good contract for hearing aids that they're
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  Speaker 1: not fitting at full rate. You just let me interject
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  Speaker 1: that comment right there. So and the other conception, you
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  Speaker 1: didn't have to serve in combat or be injured while
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  Speaker 1: serving your country to be eligible for VA benefits. I
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  Speaker 1: guess that's another thing that runs through some of the veterans' minds.
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  Speaker 2: So a lot of them consider yes, short answer. Typically
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  Speaker 2: we look at as a veteran, what were my injuries
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  Speaker 2: on active duty? And what is the VA going to
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  Speaker 2: do about them? Because my my life has been hindered
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  Speaker 2: by my injuries from active duty. But yet the VA
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  Speaker 2: still has a healthcare program where I just pay a
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  Speaker 2: colpay And so if I'm fifty percent disabled or more
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  Speaker 2: by the VA, then my healthcare is free through the VA.
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  Speaker 2: But if I'm ten percent, zero percent, I can still
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  Speaker 2: get healthcare through the VA. It might come with a
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  Speaker 2: small col pay, but I can still have a primary
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  Speaker 2: care physician at the VA.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: But the great thing about Cincinnati, right is the VA
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  Speaker 2: has done a tremendous job here locally in picking up
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  Speaker 2: It's not just its service, but its impression as well.
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  Speaker 1: Yep, veterans have told you that, Yes, you survey them regularly.
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  Speaker 2: I have a friend of the family who's gone through
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  Speaker 2: cancer and the VA has taken him through every step,
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  Speaker 2: and he says, I hear all the stories, but I
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  Speaker 2: will tell you I'm an advocate for the Cincinnati VA.
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  Speaker 2: They've treated me so well. What more do you need?
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  Speaker 1: Nothing? Not anymore than that. And then, of course a
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  Speaker 1: lot of veterans are awesome hires. If an employer is
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  Speaker 1: looking for a quality worker, hire a veteran. Along with
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  Speaker 1: getting a job quite often comes your medical insurance from
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  Speaker 1: your employer, and a lot of veterans out sure have
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  Speaker 1: that and perhaps think that just because I have insurance
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  Speaker 1: from my employer, I shouldn't even bother with the VA.
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  Speaker 2: So here's here's here's some of the anomalies. So I
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  Speaker 2: retired from active duty, I have trycare. I get it
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  Speaker 2: for the rest of my life. I get health care
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  Speaker 2: by the government. I also, because I work for the county,
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  Speaker 2: have health care through the county, but because of my disabilities,
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  Speaker 2: I also have health care through the VA. So I
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  Speaker 2: actually have three programs I can run with, but I
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  Speaker 2: use the VA because I'm no longer paying for a
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  Speaker 2: co pay for my medications. All my prescriptions I get
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  Speaker 2: ninety days at a time. I call the phone number
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  Speaker 2: they set up appointments for me. It's a phenomenal way
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  Speaker 2: to have. I really don't need the other two in
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  Speaker 2: that sense, but it's I'm not your every day Joe,
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  Speaker 2: I guess. But to have that opportunity, even if I
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  Speaker 2: do go to work to one tell the mister employer, man, hey,
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  Speaker 2: if I decline your healthcare because I have healthcare at
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  Speaker 2: the VA, will you bump me up an extra six
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  Speaker 2: to ten K? You would be paying for my health care.
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  Speaker 1: I like that, right, Hey, the fools, the one that's
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  Speaker 1: not looking out for his own best centrists. It's worth
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  Speaker 1: asking the question anyway.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's it's a no until you do ask. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I love that's the first time you brought that one up.
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  Speaker 1: That is people the wheels are spitting in their heads
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  Speaker 1: right now. I'm gotta try that one out. They can
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  Speaker 1: almost smell it in the remaining minute we've got here.
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  Speaker 1: You can enroll online. This does not require a trip
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  Speaker 1: to the VA hospital to do this.
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  Speaker 2: No, the initial it's a ten ton easy, that's just
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  Speaker 2: submitting to start your healthcare. They're going to look at
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  Speaker 2: your records. If you have a copy of d D
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  Speaker 2: two fourteen, you uproll it there. If not, they'll search
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  Speaker 2: records for it. But you can VA dot gov apply
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  Speaker 2: from your home on your computer.
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  Speaker 1: And if you have any questions or how to do that,
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  Speaker 1: the climat County Veteran Services will help you through the
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  Speaker 1: process as well, won't.
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  Speaker 2: They climat County Veterans dot com or five to one
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  Speaker 2: three seven three two seven three six three.
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  Speaker 1: And one concluding point, as I find out, there is
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  Speaker 1: not a waiting period after active duty for a veteran
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  Speaker 1: to enroll in the VA, So just you know you
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  Speaker 1: get discharged, head on over the website sign up.
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  Speaker 2: They're doing a great job for veterans leaving active duty
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  Speaker 2: right now that they're assessing them prior to leaving. I've
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  Speaker 2: been asked for that for years at We're not completely
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  Speaker 2: there at by base station, right, so your your larger
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  Speaker 2: camps or forts or stations are having more availability of
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  Speaker 2: that type. Your smaller locations, some of your snake eater
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  Speaker 2: locations out in the woods probably won't have that. They're
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  Speaker 2: gonna have to go to a begger one. But we're
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  Speaker 2: starting to roll.
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  Speaker 1: That out, man. We should get that in place everywhere. Listen,
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  Speaker 1: you got them right there, they're still serving. Give them
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  Speaker 1: the information about enrollment or just enroll them right there.
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  Speaker 2: Their physicians are there right now. Do the Nexus letters,
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  Speaker 2: I mean everything to support them.
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  Speaker 1: Steve Belzo, God bless you, sir. I appreciate what you're
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  Speaker 1: doing with the veterans. I love your enthusiasm. I love
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  Speaker 1: your profound appreciation for veterans and everything that you do
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  Speaker 1: to help improve the services at the VA. You got
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  Speaker 1: any problems, the VA wants to know about it, so
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  Speaker 1: please make sure you let them know. If you run
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  Speaker 1: into an issue, be nice about it. But they'll do
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  Speaker 1: everything they can to address any concerns you have while there.
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  Speaker 1: That is, Steve, a great year we're going to have together.
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  Speaker 1: Look forward to having you back on man.
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  Speaker 2: Oh. I can't wait till next month. Thanks Brian.
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  Speaker 1: Keep up the great work. Vanguard of the American has
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  Speaker 1: caused Gary Minoy hoping pronouncing that name correctly. He's going
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: to join the program with his book after the top
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  Speaker 1: of the Our News then, of course