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Veterans helping veterans

Grassroots group makes national impact

By Robert Cloud


Veterans Affairs Secretary-designate Mary M. Kolar came to Waupaca to recognize the veterans who started Vets House in 1974.

Dan Naylor, who served in the U.S. Army from Sept. 7, 1971, to June 8, 1973, was among the founders of Vets House.

He brought together several of the veterans who helped launch Vets House to his home in the town of Farmington on Saturday, July 13. “Vets House originated as an idea among a handful of courageous veterans who shared a commitment to helping their brothers and sisters of the Vietnam War as they confronted public condemnation and rejection,” Naylor said.

Steve Barnes, of Stoughton, served in the U.S. Army from June 26, 1967, to May 10, 1970.

He became involved with Vets to Vets while a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Barnes read a letter from a Vietnam veteran who was an inmate at the state prison in Waupun.

After visiting that inmate, Barnes learned veterans in prison were “being told they were not eligible for benefits they were entitled to.”

Barnes began working with Naylor, Steve Schoch, David Myhre, Peter Croy and Tod Florey to provide support services to Vietnam veterans.

With the help of volunteers and student veterans, they opened Vets House in a rundown house on Park Street in Madison in early 1974.

Serving veterans

Eventually, Vets House secured enough funding to offer support in six areas:

• Job counseling for immediate employment;

• Vocational counseling for career development and education;

• Personal counseling for veterans who struggled with trauma, emotional, marital, family, financial and substance abuse problems;

• Discharge review assisted veterans who received less-than-honorable discharge;

• Military counseling for individuals who were AWOL, as well as those who were at odds with the draft;

• Prison and reintegration provided support for incarcerated veterans.

Seeking changes in federal services

They were offering these services because, at the time, the Veterans Administration was not responding to the needs of Vietnam veterans.

“In 1975, Dan Naylor and I went to Washington, D.C., and met with Sen. William Proxmire to try to get the VA essentially to do their job,” Barnes said.

Barnes said he and Naylor left Washington on a Friday.

The following Monday, a memo was sent out encouraging veterans service officers to visit federal and state prisons.

Barnes said John Moses, who was then the state Veterans Affairs secretary, encouraged Vets House’s efforts of reaching out to veterans in prison.

In 1978, Vets House helped establish The ATTIC, a 14-bed correctional half-way house for men leaving the state prison system.

Joe Maassen’s work with Vets House focused on reviewing veterans’ discharge status.

In the Navy from Dec. 4, 1968, to Sept. 3, 1972, Maassen said his most memorable professional experience during his more than 30 years as an attorney was helping a Korean War veteran obtain an honorable discharge.

“He fell asleep while on watch at a base in Korea,” Maassen said. “That’s tantamount to desertion.”

Maassen said the veteran would walk past a VFW or American Legion post and feel ashamed.

Maassen went to the review board in Chicago and argued that the veteran had an otherwise impeccable record, including service in combat.

After Maassen met with the review board, the veteran’s discharge was upgraded to honorable.

“I called him and told him he could join the VFW now. He burst into tears,” Maassen recalled. “It was by far the best thing I ever did as a lawyer.”

Job placement for veterans

From 1965 to 1969, Doug Bradley had a college deferment.

“When I graduated, I knew I was going to get drafted,” Bradley said.

He served in the U.S. Army from March 2, 1970, to Nov. 12, 1971.

Bradley was an information specialist in South Vietnam near Saigon.

“I was lucky,” Bradlely said. “I got to write. I got to interview people. I think I had one of the best jobs you can have in the service.”

Bradley has written two books about Vietnam.

“Deros Vietnam: Dispatches from the Air-Conditioned Jungle” is a collection of short stories that rely on his own memories and conversations while in Vietnam.

His second book, co-authored with Craig Werner, is “We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War.” It describes the music of the era.

Bradley was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when he first learned about Vets House.

“I went there and asked how I could help,” Bradley said.

He began working with the Vets House’s job placement program.

“The best way to rehabilitate a veteran is to get him a good job,” Bradley said.

In addition to employment counseling, the jobs project offered employers screening for qualified candidates, targeted job tax credit information and assistance with training programs.

Vets House also offered vocational counseling to help veterans make meaningful career choices and use their veterans benefits for education and training.

Vets Centers open nationwide

In 1976, Naylor spoke to the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs regarding the focus of the VA’s medical program.

He noted the VA was not expanding its medical program to cope with the growing numbers of veterans returning from the Vietnam War.

Naylor also gave a report on the history of Vets House.

As a result of the hearings on the VA, Congress passed legislation requiring the VA to provide readjustment counseling to combat veterans.

In 1981, Vets House became the Vets Center and its grassroots efforts grew into a nationwide program.

While speaking to the veterans gathered in Waupaca, Kolar noted how Vets House influenced major changes in how services are offered to veterans.

“What started as a volunteer-based organization in Madison that provided counseling to Vietnam War veterans transformed into a national program with 300 facilities, 80 mobile locations and an around-the-clock call center,” Kolar said.

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