Thomas Lynn | The Valdosta Daily TimesMembers of the Valdosta American Legion Post 13 stand together at 1301 Williams St. The legion meets every second Tuesday of each month.

MOULTRIE – A Coke and a welcoming smile can take a person far – about 100 miles as the crow flies.

That’s the distance between Moultrie and Gainesville, Fla., but the actual distance is much greater as buses transporting veterans to the U.S. Veterans Administration Hospital stop at Coolidge, Thomasville, Boston, Quitman and Valdosta along the way.

That winding roads from Moultrie to Lake City have been traversed for more than 25 years, and, yes, it’s paid for by selling Coca-Cola.

Every year, veterans sell soft drinks during the three-day Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition in Moultrie. The proceeds keep the bus on the road as it makes its weekly journey.

“There are two veterans’ tents where we sell Coke products only,” said Tom Davis, a retired Army sergeant major. “That and the donations we get will run the bus for a year.”

The VA picks up some or all of the costs of treatments at the Florida clinics in Lake City and Gainesville but doesn’t provide a means to get there. Many veterans are disabled or aging or have no other transportation and rely on the bus.

The federal government provides numerous services to veterans but many still fall through the cracks and can easily be forgotten. 

That’s where veteran organizations such as the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and many others come in to pick up the slack.

The SunLight Project Team, which covers Valdosta, Moultrie, Thomasville, Milledgeville and Dalton, Ga., along with Live Oak, Jasper and Mayo, Fla., reached out to veterans and veteran organizations to learn what services are offered to veterans.

Many vets spoke highly about the men and women in government agencies such as VA clinics and the Department of Veterans Affairs, but were more critical of the government when it doesn’t provide the proper funding for adequate facilities and manpower.

Veterans say they are often forced to take care of their own in situations where the government won’t or doesn’t help. Which is what inspired the Veterans Express Bus.

Davis said it is veterans helping fellow veterans.

“The reason it started, a lot of them were farmers coming out of the military. A lot of them were hurt,” said Davis, a former American Legion commander in Moultrie and member of the South Georgia Veterans Activity Committee that operates the bus. “They didn’t have transportation.”

Residents of Southern states have a strong tradition of military service.

Davis, who retired after 30 years of service with two infantry tours in Vietnam, said the last number he heard for veterans living in Southwest Georgia was about 5,000.

The two facilities in Florida offer excellent care, he said. They are clean and the staff is attentive and professional.

“Of all the veterans I’ve talked to, they won’t even think of going somewhere else,” Davis said. “You’d think it being a veterans hospital, it would be second class, but I’m telling you, it’s first class.”

In addition to the bus service, working with churches, the committee sends down personal items such as deodorant and soap to veterans in the hospital. The hospital provides everything necessary, but extras are appreciated by the veterans, Davis said.

In addition to a free ride to and from the hospital, volunteers bring sausage biscuits and coffee donated by local restaurants.

The Veterans Express Bus was the brainchild of Jerry Poole of the Veterans Service Office in Moultrie. He proposed using a bus to take veterans from here to the hospital with stops at other South Georgia towns to pick up veterans in those areas. 

“I told him, ‘I don’t think it’ll work, Jerry,’” recalled Johnnie Shiver, a World War II veteran who is active in the American Legion. “He said, ‘Let’s try it and see.’”

The Thomas County Board of Education donated a surplus school bus and the project started off. During the next 15 years or so, the veterans used a total of three surplus buses — two from Thomas County and one from Colquitt County — before they were finally able to buy a new one in 2004.

Retired Col. Hoyt Holland was instrumental in raising the money for the new bus, Shiver said.

Holland died in 2015. In a 2011 interview, he said he told Poole the bus idea wouldn’t work, but he agreed to upholster the old bus seats at his upholstery shop for free.

After the success of the bus, Holland became one of the its biggest supporters, going so far as getting his own commercial driver’s license so he could drive.

To this day, the bus travels to the Lake City VA Medical Center every Thursday. It pulls into the Moultrie Walmart parking lot at 6 a.m., Davis said.

Punctuality is important because sometimes veterans are waiting for the bus.

“We have veterans in the winter tell us, ‘I’ve been walking since 1:30 (a.m.) to get here,’” Davis said.

Veterans for Veterans

Richard Brown, commander of the Valdosta American Legion Post 13, said the legion was founded in 1919 by World War I vets who believed they weren’t getting the services they deserved.

“There are around 150 VA hospitals nationwide and about 1,800 clinics,” Brown said. “With nine million vets in this country, is it no wonder there are going to be problems?”

He said the problems don’t mean vets want to get rid of the VA as most vets he knows love it. Brown said he was one of the “lucky ones” who served during the Vietnam War. His brother, though, was less fortunate.

His brother has been in a wheelchair for nearly two decades and has been in a VA hospital for three years, Brown said.

“He tells me he gets excellent service,”Brown said. “The VA has helped him tremendously. Yeah, you have to jump through a hoop sometimes, but that’s with any hospital. If they had more facilities … more money, well, who knows?”

Organizations, such as the American Legion, help veterans jump through the bureaucratic hoops. The closest VA hospitals are the facilities in Lake City and Gainesville, Fla. Veterans in and around Valdosta who don’t have easy access to vehicles have to rely on a bus similar to the Veterans Express Bus out of Moultrie.

The bus program relies on volunteers and is constantly in need of drivers, Brown said.

“I credit a person like that, who volunteers,” he said. “I don’t know how many veterans are in the area, but they need that support.”

Brown said Valdosta and Lowndes County support veterans in the community. Many people attend veterans events but he can’t help but notice that more people show up for Memorial Day than Veterans Day.

“It just shows that it’s easier to honor vets after they die than while they’re alive,” Brown said. “Not that we’re unappreciative, just something I’ve noticed. People want to support the troops, but don’t want to pay. Hospitals aren’t cheap.”

Brown said the little things, such as thanking a veteran or helping a veteran on the side of the road, do make a difference. He said it’s not just the big events and parades that show a community respects veterans; it’s seeing someone donate a couple of bucks to a veteran in need.

In Milledgeville, a former Marine infantryman wanted to help veterans in his community in a different way than the American Legion.

Cameron Roland, a veteran who saw combat in the now-infamous battle of Fallujah while serving in Iraq, moved to Millegdeville to study at Georgia College after his discharge. He now works for the Geico Insurance Company in Macon.

Roland said reentering civilian life comes with a unique set of challenges. The hardest part, he said, is finding the same level of camaraderie he had in the military.

“You also don’t have the same structure as you’re used to, and you have to deal with everyone’s misconceptions about veterans,” Roland said. “People think all veterans are messed up in the head as soon as they get out.”

In his time as a student at Georgia College, Roland became involved in Omega Delta Sigma, a national fraternity for veterans attending the nation’s universities.

Roland said he wanted to bring something different to ODS than the American Legion. That is why he brought ODS to Georgia College for young adult and college-aged veterans who need a place where they can be among their peers.

While veterans sometimes feel civilians don’t understand their military experiences, Roland said organizations such as ODS can give veterans a place where they don’t feel singled out.

“I wouldn’t say it helps you assimilate necessarily,” Roland said of the nation’s network of veteran groups. “It gives you a place where you can be around other veterans and where you don’t have to act like a civilian.”

Despite the challenges, he said he has had little trouble adapting to civilian life.

Some Thomasville veterans said people such as Roland are needed for veterans groups to survive.

“If we are to survive and help veterans, we’ve got to have younger veterans stepping up,” said Johnnie Clark, whose first military service was in the Navy before joining the National Guard.

An administrative specialist at the National Guard armory in Thomasville, Clark put in 36 years of military duty.

Today, he works for Thomas County government as supervisor of electrical repairs and maintenance of county buildings.

Clark said when people see a veteran selling something, they should try to help.

Allen Cook Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4995 recently paid $2,765 for 3,300 American flags to be distributed at veterans’ graves in Thomas County cemeteries on Memorial Day.

The VFW needs younger members, said Jeff Lemon, a former U.S. Army crew chief and door gunner on Huey helicopters.

Lyndall Knight, the Post 4995 commander, convinced Lemon to transfer his VFW membership to Thomasville six years ago. Lemon is the incoming post quartermaster.

Knight served in the Army in the infantry, combat engineers, logistical support and military police in Germany, Japan, several state-side posts, Panama, the Persian Gulf and Vietnam.

After two Thomas County veterans died recently, Post 4995 members visited their families to see if they needed anything and to offer their help for the funerals.

“We will be sure they get a grave marker and are not forgotten,” Knight said.

He calls deceased veterans’ families about every three months “to see how they’re doing.”

Lemon, who is retired from Pratt & Whitney, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. When he left the Army and went to work for the aircraft company, he joined others with the problem, but no one talked about PTSD.

Medication has helped Lemon. He said he is much better.

“That’s due to the Veterans Administration,” he said.

Lemon said the care is outstanding at the Tallahassee, Fla., VA clinic where he receives treatment.

On a recent trip he discovered a cyst on his back, went to the clinic and was seen within five minutes.

Although he is improving from his PTSD, Lemon struggles with loud noises or crowds.

“That’s slowly changing,” he said. “I used to have a lot of depression and anxiety. I still do to some extent.”

Transitioning from military duty to civilian life can be difficult, particularly for Vietnam-era veterans.

The news media concentrated on so-called massacres and not the good done by U.S. troops, who built roads and bridges, provided education and constructed runways and airports — all of which continue to serve Vietnam, Knight said.

Gregory Thweat, an Army veteran, worked in light wheel vehicles and was a power generator mechanic. Today, he is employed by Thomas County Fleet Services as a senior technician and is incoming Post 4995 commander.

Thweat said someone might leave a job of bagging groceries in the states to be shipped out to a place where he or she could be blown up.

Military personnel are used to working at high levels. They return to see civilians working at a much slower pace or even delaying what needs to be done until the next day, Thweat said.

Veterans go from a regimented schedule to a lackadaisical schedule, Knight said.

They find people with similar backgrounds and mindsets in places such as the American Legion.

Knight said the days when VFW posts were smoky places where members drank beer, wore funny hats and told war stories are gone. 

Now, it is about camaraderie — people spending time with like-minded people who have each other’s back.

The second part of this series will publish Tuesday, May 29, in The Valdosta Daily Times.

The SunLight Project team of journalists contributing to this report includes Kevin Hall, Thomas Lynn, Will Woolever, Charles Oliver, Patti Dozier and Jessie Box. The SunLight project is overseen and edited by Dean Poling and Jim Zachary. To contact the team, email sunlightproject@gaflnews.com.

PART II

This is the second part of a two-part series on veterans services. The first part was published Sunday, May 27, in The Valdosta Daily Times.

VALDOSTA – Phil Youngblood has wanted to bring a VA Clinic to Lowndes County for about 20 years.

In the late 1990s, the then-commander of Valdosta’s American Legion Post 13 began work to bring a VA Clinic to the city.

He was part of a committee putting together a white paper, which is an authoritative report intended to concisely provide information about a complex issue.

“I personally took that white paper to Washington and delivered a copy of it to every (Georgia) member of the House of Representatives and both senators,” Youngblood said. “It still took another year and half to get a clinic.”

Since then, the VA Clinic, 2841 N. Patterson St., has continued to grow with a current proposal to move it to a bigger facility, he said.

“The point of that story is that it took a lot of effort to get a clinic that the area desperately needed,” Youngblood said. “We put together an ad hoc committee built from local VSOs (Veteran Service Organization) and pulled together a lot of data of the area. When we showed it to the VA, they had no idea how many veterans were here.”

The SunLight Project Team looked at services provided to veterans across its coverage area – Valdosta, Moultrie, Thomasville, Milledgeville and Dalton, Ga., along with Live Oak, Jasper and Mayo, Fla., – to see what is being done and what more can be done for those who have served.

Youngblood said he has been trying to tell the VA for years that there is a population of veterans in South Georgia looking for care.

He said the VA had the statistics, but didn’t make the effort to find out how many people out of that number were eligible for health care and in need of care, but weren’t signed up to receive it. 

“I think they were extremely naive about the true numbers,” Youngblood said. “So, when they finally made a push to sign these veterans up in health care, they were overwhelmed, which is why, I think, you started hearing about all of these issues at the VA.”

He blames the backlog on the VA forgetting its mandate to the individual and only focusing on the end product, he said.

“They get so busy dealing with what they call ‘end products,’ they forgot they were dealing with people,” Youngblood said. “Now, has the VA made improvements? Absolutely, and I don’t think it needs to be privatized.”

President Donald Trump has said on multiple occasions he is for privatizing the VA, but Youngblood said he doesn’t know any veteran who supports privatization.

The VA was established to take care of veterans, he said. There is no medical organization that is more attuned and aligned with the mission of taking care of veterans than the VA, he said.

“Rather than passing some bill to pay someone else, why don’t they take that money and put it in the current system to pay for the staff the VA needs?” Youngblood said. “Fix the system, don’t throw it away. This is a good system. People just need to remember what the VA’s mandate is. I wish you could just wave a magic wand, but you can’t.”

He said everyone has their horror stories regarding the VA, but that that could be said of any hospital.

George Lo Greco, a Vietnam vet in Dalton, said he thinks most VA doctors respect veterans. The ones who don’t are in the minority, but those are the ones who are causing problems, he said.

“There are a lot of good people in the VA, but they are starved by their budget,” he said. “People need to call their senators and tell them to save the VA. There’s talk about closing down the VA. The veterans I talk to don’t want that. They want the VA to have what it needs to do its job.

“We are lucky. The veterans and the doctors up in the Chattanooga VA clinic have a great relationship. They are very good. If you don’t call the VA but call your doctor, they’ll make arrangements. They can move a Thursday to a Friday, or a few days later at most. They are very accommodating and understanding. They’ve got good people up there and good equipment.”

Lo Greco served in the Marine Corps from 1964-74 and served in Vietnam from 1965-68.

He was a combat engineer and is currently an independent insurance agent and service officer at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4985 in Dalton. He is also a member of American Legion Post 112 and commander of Sons of the American Legion Squadron 112, both in Dalton.

The service officer in the VFW is involved in helping veterans file claims with the VA, Lo Greco said. He has filed hundreds of claims. The VFW sends every post service officer to an all-day school at least twice a year.

Lo Greco said being in the insurance business gives him an advantage as a service officer.

“It gives me experience with exclusions,” he said. “The good news is always in big type, up front. I’ve learned to get my magnifying glass and go to the exclusions. Or get it on screen and blow it up. You’ve got to read the exclusions and the glossary. All of these laws and rules are written by lawyers, and I don’t think they want the average high school graduate to be able to file his own claim.”

Lo Greco said an experienced service officer can save a person years. There are always pitfalls.

Dalton is blessed to have a state Department of Veterans Service office, he said. It files hundreds of claims a day.

There are hundreds of service organizations, and many of them just raise money and little of it goes to veterans and the rest goes in their pockets, he said. In his opinion, the best service organization is the Disabled American Veterans.

“They have a book this thick,” Lo Greco said, holding his hands several inches apart. “They are much better informed about the goings on at the VA than the American Legion and VFW put together. If you really want your claims done right, go to the DAV.”

Dennis Burkart and his friend, Davis Gross, are from Lima, Ohio. 

Burkart moved to Hamilton County a few years ago and recently convinced Gross to move there, too. Since coming south, the veterans have had completely different experiences filing claims at the VA.

Burkart served in the Army for two years and signed out after a severe car accident while on duty. When he first got out, the VA told him that because he signed to get out, he was not entitled to any services. In 2009, a friend helped him sign up, and he now receives a monthly pension.

Gross served in Vietnam between 1968-70, as well as 12 years of active duty as an Army Ranger and 25 years in the National Guard. 

“When I retired, nobody told me to go to the VA,” Gross said.

While still living in Ohio, he was diagnosed with diabetes due to Agent Orange. He also has malaria. He said the VA told him he could have contracted malaria from a cruise and refused treatment.

“You had so much fighting up north and when I came down here, it’s been great,” Gross said.

He said he has received great care from the VA since moving to Florida. He asked to receive a colonoscopy at one of his visits.

“I would have had to wait three years before the VA would give me a colonoscopy in the north,” Gross said.

Four days later, he was diagnosed with colon cancer and received surgery in December 2017. He also had his cataracts fixed quickly.

“I had to be stage four up north for treatment and I was only stage two,” Gross said.

Burkart said while in Ohio, he had to go to a civilian doctor to get glasses.

“Nobody should have to fight for their rights and their benefits,” Gross said.

Fellow Hamilton County resident Billy Jackson served in the Army for six years. He served two tours in Vietnam.

“The VA program in my perspective has improved over the last 25 years,” Jackson said.

He said the Lake City location has the best service but he has an issue with the means test. It is an income-based document that helps the VA decide whether the veteran receives free services or if a copay is needed for services.

Jackson suggested if someone served the country, receiving care should not be tied to income.

These types of issues are exactly what Jason Lane, veterans service officer at the Valdosta Department of Veterans Service office, handles.

Lane, a Purple Heart recipient, said each veteran is dealing with a different problem, whether it is filing disability, getting health care, finding a proper cemetery or just looking for help assimilating back into civilian life.

“I’ve been there,” Lane said. “I’d say the hardest part about leaving the military is getting used to being a civilian.”

For Veterans Services, the hardest part of its job is getting veterans to fully utilize its services. Lane said pride prevents many veterans from learning about their benefits. 

They were trained how to be tough and then suddenly they have to reach out for help, he said. That can be difficult for many of them.

This is especially true for Vietnam veterans, Lane said. There are many Vietnam vets who left the service and never learned about their benefits.

With thousands of veterans in Valdosta, Lane encourages anyone to stop by the office at 2841 N. Patterson St., next to the VA Clinic, to see if they are eligible for benefits. He said a lot of veterans who walk through his door don’t know what they need, but he helps them through it.

“Filing claims is first and foremost what we offer, but second is that peace of mind in letting them know that they are not alone in this,” Lane said. “It’s a hard road, you know, but we’re here to help you.”

The SunLight Project team of journalists contributing to this report includes Kevin Hall, Thomas Lynn, Will Woolever, Charles Oliver, Patti Dozier and Jessie Box. The SunLight project is overseen and edited by Dean Poling and Jim Zachary. To contact the team, email sunlightproject@gaflnews.com.

Thomas Lynn is a government and education reporter for The Valdosta Daily Times. He can be reached at (229)244-3400 ext. 1256