the town of belmont and he has all kinds of information that i think by be useful to many of you so without much ado welcome thank you very much  what i am the point of contact i am the person to speak to if you are interested in learning about veterans benefits for the state of massachusetts or if you have a curiosity as to whether or not you are or are not eligible for veterans benefits through the v a system i can be a point of contact for that if you just had some questions relativity of military service medals or other forms of information that you don't know how to access and have been able to do maybe i can help you to do that i'm sensing a person is going to be able help to navigate the systems of the state of massachusetts veteran services in the v a now if somebody was a vet but is now deceased and they have family members living here in belmont do they also have access to you and might be able to learn something from absolutely absolutely i did welcome the opportunity to speak with a family member or a spouse of a veteran they may be information that they weren't aware of a benefit that they may not be aware of  the ticket for those folks that are spouses or veterans they were one hundred percent disabled there are many many many programs available not only through the state of massachusetts but the the federal program the veterans administration and they all have  different elements of criteria that has to be met it can sometimes be daunting to try to sort through all of that but i would certainly encourage the spouse or family member of veterans to reach out to me and i will if i don't have the information readily available more than happy to try to find that information and make it available for them now how did you become interested in doing this well i am a veteran myself i'm a twenty year veteran veteran from the mass army national guard but i'm also a veteran i was a marine recruiter so i thought my military service an interest in helping veterans and i also was should tell you that my dad is an army veteran of world war two veteran i have five uncles that served in world war two in korea i grew up in a veterans housing development as a young young child and you know for me growing up through parents that was from america's greatest generation i've learned a great deal of respect for that generation in my own military service and interaction with veterans i certainly have a great appreciation for the service that they've given to our country and if i can be of any help to them in any way i'm happy to do that most recently i served a three year tour as a department of defense yellow ribbon reintegration program specialist just prior to this position and there's a lot of words there but essentially i was the point person point of contact for veterans national guard and reserve component service members who would be called to active duty while they were away we helped their families and then when they came back home my job was to assist them with legal financial medical or even employment related issues so the veteran issue in the military context and you know information such as that is something that i'd like to be able to make available to others i'm very interested in doing that and i think i can be a very good resource for the veterans of belmont which is possibly nine hundred veterans in don't want now we asked for information about how people could contact him before we came on the program i think i may have been asked for that i do work out of one thousand more street right next to the town hall my telephone number is six one seven one one three two seven two five i hope that we can put up my email address so people can connect to me in that way and certainly connect me to the town of belmont website in the social media definitely at facebook as well but feel free to call me of my office hours out typically monday and wednesday from ten to three p those are my office hours i'm usually in the office but i would encourage people to call first before you just come down because there are other times when i am all in the community the second wednesday of every month i'm at the belmont senior center from twelve to two i like to make myself  well there are many veterans that i've already met with that facility and it's a great place to be on one senior center as you may know and i now have veterans that wait for me to come they are there when i show up and they have questions for me and i really do appreciate that so  it's another good way for people to reach me maybe i take some of the blood pressures and that's what i do that well i'll make sure that i ask about it get my check periodically i should and so well that's really interesting and it suddenly shows a great deal of dedication to the group of people that have worked hard to defend us and you know i think it's really important i thank you very much for your appreciation of that i know you don't have a strong appreciation for veterans and as myself i do and you know service members veterans and family members have sacrificed quite a bit so we can live in this country and live in the freedom that we do freedom is not free and you know these veterans have earned every hour respect in these benefits and you know sometimes life is very busy and people just are so consumed with what they're doing that you just don't have the time to maybe dig into some of the areas they would like to get information in but relative to veterans services are veterans benefits i can be that person for them more than willing to help to connect them with the services they need or tell them about the benefits that i know are available to them pending on their veteran status there's also some criteria relative to income not all benefits are relative to income and i think come base but for a lot of benefits the people may not even be aware that they are eligible for so they wouldn't know how to ask a question because they wouldn't even  they existed exactly yes exactly it's just a little closer so she has an educational it's a little bit of a process and that's another thing that this is a great opportunity for me to introduce myself to the town of belmont i hope to have some other opportunities to come maybe speak about specific programs a little bit more in detail so we can learn a little bit more this way going to try to put a little bit more information on our towns website a particular social media part of it for veterans services information is very valuable and we know that people are getting a lot of information online  today the vietnam veteran area is getting to be a wider population they are a little bit more tech savvy than maybe this is the world war two era veterans were certainly the younger veterans today that it's all about being online and being online with their mobile devices are all savvy myself i have a smartphone i have access to the web site as well if people want to email me feel free to they can do that as well my email address is at the town websites of people connect me that in that way  but i do also and would tend the opportunity for home visits if that was needed as i said this is a fifteen hour week position at the moment a part time position but if i needed to go to a veterans home i would do that if that was something that they thought they needed me to do i would do that but you know there's a lot of different ways for people to communicate and i would want some of the feel like they're not able to get the information by just picking up the phone or coming to the to our office they c good job a she was in the position but for some reason or another she's now the veterans agent for the town of east and i believe and i think that's a full time position that may have been the reason why she moved on i really don't know and i also know that she does live on the south shore yeah and ceremony that's upcoming on the twenty fifth of may so honest about that a bit of planning is going into that maybe even a little bit more a little bit because you know it's the parade is it's a tradition and don't want to it's a very important aspect of what we do in this community now and i'm happy and proud to be part of that may twenty fifth folks here we do have a significant i guess speaker that will be coming to visit with us major general retired robert cattle and already he's also going to be doing the commencement exercises that assumption call it but he comes recently retired from the active army he was a very significant soldier is going to great background i think the people of belmont will enjoy his words and be great to have him with us  working currently not only on the parade and getting participants to that parade but also on the program down at the cemetery which i know is going to be a solemn affair but it's going to be done very respectfully and that's why we've asked that featured speaker to come with us chaplain colonel minor is paul minor is going to be fishing for the religious portion of that program but i know it's also going to be a program is going to be done very well and very respectfully getting back to the parade  itself you know so we didn't have a lot of time last year to really work on developing the parade as as i feel that it can be i mean that same position this year although people are coming forward this is a great town people come forward they do want to participate and i don't want courage you as a community organization if you have a group and you're interested in marching in their parade please give me a call let me know the parade will be forming up at cushing square and probably ten fifteen ten thirty on the twenty fifth of may and then we'll proceed on down to the cemetery and then another couple of bands for the future he is and military components but you know you need to give them a little bit more lead time and we've been working we've got some requests in and i'm hoping we get some confirmations of those but you know the parade is ongoing right now on to probably the top of and dedication of the motion to that parade numb hoping to be able to get it back a little bit to what it used to be were maybe a little bit more filled out that it is currently but nonetheless it is a tradition that we're going to continue here in beaumont and i hope to be part of that in future years and  also had the help of we've had some high school students in fact it's just just this last part of the past saturday jim davis the athletic director had some high school kids come down and it was a good number of them they came down and we removed all the flags that had fallen over because of the tough difficult went to that we had we tried to clean up that area some with all the old flags that were falling over in the markers that we did to try to get them straight where in just a period that in the next week or so we're going to have the liver you have on new flags i'm going to seeing all those high school students last week come out and the first day of the vacation school vacation to dedicate themselves to putting in that time and doing that which was great to see that that sounds like i said it's been a great experience me all around from the police department the fire department public works you know i believe probably should be singling out one particular group because it's really been a good experience for me great and a sound i think it's a great little town it's real opportunity for me that's that's good so what do what do that we need to qualify for these services that you're offering what a veteran need to be eligible for veterans benefits serving federal benefits and services discharge that's first and foremost they have to have served on active duty they have to have an honorable discharge from i will tell you that you know the state amasses as i said earlier on is well recognized as this as a leader in the veteran needs if i have that this judge paper which is called the d d two fourteen and most veterans know that far because that's their statement of service if they have their form and they have been honorably discharged they've served on active duty that's essentially what they need and as far as what type of services that are available whether they have a service connected disability or another type of need for eight of the said eight in attendance or one of the other areas there's different criteria that has to be met for that but that's something that's just part of the process to be eligible you have to be a veteran you have to have served honorably to receive veterans benefits services through the town of goma you have to be a belmont resident of course phil feel free to have people call me i'll help them that navigate the criteria and the eligibility process that's what the job is that's why i'm there and i'm there to provide services where they were available to that veteran and do you need to go to updating school or with i mean it must be information it really is that there is an incredible amount of programs and a lot of information and different scenarios that many veterans have you know obviously you know you have one hundred percent disabled veterans you have some veterans that have never ever asked for one benefit at all they've never taken advantage of the benefits that are available to them it is a wide range of things as far as education myself i bring a lot of experience to the table and a lot of interest and commitment to the jobs that there's a lot there and  i really am proud to be able to provide that service to veterans and the knowledge base i'm glad that i have it but there's no way one person could know it all but i do have some very good contacts and i feel confident in being able to navigate the systems that i need to to get the help that i hope that i've got the message out there that we hope to make this a very successful day we want to make it a very respectful day for our veterans and those fallen veterans that have made the ultimate sacrifice for our community for our country we want to respect our veterans  their families for what they've given for this country and for this community you know the message that i'd like to get out there i'd love as many veterans of we have in this community to come out march in this parade find a way to participate and support this parade you know would not ask for a financial commitment of any type of though that can be helpful maybe to sponsor a band or another type of an even a shriner zone or an organization like that somewhere down the road this year it's a little late for the planning and that type of  commitment for those organizations but you know for next year yes i will be looking for other types of entries into our parade but if your community group or organization you haven't reached out to me yet to let me know that you would like to put this place please please do that we would you to participate we have the boy scouts we have the girl scouts the cub scouts we have some of the local sports teams the high school band you know we have other community organizations the v f w and the like you know the v f w they've done this year after year after year that they veterans who are if you're not a part of one of those organizations but you want to march in the parade please let us know show up to question square you know we're going to be setting up this parade route we'll make it comfortable for you to march in the parade if you're unable to much in the parade we have had to take  because i was wondering if there were people who were homebound or couldn't walk great but wouldn't and it's a lovely day and it's a wheelchair right needs to be pushed rather than doing this right however long  how that's going to out right i mean they don't have spouses who are still alive and well but on to up to right pushing a wheelchair for and then maybe their children live god knows well right and so you know those of us well healthy and well leave me the thought of miles of two miles plus you know if the sun is shining or beating down on us some shows not going to be comfortable all the time but it will be a fun day i'm sure and we hope to be to be entertaining but also respectful because that had to me is the operative word here it is memorial day it's a very important day for us to remember that it's certainly a town a vent and it's a day for fun and family and the like but it's also memorial day and that's why we have the ceremony at the cemetery  done respectfully well the mind dia how wonderful it sounds great and i hope people get really enthused and participate in one way or another i do as well tell me what i haven't asked you about that you were reading that well we have covered a lot of ground i appreciate the opportunity to promote the memorial day parade participation of course and also to let people know that i am in this position and i'm willing to help and i want to encourage them to  nineteen more street that's where my office is located veterans services happens to fall into the town government and the the health department angela pran happens to be the director of public health the director of health services in department but i would courage people to do you come in but again you might want to call first because although i'm here monday and wednesday from ten to three there will be those times when i'm out meeting with the veterans someplace or at the scene is that the possibly already some other place i'm conducting the business of the veteran service office i think we've gone over quite a bit you know i as i mentioned i hope there at some point time maybe do a specific program presentation a little bit more detail about some of the services that we offer you know the state of massachusetts has its own range of benefits available to veterans to a program called chapter one fifteen there it's called the chapter one fifteen benefits those are the benefits available to massachusetts veterans  and then of course we have the entire v a menu of programs available and they are expensive in addition to education those health benefits for the v a it can be somewhat daunting to try to navigate that but again that's what my role would be to try to help belmont veterans to navigate that all their family that's that's what i would think so it's been a great opportunity for me and i really do appreciate this opportunity to be with you in particular that you've made it easy to thank you kat about this and i hopefully we