Butler County veterans office serves those who served
Bill Holland, of Connoquenessing Township, remembers serving in Vietnam as a U.S. Air Force security guard.
“We were the guys that guarded the perimeter. It wasn’t like being a pilot or the guys out in the field, but you weren’t safe anywhere,” said Holland, a Postal Service retiree. After Vietnam, Holland served in Ohio and then did temporary duty in Germany before leaving the Air Force in 1971.
But in addition to his memories, he carried one more reminder of his tour in the Southeast Asian war zone, worsening health problems that he attributes to exposure to Agent Orange, a chemical herbicide and defoliant used to clear jungles that provided hiding places for enemy forces.
“I had hypertension, and the last year I visited the hospital after an attack (of atrial fibrillation),” Holland said.
That’s when he turned to Butler County Veterans Services for help in filing disability claims.
“Melissa Kuhns helped me. She filed for hypertension disability last August and atrial fibrillation disability in December. It came through in September retroactive to January,” he said. “It was very expedient considering the workload they have.”
Holland’s case was one of 670 veterans’ claims her department worked on last year, according to Shawnee Young, director of Veterans Services. The office is also staffed by Kuhns, who is the assistant director; Heather Cihonski, veterans service officer; and Annie Crispen, administrative assistant.
“We are here to file claims of any kind: state benefits, educational benefits, service-connected disability pensions, nursing home claims,” Young said.
“We’re the money side of the house,” she added. “You go to the Veterans Administration for health, and we get you money from the VA. We file for any monetary benefits that the veteran or the spouse might be eligible for.”
With some 15,000 veterans living in Butler County, Young said her department serves as a middleman to guide veterans through the maze of government paperwork needed to secure benefits.
“We are their representative to the Veterans Administration. We are trained on Veterans Administration law. We can appeal claims,” she said. “We know how to interpret VA law and the claims process.”
She said a claim can take approximately six months to be settled, depending on how quickly the claimant can get to the VA for a medical examination.
Veterans get in contact with her office through referrals from Veterans Affairs and through word-of-mouth. Former Veterans Services director John Cyprian, she said, does claims at the VA several days a week.
Young said the majority of the veterans her department sees served in Vietnam, although she and her co-workers also have been helping veterans of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom from service in the Persian Gulf, starting from 1990.
Many Gulf War veterans are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can bring nightmares, anxiety or depression. Another concern has been health effects caused by exposure to burn pits which have been linked to various cancers and respiratory problems such as asthma in veterans exposed to the pits’ smoke and fumes.
Kuhns worked on Holland’s claim.
“I remember him,” Kuhns said. “He was a very nice Vietnam veteran beginning on this process. We were successful in getting him benefits beyond what he was receiving.
“There needs to be a personal element. We try to get to know the veterans. We reach out and check in.”
This is important during the months it takes to process a claim, she added.
“I take it very seriously,” said Kuhns, who has been on the job for 10 years since she started under Cyprian’s direction.
“He’s been a great mentor. There’s this belief that veterans get a lot of benefits coming out of their enlistment,” she said. This is not always the case.
She urges veterans who think they are in line for benefits to contact the office and set up an appointment.
“We’re here, we’re accessible, and we’re here to help,” Kuhns said.
Holland would agree.
“She took over and worked my case,” he said. “She was super. She took my case and kept me informed of everything that was going on. They deserve some recognition.”
