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Did You Know the Veterans of Foreign Wars
May 8, 2010
Did You Know?
Submitted by Jake Jacobson
The Veterans of Foreign Wars was founded in 1899 for the purpose of assisting veterans in obtaining medical and pension benefits from the federal government. VFW Service Officers are successful in obtaining over 120 million dollars in VA benefits for Veterans in Missouri each year.
The VFW Service Officer Program is funded solely through VFW department membership dues, programs, and donations. There is no charge to the veteran for their service. Donations to the VFW Service Officer Program are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.
Veterans Service
Past, Present, Future
PAST: The VFW traces its roots back to 1899 when veterans of the Spanish-American War (1898) and the Philippine Insurrection (1899-1902) founded a local organization to secure rights and benefits for their services. Many arrived home wounded or sick. There was no medical care for veterans’ pension for them, and they were left to care for themselves.
PRESENT: The VA currently has 8,864 pending claims at the VA Regional Office. The national average of claims handled by the VFW represents 31 percent of all cases pending with the VA. In the St. Louis Regional Office, we have 2,769 pending claims in our office at this time. Last month we filed 1,340 claims for benefits. Our recovers during the past year for our claimants is around 124 million dollars. The reason that we have to many claims pending is that we act as advocates for our veterans. They may file a claim for one benefit but we will try to expand their claim to get them additional compensation. Example: WWII veteran files for a knee condition. His records were destroyed and his claim is denied. A review of his Discharge Document reveals that he served in the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge). We file for claim for cold injuries and he is granted a 100 percent evaluation. Besides getting $2,823.00 in monthly benefits, he gets free medicine, eyeglasses, hearing aids, dental, and nursing home care. We get an average of 15 veterans a 100 percent evaluation a week. We have a computer program where we have 17,000 cases, where we can review old claims, and given the time, we can get a lot of those veterans a 100 percent evaluation. 6,100 of our claimants are service-connected for hearing loss and tinnitus and 2,200 are service-connected for diabetes.
FUTURE: Our program is making a difference in the lives of our veterans and their dependents. We are always seeking to help as many veterans as we can and that is why we have over 2,700 pending claims. No program in the VFW is more important than the Veterans Service Program.
if there were no Veterans Service Program (the reason the VFW was formed) what would be the reason for a veteran wanting to join the VFW? If we were not a Service Organization standing united to help our fellow veterans, then why would they want to join us?
Your Department Service Officers work hard to make sure our veterans are getting the maximum benefits under the law. You will not find any other organization that is more pro-active in veterans’ claims than we are.
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