By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Zach Migura’s job is to be the boots on the ground helping veterans cut through red tape.
To do that, Migura often has to bust some myths.
First, his office is the Wood County Veterans Service Office.
“We’re not the Veterans Administration. That’s the biggest misconception,” said Migura, who is the executive director and county veterans service officer. “We’re not lawyers.”
And second, veterans who don’t apply for benefits are preserving that pot of money for veterans who’ve had it rougher.
“They think it helps other vets because it saves money – but it’s just the opposite,” Migura said Thursday during a presentation to the Bowling Green Kiwanis Club. “These entitlements are theirs from the national government.”
And sometimes, Migura has to break through the proud facade of veterans. He has encountered many a veteran in his office, who when asked by Migura how he is doing, gives a thumbs up sign. But the spouse in the room shakes their head, telling a different side of the story.
“Every veterans’ experience was different,” said Migura, who served in the U.S. Army in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a veterans service officer, it’s his job to find out which benefits a veteran is entitled to, then navigate the bureaucracy to get the benefits approved.
Wood County currently has about 7,000 residents who are veterans.
As of the first 10 months of this year, the Wood County Veterans Service Office submitted 161 claims to the Veterans Administration. Of those, 86 claims are pending, while 75 have been decided, adding up to more than $1.3 million in benefits awarded directly to the veterans.
“It can change a veteran’s life,” Migura said of the benefits.
The Wood County office helps veterans get records from the Department of Defense, the National Archives and Records Administration, and other agencies.
“We help navigate all these agencies,” Migura said, noting that no veteran should be ashamed to ask for help. “We’ve helped doctors, lawyers and judges” wade through the application process.
Migura’s office submits applications for VA healthcare and provides transportation to medical appointments. Staff can also help prepare and submit requests for burial benefits.
“So the survivors aren’t having to deal with a lot of bureaucracy,” he said.
The county veterans office can also provide emergency financial assistance to veterans, plus offer an honor detail, grave markers and flags for veteran burials, and provide indigent burials.
The county offices are the “boots on the ground” for veterans, he said.
The faces of veterans here and across the nation are changing, with the vast majority of World War II veterans now gone. Migura estimated Wood County has around 200-300 veterans in their 90s and maybe a centenarian or two.
“World War II veterans are almost all but gone,” he said.
The face of veterans services will change again in the decades ahead as Vietnam veterans age. Migura predicted the workload in the Wood County office will drop down to 3,000 to 4,000 veterans.
Of course, there is the newest branch of the U.S. military to prepare for.
“I’m still waiting to see the first Space Force discharge,” Migura said with a grin.
Veterans services are dealing with a dramatic increase of suicides among U.S. veterans.
“It’s a very serious problem. We all know it,” Migura said, noting that the issue is no longer hidden. But many veterans don’t want to go to the VA for help, he said.
“So what’s the fix? We’re trying to get creative. We know it’s a huge problem, coast to coast.”
