As the big white tent gently swayed in the wind and rain poured
down from grey clouds, a jazz band entertained the huddled and wet
crowd.
To commemorate Veterans Day this year, the Greater Los Angeles
Department of Veterans Affairs decided against having a parade,
opting instead to hold an information fair to educate veterans
about jobs and health benefits through the department.
The fair was held next to the West Los Angeles VA Medical
Center
Counseling was offered for smoking, high blood pressure,
diabetes and high cholesterol.
At one table, veterans could receive a body fat analysis and
could take tests to determine their risk of hurting themselves from
falling.
To promote healthy eating among veterans, a table was set up
that offered apples and carrots.
Mary Jones, a spokesperson with the Los Angeles National
Cemetery, said a parade was too costly and the GLADVA thought the
money could be put to better use through a series of events during
the week that would provide veterans with information about the
VA’s services.
All veterans returning from Iraq are given two years of medical
coverage through the Department, said Dorri Branch, lead assistant
for patient services at the VA in Bakersfield.
Bobby Potts, a 37-year-old veteran of Operation Desert Storm in
1991 and Operation Iraqi Freedom, returned from Iraq 11 months ago
after an improvised explosive device, or IED, hit a vehicle he was
following in Tikrit.
Potts was driving a Heavy Equipment Transporter, a 91-ton truck
used to transport tanks to and from the battlefield.
“It’s like a big tow-truck,” he said.
When the bomb, which was hidden in a tire inner tube on a road,
exploded, Potts said insurgents fired on him and other soldiers
from a nearby building.
Potts jumped out of the transporter to avoid being shot, and
severely injured his ankles when he landed. The two soldiers in the
first vehicle, which triggered the explosion, received severe
burns, Potts said.
Potts said it is hard to see the bombs because insurgents use
markings, which look like thin coat hangers, that come out of the
ground and are connected to an IED. Vehicles trip the wire, which
then triggers an explosion.
“You have to assume everything is a bomb,” he
said.
Potts is now receiving treatment for his injuries at the West
L.A. VA, and also works there.
He said many people take for granted the sacrifice that veterans
such as himself have made for the country.
Omar Lopez, a teacher at Nora Sterry Elementary School in Los
Angeles, brought his fifth-grade class to the event so they could
learn that Veterans Day is more than a day off from school for
students. He said he wanted his students to respect the sacrifice
veterans have made defending the nation.
Still, Lopez made a distinction between supporting the troops
and supporting the war.
The 31-year-old teacher said he is completely against the
current war in Iraq, but still supports the troops and
veterans.
Richard Carrasco came from San Bernadino to show his support for
veterans.
He served in the Navy during Vietnam from 1972 to 1976. He said
he was part of an amphibious squadron that transported fleeing
Vietnamese through the rivers of Cambodia to other Navy ships
headed for the U.S. during the fall of Saigon.
Carrasco grew up in East Los Angeles and said he joined the Navy
to escape the influence of gangs in his neighborhood and to further
his education.
Dying in Vietnam was always in the back of the
then-20-year-old’s mind.
“It was very scary, but (I was) scared of the unknown. I
just took one day at a time,” he said.
Though Carrasco is happy with the services the VA provides him,
he said he felt betrayed when President Bush threatened to veto a
bill in 2003 that allowed veterans to collect disability pay and
pensions simultaneously.
“He’s not for the vets; he didn’t back us
up,” he said.
Stacey Maruska handed out bumper stickers and told veterans
“thank you” as they walked past her table.
The 31-year-old VA social worker was an aviation operations
specialist in the Army from 1993 to 1998. She now works with
homeless veterans to help them get treatment for health and mental
problems.
“Veterans Day is meant to recognize the services that
people are giving. It’s a huge sacrifice ““ people
having lost their lives, their health ““ to serve their
country,” she said.
There are about 18,000 homeless veterans in Los Angeles County,
and the vast majority of them are Vietnam veterans, Maruska said.
She said many Vietnam veterans came back from the war suffering
from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but they were not treated
because so little was known about the disorder at the time. Some
veterans turned to alcohol and drugs to deal with the disorder.
She added that many Vietnam veterans were denied jobs due to
negative perceptions people had of the soldiers.
Maruska and others at the VA try to help diagnose the homeless
veterans and help them get off the streets by telling them about
the different health and housing options available to them.
As the event came to a close, 43-year-old Army veteran Michael
Herron slowly walked across the grass toward the white tent.
He said he spent an hour and a half riding in a taxi from Carson
for a doctor’s appointment at the medical center. Another
veteran told Herron, who is nearly blind and uses a walking stick,
there were free Subway sandwiches at the booths, so he decided to
check it out.
“I just wish every time a new administration comes in,
they stop cutting Veterans benefits,” he said, as the rain
bounced off his broad shoulders and he slowly made his way through
the puddles of rain to the tent.