(Continued from page 20)

experts said.
• Bryan Craig, executive director at the National Center for Veterans Studies at the University of Utah, said states have been working on veteran outreach programs for the past five or 10 years.
• Veterans Affairs hospitals used to wait for veterans to come to them, Craig said, but veterans won't always do that if they get busy with work and family.
• "This is a population that's not exactly inclined to seek out treatment," he said.
• Retired Army Col. Jim McDonough with the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University in New York said veterans and their families don't always know what services are available and can't keep up with all the related changes.
• "You are right there with the best of states," McDonough said about South Dakota, "by the very fact that you're undertaking this."
• Larry Zimmerman, secretary of the state's Veterans Affairs Department, said he and his staff came up with the idea for "Operation Reaching All Veterans" when he came into office about 15 months ago. The initiative launched with a proclamation by Gov. Dennis Daugaard in January and is expected to last the year.
• "We're literally calling and/or trying to visit every person individually," Zimmerman said. "What we've done as a state and as a department is brought our county and tribal service officers into this, because they're our storefront and there's 62 of them."
• The Veterans Service Officer in Spink County, Gordon Richard, is hosting two open house events in different cities within the county on April 8. The events provide an entry point for veterans to access services, he said.
• It's a good time to reach out to veterans of "The Forgotten War" in Korea and Vietnam who may not have had a good homecoming, Richard said.
• Zimmerman agreed.
• "Today there are many, many medical issues, dealing with agent orange for instance, from that war in Vietnam, and the people might not know about it," Zimmerman said.
• These veterans might not know their cancer or heart conditions could be covered with federal Veterans Affairs benefits, he said.
• Phil Clements, commander for American Legion No. 8 in Pierre, was greeted by federal and state employees when he returned from Iraq in 2004, where he served with the 200th Engineering Corps. While he's pretty healthy, he receives some services.
• His experience was very different from that of his father and late father-in-law, he said.

(Continued on page 22)