Navigating the bureaucracy of veterans services is notoriously complicated, but thanks to a pilot program called Veterans Integration to Academic Leadership (VITAL), it’s a one-stop shop for student veterans at the University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University to access their benefits.

Brittany Powers is a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)  social worker who has been managing the VITAL program for the Ann Arbor regional office since its inception in 2011. She manages the program for seven schools, including UT and BGSU. In the past year she has helped connect over 125 students to VA health benefits via the VITAL program.

VA social worker Brittany Powers works with veteran Doug Deprest at Bowling Green State University. Photo courtesy Bowling Green State University.

Instead of the time-consuming process of seeking out each benefit individually, the VITAL program brings together the full spectrum of VA services into a single access point on campus.

“Most student veterans are there on the GI Bill, but we find that a lot of veterans aren’t as active in seeking out health care,” Powers said. “We want to meet student vets where they’re at.”

Corey Carter is a sophomore in economics at UT and a veteran. He was connected to Powers and the VITAL program through the university’s veterans affairs office and he is now enrolled in VA benefits programs.

“Before I met Brittany, I probably had a list a mile long of frustrations with the VA,” Carter said. “There’s a lot of organizations that want to help veterans, but each only handles little pieces of the pie. The VITAL program really helped me out. It took less than an hour, and doing it on my own could have taken weeks.”

Doug Deprest is a Navy veteran and a senior in sports management at BGSU. He met Powers on a veterans night at a Falcon football game. He took advantage of remote mental health care via Skype, a VITAL program at BGSU that is unique in the area.

“I came out of the Navy and started school right away,” Deprest said. “On the initial meeting they evaluate whether you have post-traumatic stress disorder, and I didn’t have that, but I know there were some other things going on.”

Through the VITAL program, Deprest is able to access the counseling and therapy he needs over Skype on BGSU’s campus.

Derek Atkinson, a public affairs officer for the VA in Ann Arbor, said the VITAL program is part of a shift in focus at the VA.

“It really highlights what VA is doing to sort of step outside of the box,” Atkinson said. “They were a federal island — now they’re out in the community really doing things.”

Powers said the program has been working well, but hopes it will expand.

“Right now the program is just me,” she said. “I would really like to cover every college campus within our area, and I’d like to cover every university equally. To do that, we would need more staff. For right now we’re just in the beginning stages of showing that the program works.”

Students interested in learning more about VITAL can contact Powers at (734) 548-3452 or [email protected]. She is available by appointment at UT and has regular Tuesday office hours at BGSU’s office of Nontraditional and Transfer Student Services.

Pam Hays, an advocate for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, will be the guest speaker at a 7 p.m. Veterans Day service Nov. 11 at Epworth United Methodist Church.

Hays, a Toledo Free Press columnist, is the president and founder of The Arms Forces, a nonprofit organization embracing the needs of veterans through individualized programs and services. Since 2009, the organization has worked closely with more than 400 veterans and their families. Hays is a traumatic brain injury survivor herself, having been involved in a motorcycle accident in 2000.

The Veterans Day program is part of the church’s monthly series on healing from physical, spiritual and emotional struggles.

Hays said her talk will center on how the community can come together to help veterans.

“Really what we’re about is making sure civilians and veterans and the military are connected,” Hays said of The Arms Forces. “We believe strongly that veterans and the community are better off when we stop isolating them and incorporate everyone into the same community and grow together. … Civilians need to be lifting up veterans in one way or another. How can [civilians] really be a part of it if we’re always saying that it’s only veterans who can help veterans?”

Hays’ research showed her a major gap in services available to veterans that can keep them from utilizing the system of supports and services in place for them. She has worked with Judge Advocate General’s Corps officers and U.S. Department of Defense personnel to help train officials on matters involving veterans’ services.

In working with veterans, Hays said she tries to center on the individual’s “moral wounds” sustained in military service, particularly in combat.

“You can’t go there without having your human spirit changed,” she said. “When they come back, there’s a lot of work being done in counseling and medical [needs], but no one’s really saying, ‘As a human being, how do you feel?’ … That takes a lot of time and a lot of vulnerability from the people who are helping them, but if we don’t get to that place, then all the other services seem to be wasted or not used as effectively.”

Beth Irwin, director of health ministries and director of communications at Epworth, said the church wanted to have a military angle for its November healing service.

“We have a number of veterans at Epworth and we know that there are many veterans out in the community,” Irwin said. “The healing process is ongoing for them. Pam has been very generous with her time and we’re happy to have her here as much as possible. She’s happy to share her personal experience of healing and show that it is possible to live a full life.”

In addition to Hays, the program will also feature a number of related scripture verses and hymns, as well as a time of open communion and hands-on prayer for anyone interested.

Epworth Church is located at 4855 W. Central Ave. For more information, visit www.thearmsforces.org.

After seven seasons, 37 flights and 2,071 veterans served, Honor Flight Northwest Ohio has taken its last flight.

The local hub formed in 2008 to fly World War II veterans to their memorial in Washington, D.C., free of charge. The organization has since opened to Korean and Vietnam veterans as well.

The group’s final flight was originally scheduled for September but an anonymous donor financed one more trip on Oct. 29, carrying 118 Vietnam and Korean veterans.

Navy veteran Kent Greenlese of Walbridge arrives home on the final Northwest Ohio Honor Flight on Oct. 29. Toledo Free Press Photo by Jeff Harris

Kent Greenlese, 66, of Walbridge was among the veterans on that flight.

Greenlese, who served in the Navy, said when he returned from Vietnam there were protesters at the airport in California and only his mother to greet him in Toledo. Honor Flight’s welcome home ceremony at Grand Aire terminal was a little different.

“I admit I was crying when that happened,” he said. “I didn’t expect so many people to be there. It was really emotional to see everyone screaming and waving and the band playing. The part that got me the most was when they started chanting, ‘USA! USA!’ I kind of lost it there. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place.”

MORE PHOTOS: Click here for more photos of Honor Flight Northwest Ohio’s final flight.

His favorite part was seeing the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. He also made rubbings at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial of the names of two neighbors who were killed.

“I’m sorry it was the last trip,” he said. “There are a lot of people who didn’t get to go. But it was really terrific.”

Twin brothers Harold, left, and Howard Yunker, both of Swanton, at the Honor Flight Northwest Ohio welcome home ceremony Oct. 29 at Grand Aire terminal. Howard, an Army veteran, was on the flight. Harold, an Air Force veteran, was on an Honor Flight in 2012. Both are Vietnam veterans. Photo Courtesy Yunker Family

Vietnam veteran Howard Yunker of Swanton was also on the Oct. 29 flight. His twin brother, Harold, was there to welcome him home.

Harold, a Vietnam veteran who served in the Air Force, was on an Honor Flight trip two years ago. Howard served in the Army.

“He talks about it all the time,” Harold’s wife, Kathryn, said. “It was such an important day. I think it’s that way for everyone who goes. He was so excited.”

Marine Corps veteran Peter Brown, 65, of Toledo learned in August he would be on the Oct. 29 flight, but died two days later of complications of Agent Orange exposure during his service in Vietnam, his wife Conni Urbanski-Brown said. Honor Flight took Brown’s flag on the flight.

“That was such an honor for them to do that,” she said. “It’s the next best thing since he couldn’t go.”

Board member David Chilson, a Navy veteran, said closing the hub was a “difficult and emotional” decision, but the organization felt its original mission was complete. He declined to comment further as did other board members.

“We have taken really all of the World War II veterans who have applied,” Chilson told Toledo Free Press earlier this summer. “Many of the other hubs around the country have shut down once they took the WWII veterans. We’ve gone well beyond that.”

Peter Brown of Toledo, who served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam, was scheduled to be on the Oct. 29 but died in August from complications of Agent Orange. Honor Flight Northwest Ohio brought his flag on the trip and presented it to his wife Conni Urbanski-Brown at the welcome home ceremony afterward. Toledo Free Press photo by Jeff Harris

“Honor Flight is much more than just seeing the memorials,” he told TFP in 2013. “It’s a chance to share the experience of the entire day with 70-some other veterans. What I hope they take away is that people still remember and are very appreciative for their service during World War II and during the Korean War and we still remember and honor them.”

The Honor Flight Network, which includes 135 regional hubs in 42 states, was founded in 2005 and has flown more than 81,000 veterans.

The biggest obstacle for hubs is fundraising, said Diane Gresse, executive director of Honor Flight Network. Nationally, there are about 20,000 veterans on waiting lists with a typical wait time of about a year, she said.

“It’s just a way to pay back the veterans for their service and their sacrifice,” Gresse said. “They are very genuinely humble and appreciate that Americans have not forgotten their service to our country.”

Gaylord and Chris Sheldon of Genoa have served as medical guardians on about 20 Honor Flight trips.

“To listen to some of their stories was just flat-out amazing,” Gaylord said. “It just gave me goosebumps thinking about what they went through.”

Gaylord is a retired battalion fire chief and his wife is a firefighter.

Korean War veteran Theodore LaCourse takes a photo of the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C., during an Honor Flight Northwest Ohio trip in June. Photo Courtesy Tim Bellville

“I’m sorry to see it come to an end, but I’m even more sorry to see the World War II guys vanishing,” Gaylord said. “They are all getting old and passing away.”

The nearest hub now is Flag City Honor Flight in Findlay, which started in 2010 and offers one flight per year. This is the first year the group has had a waiting list, which president and flight director Deb Wickerham attributes partly to Toledo’s hub closing but also to growing awareness of Honor Flight among Korean and Vietnam veterans.

Army National Guard member and Marine Corps veteran Tim Bellville of Toledo served as a guardian for an Honor Flight Northwest Ohio trip in June.

“I love hanging around the ‘Greatest Generation,’” Bellville said.

“There was tears. There was hugs. There was a lot of silence,” he said of the veterans seeing their memorials. You hear a lot of the time, ‘They just don’t talk about it.’ But you get them around one of those memorials, and they open up. What Honor Flight is doing is admirable work, it really is.”

For more information, visit www.honorflight.org.

Army veteran Cecil Smith enjoys the welcome home celebration as the final Northwest Ohio Honor Flight arrives on Oct. 29. Toledo Free Press photo by Jeff Harris

Read more stories about veterans in our Veterans Day special issue:

A Toledo court set aside for veterans is scheduled to handle its first case Jan. 1.

Judge William M. Connelly Jr. of Toledo Municipal Court will preside.

The legal process in veterans court is much like that in domestic violence and drug and alcohol dockets, which help individuals through their legal troubles. As in these specialized dockets, veterans’ legal problems are often the result of deeper mental, emotional or social issues.

The veterans courtroom is meant to not only dole out consequences for veterans who commit crimes but also intervene in their underlying issues to help them lead responsible, productive lives.

Combat troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan often suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They may also have traumatic brain injuries, drug and alcohol problems and other psychiatric conditions. The court will identify these issues and match them up with the appropriate services.

Many veterans from the Vietnam era have been dealing with their problems for years, in and out of the criminal justice system. Now, the new court’s veterans coordinator will go into jails looking for veterans who may be candidates for the treatment court.

Veterans court will only handle misdemeanor crimes, including disorderly conduct, “self-destructive” crimes like drug possession or more serious crimes like assault. The offending veteran will have to plead guilty or no contest in order to qualify for veterans court.

A person who is drunk and yelling in the street, for example, could end up before Connelly, who said he wants to intervene as quickly as possible to prevent the boomerang effect — veterans who commit a crime, serve time and are released only to commit another crime.

“You want to stop that and … get them into services,” he said. “My hope is that we are able to intervene as early as possible and save lives of veterans who have served the country.”

This is where Veterans Affairs (VA) steps in. The agency works to match veterans with professional services, such as mental health treatment, substance abuse counseling or help with a job search.

Melody Powers, a veteran justice outreach coordinator with the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, is one of three coordinators who link veterans with services. Powers works with veterans courts in Jackson and Redford, Michigan.

The outreach coordinator initiates first contact with the veteran and can make referrals to the treatment court, which then supports veterans through the process.

“You see lives completely changed,” Powers said. “I’ve seen people go from no income, no home, struggling with substance abuse, struggling with relationships. After treatment, they have all those things in place: job, income, reunited with family. The courts have just been so successful.”

The VA’s Leslie Witherell, who will coordinate the Toledo court, has already been combing the jails, looking for veterans who would be a good fit for the court where the judge gets on a personal level with the veteran.

“The judge becomes interested in that person personally: �?I heard you had a baby or got a job, good for you,’” Witherell said. “If you screw up, it’s not a punitive thing but still sanctioned. We don’t let them go. We will continue to uphold them because their issues are so unique.”

At every step of the way in the court system, the VA has the opportunity to become involved by asking, “Are you a veteran?” In Ohio, it’s “pretty standard” that those being booked into jail are asked if they’re a veteran, Connelly said; when they first appear in the court, they’re asked if they’re a veteran once again.

Once identified, the outreach coordinator performs an assessment on each veteran and then services are put in place. The ideal is to intervene before any type of regular court punishment occurs.

“I think often the Vietnam veterans have immersed themselves in work. After they retire, they start to struggle again and don’t know they’re eligible for VA care,” Powers said. “So this is a real opportunity to reach out and engage people.”

After a veteran pleads guilty in veterans court, the sentence is 18-24 months in what is a three-phase treatment program.

The misconception is that treatment court is easy but that couldn’t be further from the truth, Powers said. She called it “very intense supervision” by the court system.

For the first 45 days, or phase one, the veteran will meet with the judge every two weeks and a probation officer every week. They must keep every VA appointment and not violate any terms of their probation. The next four or five months, or phase two, allow more freedom as the veteran reintegrates into work or school. Phase three lasts 90 days, after which participating veterans graduate out of the program.

If the veteran completes treatment and does not reoffend, jail time can be dismissed. The goal is not to incarcerate, Connelly said, but jail isn’t off the table if the veteran commits an offense that warrants it.

“In the courts I’ve worked with in Southeast Michigan, anyone who has graduated the program has not re-offended,” Powers said.

The veterans often become so invested in the process, they return to court as mentors.

Michigan has 21 veteran treatment courts and Ohio has 10, including ones in Cleveland, Hamilton County, Mansfield and Youngstown. Akron, Dayton and Toledo all have courts in the same stages of development, Powers said.

In Redford District Court in Michigan, Chief Judge Karen Khalil presides over a veterans court that has processed 52 cases and has an 80 percent success rate, Khalil said.

One of the main reasons for its effectiveness is the three-phase structure the court offers to the veterans who are trained in the military way of life, she said.

“We’ve placed the structure back in their lives that they have become accustomed to in the military. It’s very rigorous and stringent,” Judge Khalil said. “They seem to thrive.

“You have to understand there’s a whole team of people monitoring everything that they’re doing. The judge is in charge, the mentor coordinator, probation department keeping track and justice outreach — so there’s a whole group of people constantly involved.”

Initially in Redford’s district court, people said the veterans were getting a “free pass,” but that is not true, Khalil said. The court is holding them responsible, she said, and that can be a struggle for them.

Defense attorney Rick Graham, who also has a private practice, advocates for the veterans before Khalil. A Vietnam veteran, Graham said helping other veterans out of their troubles is the “highest honor” that could be bestowed on him.

“Veterans are not typical defendants — they’re not drinking and using drugs to get high; they’re using to suppress memories,” Graham said. “Our court treats the symptoms: �?How did you get here and why did you get here?’”

Graham said about 35 percent of the men and woman who have transitioned from Iraq and Afghanistan back to civilian life have some form of PTSD.

“Nobody goes to war and comes back unchanged,” he said.

A third of the veterans the Redford court sees are Vietnam veterans and a majority served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The court sees more Marines than any other branch.

The application for Toledo’s veterans court is now before the Ohio Supreme Court, Connelly said. He will begin hearing cases on Jan. 1. The first veterans to go before the court have not yet been identified.