Sometimes, they trade war stories — from Vietnam, Guadalcanal, Korea, Japan. Sometimes, they just sit in the silence. Once, they sang. When Gary Jones opens his car door to drive veterans to and from their medical appointments, a program run by Veterans Helping Veterans Now, he’s never quite sure who’s going to get into the passenger seat.
Once, a veteran who had been stationed in Nagasaki, Japan on clean-up assignment for a month got into his car. As did his wife. In addition to doing the driving these two no longer felt comfortable doing for themselves, Jones helped them with wheelchairs, walkers and cafeteria trays, waited as long as their appointment lasted, and then drove them home.
If that guy calls again, Jones says, he’ll take him anywhere, any time.
“Sometimes it’s cool because I get to learn a little bit about their history — I’m a history buff,” says Jones, who is also a Vietnam veteran and recently met a couple other Vietnam veterans who were stationed in the same area of Vietnam as he was at nearly the same time. Local veterans services providers say Vietnam veterans are the fastest growing segment of the veteran population seeking healthcare.
“All these guys have all got stories, and sometimes they’ll only tell it to somebody who’s kind of been there,” Jones says.
Jones is connecting with these veterans as a driver for Veterans Helping Veterans Now, a Longmont-based nonprofit that began offering a free ride service to veterans who need to travel to medical appointments at the Veterans Administration hospitals and clinics in Cheyenne, Greeley, Fort Collins and Denver.
In addition to providing a little companionship, the drives provide a much-needed service of taking veterans who can’t or don’t feel comfortable driving themselves the distance from their homes around Longmont and Boulder to their medical appointments, particularly if that requires navigating Denver traffic.
“The problem is that veterans get free healthcare through the VA [hospitals], but unfortunately they don’t get to pick where those appointments are and a lot of times they’re very far distances,” says Deanna Pike, with Veterans Helping Veterans Now.
The program has seen almost double the number of passengers this year. In 2013, they gave 450 rides to 46 different veterans. As of early November, they had already had 70 passengers, who had taken 550 rides. Word has spread entirely by referrals.
“I see no slowing down,” Pike says. “There’s always a point where it levels out, but I don’t think it’ll be in the next year. I think we’re going to continue to see a lot of growth.”
The number of aging Vietnam veterans and baby boomers, coupled with recent VA policy changes that have made those services more hospitable to veterans in that age group, she says, means that there are likely to be more veterans needing more rides.
For evidence that the VA anticipates growth, she points to their construction of a new VA hospital in Denver — a 1.1-million-square-foot and $800 million replacement facility expected to open in 2015.
The Department of Veterans Affairs reported processing 1.3 million veterans’ disability compensation and pension claims, the highest number in the history of the VA, for the 2014 fiscal year. It was an increase in 150,000 over the previous year, and the second year in a row the VA saw record-breaking numbers. More than 4.5 million veterans and survivors received compensation and pension benefits in 2014.
“We definitely have an increase in veterans, just as a whole,” says Karen Townsend, Boulder County veterans service officer.
Though for veterans needing to get to Denver for medical appointments, there are buses that run from Longmont to Denver — and she keeps bus passes on hand for veterans wanting to take that option — bus rides can be time-consuming. And while they’re wheelchair accessible, sometimes getting on and off the bus is still an issue, she adds. She also estimates that 80 percent of the veterans she works with want to go to VA offices in Fort Collins, Greeley or Cheyenne.
“A lot of veterans get really, really good care in Denver, but a lot of them feel like they’re not just a number at Cheyenne,” she says.
Of the Veterans Helping Veterans Now transportation program, she says, “I’m thinking it’s a great thing. I probably would rather drive with somebody than take the bus, especially if you’ve never done it before.”
Veterans also have the option to use a van service that starts in Fort Collins and comes down Interstate-25 to the Denver VA. But because it’s a group ride, scheduling is made to fit everyone’s medical appointments, meaning the need to go to Denver for a quick appointment can take all day.
Veterans Helping Veterans Now is one year through a two-year grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation that’s been funding this program.
“We’ve only had this program for about two years, and nobody else had anything like it before this,” Pike says. “I think it’s a huge need. I think it’s something that was really unmet.”
In short, she expects to see a growing need for more drivers.
Drivers are required to pass a background check and submit a copy of their license, registration and insurance. Despite the name of the organization — Veterans Helping Veterans Now — drivers don’t need to be veterans. Just someone with some time available.
They’re reimbursed for mileage and provided a $39 per diem if the time commitment exceeds five hours.
“So it’s not a total suck because of gas, it’s really just giving your time,” Pike says.
Like Jones, Bob Price had recently retired and was looking for some things to do and decided the Veterans Helping Veterans program was a good fit. He says most of his riders have been picked up in Longmont, and most of them, like him, have been Vietnam veterans.
Usually the appointments last about an hour, though some have gone as long as six hours. He says that’s part of what makes it tough for these veterans to find rides with someone else — that’s a long stretch of time to take off work or away from the day to give someone a ride.
“Some guys just don’t want to talk at all, they’re just looking for a ride. Other guys want to tell you their whole life story,” he says.
Cherylan Jackson, a U.S. Army veteran who served in the military for 17 years and is now disabled, has taken multiple rides with the program.
“My health issues had gotten to the point where driving outside Boulder was getting really challenging,” says Jackson, who relocated this year from Fraser to Boulder at her doctors’ recommendation to be closer to medical services.
She initially tried the RTD shuttle that picks riders up from home, but found the ride so uncomfortable that she arrived in her medical appointment in tears.
“I got to the doctor and was in so much pain I was crying because I’d been jarred about so much on that little RTD bus,” she says.
With the Veterans Helping Veterans Now program, she’s been able to make it to appointments for physical therapy, annual exams and procedures, and to the pain clinic to manage her chronic pain. When she had surgery on her back, she was told she’d be able to walk out after the procedure, but that wasn’t the case. So the volunteer she was with wheeled her out to his car and helped her in.
“I had appointments I’d been putting off for years because when the appointment came I just couldn’t make the drive,” she says. “I’m able to make my appointments and so my doctors are able to follow me better, I’m getting better medical care. … I just don’t have the words to express just how wonderful it’s been.”
She does advise calling ahead to make your appointment in advance, but says she’s never had a problem getting a ride.
Though she hadn’t thought about it before, she says, those drives are the only contact she has with other veterans at this point. While some of her drivers look a little surprised to find themselves picking up an African American in Boulder, she says, they get beyond that quickly.
“Because when it boils down to it, we’re all veterans, so that’s a major thing we all have in common, we’ve all served our country very proudly. That transcends everything,” she says. “If we ever talk about something, it’s our service.”
