Readers of The News Observer will now have the opportunity to read about an area veteran each month as the newspaper begins a new feature series in collaboration with local veterans organizations.
The first feature appears today and explores Army veteran Charles Spivey’s time in Germany during the Vietnam War.
Polk County native and Army veteran Ray Arthur has become the “unofficial recruiter” for the local veterans organizations and hopes that over time the organizations can grow in numbers as people learn more about local veterans and the organizations they are members of.
“We have a lot of veterans in Fannin County and Polk County, and we only have a small number of them that come here (The Veterans Center),” Arthur said. “ We want to grow the organizations. … It’s a really good opportunity because no matter what branch we were in, we all laced ‘em up the same way.”
Arthur explained that many veterans, like Spivey, can often be unaware of the benefits they are eligible for. Because of this they can go through life with medical issues without knowing that they should have benefits to help with their issues.
“We have a lot of uneducated veterans,” he said. “If we can get a guy in here when he’s 50 and get him Tinnitus (benefits) before he’s in his 60s, I mean that’s a benefit they earned, that they can miss out on for years because they didn’t know. It’s still happening today. People don’t know.”
He hopes that by reading stories like Spivey’s and learning more about the organizations, area veterans not involved can learn about the opportunities and benefits they may not know they have.
“Charles believes in the clubs, and Charles believes in vets helping vets,” Arthur said. “He didn’t get a lot of help, but he might get to help somebody.”
Those interested in attending meetings and getting to know more about the organizations can email Arthur at fanninveterans@yahoo.com for more information.