DAV service stresses outreach.

Ask a disabled veteran where he or she first learned about the DAV and many will tell you about the day a DAV National Service Officer (NSO) stopped by to visit with them. Most even remember the NSO's name, because that initial contact with a concerned DAV NSO often became a welcome turning point in the lives of disabled veterans recuperating from injuries and wounds in Department of Defense (DoD) military hospitals.

Unfortunately, recent attempts by DAV NSOs to visit returning disabled veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan have been hampered by restrictive rules contained in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) of 1996 regarding privacy and security. As a resell, professional DAV NSOs are experiencing limited access to returning disabled veterans in DoD medical centers. These limitations fly in the face of 84 years of dedicated service oil the part of the ITV and its Auxiliary to build better lives for America's disabled veterans and their famines.

"The DAV has urged Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld to relax the restrictions barring DAV NSOs from carrying nut our congressionally chartered mission," DAV National Service Director Randy Reese said. "Decade after decade, professionally trained and accredited DAV NSOs have made sure every generation of war-wounded veterans receives the crucial information, counseling and advocacy they so justly deserve. Our military mess and women wounded and injured in Afghanistan and Iraq deserve the same opportunity.

"The DAV stands ready to make every effort possible to aid returning disabled veterans in their transition from the military back into civilian life. No one is more diligent in upholding America's commitment to the men and women who have been disabled ill service to our nation-no one."

The DAV commitment to building better lives liar America's disabled veterans and their families can be observed in a comprehensive array of service programs and initiatives.

At the heart of DAV service and advocacy is the DAV National Service Department. Currently more than 260 DAV NSOs, National Appeals Officers (NAOs) and Judicial Appeals Officers (JAOs) are employed in 70 DAV offices nationwide and in Puerto Rico. These highly (raided men and women are disabled veterans themselves and serve as attorneys in fact liar veterans and families they represent. NSOs are the front line of DAV Service helping veterans and their families with claims for benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the armed forces, and a variety of other government agencies. Their services are free of charge, whether or not the veterans they represent are DAV members.

The DAV also employs 26 Transition Service Officers (TSOs). whose free services include information seminars, counseling. all] assistance to active duty military men and women through the Transition Assistance Program and the Disabled Transition Assistance Program. These fully trained specialists, located in offices at 19 military separation centers nationwide, serve all branches of the military.

TSOs are often the first contact with the DAV for men and women transitioning from the military back into civilian life. As al result, TSOs make sure that military shell and women receive an overview of their veterans' benefits. Additionally, they review service medical records and work with VA representatives during the discharge process; and while TSOS assist transitioning service members with filing claims for veterans' benefits, it is still the responsibility of professional DAV NSOs to handle appeals, reopen claims. and present arguments supporting claims for benefits.

As outreach specialists, TSOs work at one of the most effective assistance levels--the time when military members are becoming civilians again, and when they most likely know the least about their veterans' benefits or how to access them.

Since the onset of the Transition Service Program in February 2001, TSOs have provided more than 3,600 briefings to more than 138,000 military men and women resulting in more than 31,000 transitioning military members authorizing powers of attorney for DAV NSOs to represent them, and more than 53,000 applications for veterans benefits being filed.

Add to this an active group of hundreds of certified DAV Department Service Officers (DSOs) and Chapter Service Officers (CSOs) working to build better lives for America's disabled veterans and their families and it becomes apparent that the DAV is serious about service, and doubly so about ensuring all returning wounded and injured veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are provided the opportunity to be made aware of their veterans' benefits and benefit from the representation and advocacy of professional DAV NSOs.

In addition to DAV's wide array of service officers working to make sure all disabled veterans, their widows and orphans receive the full range of veterans' benefits to which they are entitled, the DAV recognizes the need to not only provide DAV assistance at DAV National Service Offices, military separation centers, Departments and Chapters, but to extend service outreach into the communities where veterans live. DAV's allegiance to providing this service resulted in the creation of the DAV Mobile Service Office (MSO) Program, launched in March 2001.

Originally, 12 Ford vans were engineered and outfitted to serve as DAV MSOs. The MSO is staffed by two NSOs or an NSO accompanied by a DSO, CSO, or Hospital Service Coordinator (HSC). Each MSO contains two fully equipped offices, complete with laptop computers, a facsimile machine, a combination television/VCR unit, and cell phone to conduct interviews, obtain and distribute information, and initiate claims for veterans' benefits on behalf of veterans and their families.

MSOs are self-contained vehicles capable of generating their own electrical power when local power is not available. They are often used to provide onsite DAV emergency relief to veterans and their families who are in need of immediate assistance resulting from disasters, such as tornadoes and floods.

Witnessing the overwhelming success of the MSO service outreach delivery system, the DAV Departments of Florida and Missouri recognized the potential to use MSOs to expand their service delivery more effectively to a greater number of disabled veterans and their families. Both Departments purchased one of the original MSOs and are now using these offices on wheels. They now effectively employ the MSOs to bring dedicated DAV service assistance to disabled veterans, and their families throughout Florida and Missouri full-time.

Nine of the remaining 10 MSOs are assigned to geographic areas nationwide and are rotated within those geographic areas to provide service assistance to rural, inter-city and disaster areas year-round. The tenth MSO is, used for a variety of special events, such as NASCAR races, air shows, and community fairs and parades. The eye-catching graphics covering the MSOs draws the public to the vehicle where DAV representatives distribute information and educate the public about DAV's mission of service to disabled veterans and their families.

While it is impossible to measure the total positive impact of the DAV's presence in communities nationwide, there are impressive statistics that reflect the success of the MSO program.

During 2003, the DAV MSOs visited more than 500 sites nationwide. DAV representatives interviewed more than 12,000 veterans and family members, carefully listening to their concerns, The veterans and fancily members were then counseled and educated about any potential benefits to which they might be entitled and, if appropriate, DAV NSOs represented them through the entire claims process. Of the more than 12,000 interviews, DAV representatives initiated 11,511 claims actions and obtained 4,344 powers of attorney.

"It is said and proven time and again that the DAV record of service is unquestioned and second to none," National Service Director Reese said. "Yet, we now find ourselves hampered in our efforts to provide the very service for which we are known to the very people who now need our assistance at DoD medical centers.

"With casualties already in the thousands due to wounds, injuries and sickness, and reports of more military men and women becoming casualties of the war in Iraq and continued operations in Afghanistan, now is the time to reach out to these disabled veterans, and reach out we will.

"We will continue to dill for full access so that our professional DAV NSOs can provide the best possible information and representation to these new disabled veterans. Likewise, each of us must be aware of the returning veterans. We must seek them out and extend our services and the camaraderie of membership within our fraternity of America's disabled veterans.

"Now is the time to make contact; now is the time to build better lives for America's newest disabled veterans, and their families."