Commissioner Wheeler Addresses State Convention Delegates

[Georgia Commissioner of Veterans Affairs Pete Wheeler annually participates in the state conventions of veterans service organizations. The following are excerpts from his remarks to those organizations during this year's convention circuit.]

We want to thank you for your devoted support of our armed forces and their families as they continually are called upon to put their lives on the line.  Our National Guard, Reserve, and active duty forces are serving honorably, bravely and repeatedly.

Our troops come home for a while…then return to the hell of combat for the second, third, even fourth time.

Many come home disabled.  And not all war wounds are visible.  Many now struggle with the symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, due to their combat experiences.  What terrible sacrifices our military men and women make to blanket you and me in security.  They deserve all the support and help we can give them.

With many of you by our side, we focused our attention during the past year on supporting our National Guard and Reserve forces and their families while they were preparing for deployment to Iraq, during their time away from home, and after they returned from combat.   We have been involved in all phases of their activities to ensure that our military personnel and their families know what their entitlements are and to let them know we are available to help them in any way we can.

Our field offices support activities at the local Armories on a regular basis to ensure maximum outreach.

We were there in April 2007 when the 1230th Transportation Company out of Bainbridge was getting ready to deploy.  We were there when the 1230th came home in April of this year.  We were there when “H” Company, 121st Long Range Surveillance (LRS) came home to Fort Gillem in August 2007.  We were there when the 848th Engineer Company from Douglas, Georgia was getting ready to deploy in March of this year.

Our Statesboro office counseled returning Iraq war veterans in a park in Statesboro in July of last year.  Our Macon office supported the Post Deployment Health Evaluations that involved hundreds of soldiers in Macon in August and December of 2007.  Our Rome office briefed and counseled two companies of 1st-108th Armor Battalion during December.  Our Glennville office participates in a monthly “Wounded Warrior Town Hall Meeting” at Fort Stewart.  Our Savannah office conducts an OIF/OEF Out-Briefing twice every month at Hunter Army Airfield. 

The Georgia Department of Veterans Service is committed to caring for our veterans of all wars and all eras to the fullest extent possible.

I recently ran across a definition of a veteran that explains it better than any definition I’ve ever read.

“A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his (or hers) life, wrote a blank check made payable to ‘The United States of America,’ for an amount ‘up to, and including one’s life’.”

All who donned the military uniform of our United States Armed Forces wrote that ‘check.’   All paid a price; some just paid a higher price than others.