Following a presentation to the mid-winter meeting of the National Association of State Directors of Veterans Affairs (NASDVA), Harry N. Walters, former US Veterans’ Administrator and now Managing Commissioner of the independent Commission on the Future for America’s Veterans (www.future4vets.org), said that “State Veterans’ Departments are critical to ensuring benefits and services can be provided to veterans in the future.” 

“The VA of today cannot survive Washington’s deadly budget battles much longer,” Walters said.  “Only by bringing about dramatically new ideas and more robust partnerships with States and other entities can we provide what our veterans have earned and will desperately need in the future,” he said.

“Our independent, non-governmental and non-partisan Commission is charged with establishing a visionary, critically-needed plan to ensure that our veterans will have the resources and assistance they require when returning from the hazards of war,” said Walters.  (Read on …)

The Commission on the Future for America’s Veterans had a tremendous start to their national “Conversations” tour in Charleston, West Virginia in January.West Virginian’s veterans and political leaders packed the State House Chamber for the Commission’s “Town Hall Meeting” to share their views on what veterans deserve and will need decades from now.

West Virginia’s Governor Joe Manchin, as well as the State’s Adjutant General of the National Guard, Secretary of Military Affairs, and Director Veterans Affairs all addressed the Commission. National leaders from The American Legion, VFW, DAV, AMVETS, and PVA also made the trek from Washington to help kick-off the “Conversation” in Charleston.

(Read on …)

The Commission’s “Town Hall Meeting” in Charleston, West Virginia garnered quite a lot of media attention in West Virginia, as well as some national press. Television, radio and newspaper stories before and after the meetings helped spread the word about “Conversations on the Future for America’s Veterans.”  Watch a comprehensive TV report from WSAZ-3 from Charleston.  Or read news clips from the Charleston Gazette and the Associate Press.