When Ed Lytle left the Air Force in 1976, he sought help from VA hospitals.
“There were some things I wanted to ask, and that’s what drove me crazy. They said I was crazy,” he said. “I started having other issues and when I was taking the veterans test, all they said was ‘no, no’. Please don’t come back, we can’t help you.” you are not qualified
Lytle continued trying to get help through the VA for years until he was able to get a hearing test through the VA to get disability benefits five years ago.
But it wasn’t until he met Ron Bryant, the Veterans Services Officer for American Veterans with Disabilities, that he finally got those benefits.
“If you don’t say things in a certain way that the VA wants to hear, they just throw it out,” said Lytle. but they didn’t take it because of my wording, the way he took my word and worded it differently, they said “oh ok”.
Bryant has been helping veterans for almost 20 years and in September brought volunteer services to the Sawalita Food Bank and Community Resource Center. In his four months there, he helped 114 veterans.
In recognition of his achievements, Bryant last year was nominated by Gov. Doug Ducey, Sen. Mark Kelly, Sen. Kirsten Cinema, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, county superintendents Matt Heinz and Adelita Grijalva, Awarded by Tucson City Councilman Richard Fimbless.
For Lytle and other veterans, it’s not just the path to financial gain they leave, but friendship, pain relief, and someone who understands what veterans go through.
“What he did gave me a sense of relief,” said Lytle. “When I finished the service, I felt like I was on an island, but there weren’t even any trees there. No, Ron just listened and it made a difference.”
to go
A Navy veteran, Bryant started DAV 17 years ago in his hometown of Seattle.
He wants to help his fellow veterans and a friend told him about the DAV chapter.
“I tell people the VA is like a big gerbil wheel and the more paperwork you do, the slower it gets. So you just keep working.”
Bryant grew rapidly within the organization and was promoted to a commanding position about six months later.
He was able to stir up excitement among new members and began collecting large donations from companies such as Costco. For years, when Bryant, who’d been visiting Green in his Valley in the winter, moved here with his wife, he felt called to do so.
“The only way I can explain to you is God wants to see me get this done and hand this over to the young people and he knows we need to do something in Tucson. “He just tugged and tugged at me.”
A DAV survey of the area found about 18,000 veterans from South Tucson to Nogales, Bryant said.
SFB connection
Bryant reached out to Sahuarita Food Bank last year in an attempt to tie up his Costco connections. But executive his director Carlos Barrez said that when he saw DAV’s hat, he was convinced that Bryant could do more.
“We talked. I told him I was a veteran. He asked, ‘What is your disability percentage?'” Well, 10%… while in the military. I fell flat on my back in the back of the plane,” said Barrez. “He said let’s sit down and talk about disability benefits, and I had an epiphany moment: ‘Ron, why don’t we do it here?'”
Since then, Bryant has set regular working hours on Mondays and Thursdays at SFB-CRC to help veterans explore potential benefits.
Mr. Barrez said he has served many people in his life.
“We serve a lot of vets and we knew this was a much-needed service, so we were happy he had that service,” Barres said. “Many of our food bank customers are seasoned veterans and are unaware of their benefits and services. I never applied for it.”
Bryant said veterans often don’t know what disability benefits they actually qualify for because they haven’t been notified.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s 10% or 100%, it’s still your profit. Unless you earn it, you can’t get a service-related disability ranking,” he said.
Recently, he helped a young man at Fort Huachuca try to apply for one disability, tinnitus to multiple.
“One of the obstacles he wanted to put in was 18 different obstacles. I am,” he said.
One of the biggest challenges in securing benefits is paper chasing.
“All of us veterans haven’t been to the doctor in years,” he said.
Gathering information is especially difficult for Herb Wisdom, owner of Wisdom’s Cafe in Tuback, since his ship is now decommissioned.
“When the ship was decommissioned, all the paperwork seemed to have disappeared into thin air, and I often say that I went to the Veterans Administration here and was pretty close to this date. They’ll look it up, but what I can’t find any,” he said. “You may have suffered a tremendous blow, a serious injury, but there is nothing to back it up. These are some of the things Ron has to work out.”
Wisdom has been working with Bryant for three years to obtain disability compensation for his skin condition, which he said was caused by Agent Orange, a defoliant used in Vietnam.
free yourself
Bryant doesn’t just help veterans get disability screening and family support. He gives them room to open their doors to those who understand.
“The first thing I say to them is, ‘Well, I’m going to sit here today and be free,'” he said.
Bryant’s areas of focus while in Seattle were PTSD and military sexual trauma.
“Many MSTs said that a young woman and her superiors would say, ‘I will help you move up the ranks…and nine out of 10 women I spoke to were scared to death,’” he said. rice field. “You are her 18-year-old child, but this predator has been around for a long time and says if you don’t do this you will do bad things and go home. And once you get them, accomplished.”
The MST victims he spoke to often struggled to maintain a job or have healthy relationships after experiencing it.
“We know we’re ready to collapse now, so we pulled the tissue box over. We let it collapse where it was on the floor,” he said. , once your claim is complete, we recommend that you get mental health care. You need mental health care for the rest of your life.”
Lytle said the way Bryant gets veterans to open up makes all the difference.
“I’ve seen the way he pulls it out of people, and I’m happy to talk to him about things I don’t want to talk about,” he said. “For the most part, the VA people had never been in combat, nor had they had to carry their dead on their shoulders in 30 clicks.”
He said veterans identify with each other on different levels.
“We talk there more than we talk to anyone else, and we’re open-minded,” he said. “We don’t mind crying on each other’s shoulders, and sometimes it’s necessary. You see on the service what you don’t want to see. You do what you don’t want on the service. I don’t understand, but another veteran.
DAV Chapter
Bryant, Lytle and Wisdom are now trying to help more veterans.
They are creating a DAV chapter for this region. It has been approved by the state and they are awaiting a national charter.More than 90 people are already interested.
Their main goal, Lytle said, is to provide a place for veterans and their families to get help.
“What I’m asking DAV here is not to piss me off to the bar. Hey, come see me. Any thoughts? Let’s talk about it,” he said.
Bryant said he plans to hold several meetings and provide lunch to veterans in attendance.
Finding the building and disseminating information is still on their to-do list.
For Bryant, a volunteer, the mission has always been the same: helping veterans.
“I feel sick if I take all this information out of them,” he said. “I love seeing the smiles of disabled veterans.”
