By Ashley McCarty
In this week’s “Unsung Heroes,” the Defender honors Veterans Day by highlighting the role of Veteran’s Service Officer Russ Todd of the Adams County Veteran’s Services in West Union, Ohio.
“What we do here is we try to get Veterans enrolled into the VA healthcare system. We’ll file claims, like somebody that was hurt during service, we’ll file a claim; Vietnam Veterans sprayed with Agent Orange or in the Agent Orange area, we try to file claims to get them to the VA healthcare system, and it also gives them compensation for that claim,” said Todd.
Todd has been the Veteran’s Service Officer since 2014. Before him, Dean Collins had taken over Adams County Veteran’s Service for two years, and prior to that, Tony Blevins for 26.
Along with helping veterans with their healthcare claims, Adams County Veteran’s Services also provide help with food, electricity, water, and groceries. A service that has suffered since the closing of the power plants in 2018.
“We’ve taken quite a bit of a budget cut since the power plants have closed. We’ve lost several thousands of dollars. I think at one point it was $70,000 because of the power plants. Each year we’ll set aside $150,000 of our budget and then we have people who come in every month, regulars, like the older spouses, widows, and they get a food voucher each month,” said Todd.
Last year, the budget for Adams County Veteran’s Services was $270,000; $150,000 was set aside for these vital services it provides to community Veterans.
“We also have transportation that we provide for veterans to and from VA medical centers, so that comes out of our budget, the fuel for the vans each year. We have three vans and a car that we take. By law, we’re only allowed to go to and from VA medical facilities, but we’re pretty steady in the transportation department, until COVID-19,” said Todd.
Anyone from the community can make donations to help the Adams County Veteran’s Services.
“What we do with those is we put them into our budget, and it usually goes toward financial assistance,” he said.
Donations made will go through the Adams County Auditor’s Office, wherein the treasurer will allocate the funds into their budget.
“Every donation is helpful. So, we project — each month we have say 100 people that have a food voucher — and some that get help with their electricity. We start out each year with $100 a month food for the select people, and then at the end of the year, we raise it to $125 and everybody that was getting financial assistance from us we bought a 15 pound turkey and gave it to them as well. In December, hopefully we’ll have enough money to raise the voucher amount to $150, and then we’ll give them a 4-pound ham for Christmas,” said Todd.
A separate entity under the Adams County Veteran’s Services, the Adams County Honor Guard, performs at the funerals of the honorably deceased.
“The Honor Guard is when a veteran passes away, they’ll go to the funeral and present the flag and do the 21-gun salute. We do that for every veteran who was honorably discharged or other than dishonorable. If you have a dishonorable discharge they don’t do that. That’s a separate entity from us run by Steve Naylor. They call here and I forward them his information and they call him,” said Todd.
Todd himself is a veteran, serving in the United States Navy Submarines for five years as a mechanic, from 1991 to 1996.
“My Mom’s side of the family is military as far back as you can go. I remember going to my grandma’s house, and it was wall-to-wall military pictures. It’s just something I always wanted to do. I enlisted at the end of my 11th grade year. I couldn’t go, because I was only 17, so I had to finish high school. My next year I had to get my Mom to sign the waiver,” said Todd.
Todd graduated June 1, 1991, and was in boot camp by June 5.
“My daughter just got out of the Army, she did six years, and she did a tour in South Korea for a year,” said Todd.
Todd has been deployed a few times himself, he said.
Adams County Veteran’s Service is currently located at 215 N Cross Street in Room 112. The organization has moved quite a lot in the past few years, though Todd is hopeful that this will be its permanent residence.