Episode 107 - The March Back to Civilian Life

Stacy Pearsall sits down for a candid conversation with Ron Novak, Brigitte Marker, and Romaine Byrd, who help service men and women overcome the challenge of transitioning back to civilian life, on episode 107 - TAPS. A few topics of conversation relayed around the Veteran Affairs, how to navigate the program, and its preparation towards a career after service. 

Q: Stacy to Ron, Brigitte, and Romaine 

“All of you have probably went through the VA (Veteran Affairs) system at some point. I know when I was getting medically retired, I'm literally, like, in that pipeline for that transition, and I didn't know my ass from a hole in the ground. And they were literally trying to get me through that process. Nobody says, "Okay, here's your standard operating procedure for navigating the VA." Tell me… how was your VA experience?” 

A: Romaine 

“So, my VA experience was -- I got the, what is it, benefits at discharge, so I was one of the lucky ones. When I submitted my retirement paperwork, went through the process, the six months -- actually as I was doing the transition course, they came in and did my claim then. So, my last day in uniform I want to say was February 31st. April 1st, I had my claim back. I got a decision with money in my account.” 

A: Ron 

“Mine was somewhat similar to -- to Romaine's, but -- So, I was fortunate enough to have some friends that had gone through the -- through the pipeline before I did when I retired. And they all told me, they said, "Look, you've been in the Army for a long time. You've written a lot of operations orders. You've briefed a lot of operations orders. You've done brief backs, et cetera. Treat this like it's an operation." And it really didn't sink in until I went over to the hospital, and I had requested my medical records. Now, I've been in Army for a number of years, and when I went over there, they gave me my medical records. So I'm thinking they're just going to give me a disk and -- No, it was a -- it was a photocopier paper box that was filled on both sides, and then the disk was on top of that. And they picked it up and slid it across and said, "Here you go, Thank you for your service," whatever that means, "and good luck, you know, and let us know if anything else." And so, you know, I went home and sat down with my wife and, you know, I said, "Okay, well, I'm going to figure this out," right? So over a weekend, I chronicled my whole military career through my -- through my medical record. And so I went, okay, here's my MEP station physical from 19… So it was from 1982, signed at the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, MEP station. And I just started pulling things together. And again, I had people that were in the pipeline ahead of me that that said, "Look, you know, when you go to the VA at this point, they are so overwhelmed that when you sit down with the folks at comp and pen, they're not going to have the time to sit down like, you know, maybe your primary care, you know, doctor to -- and know who you are. They're not." So they recommended that I, you know, categorize everything based on, you know, musculoskeletal and, you know, just sort of break everything down, and take copies with you when you go. And so I sat down and separated everything, you know, put the little piece of paper on there, the, you know, little Post-it note. And, you know, I chronicled my whole military career. I went, "Oh, wow, that happened to me at Fort Polk, Louisiana. Hey, that happened to me at Fort Bragg. Oh, I remember that." So, I started pulling this all together. Again, some good advice -- You know, they said, "Don't start your claim there. Wait until you get to Syracuse." So I waited till I got to Syracuse. I took all my own copies. And, you know, the lady sat down with me in musculoskeletal and said -- as an example, and she started going through everything. And she -- You could tell she just wasn't prepared. So I said, "Ma'am, let me just walk you through this." So I went into my little -- I went into my "civilian" -- I'm air-quoting my "civilian" assault pack now, 'cause I got rid of the military assault pack, and now it's a backpack. So I went into there and started giving her everything, and so she was able to get through there. And had I not listened to the folks that had gone before me, friends of mine and, you know, fellow soldiers, soldiers that I had served with, you know, who were under my under my command…” 

 Q: Stacy to Ron, Briggite, and Romaine 

“Listen, I was in the Air Force. We had TAPS class, and I think it was a work week long, right? And you're just inundated with almost useless information. And the one thing that I keyed in on was the VA rep who came in who were like, "Well, you're going to enroll in the VA, and you can get XYZ care." And it was so superficial. It drives me bananas that we spend weeks and weeks and weeks turning civilians into military members. And then we give, what, a few hours of a few days... kicking you back out? And no guidance whatsoever.” 

A: Romaine 

“Yeah, no, I honestly think, I mean, even in basic training, it's, you know, "Shut up, drive on, you know, rub dirt on it" and, you know... Yeah, you know, so the whole time that you're going through the ranks, I mean, you know, as soldiers, airmen, you know, sailors, we don't keep really good track of our medical history. You know, so 18 years down the chute, it's like, okay, well, you need to prepare to get out, and you hadn't been to the doctor or, you know, you got all these ailments, and you never kept track of everything that you had going on. So now when you get to the VA, and it's like, okay, well, I need to file a claim, well, what are you claiming? You don't have a history of any type of medical issues.” 

A: Briggite 

“Trick with that, and a lot of people don't know that is on your discharge physical, you mention it, and all of a sudden, it happened in the military. And even if you didn't, within one year of discharge, if you've been -- or get start getting treated for it, the VA will give the benefit of the doubt that it was caused by the military.” 

Q: Stacy to Ron, Brigitte, and Romaine  

“Do you think this is one of the bigger things that maybe need to be translated between the military community and the civilian community? Like what can employers do to educate themselves about who we are as a community? And the things that we find totally badass and that were really hard-earned in the military, we whitewash for the benefit of them and our ability to get employed. So what can they understand better to be like, "Damn, I really did not appreciate that until I was educated?” 

A: Romaine 

“I honestly don't think there's a way to kind of, you know, bridge that gap or change the culture of, you know, civilian companies, you know, having that stigma, I mean, because there's so many different outside influences that, you know, just kind of weigh on that military community. I do think the military can do a better job at educating the civilian sector. You know, invest more time in military personnel that are getting ready to separate. You know, instead of TAPS being one week, make it actually a year. You know, I know you (Ron) being colonel? What was your final rank? I know they probably wanted you to work till the day that you took the uniform off.” 

A: Ron 

“I retired as a colonel. They did, but I made a conscious decision to give myself the time, you know, 'cause I had helped transition so many other soldiers, family members out and gave them the time to do that. I needed time for myself and my family… Part of transition, and you see it, is you have to create your civilian identity. You have to reinvent -- But now -- But then what you also need to do is create your brand, 'cause part of what is going to happen to you, whatever your degree discipline is and what you want to do post-graduation, is you're going to have to create your brand. You're going to have to sell yourself, right? So, we can tee everything up for you, but you got to go in, and you got to close the deal. Right? And so you're probably a sophomore standing, typically. So you got about three years. So we got three years to work with you on getting you comfortable to talk to people. You know, comb out a résumé. Get you up on LinkedIn. Get you into some networking events, right? Get that professional photo, do all that, right? That's part of that engagement. That's part of connecting when you transition in. But if you decide not to do that and just go over and not want to stay connected with that community, you're the person that's going to come up in the spring semester of your senior year going, "I need help. You know, Houston, we have a problem." And that's not the time to do that. So creating your brand is important when you're looking for a job and also, you know, creating your civilian identity in the process, in that transition.” 

A: Briggite 

“One of the things that I did down in Klamath Falls is we had businesses actually come say, "Will you give a briefing? Why should we hire a veteran? What is it that they bring to our company that might be beneficial?" I mean, I gave a two-hour briefing, and by the time I left, they were like, "Wow, we never realized that. All we hear is the, you know, the bad things, the, you know, they come back with all these messed-up heads, and we never realized all the stuff that they do that would benefit our program." And then I would follow up, you know, after they'd had a hiring fair or whatever and say, "Well, how did it go?" "Wow. They're some of the best employees. They show up on time. They're dependable." And they do their job." And it's like, "We want to hire more.”