Nobody Told Them: Veterans and the Broken Handoff

Veterans leave the military having earned health care, education benefits, and job training. What almost nobody tells them is that none of it is automatic. You have to show up with your DD-214 and enroll yourself, and if you don't, no one follows up.

On this episode, six veterans across four decades and four branches of service describe the same gap. A Marine who got out in 1989 and didn't learn what the VA was until 2019. An Army mechanic who called 211 out of desperation and found housing. A combat veteran who lost her home during COVID and was told she earned too much to qualify for help.

Recorded at the U.S.VETS facility in Inglewood, California, with interviews from the Center on Conscience and War and 50501 Veterans.

We requested an interview with the Department of Defense and did not receive a response.

Featuring: Mike Prysner, Executive Director, Center on Conscience and War Zue Jernstedt, U.S. Army veteran Katie Chorbak, President, 50501 Veterans Sam Corbett, U.S. Marines veteran, U.S.VETS client Shalimar Cabrera, National Director of Executive Leadership, U.S.VETS Charles Gonzales, U.S. Army veteran, U.S.VETS client Thomas "Brother" Woods, U.S. Navy veteran, U.S.VETS volunteer veteran coordinator Jimmy Perez, U.S. Army veteran

Archival audio: "Service to Those Who Served" (1945), U.S. Veterans Administration. Public domain.

Credits:

* Host: Casey J. Adler * Senior Producer: Dan Pavlish * Engineers: Ace Estwick and Mark Maxwell * Editor: Andrew Stelzer

Music:

* Pixabay Content License

Learn More:

* https://www.211.org * https://www.va.gov/health-care/apply * https://usvets.org * https://centeronconscience.org * https://www.veteranscrisisline.net

Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.