Veterans
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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – U.S. Army veteran Keith Boylan of Winters, Calif., has been appointed deputy secretary of veteran services at the California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet).
Boylan has been government relations liaison at the California Association of Veteran Service Agencies since 2012 and government relations and community education manager at the Institute for Veteran Policy since 2008.
He was owner and operator of Boylan Window Fashions from 2004 to 2008 and Gulf War program coordinator at Swords to Plowshares from 1998 to 2003.
Boylan was a tactical fire specialist in the U.S. Army from 1989 to 1992. He is a member of the American Legion and of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
“Keith brings a wealth of valuable experience to this position,” said CalVet Secretary Peter J. Gravett. “His work with the California Association of Veteran Service Agencies and the Institute for Veteran Policy will be especially helpful as the Department works to create additional avenues through which veterans and veteran families can connect with the benefits they are entitled to.”
Deputy Secretary for Minority Veterans Affairs Lee Gutierrez, who has been also Acting Deputy Secretary for Veterans Services, will return to devoting his time exclusively to minority veterans issues.
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Thanks to the efforts of the California County Veterans Service Officers (CVSOs), tens of thousands of California veterans are getting the federal benefits they’ve earned through their military service.
During Fiscal Year 2011-2012, CVSOs set a new-veterans benefits record by garnering $346,727,459 in benefit payments which are paid directly to qualifying veterans. That accomplishment bests the previous fiscal year’s total by nearly 6 percent.
“The partnership between CalVet and the CVSOs is critical to the ability of each to effectively reach and assist California veterans and their families,” said Secretary Peter J. Gravett. “Besides improving the lives of families, the dollars veterans benefits bring into the State improve local communities as well. We appreciate the work the CVSOs do and congratulate them on their steadily increasing benefit payment numbers.”
State and federal veterans benefits, available to everyone honorably discharged from the U.S. military, include disability compensation and pension payments, health care, money for education and training, housing, home loans, and many others. Unlike Social Security, veterans’ benefits must be applied for individually.
The CVSOs are trained, accredited professionals located in each county who help veterans and their families navigate the complex and often frustrating benefit application processes.
By law, this service is provided at no cost to the veterans.
For a list of County Veterans Service Offices in California, go to www.cacvso.org and click on “contact us.”
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The Department of Veterans Affairs has partnered with the internet-based genealogy research firm Ancestry.com to bring burial records from historic national cemetery ledgers into the digital age.
The effort will make the collection – predominantly of Civil War interments – accessible to researchers and Ancestry.com subscribers undertaking historical and genealogical research.
“We are excited to be able to share this wealth of primary documentation,” said VA’s Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Steve L. Muro. “With the help of Ancestry.com, we have opened the doors to thousands of service members’ histories through the information contained in these burial ledgers.”
From the 1860s until the mid-20th century, U.S. Army personnel tracked national cemetery burials in hand-written burial ledgers or “registers.”
Due to concern for the fragile documents and a desire to expand public access to the ledger contents, VA’s National Cemetery Administration (NCA) duplicated about 60 hand-written ledgers representing 36 cemeteries using a high-resolution scanning process.
The effort resulted in high quality digital files that reproduced approximately 9,344 pages and 113,097 individual records. NCA then transferred the original ledgers to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) where they will be preserved.
In addition to the NCA’s ledgers, NARA was already the steward of at least 156 military cemetery ledgers transferred from the Army years ago.
In 2011, NCA initiated a partnership with Ancestry.com to index its cemetery ledgers, allowing the data to be searched or browsed in a variety of ways. Ancestry.com spent more than 600 hours indexing NCA’s records at no charge to the government.
Ancestry.com has assembled the digitized and indexed NCA burial ledgers with those at NARA into a new collection, "U.S. Burial Registers, Military Posts and National Cemeteries, 1862-1960."
The burial records contain information such as name, rank, company/regiment, date of death, age at death, date of burial and grave number.
A large number of Civil War soldiers were buried where they fell in battle or in temporary cemeteries, and sometimes that information, along with religious affiliation, can be found in the ledgers.
The collection was posted on the Ancestry.com Web site on Veterans Day 2012. The information can be accessed free of charge by VA personnel as well as by employees of the other federal agencies that maintain national cemeteries, the Departments of the Interior and Defense.
Ledger data will also be available for free at all NARA facilities, and at public libraries that subscribe to Ancestry.com. NCA cemetery staff will use the database to answer requests from the public.
The general public will have access to the database on their personal devices through Ancestry.com’s regular subscription service.
This partnership between Ancestry.com and NCA supports NCA’s ongoing Civil War 150th anniversary commemoration (2011-2015).
VA operates 131 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico and 33 soldiers' lots and monument sites. Seventy two of VA’s national cemeteries date from the Civil War.
More than 3.7 million Americans, including Veterans of every war and conflict – from the Revolutionary War to the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan – are buried in VA’s national cemeteries on approximately 20,000 acres of land.
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The U.S. Department of Defense has signed an order eliminating most limits on women fighting for their country.
Although women have been fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan for more than a decade, this new order opens many jobs to women that previously were closed to them.
“This is a momentous occasion for all women who have bravely served and continue to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces,” said Lindsey Sin, CalVet Deputy Secretary for Women Veterans Affairs. “To lift the combat exclusion policy means greater equality for women in the Armed Forces and formally recognizes the commitment and sacrifice they have made for this country.”
Women make up about 14 percent of the 1.4 million active U.S. military personnel.
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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. on Friday announced the appointment of U.S. Air Force veteran Ronald Brown as administrator at the Veterans Home of California in Redding.
“The appointment of Ronald Brown as the Redding Veterans Home Administrator moves CalVet a significant step closer to opening the Home and admitting its first residents in the Fall of this year,” said CalVet Secretary Peter J. Gravett. “Undersecretary for Veterans Homes of California Robin Umberg and I have every confidence that the Redding Home, its residents, and its staff will thrive under Ronald’s leadership.”
Ronald Brown has been a nursing home administrator at the Yuba Skilled Nursing Center since 2010.
He was a nursing home administrator at Riverside HealthCare from 2006 to 2009 and a skilled nursing facility administrator at Health Care Management Inc. from 2003 to 2006.
Brown was chief operating officer at Sunny View Lutheran Homes in 2002 and a nursing home administrator at Olive Vista from 1980 to 2002.
He served in the United States Air Force from 1969 to 1972.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Air Force Airman Eleazar O. Gutierrez graduated from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas.
The airman completed an intensive, eight-week program that included training in military discipline and studies, Air Force core values, physical fitness, and basic warfare principles and skills.
Airmen who complete basic training earn four credits toward an associate in applied science degree through the Community College of the Air Force.
Gutierrez is the son of Martha and Eleazar Gutierrez Sr. of Clearlake, Calif.
He is a 2007 graduate of Lower Lake High School in Lower Lake, Calif.
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The 2013-14 Governor’s Budget released Thursday includes funding that will help the California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet) continue to serve California veterans and their families, the agency said.
The proposed budget includes $27 million for the ongoing funding needed to open the Redding and Fresno Veterans Homes.
Those funds are in addition to the $9.4 million that was included for the current fiscal year to begin the hiring process for staff that will serve the veterans in the two new homes.
Job examination list eligibility placement processes currently are under way and hiring will take place this spring.
The plan calls for the first residents to be admitted to the Redding and Fresno Veterans Homes in the fall of this year.
The budget also includes $96,000 for the Veterans Service Office Fund. That money will be used to maintain the annual licensing fees for the County Veteran Service Offices enterprise standard case management software, a statewide system that the counties and the department have implemented.
An additional $153,000 in Federal Trust Funds have been proposed to pay for two positions and operating costs at the Northern California Veterans Cemetery and the Yountville Veterans Home Cemetery that will help maintain the perpetual memorials to the men and women who served honorably in the U.S. Military.
The funding has been provided through a recent increase in burial allowances the State receives from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
“This new budget shows the Governor’s continued commitment to California veterans and their families,” said Peter J. Gravett, CalVet Secretary. “We are proud to serve our military veterans statewide and thrilled that now we will be able to better serve those living in the Central Valley and North State.”
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For the third year in a row, the California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet) has secured a AA- rating from Fitch Ratings, a global rating agency.
The 'AA-' rating reflects the above-average amount of retained earnings in the program which are equal to 12.7 percent of bonds outstanding and 13.5 percent of loans outstanding in FY 2012, which increased from 11.6 percent and 11.8 percent, respectively, in FY 2011.
This is the third straight year of increases albeit due to decreasing bond and loan balances. CalVet is one of very few state agencies that can claim this high rating.
“I am very pleased that given the difficult economic times our nation is experiencing, CalVet has been able to hold on to its AA- rating from Fitch Ratings,” said Peter J. Gravett, CalVet Secretary. “The downturn in the housing market has greatly affected the CalVet Farm and Home Loan program, but thanks to the diligence of its staff, the program continues to be viable and secure.”
Although Fitch Ratings continues to project a negative outlook for the program, CalVet is confident that its Farm and Home Loan program will perform much better over the next few months given that the economy is showing signs of improving.
As the housing market continues to rebound, CalVet is poised to provide qualified veterans with a much better option for purchasing a farm or home in California than in the private sector.
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KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The American Legion will hold a pancake breakfast on Sunday, Jan. 13.
The breakfast will take place from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Kelseyville Lions Club, 4335 Sylar Lane.
The menu will include pancakes, sausage, biscuits, gravy and eggs, with beverage choices of coffee and juice.
The suggested donation is $7 per person.
Come enjoy a hearty breakfast and support local veterans.
For more information call 707-279-2411.
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