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Show p i hi i nai mm mini tfina iiiwii u iai nan mi ukiv-?fR- UfSfc -sty 3! ' ' . 5 V' . . f V . " ' -! V- 1 ' - - 1 J l';.,..- ! VETERANS DESERVE HELP By GARY R. BtODGETT Vietnam veterans are eligible eligi-ble for employment and job-seeking job-seeking benefits, but many veterans are not aware of what's in store for them, according ac-cording to Grant Seegmiller, veterans' representative from the Bountiful Office of Utah Job Services. "THF8F ARF. more than 1,000 Vietnam-era veterans living in Davis County," said Mr. Seegmiller. "And many of these veterans don't even know what benefits they are entitled to.'.' He defined a Vietnam-era veteran as one that served in the active military service between May 1964 and August 1975. There are an additional 700 or more veterans of the Korean conflict or World War II. JOB-WISE, it's fairly simple what a Vietnam-era veteran is entitled to. "He has first chance at any job opening to which he is qualified," Mr. Seegmiller explained. "Beyond that, we must offer them any and all of our job opportunity services." ser-vices." EMPLOYERS, too, have an obligation to veterans. Business leaders must file reports showing their use of veterans, especially disabled veterans. "THERE IS a wide variety of disabilities when referring to veterans," said Mr. Seegmiller. Seeg-miller. "Not everything is cut and dried that a veteran has to be physically disabled (loss of a limb, etc.) "In fact, many of the disabilities are related to emotional rather than physical problems." SOME businesses in Davis . County receive federal monies for employment of physically and emotionally handicapped veterans and all businesses receiving contracts con-tracts of $10,000 or more are required to list with the State Job Services. Quarterly reports must also be made to the Department of Labor. How does Job Services find these veterans to offer help? "IT ISNT easy," said Mr. Seegmiller. "Most veterans - especially those connected with Vietnam don't want to be classified as a veteran. They don't want to be recog nized as such and they don't want to receive aid." Mr. Seegmiller said his staff works with personnel out of the Salt Lake City office in an attempt to seek out and help these veterans. TWO OF these Job Service representatives severely physically handicapped themselves attempt to get names and then make per sonal contact with disabled veterans. Dale Brockbank is one of these "outreach" veterans. He was badly wounded in ' Vietnam and the injuries left him, among other things, with a speech impairment. WES THOMAS, too, is a seeker of disabled veterans. His handicap is more noticeable no-ticeable as he lost an arm while on a service-connected maneuver in Hawaii. ' Both agreed that most' disabled veterans of the Vietnam-era don't want to be associated as-sociated with the war. "THEY DIDN'T like it and they don't want to have the Vietnam stigma attached to them," said Mr. Brockbank. "Many will even fabricate stories as to how they suffered their injury, especially if it's the loss of a limb or any visible visi-ble scars." Mr. Thomas added that those that are not physically disabled, but emotionally disturbed because of the war, also will try to hide or disguise dis-guise their handicap. "VERY FEW veterans will publicly talk about their disabilities and some will even make threats to us when we find out about them," he said. "They want to know how we got their names. "But it's our job to try to get through to these men that they do have benefits rightfully right-fully theirs, regardless of their feelings about the war. Sometimes a personal visit will help when they see that we, too, have been disabled in the war." MR. THOMAS added that publicity and work through community civic groups has helped to break the barrier that many veterans have regarding benefits. "Some of the veterans we find are retrained into better . jobs through agencies, schools and training programs," he said. Vietnam Era veteran, Wes Thomas, who lost an arm during a service-connected maneuver, is interviewed by Utah Job Services personnel. Veterans have special job benefits, but many don't want to be classified as a Vietnam Viet-nam veteran. MR. Brockbank added that about 35 percent of the job placement of veterans is through the federal Comprehensive Employment Training Act (CETA). Some of the benefits allowed to veterans include job placement, unemployment insurance, on-the-job training, counseling, testing, vocational training. schooling, etc. MR. Seegmiller said there are about 14,000 service-connected disabled veterans statewide. In the Salt Lake City-Bountiful area between Oct. 1, 1976 and Aug. 1, 1977, there were 3.430 veterans placed on jobs. Of this figure, 139 were classified clas-sified as disabled veterans, said Mr. Seegmiller. |