Making a Difference: AM Vets Post 2 – Foothills

“The problems in the VA system that you hear about on television or you read in the paper..they’re not going after the problem…the problem isn’t the medical side…it never has been.” Mike Condon is just one of many who fight everyday to help thousands of veterans falling victim to the mounting problems at VA clinics nationwide. “Phoenix, all its problems, they didn’t have any problems, they’re loaded, they’re over loaded. The problem is the government, the problem is the administration. Then, when you file paperwork it take one, two, three four five years to get the disabilities that they’re due” he says. Current legislation is underway to help fix these problems – the VA accountability Act of 2017 the house is expected to vote on the bill this week. Until then, AM Vets post 2 in the Foothills and organizations like them are here to help. Mike says,”We handle every Tuesday on a beginning bases somewhere between 10 and 45 veterans or and their wives. They have no knowledge of what’s available to them or what’s due them.” Daily they provide support to active duty retired or operational military personnel and their families. “When a veteran comes thru that door and hes homeless, I can put him to bed that night. If hes unemployed and he comes thru that door, I can get him a job inside of ten days and will pay him four hundred a week or more depending on his background. We have no homeless in the Foothills veterans, and we have no unemployed in the Foothills…Veterans” he says. But like the VA mike says they need some help, “Yes, we need to come in, learn how to do what were doing. It take one shift, one day a week. Just Tuesday mornings. I cant even tell you what two or three more people would do.” And even though it’s hard to accommodate everyone at times the Korean War veteran says he loves making a difference. “You cant imagine what its like everyday, guys walk thru that door, and tell us they got their disability. They got into the system, they got this they got that. Its the best pay I’ve ever gotten.”