The Veterans Administration is not known for speed when it comes to processing claims. The long and complicated process forces some veterans to wait years for a resolution.
Local veterans organizations across the country provide volunteer service officers to help veterans access the benefits they have coming.
“The VA is the largest bureaucracy in the federal government,” said Oak Harbor VFW service officer Gary Cosper. “You name it, they win.”
The Veterans of Foreign Wars recently named Cosper the VFW Service Officer of the year for the state of Washington. Cosper’s name may be on the plaque that hangs on the wall of local VFW Post 7392, but it’s an award he claims is shared equally by fellow VFW service officer Ben Bunnell.
Both men have one reason and one reason only to explain why they do what can be a frustrating job: they love serving their fellow veterans.
“I feel strongly that I really need to pay back my fellow veterans,” Cosper said recently at the Veterans Services office at the Family Resource Center in Oak Harbor. He and Bunnell are there every Tuesday from 9 a.m. to noon and at the VFW Post on Goldie Road from 10 a.m. to noon every Saturday, ready and waiting to serve veterans from all over who have come to seek their assistance applying for VA benefits.
“I feel good inside that I can help,” Cosper said.
“For me, it makes me feel good I can give back. I get a lot of personal satisfaction from it,” agreed Bunnell. “We’ve had some marvelous successes and some abject failures.”
The failures they speak of must have come early on in their volunteer service officer careers. Cosper has been doing this for five years, Bunnell for three. Right now their batting average, or claim success rate, is 100 percent. It’s no wonder veterans from all over the region come to Whidbey Island to see them.
Bunnell and Cosper will see any veteran who comes to them for information or for assistance with their VA claim paperwork. The two help veterans fill out their paperwork, then check and cross-check the claims before sending them to the VFW’s regional office in the Federal Building in Seattle. When the regional office has checked the paperwork again, it is hand-carried upstairs to the VA offices.
“In three years, we have not had one piece of paperwork rejected by the regional office,” said Cosper.
“The sad thing is the amount of time it takes to gt a claim approved,” Bunnell said. “My original claim took five years.”
Bunnell and Cosper both served in the Navy during Vietnam. Cosper retired after 33 years, Bunnell after 21. They said veterans of their era have a hard time asking for help.
“The majority of us that fought in (Vietnam) are in our 70s,” Cosper said. “That war didn’t leave us in very good shape.”
Both men are concerned about the men and women today returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“There is no front line over there,” Bunnell said. “These kids are in combat mode 24/7 and are coming back messed up. The VA is neither staffed nor funded to handle them.”
So Bunnell and Cosper do what they can to see veterans file their paperwork with the VA. It’s not a glamorous job, but it’s an essential job. They have no control over the outcome, but it’s clear they’ve been successful.
“We don’t do this for recognition,” said Bunnell. “It’s demanding, but it’s a rewarding job.”
“I’m going to keep doing this until I can’t. Period,” said Cosper.
Need help with VA paperwork?
The following veterans organizations can help you get in touch with a service officer:
Island County Veterans Resource Center: 360-678-7978
Island County Veterans Services: 360-678-7805
Veterans Resource Center of South Whidbey: 360-331-8081
American Legion Post 129, Oak Harbor: 360-675-2411
American Legion Post 141, Langley: 360-321-5696
Disabled American Veterans Chapter 47: 360-257-4801
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7392, Oak Harbor: 360-675-4048
