In the first part of 2025, the committee’s focus has been on establishing our priorities for the near future. We’ve identified two areas of immediate need.
- Legislative Agenda. The UWUA Veterans Committee, as with all veteran organizations, must have a legislative agenda. The current state of federal veterans’ programs demands it. Craig Romanovich will spearhead these activities and this subcommittee. The first step is to identify legislative issues that could diminish veteran care, benefits and the capabilities of the Veterans Administration. Staffing shortages and limited resources have become recent concerns. The committee has identified fifteen freshmen members in the House and Senate who themselves are veterans. Of those fifteen, seven represent areas with a concentration of UWUA membership. Any of these newly elected officials who are knowingly voting to diminish the level of care provided by the VA need to be contacted by the committee and visited by UWUA veterans. These visits could be effective in a town hall format, if the opportunity arises, or at their offices. These elected officials must be pressured to change course by our members — their constituents — particularly those who have also served.
- Service Project. Additionally, the committee has prioritized a service project, which will be led by Jon Deboe. The project is intended to support former enlisted members who may be experiencing a mental health crisis. Initially, we will recruit twenty-five UWUA members from across the country (five from each region) to staff an internal veterans’ crisis line. Once trained, our volunteers will rotate responsibility every five weeks, each serving one-week shifts. These trained members will serve as the first line of defense — deescalating the crisis and connecting the veteran to more permanent support solutions. Through technology, the five trained members in each region could share access to a single hotline number via their existing cell phones. This can be done without disrupting normal phone functions. Using a universal regional number will make the contact easier to share and maintain consistency.
In the coming weeks, as the committee finalizes the best methods for achieving our goals and works through the logistics, we will spread the word far and wide.