Military veterans are emerging from the pandemic into a new world in 2021, and a lot has changed — some things decidedly for the better. On this episode, host Hope Hodge Seck is joined by Air Force veteran Blake Stilwell of Military.com and Marine Corps veteran Jeff Daly of the American Legion’s Tango Alpha Lima podcast to discuss the five things that every veterans should know about in 2021 — and how the world is beginning to see military veterans and their potential in a different light.
Mentioned in this episode:
Veterans Service Organizations
The following is an edited transcript of this episode of Left of Boom:
Hope Hodge Seck 0:00
Welcome back to Left of Boom. I’m your host, Military.com managing editor Hope Hodge Seck. And we’re doing a very special episode today where we’re taking a look at 2021 — this mysterious and hopeful year, and most specifically, its impact on and highlights for military veterans. As we all learned last year, predicting the future can be a very risky thing. But we have some really smart veterans on today who really know their stuff, and would probably be pretty handy in an alien invasion, just in case 2021 doesn’t turn out the way we’re expecting. With us today are Blake Stilwell, Military.com’s veteran jobs and military culture writer. Blake has previously worked at We Are the Mighty and he served in the Air Force as a combat photographer. He may well be the most educated person on Military.com’s entire staff. He has degrees in graphic design, television and film, international relations, public relations and Middle Eastern affairs. We’re also joined today by Jeff Daly. He’s a Marine Corps veteran and host of the American Legion’s Tango Alpha Lima podcast. He’s a photographer and short film director and producer. And I also understand that he has a background in stand-up comedy. Blake and Jeff, welcome to the show.
Jeff Daly 1:15
Thank you very much.
Hope Hodge Seck 1:16
So the first topic I wanted to get into today was burn pits. We have a story of this month from staff writer Steve Beynon bout how 2021 could be a game-changing year for veterans who believed they were sickened by burn pit exposure. If I could turn to Jeff first. For those who don’t know, what are burn pits, and what is the big issue here?
Jeff Daly 1:38
I didn’t know that there would be testing. So burn pits are what they sound like. They’re big pits with fire that are used to dispose of things that that people have a hard time disposing of. So I mean, tires, chemicals, metals, all the stuff that you wouldn’t want to be near the fire if those things were burning, in case that you inhaled them, because it’s not good.
Hope Hodge Seck 2:08
And so it seems pretty straightforward that you inhale these things, and people are saying that they’re getting sick as a result. So what’s the holdup here? What’s the blockade between these veterans and kind of any disability or benefits that they deserve?
Jeff Daly 2:24
In my perspective, it’s a shame. First of all, if there is anything in the way, let’s get that out of the way. It’s absolutely unconscionable that people are put into a situation where they didn’t have a choice to be there or not to be there. And their lungs and their body didn’t have a choice about what was entering into them. And yet, there were things in the way. The most unfortunate piece of that is that the Veterans Administration was in the way. And I do realize that they are a government agency, and they have budgets to live up to, but it’s the Department of Veterans Affairs, it’s the Veterans Administration, they should be the advocates for any type of issue that affects veterans. If they don’t have the budget, then what they should be doing is going full speed ahead and making the case for veterans, instead of you know, celebrities and everybody else coming out. and having to do that grunt work for the VA. This should definitely have been in their wheelhouse. And I personally feel they let down their constituency by not being on the forefront of advocacy for this.
Hope Hodge Seck 3:38
It’s interesting, my background, my first job in journalism was at the Daily News of Jacksonville, North Carolina. And eight out of 10 calls that I got to my desk line were from people in the community who believed that they had been made sick by toxic water, toxic drinking water from back in the 1980s when these dry cleaning chemicals seeped into Camp Lejeune wells and made a lot of people sick. So it’s interesting how this issue keeps cropping up decade over decade with service members exposed to different substances and getting sick as a result, and then the arduous process of proving that and hopefully, getting what they need before you know, really kind of toxic consequences.
