[House Hearing, 115 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
BEST PRACTICES IN VETERANS EDUCATION AND TRANSITION TO CIVILIAN LIFE
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
of the
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2017
__________
Serial No. 115-38
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
_________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
31-430 WASHINGTON : 2019
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
DAVID P. ROE, Tennessee, Chairman
GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida, Vice- TIM WALZ, Minnesota, Ranking
Chairman Member
MIKE COFFMAN, Colorado MARK TAKANO, California
BRAD R. WENSTRUP, Ohio JULIA BROWNLEY, California
AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN, American ANN M. KUSTER, New Hampshire
Samoa BETO O'ROURKE, Texas
MIKE BOST, Illinois KATHLEEN RICE, New York
BRUCE POLIQUIN, Maine J. LUIS CORREA, California
NEAL DUNN, Florida KILILI SABLAN, Northern Mariana
JODEY ARRINGTON, Texas Islands
JOHN RUTHERFORD, Florida ELIZABETH ESTY, Connecticut
CLAY HIGGINS, Louisiana SCOTT PETERS, California
JACK BERGMAN, Michigan
JIM BANKS, Indiana
JENNIFFER GONZALEZ-COLON, Puerto
Rico
Jon Towers, Staff Director
Ray Kelley, Democratic Staff Director
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
JODEY ARRINGTON, Texas, Chairman
GUS BILIRAKIS, Florida BETO O'ROURKE, Texas, Ranking
BRAD WENSTRUP, Ohio Member
JOHN RUTHERFORD, Florida MARK TAKANO, California
JIM BANKS, Indiana LUIS CORREA, California
KATHLEEN RICE, New York
Pursuant to clause 2(e)(4) of rule XI of the Rules of the House, public
hearing records of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs are also
published in electronic form. The printed hearing record remains the
official version. Because electronic submissions are used to prepare
both printed and electronic versions of the hearing record, the process
of converting between various electronic formats may introduce
unintentional errors or omissions. Such occurrences are inherent in the
current publication process and should diminish as the process is
further refined.
C O N T E N T S
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Friday, November 17, 2017
Page
Best Practices In Veterans Education And Transition To Civilian
Life........................................................... 1
OPENING STATEMENTS
Honorable Jodey Arrington, Chairman.............................. 1
Honorable Beto O'Rourke, Ranking Member.......................... 6
WITNESSES
Dr. Tedd Mitchell, President, Health Sciences Center, Texas Tech
University..................................................... 9
Prepared Statement........................................... 37
Mr. Aaron Kyle Chapman, USMC, School of Nursing Veteran Liaison,
Health Sciences Center, Texas Tech University.................. 11
Prepared Statement........................................... 39
Colonel Lou Ortiz, USAF (Ret.), Director, Military and Veterans
Programs, Texas Tech University................................ 12
Prepared Statement........................................... 40
Ms. Nicole Meyer, USAF, Student Veteran, Bachelor of Science in
Nursing, Angelo State University............................... 15
Prepared Statement........................................... 42
Mr. Ikaika (Kai) Iuta, USA, Student Veteran, Bachelor of Arts in
Psychology, Texas Tech University.............................. 16
Prepared Statement........................................... 43
Colonel David J. Lewis, USAF (Ret.), Director of Veterans
Services, StarCare Specialty Health System..................... 18
Prepared Statement........................................... 44
BEST PRACTICES IN VETERANS EDUCATION AND TRANSITION TO CIVILIAN LIFE
----------
Friday, November 17, 2017
Committee on Veterans' Affairs,
U. S. House of Representatives,
Washington, D.C.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:00 p.m., at
the Texas Tech University System Office Building, Room 104,
1508 Knoxville Avenue, Lubbock, TX, Hon. Jodey Arrington
[Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Arrington and O'Rourke.
STATEMENT OF JODEY ARRINGTON, CHAIRMAN
Mr. Arrington. Good afternoon, everybody. The Subcommittee
will come to order.
I thank everybody for coming out today. I see a lot of
friendly faces and a lot of the veteran community here. I can't
tell you how proud I am to represent West Texas. I want to say
from the outset that my greatest honor in the United States
House as a new Member is to serve on this Veterans' Affairs
Committee and serve those who have served us so bravely and
well.
So, this is a special treat for me, Mr. Ranking Member, to
have this hearing. I think this is the first VA hearing in this
district ever, and it is the first time we have had a hearing
in 15 years. The last time was for a farm bill. But I can't
think of a better reflection of the heart of West Texas than
the love for our troops and our veterans.
So this is truly a great day and a beautiful day to be in
love with Texas and on the campus of Texas Tech University. I
want to recognize our Chancellor of Texas Tech University
System. I don't know if he is still here.
There he is.
Ladies and gentlemen, Robert Duncan.
[Applause.]
Mr. Arrington. Don't be bashful, now. Give him a hand. It
is a tough job.
[Applause.]
Mr. Arrington. Before we introduce our panelists and get
into the formal proceedings, I want to get this kicked off the
West Texas way, the right way, and with prayer. I want to
consecrate our time together in prayer.
I am going to ask and it is my honor to invite a World War
II veteran, Chaplain Phil Crenshaw, to the podium to lead us in
prayer. Mr. Crenshaw was enlisted in the United States Army in
1943 when he was 21 years old and that same year was sent to
Okinawa, Japan.
Sir, it is an honor to have you here this morning. Thank
you for your service and all you have done with your colleagues
in every theater to keep us safe and free. The podium is yours,
sir.
Mr. Crenshaw. A privilege and an honor.
[Prayer.]
Mr. Arrington. Thank you, Mr. Crenshaw.
Now we will ask the Members of the Texas Tech University
ROTC to come forward and present our Nation's colors.
[Presentation of Colors.]
Mr. Arrington. Ladies and gentlemen, representing Gold Star
families, as they say, all gave some, some gave all, but Gold
Star families gave all. They gave the most precious gift in
their family member. We want to honor them, so I am going to
ask Ms. Christie Garza if she would come up here and join me
and my colleague and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. We
recognize her father, Santiago.
Sir, we appreciate your sacrifice for our country. Our
prayers and thoughts are always with you guys.
[Pledge of Allegiance.]
Mr. Arrington. Okay. Finally, I would like Ms. Carly
Porterfield to come forward and sing the National Anthem. I
would ask that our Chancellor not sing while she is singing.
[Laughter.]
[National Anthem.]
[Applause.]
Mr. Arrington. Everybody, you may be seated. Now you can
all be seated.
Carly, that was a beautiful rendition of our National
Anthem. Ted Mitchell doesn't sing that well in the shower, I
guarantee you.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Arrington. I wouldn't know, but--
[Laughter.]
Mr. Arrington [continued]. Are we on the record? I hope
not.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Arrington. Okay. Well, I have some opening remarks, and
I will try to keep them brief because we really want to hear
from our panelists and get into the meat of our hearing.
I do have the privilege, as I said, of representing
District 19, and because of Dr. Phil Roe I also have the
distinct pleasure and privilege of chairing this Subcommittee
on Economy Opportunity. The Subcommittee that Beto O'Rourke and
I have the responsibility to lead and to facilitate oversees
programs that provide for a seamless and productive transition
for our veterans, from the military to their civilian life. We
want to ensure that our veterans have the education and the
training and the other tools to maximize their employment
opportunities and to maximize their quality of life.
These programs include the GI Bill, the Transition
Assistance Program, the Home Loan Service Program, vocational
training for disabled veterans, and other services that assist
our veterans in achieving economic success in their civilian
lives.
I am extremely pleased with my experience on the VA
Committee and on this Subcommittee. I know that there is a
great deal of frustration in this country on account of
Congress not working, not working for the people. I can tell
you that as our veterans have fought so hard for this country
to keep this Union together, they are still keeping the Union
together, because when we walk into the VA Committee, it is not
about red states and blue states and partisan this and that. It
is about our veterans. It is about our country. I can report
back to you guys that that is, in fact, the case, and I can
tell you that the results tell that same story.
Twenty-eight bills have been passed, veteran-related bills,
out of the United States House of Representatives. Eight of
those have become law. We have worked together in a bipartisan
way to enhance the educational opportunities with the Forever
GI Bill, which is the new GI Bill; for example, taking away
that arbitrary timeframe and saying you earned the GI Bill
benefits, you have them for the rest of your life, you choose
when you are going to make use of them.
A recipient of the Purple Heart would have had to wait the
36 months to avail themselves of the GI Bill. If you take a
bullet for our country, you get the GI Bill. You don't wait in
line. You don't wait for 36 months. That is the right thing to
do, and those are the kinds of reforms we have been working on.
The Veterans Accountability Act has been worked on now for
several years, and that, I think, goes to the heart of many of
the problems with the VA. It is just a broken system--not bad
people, broken system. And that VA accountability is another
sweeping reform that was passed in this Congress.
Beto, Representative O'Rourke, the Ranking Member and I
have worked on other initiatives together and introduced laws
that will--they may not be as broad and sweeping and seemingly
bold, but they add up to a real difference in our veterans'
lives. Whether it is the recent bill that passed the House that
we co-introduced to help provide better services for our
disabled veterans with respect to home modifications, and rural
veterans--we are in rural America--this is a great slice of
rural America, very representative of rural America, not just
the values but also the challenges. We have introduced a bill
that I know will become law that will allow for our rural
veterans to access the capital for home ownership.
There are a number of them, guys, and I am telling you, it
is working, not because you have a great representative in Beto
O'Rourke out of El Paso and this great state, or me. It is
because our veterans bring out the very best in all of us. So I
just want to make note of that.
Speaking of my Ranking Member, he is the Ranking Democrat
Member on the Subcommittee. But I will tell you, he had to be
my training wheels and has held my hand through the transition
of my own civilian life to public service in the United States
Congress, and he has just been a great friend. I cannot say
enough about him. The best thing I can say about him is that he
sincerely and deeply cares about our veterans, and he comes to
the table every time with an openness and a willingness to work
with me and with our other colleagues to solve the problems
that face our veterans.
So, Beto, I just want to recognize you and honor you in
that way. You deserve it, and it has been a lot of fun, too,
just to get to know you, and I do consider you my friend.
Thanks for making the trip.
Let's give it up, guys, for our Ranking Member.
[Applause.]
Mr. Arrington. Kristina Butts and Texas Tech and the Texas
Tech officials who are here, and those who are behind the
scenes with Christina making this happen, thank you very much.
These things don't just happen, and I know they are a lot of
work, and so I want to recognize you guys.
I think I am going to skip through this. Today we will
focus mainly on one of our most important missions, which is
assuring our veterans get the highest quality of education and
the support that they need as non-traditional students, and
even unique challenges within the non-traditional student
population.
We have some best-in-class programs. I would like to think
we have some best-in-class people that I would like to show off
today and highlight, because when we say we love our veterans,
I don't know that I have met anyone that wouldn't say the very
same. The question is, what are we doing to love them?
At Texas Tech, they are putting their money where their
mouth is, at Angelo State, LCU, and other places in West Texas,
and that is what makes me so proud, and we are going to dig
into that today.
I think I am going to save my speech. Now I am just going
to cut it short because we need to jump in here.
Let me, before we get into the panel discussion, ask Dr.
Tim Perrin--he is here today representing Lubbock Christian
University, and I know he is in my notes somewhere.
Veterans of Faith--is that the name of the program?
Dr. Perrin. Yes, that is right.
Mr. Arrington. I know I have the name of the gentleman who
is with you somewhere here.
Dr. Perrin. Felix Longoria.
Mr. Arrington. Felix Longoria. He is the President of that
organization. We have an awesome higher education community,
and it is not just public universities. It is two-year
colleges, it is private schools.
Anyway, tell us about this program, and thank you for being
here today, Mr. President.
Mr. Perrin. Well, thank you, Representative Arrington, and
thank you, Members of the Subcommittee, for giving us the
chance to share a brief word and for holding this hearing. We
thank you for your service, for all you are doing, your
leadership here in the United States. It is wonderful to
spotlight higher education and enhanced educational
opportunities for our veterans.
At Lubbock Christian University, we support our veterans
and seek to ensure their success in college and beyond. With
fewer than 2,000 students, we are able to give personal
attention to all of our students. That certainly includes our
veterans. We offer support for our veterans in every aspect of
their lives--academically, socially, spiritually, emotionally,
socially, and in every regard.
Counseling and tutoring services are available as needed to
assist our veterans in making the adjustment to civilian life.
Today, Representative Arrington, you have given us a chance to
highlight our Veterans of Faith, a student group, and I am
thrilled to have here with me Felix Longoria, one of our
students, a math major at Lubbock Christian University who is
the president of our Veterans of Faith organization, which
serves and leads so beautifully within the LCU community, and I
am really pleased to give him a chance to share a word about
his experience at LCU and through the Veterans of Faith student
organization.
Felix Longoria. Good afternoon. Thanks, Representative
Arrington, for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the
veteran community of LCU. I also want to thank Dr. Perrin for
his support of our organization.
My name is Felix Longoria. I am a veteran of the United
States Marine Corps, and I am also the president of the
Veterans of Faith there at LCU.
Attending Lubbock Christian University has been one of the
greatest challenges of my life. As a veteran, you see a lot of
things, but transitioning into that setting, it definitely
poses some challenges. So on the same note, it has also been
one of the great experiences of my life.
It wasn't too long ago that I was working in a machine
shop, a 9-to-5 job, manual labor. It is a trade that I had
learned as a young man growing up in a farming community.
As many veterans do, I reverted back to what I was familiar
with because I found the transition to civilian life just a bit
difficult. When my physical limitations overcame my ability to
stand for an 8-hour work day, the Veterans Administration
advised me that I would qualify for a program called vocational
rehab, and it was through this program that I was able to
attend LCU.
I chose LCU due to its proximity to where I live. It is
pretty close. In my faith, I feel that I landed exactly where
the good Lord needed me to be. It took some time acclimating to
college life, but the community at LCU made sure I had all the
tools and things that I needed to be successful.
After a time, I joined the Veterans of Faith. I found it to
be an organization of like-minded individuals. We have a lot in
common. Over time we have formed a bond, a brotherhood. It is
something that we have been missing since our time in the
military. Again, that is one of those challenges that you have
coming from such a scripted organization to something that is
not that. It makes things very difficult.
To me, when I am away from my family, we attempt to foster
a sense of belonging and brotherhood, not only to members but
to all veterans on campus. In addition to creating a strong
community for veterans at LCU, the VOF, as it is referred to,
is also a service organization. We take advantage of
opportunities to aid the veteran community in various ways
throughout the year, and it is through these activities that we
are able to give scholarships within our organization. A chance
to serve together creates an even stronger bond for our group.
Serving a cause greater than our own fosters a sense of
community.
So I do want to thank you, Representative Arrington, for
the opportunity, on behalf of the veteran community at LCU and
for your advocacy on behalf of veterans, for giving me a chance
to share today.
I do kind of want to go off script a little bit and speak
about the vocational rehab program that I am currently going to
school on now. Without that, I wouldn't be at LCU. It has
changed my life. It has changed who I am.
I know the VA gets a lot of bad press for certain things,
but this is something that they have gotten right.
Thank you.
Mr. Arrington. Thank you, Felix, so much. That was
heartfelt, and thanks for that personal testimony as to the
success of the program. I know I beat up pretty hard on the VA,
so every now and then it is nice to hear a positive story about
what they are doing right, and I know they try.
Dr. Perrin, thanks for your leadership at LCU and for
loving on our veterans and making sure they have a great
environment over there to succeed.
Felix, God bless you, man.
Dr. Perrin. Thank you.
Mr. Longoria. Thank you.
Mr. Arrington. You bet.
Now I am going to ask my friend and Ranking Member to make
any remarks and to take as much time as he would like.
STATEMENT OF BETO O'ROURKE, RANKING MEMBER
Mr. O'Rourke. Mr. Chairman, thank you for organizing this.
It is a huge honor to be here with you in Lubbock, which, of
course, in El Paso we refer to as East Texas.
[Laughter.]
Mr. O'Rourke. Always when we are here, we are made to feel
so welcome and so at home. While the people of Texas generally
distinguish themselves by how friendly they are, I think the
people here in Lubbock really take the cake. We have felt that
in every interaction in every part of town and are just very
grateful and very touched by how we have been received. So, we
just want to begin by thanking the people of Lubbock.
I want to thank Chancellor Duncan and Texas Tech. When I
was first sworn into office in 2013 and served on the House
Veterans' Affairs Committee, El Paso, Texas had the worst wait
times to access mental health care services for veterans in the
country. If there are 141 mental health care clinics or parts
of the VA system, we were ranked 141st. We set out to change
that and worked with Texas Tech Health Science Center and El
Paso, with other public and private providers and turned that
around, including with some terrific leadership from the VA,
and we have gone from worst in the Nation to many months being
right at the national average, and some months exceeding it,
with the goal to clearly be the best in country. And I think
with Texas Tech's help, President Richard Lane and the entire
system based out of here in Lubbock, we have a chance to do
that. So I am very, very grateful for what Texas Tech has
provided.
I want to congratulate Chairman Arrington on his leadership
so far, everything that he has accomplished in not even a year
on the Committee, including last week being able to bring to
the Floor of the House of Representatives a bill that he lead
on, that he wrote to ensure that veterans that are
transitioning into civilian life have the adaptive housing
necessary for them to be able to succeed, and I believe that
bill passed 435 to zero, which is a rare feat on the Floor of
the House, and I think is indicative of his leadership and, as
he mentioned, pursuing it on a bipartisan basis, and very
encouraging for the work before us.
Just some brief comments, and then I am very eager to hear
from the panel and to learn from what they have to share with
us today.
We clearly are not getting the job done in ensuring that we
have a successful transition from service and Active duty to
civilian life and being a veteran in this country. We need to
look no further than the fact that we are losing 20 veterans a
day, every day, in this country by their own hand, the majority
of whom choose not to or are unable to access services at the
VA, many of whom are unable to find purpose or function in
their lives. I felt like Mr. Longoria's testimonial was so
powerful in the function and purpose that you have been able to
find. Thanks to those that you referenced.
We have a role to ensure that that transition is better,
more seamless, and more effective towards allowing that veteran
to contribute to their full potential to their own success in
their lives, but to the success of this country, to the
communities in which they live, and to their families.
Now, one of the things that Jodey and I have worked on
together is ensuring improved mental health care access across
the VA, and specifically for veterans who have what is known as
an other-than-honorable discharge. These veterans previously
have been precluded by law from being able to go to the VA to
see a provider, including a mental health care provider,
despite the fact that tens of thousands of these veterans who
have a bad paper discharge have PTSD, post-traumatic stress
disorder, traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma
connected to their service to their country. They were
diagnosed with these conditions before they separated. And yet
once they are in civilian life they are unable to go to the VA
and get the care that they need, and their suicide rate is
twice that of those veterans who have an honorable discharge.
We are losing these veterans unnecessarily.
We were able last week to also pass a bill that opens up
mental health care to those veterans who have an other-than-
honorable discharge. That also passed 435 to zero. The Senate
companion is set to pass as well. That will be on the
President's desk, we hope, by the end of the year, opening up
mental health care to more veterans who we need to serve in
this country.
I want to build on this bipartisan success that we have
been able to be a small part of and ensure that we are fully
able to integrate these returning veterans successfully back
into civilian life. Very often, Jodey speaks with extraordinary
pride about the success that Texas Tech and West Texas
generally have had in doing that, our pride that we have for
our servicemembers and our returning veterans, and our focus on
ensuring that they are successful once they are back in their
communities.
So I am really eager to learn from you and what you have
been able to do, what you can share with us, and how we then
apply that to Federal legislation to ensure that the West Texas
model is the path forward for more communities across the
country.
So I am very grateful, Chairman Arrington, for your
organizing this hearing, to the panel for coming out, and to
the staff, the majority and minority staff who have done all of
the important underlying work to make sure that today is a
success.
With that, I yield back. Thank you.
Mr. Arrington. I want to thank the Ranking Member.
For just a few minutes of informal presentation before we
get into the panel, I have asked Dr. Ted Mitchell to talk
about, Mr. O'Rourke, this unique partnership between the Health
Sciences Center and the VA to build a community-based
outpatient clinic on the campus and just why that is important,
what is unique about that, what is the value proposition to
this community, to the veterans, and even to your own students.
So could you just take a couple of minutes, a few minutes,
and talk about that? Then we will jump right into the panel.
Dr. Mitchell. Certainly, Mr. Chairman. This is something
that impacts not only the Health Sciences Center in Lubbock but
also greatly impacts the Health Sciences Center at El Paso.
When you have a partnership that you can develop between an
academic health center, like the Health Sciences Center here,
with a veterans' clinic or a veterans' hospital, there are
unique opportunities on both sides with that. From the
veterans' perspective it gives them an opportunity to be in a
vibrant academic health setting where you have access not only
to primary care folks but to multitudes of people in specialty
areas, so the care they get is far more comprehensive when you
do that.
On the other side, for the students and for the residents
that are participating from the Health Sciences Center over on
the VA side, it gives them an opportunity to have two things.
Number one, a very rich patient base. In the military of today,
you have the older folks that have fought in previous wars, and
their injuries and their issues are related to a lot of older
citizens. You also have a very large young population of folks,
both men and women, who have multitudes of problems that you
see in young people. So it is a very rich environment.
In addition to that, both of you have referenced the mental
health area, and that is something that from the provider side
becomes extraordinarily helpful in their own training and how
to deal with some of these issues that they otherwise may not
see.
From the patient side, from the veteran side, it is also
giving them an opportunity again to have access not just to
generalists but also to psychiatrists and people that really
focus on PTSD, on brain trauma, on other things that are so
prevalent in that population. So it is a perfect marriage when
you can have the veterans in a facility co-located with an
academic health center.
For us, both here and in El Paso, this is an
extraordinarily exciting proposition for us.
Mr. Arrington. That is great.
If you don't have any questions--thank you, Dr. Mitchell.
Obviously, Dr. Mitchell is part of the panel today.
Mr. Carl Chapman is also going to join us, a former Marine
and veteran liaison for the TTU Health Sciences Center School
of Nursing. Glad that you are here.
Colonel Lou Ortiz, a good friend, retired Air Force, and
the Director of Texas Tech University's Military and Veterans
Program, the MVP program. Glad that you are here.
Ms. Nicole Meyer, former Air Force and currently a student
at Angelo State University pursuing a Bachelor of Science
degree in Nursing. We welcome you.
Mr. Kai Iuta, former Army and currently a student here at
Texas Tech, pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology.
We welcome you. Thank you for coming and participating.
And finally, my friend Colonel Dave Lewis, the fighter
pilot, retired Air Force, and the Director of VetStar, and a
guy that taught me a lot about the importance of the community
organizations partnership, the guys that are on the front
lines. So I am excited to hear from you.
Thanks for being here, folks.
Dr. Mitchell, let's start with you.
You get 5 minutes apiece. You see the yellow light. Where
is the yellow light? You see the yellow light. When it comes
on, that means it is time to wrap up. It is going to be very
difficult for President Mitchell, but I just hope he can set
the right tone for the rest of the panelists.
So, with that, Dr. Mitchell, we recognize you for 5
minutes.
STATEMENT OF TEDD MITCHELL, M.D.
Dr. Mitchell. Perfect. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Ranking Member O'Rourke, and
distinguished Members of the Subcommittee on Economic
Opportunity of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, my
name is Dr. Tedd Mitchell. I am the President of Texas Tech
University Health Sciences Center, one of four component
institutions within the Texas Tech University System. It is an
honor to be a witness before your Subcommittee on the very
important topic of best practices in veterans' education and
transition to civilian life.
We pride ourselves in the Health Sciences Center on our
commitment to veterans and their families and its recognition
of their service to our country. Last week, we held our annual
Veterans Day ceremony honoring the men and women at the Health
Sciences Center who have served our country. As a member of the
Council of College and Military Educators, the Health Sciences
Center strives to ensure that veterans have a successful
transition into the college setting and, once there, receive
the support that they need to be successful.
For the fall semester of 2017, our university has student
veterans in all five of our schools: Nursing, Health
Professions, Medicine, Pharmacy, and the Graduate School of
Biomedical Sciences. These students are located throughout West
Texas on all six of our campuses: Abilene, Amarillo, Dallas,
Lubbock, and the Permian Basin. The Texas Tech University
Health Sciences Center at El Paso also has a total of 21
veterans in their enrolled programs. These students are in the
Paul L. Foster School of Medicine as well as the Hunt School of
Nursing.
This oversight hearing is entitled ``The Best Practices in
Veterans' Education and Transition to Civilian Life,'' both of
which we take very seriously. We try to take the stress off our
veterans by ensuring all the necessary documents are submitted
to the VA to certify student enrollments. In fact, Sarah Henley
serves as our Veteran and Military Advisor and is a veteran
herself. Our Veterans and Military Advising Office and Sarah's
dedication have produced phenomenal results for veterans
interested in enrolling in the Health Sciences Center but who
may find the proposition to be a little bit daunting.
This office continues to be the primary point of contact
and resource for veterans after they have enrolled and have
begun their degree program. One of our most innovative programs
is the accelerated Veteran to Bachelor of Science in Nursing,
VBSN, track. This is a nursing degree completed in 12 months
specifically designed for veterans with prior military medical
training. The program allows veterans to receive competency-
based college credit and to earn their BSN in far less time and
with far less cost.
This program is unique in that our faculty developed the
curriculum with the folks at the Medical Education and Training
Campus, METC, at Fort Sam Houston at the Joint Services Base in
San Antonio, Texas. Our faculty collaborated with METC
personnel to review their curriculum for medics. The medic
curriculum was examined to determine which courses offered key
elements similar to our nursing courses. The program then
created a competency-based examination to award college credits
by recognizing prior learning. Veterans have the opportunity to
be given college credit for several of the courses.
It is important to understand that the State of Texas has
also put skin in this game. Back in 2015, the Texas Workforce
Commission College Credit for Heroes program gave us $200,000
in a grant to help develop this program. We also receive
support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
through HRSA. This is an important part of making this program
successful.
This program has been phenomenal. Our pilot group of seven
students graduated in December of 2016, and they all passed the
nursing licensing examination on their first test. The second
group coming through has a total of 12 students. The group for
2018 will have 22. The group for the following year will have
45. Our plan is to increase our numbers annually by 50 percent.
We offer this program in seven locations: Lubbock, Amarillo,
Odessa, Abilene, Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio.
As a result of this success--and this is really important.
As a result of the success of this program, our School of
Pharmacy and our School of Health Professions are looking at
similar programs to expand opportunities for veterans in those
areas.
So with that, I would say that there are only a couple of
things that we would recommend that you consider. First is to
continue the funding through HRSA for the program. The next is
to look at the military housing allowance to make sure that as
we grow more into distance education, that we give the students
housing allowances for where they live, not for where the
university is located, and you have already done that a great
bit with the last expansion of the GI Bill. And then finally is
to look at the VA 85/15 rule. That rule was put in place to
ensure that the veterans are receiving quality education by
making sure 15 percent of folks that are civilians are in there
with them. We would ask that if you have entities and agencies
like our university that have accreditation through the
Department of Education, that that be considered enough.
Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Mitchell appears in the
Appendix]
Mr. Arrington. Excellent testimony. Thank you, Dr.
Mitchell.
And now we will recognize Mr. Chapman for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF AARON KYLE CHAPMAN
Mr. Chapman. Good afternoon, Chairman Arrington and Ranking
Member O'Rourke. Thank you for inviting me to appear before
your Subcommittee.
I will just give you a brief story about my journey as a
student at Texas Tech and how that looks like today.
I am Kyle Chapman, and I served in the United States Marine
Corps. I served in the 3rd Battalion 5th Marines. I served with
them in the initial invasion of Iraq back in 2003, and then I
served with the 2nd Battalion 4th Marines in Ramadi, Iraq.
Once I left Ramadi, within a month's timeframe, I was a
civilian. I then came back to school in 2005 at Tech, and it
was very difficult to even find the appropriate office or the
right person to talk to, to even get my benefits up and
started. At that time specifically as well, I started a very
messy period in my life and started coping with varying
unhealthy ways, pretty much became a full-blown alcoholic out
of things that I was struggling with from my time in the
service.
That went on for four years. Then in 2009, through
different sets of interventions, I went to the Amarillo VA
rehab program with other veterans who were dealing with much of
the same things that I was.
Once I returned I put a plan in place to get back to
school, and I was able to do that in 2011. In 2013, I
transferred into Texas Tech. That was from 2005 to 2013 when I
walked into the MVP office, completely night and day. Bernice
Fled, who was there at the time, set me down and walked me
through how to fill out my Hazelwood documentation
appropriately, my VA documentation. That was very helpful.
Then a year into the process I had a chance encounter with
somebody who was working in the MVP office at the time, and I
was about to run out of my Montgomery GI Bill, and he had the
insight to ask me, well, do you have a disability? Yes, sir, I
do. What's your percentage? I told him, and he said, well, you
are eligible for rehab.
To this day I am pretty sure I don't know that I ever would
have known that that benefit was there for me to take advantage
of had it not been for the Military and Veterans Program office
and the knowledge they have.
I graduated in 2015 with the Human Development and Family
Studies degree, and I minored in Addictive Disorders and
Recovery Studies with the specific intent to help military
veterans and their families with resources, PTSD, and substance
abuse. Today I serve as the School of Nursing Veteran Liaison
at the Health Sciences Center for the veterans program, and it
really is an invaluable program.
As mentioned by President Mitchell, those courses that we
allow them to cap out of acknowledges the skill sets and the
knowledge that they have already gained while in service, and
it is proving more than effective.
My piece is the very first phone call, email, whatever the
case may be, and I then become their one-stop shop. I will walk
them up through the process. That may be two years that may be
a week. It will start with an evaluation, then the application
process, and then I will follow-up with anything that needs to
be taken care of while they are in our program, any issues or
concerns that pop up. I will reinforce the training.
And just to put it into perspective, San Antonio, it is
$1,811 currently. We have students there at that site. Here it
is $1,097. That is a $714-a-month difference in a place where
the cost of living is much higher, and we are asking them to
take that cut.
To basically wrap this up, I really believe through my own
journey that there is no better way for us to honor our
military and veterans than through their career and educational
endeavors. So I would like to leave you with a quote from one
of our current students whose unit was recently activated for
Hurricane Harvey relief. And I quote, ``The situation in the
military are uncontrolled field settings. That training has
helped me stay in the correct mindset while I work in more
controlled environments. The best part of TTUHSC is that they
have acknowledged all of my training in the Army. A lot of
places say they are military friendly, but TTUHSC really backs
it up. They stand by their military students. When they say it,
they mean it.''
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Chapman appears in the
Appendix]
Mr. Arrington. Well said, Kyle. Thank you for your personal
story. And congratulations for the success that you are having.
Look forward to drilling down with you.
And now I recognize Mr. Ortiz for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF COLONEL LOU ORTIZ
Colonel Ortiz. Chairman Arrington, Ranking Member O'Rourke,
thank you so much for coming to Texas Tech today.
After high school, I grew up locally here in the West Texas
region. I decided I wanted to not be a cotton farmer, so I
joined the Air Force. I had the privilege of serving the next
30 years affiliated with the Air Force, retired in 2011. I am
proud to be here at Texas Tech because I get to work with the
veteran community here both on campus and off campus, and that
is something that is very special to me, a very special group
of folks.
I appreciate the opportunity here this afternoon to
describe our Texas Tech programs that directly support the
education of our military veteran students who have served and
sacrificed for our Nation.
Texas Tech Military and Veterans Programs was created in
2010 as a department solely dedicated to helping veterans and
their families succeed. We currently serve more than 2,200
veterans and family member students on the Texas Tech
University main campus and have developed a veteran support
structure and culture that serves their needs.
Behind me are two of our staff Members. We have five full-
time staff: Debbie Crosby, who has been with us since the
inception of the program and helped us stand it up; Eric
Washington, one of our program coordinators; Kyle mentioned
Bernice Flet. In addition to that we have 10 VA work studies,
VA-funded students that work for us. We couldn't do our job
without them.
We serve undergraduate, graduate, and law students on our
main campus and satellite locations across the state including
Waco, Dallas, Junction, Fredericksburg, and Marble Falls.
Our core mission, of course, is to assist veterans with the
benefits that they have earned by virtue of the service, both
Federal and state. We administer Federal benefits for veterans
and Reserve component members most commonly post-9/11 GI Bill.
Beyond core benefits, our Military Veterans Program serves as
integration of resource office for all military veteran-related
organizations, activities, events on the main campus. We work
hand in hand with the Student Veterans of America chapter,
Veterans Association of Texas Tech, Tech Law Military
Association, Faculty and Staff Veterans Association, Army and
Air Force ROTC, and the Military Veterans National Alumni
chapter. We also partner and coordinate with key veteran
support organizations and resources throughout the local
community.
As a preface to outlining our veteran support system, I
must tell you that the vast majority of our military and
veteran students are emotionally mature, goal oriented, mission
driven, and self-sufficient role models on campus. Academically
they perform equal to or better than our general student
population.
However, based on their unique military experiences that
may include combat, some veterans do experience social,
administrative, financial, and physical and mental health
challenges. Military Veterans Programs provide a support
environment and culture by instituting programs at three key
stages.
First of all, we want to help veterans in their transition
to campus. We have programs for that. We also want to provide a
support system while they are on campus to ensure they earn
their degree, and we want to help them in their job search and
employment pursuits as they approach graduation.
In our transition from military to academic life, our goal
is creating a welcoming environment here at Texas Tech for the
veterans and their families. We have a program entitled Vet
Tech Boot Camp. Our two-day Boot Camp is designed to help
veterans transition to college life by providing best practices
in study skills, time management, writing, and money
management. A special guest to the training program is the
Brain Performance Institute. This program is a great way for
veterans to socialize. We start this program two days before
the actual semester starts so they get to transition through
this program to the campus.
As non-traditional students, that peer-to-peer interaction
with other veterans is vital in establishing the social
connections in their new academic setting.
Our support structure on campus, our number-one goal is
degree completion for veterans that attend Texas Tech. As a
starting point for campus support, there are over 300 faculty
and staff Members who are veterans at Texas Tech. These faculty
members serve as role models, advisors and mentors for current
student veterans.
We have another key component, which is our Green Zone
training program. It is a comprehensive program that
incorporates seven distinct training modules. Our unique multi-
module approach incorporates training by subject-matter experts
in key support areas on campus, allowing our faculty and staff
to gain a more comprehensive understanding of veteran
challenges, how to recognize them, and where to refer veterans
for assistance. Over 700 faculty and staff have attended this
training.
We also have over 35 volunteer veteran liaisons within the
colleges and staff support functions that are dedicated to
veteran success. They provide frontline support for veterans
who have questions or need assistance in their respective
colleges. Liaisons meet with us in our office quarterly to
share information or report specific veteran-related
information.
The final stage is making sure that once our veterans
graduate or are approaching graduation, they have career search
assistance and employment assistance. Veterans earning their
degrees, career preparation begins before they complete that.
The University Career Center has developed a veterans' career
program for veterans to receive the assistance they need to be
successful in preparing for their future careers. In spring
2017, Military Veterans Program partnered with the University
Center to develop a pilot Camo to Corporate program. It is
really based on the Boots to Suits concept, but much more
expansive in that this program is for graduating veteran
seniors to prepare them. The students sign an agreement to
participate in evening sessions, including a strong interest
inventory, resume, cover letter writing, networking,
interviewing, proper etiquette and dress for a professional
setting. Veterans who complete all the sessions acquire their
valuable job search skills, employer connections, and a
tailored business suit at the end of the process.
In May 2006 we stood up our Military and Veterans National
Alumni Chapter. We recognize the value of a broad network of
military veteran alumni across the state and Nation. One of our
primary goals of the chapter is to connect students and
graduating seniors with alumni who are leaders in business,
corporations, government, and the military. We work to connect
those employers with our students for internships, mentoring,
and employment opportunities. The career center program does a
great job of doing that.
We are very proud of our Texas Tech veterans and do our
best to recognize them at every opportunity. One way we do this
is our unique camouflage stole. You've seen these, yes. So this
is the way we recognize them. We do a special ceremony two days
before graduation, unique marker at graduation. Leadership will
make a special effort to recognize our veterans, just one
simple way that we recognize veterans at Texas Tech.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Colonel Ortiz appears in the
Appendix]
Mr. Arrington. Lou, I am going to tap you out right there.
Colonel Ortiz. Yes.
Mr. Arrington. I made a wager with Mr. O'Rourke that it
would be Tedd Mitchell that would go over by at least 2
minutes, and I said there is no way Lou Ortiz--he is very
disciplined, he is former military.
No, listen, this is awesome. Just in the interest of time,
we are going to come back to some questions.
Colonel Ortiz. Absolutely.
Mr. Arrington. If he would have had the gavel, he would
have been just banging on it.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Arrington. But I think that is rude to do to my friends
back here at home.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Arrington. Thank you for your testimony.
Colonel Ortiz. Thank you for the opportunity.
Mr. Arrington. You bet.
Now we will recognize Nicole Meyer, Ms. Meyer, for 5
minutes.
STATEMENT OF NICOLE MEYER
Ms. Meyer. Thank you, Mr. O'Rourke, Mr. Arrington, for this
chance to speak before you today.
I enlisted in the Air Force in 2010 after graduating from
high school. I grew up in a very small town in Washington, and
there were not very many opportunities there. If I was to go to
college, it would have put me in a lot of debt to start my
life, and that wasn't something that I wanted.
I was stationed for six years in New Mexico and spent a
year of that in Afghanistan. I began my separation process from
the Air Force a year prior to my separation date. I began
researching schools and trying to learn how the post-9/11 GI
Bill worked. I attended the Transition Assistance Program, TAP,
but very little of the week-long class helped me with the
transition from Active duty to civilian.
The majority of the class focused on searching for jobs and
building a resume. But because I was headed to college, very
little of it applied to me. TAP went very briefly over the
process of filing a claim but mainly focused on going through
an individual on base that would help you go over everything in
your medical record to submit your claim. I was unable to use
this person due to time constraints and had to figure out how
to file a claim on my own through e-Benefits.
The class never went over distance organizations such as
Disabled American Veterans or Veterans of Foreign Wars, having
veteran service officers that could assist with filing a claim.
Dealing with the Veterans Affairs medical system has been a
long, convoluted process that has caused me a lot of stress
while in school, and I know many other veterans who had this
issue as well. This began with my initial claim for disability
during which I was denied for my chronic back problems that had
been ongoing for three years at the time.
The doctor I was sent to for my compensation pension exam
is well-known by local veterans to recommend that veterans did
not incur their injuries while in service. The decision I was
handed by the VA stated that there was no evidence of a
disability for my back. I have since been diagnosed with having
scoliosis that I developed while on Active duty.
My appeal for disability concerning my back has been
ongoing for a year. As a woman, it can be very difficult to
receive medical treatment for women's health issues at the
Veterans Affairs. Anything other than very basic processes,
such as prescribing medication, is referred out to the Veterans
Choice Program. Unfortunately, funding is tight and many
providers no longer accept the Choice Program.
As of 2015, there are over 2 million women veterans in the
United States. I do not understand why receiving treatment for
women's health issues is such an arduous process. It took well
over two months for me to finally see a woman's health doctor
to get treatment for a reoccurring health issue.
When I first contacted the Veterans Educational
Transitional Services office at Angelo State University, they
were extremely helpful in explaining the process of applying
for my education benefits. They offered much more help than the
TAP program or the education office at Holliman Air Force Base.
Most of the time the education office at Holliman either never
answered the phone or were too busy to assist with questions.
When I finally was able to get a hold of them, the education
office would give me very brief and general answers on
education benefits available.
The vets' office at Angelo State University is the first
organization I have encountered that actually bothered to
answer my questions. The only time I had any issues with my
benefits was when the VA was late on my basic allowance for
housing for the first month. This was, however, due to an
oversight on my own part, not realizing I needed to inform the
VA that I was no longer Active duty.
I want to say thank you for taking the time to listen to me
today. I hope that today can result in improvements to the
current process and that more veterans are able to get the help
that they need.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Meyer appears in the
Appendix]
Mr. Arrington. Thank you, Nicole.
Mr. Iuta, we will recognize you for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF IKAIKA (KAI) IUTA
Mr. Iuta. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman
Arrington and Ranking Member O'Rourke. First of all, my name is
Kai, and as you can tell by my name, I am not from these parts.
So you are probably wondering how the heck did I get here.
Well, it all started back when I failed my freshman year in
college. School was not working out for me because I didn't
know what to do with my life. So my dad, who is an Army vet, he
encouraged me to enlist in the United States Army, which I did.
So I enlisted in the Army for four years. During that time,
I had one deployment to Afghanistan, and I was assigned to the
Global Response Force in 2014, which is a rapid deploying unit
just in case stuff went down in the world.
After getting out, the process for the Army, it was good
but it wasn't great. Mr. Longoria, you mentioned that there was
a high rise of suicides of members when they get out, and I
think part of that reason, my theory, is because the military
didn't follow through with the transition process, because I
think the term ``transition,'' it is very kind of iffy, you
know? I think that word ``transition'' as part of getting out
needs to be redefined.
So when I got out of the military, I was going to a small
community college at the time in Washington State. At that time
I was suffering from an identity crisis because I had done all
these years of service and I identified myself as a soldier,
but then when I enrolled at the school I was just a nobody. I
was just another leaf in the lawn, and there was no veteran
support system. All I did was just go to school and go back
home and go to work, and I was just leaving an identity-less
life.
But luckily I was still able to graduate with my associate
degree from there, and from there I had to apply to a bigger
university. So I did some research, and I was doing research
for the GI Bill, and during that time the GI Bill was limited.
There were some special circumstances for the GI Bill. For
example, the GI Bill only gave in-state tuition waivers for
certain states, and Texas was one of them, thankfully. So I
decided to apply to schools in Texas.
I looked up also on the Web site for military-friendly
schools. Texas Tech was among the top 10. So I applied, and I
was able to get accepted and enrolled into Texas Tech. In my
experience, I come from an island, and coming to West Texas is
just like, oh, my goodness, what the heck is this? But, you
know, when I came into this office, into the Military Veterans
Office, they were very kind, very nice. They had a support
system for veterans, and I think that is what I needed because
as soon as I was talking to them they signed me up for the
student organization called the VATT, which is the Veterans at
Texas Tech student organization, and I was able to connect with
other veterans who are similarly in my situation and who had
been through what I had been through. I think that was what
made me feel more welcome at Texas Tech than I was at the
community college.
Also, the other thing that the Military Veterans Program
provided was the Tech Vet Boot Camp, which is basically a
veteran orientation to all the resources available at Texas
Tech for veterans, and that also helped a lot for my education
here at Texas Tech.
I think the most important thing to help servicemembers who
want to come back to school is recognizing who they are and
reaching out to them, and just how it takes time for the
military to turn a civilian into a soldier, it takes time for a
soldier to become a civilian again. Providing a resource such
as the Military Veterans Program at Texas Tech allows veterans
to get connected and help them with their educational needs,
because sitting in a class with kids who are 10 years younger
than you, it is pretty awkward. However, by providing a support
system that recognizes veterans and their distinct situation
will make them feel a part of something again.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Iuta appears in the
Appendix]
Mr. Arrington. Very, very good. Thank you so much.
And we will cap it off in terms of our presentations with
Colonel Lewis, who was the founder and inaugural director of
the MVP at Tech and now leads the VetStar Program in the
community.
Colonel, we will recognize you for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF COLONEL DAVID J. LEWIS
Colonel Lewis. Thank you, Chairman Arrington, Ranking
Member O'Rourke, for the opportunity to testify today.
VetStar was created to assist veterans by connecting them
to the resources to make them successful in the next stage of
their lives. Over the years, we have narrowed our direct
service focus to what we call stalled transition; that is,
assisting those veterans who are struggling in their transition
from military to civilian life. Our focus is filling in the
gaps where the VA is unable to do so.
VetStar has four primary service lines: peer-to-peer
services; emergency financial assistance; homeless services;
and mental health to veterans and family members primarily
targeted at justice-involved veterans. Because of my experience
delivering services to veterans who transition, I created the
model we use extensively at VetStar known as FASTRR. FASTRR
stands for Find Assist Stabilize Treat Reassess and
Reintegrate. I want to focus on just two key aspects of that
model today, find and reintegrate.
Veterans that struggle in their transition issues tend to
isolate due to a variety of reasons, including trust and stigma
issues. But almost all of them have someone in a trusted
relationship--a spouse, a parent, a close friend, or someone
that I consider to be eyes and ears in the community. Many
times that trusted relationship knows the VA might be able to
help, but they are generally unaware of other community-based
resources. Essentially, that isolated veteran must be found.
Unfortunately, one of the more common places to find them is in
the local jails or in an emergency room.
The most critical component of our model after find is
reintegrate, a last step. Our goal is to change the environment
and alter the veteran's perception of where they belong in our
community. We use multiple peer-to-peer programs such as
VetLife and Team Red White and Blue to give the veteran a
chance to be with other veterans. Proper reintegration can
resolve many of the issues faced by the veteran, especially
when delivered in a peer-based setting.
One technique we use is a program called Task Force
Lubbock, bringing veterans together to do community service
projects. The outcome is less about the service project itself
but rather focused on bringing veterans together in formal
group therapy. Bluntly stated, our military was trained to
break things and kill people. Using those skills to create and
repair is very therapeutic.
The majority of our veterans transition from military to
civilian life with few or no issues. They have earned the right
to be successful in their transition, especially as they pursue
their educational opportunities. Roughly 19 out of 20 veterans
are successful with few or no issues. Veterans make superb
students and employees despite stereotypes that are placed upon
them.
A successful academic program consists of many parts, but
the most important task in my mind is retaining the veterans in
our academic programs. If that veteran is experiencing stalled
transition in community partnerships, then organizations such
as ours are absolutely essential. Traditional university
programs such as student counseling services are typically
quite good, but they may lack the cultural competency and
timeliness to effectively address issues such as TBI and MST,
PTSD or moral injury.
Veterans experiencing stalled transition may not have
symptoms until several months after they separate. Our close
working relationship with the MVP office allows for near
seamless awareness and coordination to address those challenges
and provide interventions, as required, to prevent them from
leaving the university. The process in place today is
relatively effective, but it is reactive, relying on a lot of
agencies to get the veterans to our services. As a result, far
too many fall through the cracks and wind up in some portion of
what I call the death spiral.
My recommendation to the Committee on improving both
educational outcomes and community success outcomes fall into
four general categories.
First, community transition, what we call Boots to Roots.
DoD does a remarkable and unrivaled job of training us to go to
war, as you have already heard. Training us to come home again
is marginal at best. The skill set that keeps you alive in
combat is not a good skill set when you return. Veterans facing
stalled transition find themselves on a new battlefield.
Boots to Roots has three main components. First, an
awareness of who can provide those services in the community
and the associated mental health and other resources. Second, a
process to assist us in detuning or desensitizing the limbic
training that many of our warriors go through in their initial
military training. And finally, for those intending to pursue
their education, an eye exam to identify and correct any TBI-
related vision issues that might preclude success in the
classroom.
My second recommendation is expanding communities of
courage, and I consider Lubbock to be one of those. The
community must invest in a returning warrior. Many communities
are unprepared to comprehend and manage the challenges of a
returning warrior force, especially when it comes to the
challenging issues we have talked about.
Third are the peer support programs I have already
identified.
And finally, as you noted, Mr. Chairman, rural challenges.
DoD perfected recruiting in rural areas. We have not perfected
delivering services to the rural veterans once they return to
those communities.
In conclusion, our veterans have earned the very best
possible educational opportunities we can provide. A smooth
transition from military service to the civilian world is
essential for our veterans to take full advantage of the
opportunities provided through our country's commitment to our
forces. We can overcome transitions that have stalled. My
experience has taught me that communities must be engaged in
this transition. The VA cannot do it alone.
We are not victims. We are not broken. But occasionally we
still need a hand up to get us fully transitioned into the
civilian world.
Thank you for this opportunity.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Colonel Lewis appears in the
Appendix]
Mr. Arrington. Thank you, Colonel Lewis.
You guys did not disappoint. I am inspired just listening
to you.
I am going to defer to my Ranking Member and give him as
much time as he may need, and we will just have more of an
informal exchange of questions and dialogue with you all.
Mr. Ranking Member, the floor is yours.
Mr. O'Rourke. As you said, this was an amazing panel,
wonderful testimony, very helpful towards our goal of improving
transition, integration, and making the most out of those
veterans who come back to our community.
I love what you just said, Colonel, about not seeing
veterans as broken or a problem or victims, as is so often the
mindset that otherwise well-intentioned people approach this
issue with, but instead seeing them as this extraordinary
resource and opportunity given their training, their
experience, their skill set, to be able to apply that to the
needs of a community, the unmet business opportunity, that they
can become the entrepreneur that Lubbock is missing in this one
area. They can train at Texas Tech to fill some of the gaps
left in this community. Whatever it is, connecting them with
that purpose and that function is so critical.
Chairman Arrington, I don't know if you remember this
hearing. We had a great hearing on the Hill this year, I think
primarily about post-traumatic stress disorder, and also
reintegration. One of the panelists was Sebastian Junger, who
wrote a book called Tribe, which many of you may be familiar
with. This is a theme that many of you have brought up. Mr.
Iuta, you said this, I think, more eloquently than I am going
to be able to say this.
He said that you, as a member of a military unit, go from
being as essential as you can possibly be as a human being--
what you do or what you fail to do will determine your fate and
the fate of your comrades in that unit--to sometimes a civilian
life where that purpose and that essence of what it means to be
alive and to be human is missing.
I heard you, Mr. Iuta, talk about this identity crisis that
you had when you came back and the search for purpose. That was
your word. And it really hit home from what I have heard from
so many returning veterans and those who are trying to figure
out how to make the most of these extraordinary Americans who
have already so proven themselves. And we in each community
should be fighting over getting them to come to our city so
that they can contribute to our success.
Again, the Chairman has reminded the Full Committee of what
an exceptional job Texas Tech does. Dr. Mitchell, you made a
wonderful case for how that happens. And, Mr. Chapman, even
your experience of first coming here--did you say in '05?
Mr. Chapman. Yes, sir.
Mr. O'Rourke. And there was not a TAP program at the time,
a transition assistance program for separating servicemembers.
There was something else that preceded it. There is a TAP
program now which was still not sufficient for your purposes as
you described them. I think most servicemembers, as they talk
about TAP, it is like that PE credit that I had to satisfy
before I could graduate from college. It is something that you
have to do, get rid of, get out of the way so you can get
moving on with your life. It is not really a comprehensive
transition into civilian life, connecting you with that
education or that job or that thing that you are going to do
that is going to allow you to excel and live to your full
potential.
So you were highlighting a challenge that Chairman
Arrington and I on this Committee are trying to meet, and that
is how do we make the TAP program more successful. Do we expand
it? Do we measure it more effectively? Do we talk to you after
you have been through TAP, and not just check a box, are you
satisfied or are you unsatisfied, but sit down and talk with
you and share what you just shared with us right now? I think
all that would be helpful.
But I just want to begin by saying the approach with which
you have brought your testimony today is the right one and so
helpful, each one of you.
Dr. Mitchell, I do have one specific question. You hit upon
something that makes so much obvious sense to everyone in
America, that you have these servicemembers who have been
driving trucks on some of the toughest roads in Afghanistan and
then have to come back and try to get a commercial driver's
license and spend their GI Bill money on education, or you have
medics who have been performing extraordinary life-saving work
on the battlefield and have to come back and prove themselves
again through an academic setting. And you are talking about
how Tech is trying to shorten the time period that someone has
to spend proving their credentials and getting back into
function and purpose in their lives.
Do you have any metrics or numbers that you could share
with us about what that has saved in what a returning veteran
would otherwise have to spend out of their GI Bill earned
benefit or what they have saved in time if you did not have
this program in place?
Dr. Mitchell. Sure. A Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing
is a four-year degree. What we offer is a 12-month degree.
Mr. O'Rourke. So right there you have saved three years.
Dr. Mitchell. Three years. These are folks that come out,
and the way this has worked, you work with the folks at METC.
You look at the curriculum that they use for medics, and you
overlay the two curricula to look to see all the similarities,
because there are a lot. And by doing that, then you can say,
okay, this will count, this will count, this will count. We can
work this thing in a way that you can wind up receiving several
courses. You can get out of those courses straight off.
But just from the perspective of pure time, this is a 12-
month program, whereas a BSN is a four-year degree.
Mr. O'Rourke. I am going to turn it back over to the
Chairman. Just very quickly from Mr. Chapman, Ms. Meyer, and
Mr. Iuta, could you each talk about what you would like to see
for transitioning servicemembers right now in an improved
Transition Assistance Program, or TAP program? Again, for a lot
of transitioning servicemembers that we talk to, it is checking
a box. For their commanders it is very often checking a box.
Many of the commanders, we are told, petition for the members
of their unit to be able to take an online course because they
need to get this sucker done and get that servicemember back in
the field and functioning in their unit. And I can understand
that impulse, but it is short-changing the ability to
successfully transition.
So give us some advice as we try to either administratively
work with the Department of Defense to do a better job, if
perhaps we need to rewrite legislation to ensure that they are
doing a better job. What should we be looking for? If you could
each take maybe a minute to do that, and then I can hand it
back over to the Chairman.
Mr. Chapman. Yes, sir. As you mentioned, when I got out, I
showed up in a classroom I believe for four or five days. A ton
of information was thrown at me. Again, this was within a
month's time from me exiting a combat zone. There was no time
to even process mentally getting out.
So I have always been an advocate for--they spend a ton of
time building you up to what is necessary, in my case to be a
Marine. It is necessary. Now, I think the same thing should be
said for the digress back into civilian life, and I think there
needs to be an intentional timeframe where they can start
making that transition.
Mr. O'Rourke. If you had to just ballpark it, what would
that timeframe be? More than a month? Less than six months?
Mr. Chapman. To be honest, sir, I think it is hard to put a
timeframe on it, because if you are looking at somebody in my
situation, a month removed from combat, I would probably need
six months to just come down; whereas somebody who hasn't, two
months may do the trick where there is an intentionality of
what is it going to look like as you move back into the job
market or moving on to your education; whereas somebody that
has been through some tougher times in a combat situation where
there possibly could be some mental health challenges that go
along with that, six months just to process through that.
It looks so different for each and every servicemember that
it is hard for me to say a specific time, but I would say a
minimum of two months, with a maximum of six months.
Mr. O'Rourke. Okay, that is helpful. Chairman Arrington and
I serve with a colleague who is also a veteran, Brad Wenstrup,
and he talked about when he came back from Iraq that he was
given an amount of time essentially without a job or anything
that he had to do, and he said that was actually more painful
than anything. He wanted to have that next thing assigned.
I wonder if the time period we need during transition has
got to be enough to ensure that you are enrolled in that
program so you shouldn't transition and then enroll but you are
enrolled so you start right away, or you have that next job
lined up, or you have whatever it is you are going to do next.
It seems there is a very dangerous period of time--again, Mr.
Iuta's word--where you don't have that purpose, what do I do
right now, and too often we see veterans who are unable to
connect with that next step.
Mr. Chapman. May I make one suggestion?
Mr. O'Rourke. Sure, yes.
Mr. Chapman. I think it would be beneficial for the TAP
course to be specific to the location, what state specifically
they are going to be moving to, and what resources and
opportunities are available in that state.
Mr. O'Rourke. Great.
Ms. Meyer, would you care to comment on that? How could we
improve the Transition Assistance Program?
Ms. Meyer. Well, I definitely like what he just said about
tailoring it to where that individual is moving to or where
they are staying. Each state differs so much in benefits. Take
Texas, for example. We have the Hazelwood that a lot of other
states don't have. I think if we took a more tailored approach
to TAP itself to fit each group of veterans, like say you have
several veterans who are going to college, tailor it to them.
If you have several veterans that are going straight into the
job force, tailor it to them, make it more specific to help
them.
I think we also need to talk more about support groups that
are out there. Like I said, I wasn't even aware of veteran
service officers, and I know many other veterans are surprised
by that as well.
Mr. O'Rourke. Mr. Iuta?
Mr. Iuta. Oh, yes. So, one of the things that the Army had,
their TAP program is called the ACAP program. So what happens
is you are allowed to ACAP three months before you get out. A
suggestion I would have is that, during that time in ACAP,
unfortunately you are still tied to your unit, so you still
have to answer phone calls and stuff like that. My suggestion
is to completely detach from the unit and actually work through
those hard three months on that transition, finding a job,
finding a house.
One of the things I put down in my statement is the Army
helped me get a job, but they asked me where I was going to
live, and actually one of the veteran demographics is that we
have the highest homeless rate. So just ensuring that they have
a roof over their head, they have the necessary health
resources and how to access them, that is the most important
part. Because they will make you sign up for the VA, but they
won't tell you how to use them, how it works. So just more
education on the details of the transition, I guess.
Mr. O'Rourke. I think that makes a ton of sense. Today we
were at the Grace campus, which is a homeless area in Lubbock
with some extraordinary volunteers and support group who are
trying to help those homeless members of the community
transition into housing, and we talked about how Texas is third
in the country for the number of homeless veterans.
One of the connections that we are missing is that there
are extraordinary people like Colonel Lewis and other veteran
service organizations--you mentioned this, Ms. Meyer--who are
doing wonderful work, and very often that transitioning
servicemember doesn't know that that is available.
So in addition to the VA and DoD and every other Federal
agency, there are also these people who selflessly are
contributing at their own expense or through their organization
to a successful transition. So making that servicemember aware
of what exists in the community would be incredibly helpful.
Colonel Lewis, I don't know if you want to talk about that
briefly, about how we do that.
Colonel Lewis. Yes, thank you. I would love to have that
opportunity. You don't know what you don't know until you get
out of the service. A lot of the challenges don't present until
you are out of the service. So I am a very strong proponent of
a community-based transition. You start in the DoD, but you
finish in the community. There is not a VetStar everywhere, we
understand that, but there is a VFW, there is an American
Legion, there is a DAV, there is something out there.
Again, our Boots to Roots is focused on let's get them
started in DoD and let's get them finished in the community so
they know where to go. They may come into the community and not
know--you know, ``I don't have any issues,'' and six months
later, ``I have issues; where do I go?'' And that is the big
challenge here.
You say, well, that is hard to do because you don't know
where they are going. Well, DoD ships their household goods
someplace. They know where that is going. So at a minimum we
could take that data and say where are they going in the
country and at least alert somebody. I don't think that is as
difficult as we might think.
Mr. O'Rourke. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, thank you.
Mr. Arrington. What frustrates me as a Member of our
Subcommittee, almost on a consistent hearing-by-hearing basis,
is the lack of data to determine whether something is working
or not. We struggle with that. We know it is important.
Everybody understands why transition assistance programs are
beneficial and necessary. The question is when we are spending
hundreds of millions of dollars and we don't know what we are
getting for it. But then I have field hearings and field
dialogues, and I am sure you do too, Mr. Ranking Member, in
your district, where I consistently hear that it is not
working.
So we feel like we will get to that point, and we are going
to be working on how we can assess these 5-day-plus-2 programs.
But when I hear you talk, all of you, I think, 5 days plus 2? I
mean, who remembers that? And what value can that bring, truly,
to, as you said, Mr. Iuta, somebody who has been--you know, we
spend so much time and effort to prepare a soldier for their
mission, and then to reintegrate their thinking and repurpose
their whole person for this assimilation as a civilian, I mean,
we just hardly do anything. It makes it all the clearer to me
that we have such problems.
I have a friend who I was so honored to be at his
internment at Arlington Cemetery. He was a Navy Seal. He was a
hero. He was a superhero in high school, from Plainview High
School, and I don't think he could ever make that transition as
it is defined now as a Navy Seal and as a warrior, and I don't
know how much time anybody was going to give him to repurpose.
So you are kind of on your own, and we have 20 people
killing themselves every day in the military. It is no wonder
to me.
So I think the Boots to Roots concept, I just wonder how
many programs, community-based programs exist, and can we do
more of what you are doing on the ground through DoD. It feels
like they are just checking the box, to be very candid. I mean,
their focus is on you coming in and preparing you. I don't know
about as much coming out. But you guys own it, and the
community owns it, because they will deal with the ensuing
problems as a result of somebody not being ready.
So I hope we can develop something in the way of a specific
plan for retooling the TAP program, for heaven's sake.
Let me jump real quick over here. There are so many
questions I have written down, and I know that the Ranking
Member has a hard stop. We might just carry over just a little
bit.
But, Dr. Mitchell, I think the program, the accelerated
Veteran to Bachelor of Science in Nursing is extremely
innovative. Are there other programs throughout the country
like this? Did you model this after some other program, or just
developed it out of a non-off-the-shelf deal?
Dr. Mitchell. This is primarily developed by the folks in
our School of Nursing who had had some contacts with the folks
at METC. And as they were looking through trying to figure out
exactly, this is such a wealth of knowledge that is just being
left at the door once these people leave the military, we had
some of our School of Nursing folks that had contacts at METC.
So this started out as just a conversation, and there are other
schools that are doing similar things. But this program
developed kind of de novo from these conversations that we had.
Mr. Arrington. Is it proprietary, or can some other
universities use the curriculum?
Dr. Mitchell. Oh, no, no, no. We don't want it to be
proprietary. This is something that--if you look at the number
of medics and corpsmen that are out there, there is simply no
way that a single program can funnel all of them.
Mr. Arrington. There's a good question: have you shared
this with the nursing associations, the national trade
associations?
Dr. Mitchell. Oh, yes. There are a lot of folks in the
nursing world who know about what we are doing with this. The
big question was, and the big hesitation was, are you going to
be able to retrain them and reeducate them to nursing in a way
that is effective? So the first hurdle was to get them through
the curriculum, see how they do. The second hurdle is what
happens when they take the in-class, are they going to do well
on it? So we had a pilot group that went through, and 100
percent passed the in-class the first time they took it.
So the curriculum works. They do very well on the in-class.
Now we are going to size it up, we are going to ramp it up.
Mr. Arrington. And that is the licensing--
Dr. Mitchell. The licensing exam, the national licensing
exam.
Mr. Arrington [continued]. It is the national licensing,
not the state licensing?
Dr. Mitchell. Correct.
Mr. Arrington. Okay. So the scores of the folks coming
through--I have noticed it is about a 100 percent increase
every year in your program.
Dr. Mitchell. That is what we are trying to do, double it.
Mr. Arrington. So where are we at in terms of enrollment
now? You started with how many?
Dr. Mitchell. We started with six, we went to 12, we will
go to 22, then 45. So we will just keep bumping it up. We want
to target 80 to 100.
Mr. Arrington. And the results in terms of their testing
for the licensing exam is comparable to the general population?
Dr. Mitchell. No, it is much better.
Mr. Arrington. Really?
Dr. Mitchell. Yes. One hundred percent passed, and their
average score was higher than the national average on the exam.
Mr. Arrington. And they basically stepped out of three
years of the program.
Dr. Mitchell. Yes, and what it is, you have to keep in mind
that these veterans will come through, and in the first two
years they have a lot of what they call the common core tests
or classes--History, English, things like that--that we don't
teach. But what they are receiving is a BSN in a 12-month
period of time, which is a four-year degree.
Mr. Arrington. Right, and they are performing even at a
higher level--
Dr. Mitchell. Than the average, than the national average.
Mr. Arrington [continued]. So the competency-based--
Dr. Mitchell [continued]. Portion?
Mr. Arrington [continued].--portion where you determine
what credit they will get based on knowledge and skills--
Dr. Mitchell. The clinical skills exam.
Mr. Arrington [continued]. And that is a national tool--
Dr. Mitchell. It is a national tool.
Mr. Arrington.--that you can use off the shelf?
Dr. Mitchell. Correct. All students across the country use
national skills exams. So what you do is, if you have somebody
who has been a corpsman for two years versus a medic for 15
years, they are going to have a different skill level. So you
are actually bringing them through for their clinical skills
assessments to see where are you in this curriculum. So you may
have some people that can move a little faster than others.
Mr. Arrington. To follow-up on the Ranking Member's comment
about saving time and resources, and what Mr. Iuta said about
here I am in a class full of 18- and 19-year-olds and they
haven't experienced a whole lot of life, or maybe what they
understand about life but not what a soldier returning would
recognize.
So it would seem to me that, especially in the
undergraduate timeframe, that Texas Tech and other general
academic campuses might consider that same competency-based
credit to streamline so it saves time, saves money, but it
would also give them a sense of value too, because they bring
something to the table, and they know they do.
You said they are more mature, et cetera, et cetera. But
this would be a way to tangibly and measurably say, yes, you
bring serious value to the table.
Are there thoughts about that, Mr. Ortiz?
Colonel Ortiz. Oh, absolutely. We have a couple of programs
already on campus that maximize experience, military experience
and training. One is university studies. You get credit, up to
18 hours, depending on your rank or the training that you have
had and the military experience you have had. The other one is
the BAAS program. It is the Bachelor of Applied Arts and
Sciences. That program is actually a feeder program for all of
the folks that come out of a two-year program.
Five years ago we didn't have a place where an Associate's
two-year degree could go into a Bachelor's. We have that now.
So that is another mechanism where we can speed up the process.
We also have another program that we are looking at now.
The VBSN program was under the auspices, originated under the
auspices of the College Credit for Heroes Program, and that is
a program that we signed on to. We have a partnership agreement
with the College Credit for Heroes. So we are looking at
different areas where we can maximize experience and credit for
veterans that come to campus because you are absolutely
correct.
Dr. Mitchell. Mr. Chairman, may I add to that?
Mr. Arrington. Yes.
Dr. Mitchell. Because this is something, again, that is not
just solely in the lap of the Federal Government. The State of
Texas, through the Texas Workforce Commission, the College
Credit for Heroes gave us the seed money to get this thing
developed. So this is something where the Health Sciences
Center, we have skin in the game by redeploying faculty members
toward this area. The State of Texas has skin in the game, and
the Feds have skin in the game with this. So this is something,
it works out for everybody. Everybody can share the burden, and
then everybody gets the benefit.
Mr. Arrington. Well, I am glad to know we can point to a
Federal program where their investment has returned significant
value. I think you mentioned HRSA and some other groups. I read
your testimony. We need to identify those programs and pots of
money and write letters and find ways to get the commitment of
my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, but I think
especially there is skepticism as a Republican where some of
these monies, where they go and what are the results. But this
is a great example, I think, of serving the public by serving
our veterans through these programs.
Do we know, can you measure on the MVP program, getting off
the academic program and just the support program of the MVP--
and I am proud to see how it has developed and grown. But could
you tell us what the veteran population prior to MVP, how they
performed in terms of student success, retention, graduation
rate, employment rate? Maybe you can't, but that is I think
what I would like to know, what was it like before, or compared
to a university today. Take a population at a university of
comparable size that has veterans but doesn't have an MVP
program. Can we measure that it has improved, if not
significantly transformed, how our veterans matriculate?
Colonel Ortiz. Oh, absolutely. The Student Veterans of
America has done extensive work in terms of measuring
performance of our veteran populations. So here at Texas Tech
we have always had a portion of the student population that was
veteran based, and we have had veterans here at Texas Tech
since World War II, or since the inception of the campus here.
In terms of measurement, we work with institutional
research. We track our performance data relative to the rest of
the campus population. That is whether you are talking about
retention statistics, graduation statistics. There are some
metrics that we don't track. We would love to do that.
Within MVP right now I don't have a data analyst. We rely
on the standard reporting metrics for the rest of the student
population. But that is something we would like to incorporate.
Mr. Arrington. Could you tell me now? Because the student
veteran survey was a good start, but it wasn't apples to
apples. My problem is they took their success rate over every
program--four-year, two-year--and they are just very different.
But do you know that the program you have for the apples to
apples comparison of undergrad four-year programs as a veteran
student or dependent versus general population and that one
performs as well or better than the other? Do you all have that
much data?
Colonel Ortiz. We can measure that, yes. Yes, we can.
Mr. Arrington. Are they performing as well or better, or
are they performing better?
Colonel Ortiz. They are performing equivalent or better
than the general student population. Yes, sir.
Mr. Arrington. And do we know that much over there at the
Health Sciences Center in terms of how the general population
versus our veterans--I am not talking about the degree program.
I am just talking about the support system that you provide for
veterans there.
Dr. Mitchell. No, but that is easy to look at, because we
have all of our veterans identified.
Mr. Arrington. I am going to ask the Ranking Member to take
over here. But one thing that we often discuss as a
Subcommittee--and there is one man in particular who brings
this up. I think it is a valid concern, and that is some of the
schools on the for-profit side who churn out a lot of veterans,
and the concern is are they getting a quality service and are
they getting a quality product for the taxpayer money and for
the time invested by the veteran. I think it is a legitimate
question, but I think the answer to that for me is getting to
outcomes and supporting universities that are producing results
and making the investment, like you guys have, to support your
veterans through the program. It is a very robust program.
So if you are performing and the success rate of your
students is high on retention and graduation, and mostly
employment--I would think that would be the highest measure of
success--then there should be a reward for that. And if you
don't produce that, I don't think you ought to get the taxpayer
money. That is how I feel about it. We are a little ways from
being able to do that, but I make no secret where I would like
to go because I think it would solve the problem. If you are a
for-profit and you are performing for our veterans, great. If
you are not, whether you are a for-profit or a public, why
would we keep throwing good money after bad?
So it is more of a statement. If you have comments, I would
love to hear them. Otherwise, I yield to the Ranking Member.
Mr. O'Rourke. Dr. Mitchell, could I ask you one more
question about this, the nursing program we have been talking
about? How unique is that?
Dr. Mitchell. How unique is the program?
Mr. O'Rourke. Yes, like how many other institutions have
reduced a four-year commitment--
Dr. Mitchell. You can count them on one hand.
Mr. O'Rourke. Okay. And how many more are there, ballpark,
in the country?
Dr. Mitchell. Nursing programs? It is over 1,000 nursing
schools in the United States, including the two-year programs.
I mean, I think it is over 1,000 nursing programs.
Mr. O'Rourke. I won't hold you to it, but to the best of
your knowledge, how many people are doing this? Is it under
five?
Dr. Mitchell. A handful. Texas A&M has a program, we have a
program--it is just a handful of people that are doing this.
Mr. O'Rourke. So I think one idea that comes out of this
hearing is to either administratively require or ask the
Administration to require every nursing program to follow your
lead. If you can do it and you have the performance that 100
percent are passing and their scores are higher than the
national average that is a really good indication of the value
of doing it this way. If we are saving three years of tuition,
that is even better, to the Chairman's point about safeguarding
the taxpayer's dollars.
And if the Administration can't because they don't have the
authority, or won't, then I think the Chairman and I should
discuss a bill that would require any nursing program that
receives Federal GI Bill resources to take the Texas Tech lead
and go from four to one year. It is a great value for the
veteran, which is the most important thing, and a great value
for the taxpayer, which is important as well.
And then I would think from there, there have got to be a
number of other programs. If you were part of the Cyber
Command, if you were a programmer, if you had some other
technical vocation within the military, we shouldn't require
you to go to school to relearn that and blow a bunch of GI Bill
earned-benefit resources on that. We should get you plugged
into that job. It gets back to this function thing: Are we
going to delay your purpose for four years, or are we going to
plug you in in less than a year?
That is the way to do it, and I think we could really be on
to something here. I can see it in lights right now that the
Arrington GI Bill reform measure that saves taxpayers billions
of dollars every year and gets veterans connected--
Mr. Arrington. You had me at saving billions of dollars.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Arrington. I will even name it after you if we can do
that.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Chapman. Whenever they built this program, I believe
they looked at it in a very holistic manner, not just the
degree itself. They knew they needed somebody in place to help
do the processes of getting into the program itself, because
that is an education alone, and that is what I do. Some of them
are working for two years, some it is a week. It just depends.
But generally my first conversation lasts from 20 up to 30
minutes just to get them a brief of what all they can
anticipate happening through their process.
And also we have a great--we use what is called--are you
all familiar with Zoom? It is kind of like Skype. What it
allows me to do is--just last week I was having an advising
session with a student in Kuwait where I can share my screen
and show them exactly what needs to be done. It is much like
the TAP thing, except we are doing it at our institution,
guiding them through it. And I think--actually, I know that in
that process and in that journey to come into our program, I
feel it is my duty as their liaison to make sure that they have
a complete trust in us that we are going to do everything we
can to make sure they are successful if they reciprocate that
to us.
I think it should also be noted that there is a broader
view than just the courses themselves.
Mr. O'Rourke. And I would like to take what you shared, and
what Ms. Meyer and Mr. Iuta have shared, and then Colonel
Ortiz, as you have described how you have been able to
successfully integrate returning servicemembers here, and have
that inform our work with the Department of Defense on the
Transition Assistance Program, if there are some best practices
that are clearly working here, and maybe even using the
technology that you just described.
If we can take your recent experiences and inform a better,
more comprehensive program, I would say that the endpoint would
be getting to what Colonel Lewis has championed and pioneered,
which is connecting you with the community and having roots in
that community. This is where you are welcomed, where you have
family, where you have purpose, and where you are going to be
successful, not as the victim and not as somebody that we have
to repair but someone for whom we are desperate to find a home
because we know you are going to fire on all cylinders once you
get here to Lubbock or to El Paso, or to wherever it is in the
country that you are supposed to be, and the community is ready
for you and they are excited for you and ready to plug you in.
I mean, I just think that we would have such better
outcomes if that were the model. I think the Chairman has been
really good about this. We would have to figure out how we
measure that to know that we are being successful. I mean, I
think there is probably anecdotal feedback we could get, but
also what is the earning potential of someone who goes through
this revised TAP program, or what is their educational success
and how do they perform in other ways that we can look at and
measure.
So those would be three things, Mr. Chairman, I would love
to work on with you just out of this hearing, building on this
nursing program, going from four years to one, saving money and
getting someone plugged in far more quickly based on the skills
and experience that they have already accrued, rewriting the
TAP program based on the experience that some of those on this
panel have shared with us, and then this idea of effective
community integration that has been pioneered here in Lubbock
through Colonel Lewis and others.
You may have other things that you take from this, but
those are the three that I am really excited to work on with
you, and I think this hearing could provide the impetus to get
those done, or at least far along the way over the course of
2018.
Mr. Arrington. I agree, I agree, and I think that is well
articulated. I think the themes were very clear, and the
opportunities to replicate the best practices are very clear as
well.
If I may just ask, I know you have to go at some point, so
I don't want you to--when it is time, please feel free. I
wanted to ask Kyle about issues outside of counseling on
benefits and the logistics of working with the VA as an
advocate and an intermediary for your student veteran.
Outside of that or in addition to that, the things on the
social side, on the mental health-related side, other issues
that a veteran, a non-traditional student is dealing with, what
would be the one thing that causes the veteran the greatest
challenge in integrating as a student to perform, and obviously
as a new civilian, again outside of the VA benefits?
Mr. Chapman. That is a great question. It is tough to
answer because I have found, through the hundreds of phone
calls and advising sessions that I have given, it looks
different for each and every one of them. I think it is the
individual that is working with them to kind of gauge that,
where are they at, and how much do you need to help them,
essentially. Some are running away with it, but there are
others where you have to show it to them so they can physically
see what they need to do. Then they get a familiarity with it,
and then they can move on to the next thing.
Mr. Arrington. So it is a case by case.
Mr. Chapman. It is.
Mr. Arrington. You can't say that if we could tackle this
one issue for our returning soldiers with respect to when you
get them for higher education, we would solve 80 percent of the
problems. You say it is case by case. It is not that clear-cut
that there are one or two things that would be the bigger of
the problems, which again I go back to if you measure the
outcomes, then you won't be trying to dictate which things you
have to do programmatically. It is just to invest the resources
and the time and the effort to find out and be proactive in
engaging the veteran community, and then have a plan specific
for those individuals, because we will reward you if you do
that because we care about the success rate of our student
veterans.
Mr. Chapman. I want to say the best answer to that is to
have people in place who can do just that, that can listen to
them and kind of get a gauge of where they are at and what
processes need to be taken, or what steps need to be taken with
each individual.
Dr. Mitchell. Mr. Chairman, I think having things where a
veteran--if they have pathways in the civilian life that are
similar to the pathways they have been placed on in the
military, everything in the military is for military readiness.
There is a lot of that, a lot of the educational endeavors they
are picking up along the way that aren't headed toward a
degree. They are headed toward better military readiness. But a
lot of those things parallel what educational institutions do
for a very different reason. The success of the veterans'
programs is because we have the people on both sides of this
compare notes, overlap--what if this lays over with this? Quite
frankly, that can help to make their transition easier because
they are going from something familiar to them to something
else familiar to them in just a different setting.
That is why we are looking at the School of Pharmacy.
Pharmacy technician is a way to overlay that, and the School of
Health Professions. Are there things they are doing here that
we can overlay with this? Is there something in cyber security?
Is there something you can do to overlay over here with the
civilian job that would be in electronics?
But the military does it for military readiness. They are
not doing it trying to get them a degree. But a lot of what
they train them to do overlaps with a civilian counterpart. And
if you can just marry them up and use competency-based
evaluations, you could save them a lot of heartache on the
military side, on the veteran side, and you could really shore
up a good workforce on the civilian side that is highly trained
in that area.
Mr. Arrington. You mentioned a specific recommendation. Mr.
O'Rourke, you have been here longer, and you are much wiser on
these things, I admit. But the 85/15 rule seems to make sense
when I understand it as you have to have some demonstration
that there is value to the program in such a way that you can
attract at least 15 percent of the general population to attend
such a program and to participate. I get that. I think that
makes all the sense in the world.
But it also makes sense--and I am wondering why, because it
seems like you have more than that in the Health Sciences
Center. Maybe they measure it on a program by program basis?
Dr. Mitchell. That is what happens. In the Veterans to BSM
Program, it is for veterans.
Mr. Arrington. It is for veterans.
Dr. Mitchell. There is no 15 percent civilian.
Mr. Arrington. So in that case, if you are accredited--
Dr. Mitchell. The DOE, the Department of Education, they
are measuring the quality of your programs.
Mr. Arrington. Does it make sense? It seems to me that in a
situation where the program is for veterans, you will never be
able to prove out that 15 percent. That is just not what it is
for. But if there is an outside, universally respected entity
that is giving them some accreditation or rating, that we
should use that.
Dr. Mitchell. It is Federal Government accreditation.
Mr. Arrington. Yes, it is a Federal--
Dr. Mitchell. It is DOE.
Mr. Arrington. What are your thoughts on that? Does it make
sense to you?
Mr. O'Rourke. To seek the advice of counsel.
[Laughter.]
Mr. O'Rourke. She will work with you.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Arrington. All right.
Mr. O'Rourke. No, it makes sense, what you just described.
If we have measures that satisfy the concern primarily, again,
of the veteran, are they successful having gone through this
program, are they able to find a job and their purpose, is the
taxpayer's investment protected, 85/15 doesn't matter to me, it
really doesn't. I just want to make sure that those things are
satisfied. Maybe 85/15 was a way to kind of get an idea that
there was value outside of that ready GI Bill money, that
somebody outside of that who is risking their own private
dollars sees value in it, and I understand that. But if there
is a better, more comprehensive measure, let's go with that.
Mr. Arrington. I thought it was on the institution but not
on the program. So it is program by program. Okay, you always
learn something.
Do you want a question or two? I am just going to follow-up
with two more and then I am done.
Mr. O'Rourke. No, I want to listen to you.
Mr. Arrington. I have tremendous respect for Colonel Lewis.
He has been doing this a long time. I principally believe
strongly that the more that we can divest the VA of services
where they can be done on the ground, in the community, in
relationship with the customer, the better and more effective.
Of course, again, where is the data? I don't know, but I just
intuitively believe that.
So where would you say just generally, as you look at the
VA transition program or otherwise, we can do just that because
you just know in your experience that it will be better
executed, implemented, and performed at the local level?
Colonel Lewis. Great question. I think SSVF, the homeless
program, gives us a great model for that. Basically, the VA
came to the communities and said you know more about your
homeless population than we do in Washington, D.C. The VA has
had a housing program in our area operated out of Amarillo for
a long time. I have had an SSVF program for two-and-a-half
years. We have housed 230 homeless veterans in this region
between Lubbock, Amarillo, and the 30-county area.
How did that happen? Well, because we knew where to go
look, where to connect with people, how to find centers of
influence, how to do the things that we need to do.
I think it is a great model to say this is what happens, we
provide the resources, you provide the expertise locally,
because there is an environmental change everywhere you go. So
I think that is a great model right there to be able to say you
have the boots on the ground, you have the expertise. We can do
that in a lot of areas in the transition pieces. Big towns that
have great universities, or even small towns with great
universities, have that wonderful opportunity to be able to
take that university expertise and leverage that into the
services that need to be provided to our transitioning
veterans.
Mr. Arrington. You said the transition, Mr. Iuta, had to be
redefined, just the word ``transition.'' How would you define
transition?
Mr. Iuta. I think a lot of times we think of transition as
far as the military, transition is just that part where you are
in that process of getting out of the military, and it just
stops right there. But I think transition extends beyond just
getting out. It extends all the way until the veteran is able
to at least somewhat be able to be independent or be
sustainable by himself.
Mr. Arrington. Nicole, I can't help but say that if our
office can be of assistance to you, that is what we are here
for. So on your issue of the disability claim process or
appeals process, that was one of the big issues we took on as a
Committee and actually passed one of those eight bills that I
said made it to the President's desk, to restructure that so it
would work for you guys and would be much more efficient.
There were some 450,000 claims in arrears, and I think the
average was a year or two years, but it was not good. So that
is just being rolled out, I believe. But in the meantime, if
our office can help you with that, let's talk after this, okay?
Ms. Meyer. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Arrington. I am going to ask the Ranking Member if he
has any closing thoughts, comments, or questions. I will let
him have the last word, but I will say I am so pleased and
truly inspired by you guys and your commitment to helping your
fellow brother and sister in the bond of being a veteran, and
having served and having to deal with the challenges that one
faces coming out, and being able to give back in the way you
are doing now. I know that our President, Lawrence Schovanec,
is a veteran himself, and I know he is personally committed.
I think creating a culture that supports the veterans is
really what--that is the ultimate goal. I read that throughout
the testimony and how you recognize and reward, and how you
have faculty, hundreds of faculty--I think 700 have taken some
of these courses. That 700 faculty at a university taking
courses to better understand how they can support their
veterans, if it is part of the culture, I think you have won. I
think the veteran wins. I am just so proud of the work that you
guys have done, and sorry for shamelessly trotting out these
wonderful people and programs for my Ranking Member.
But I wish all of the Committee Members that we serve with
could hear your stories and all the good work you are doing. He
is always the best at distilling it to the two or three things
that we can glean from it, follow it up, take it back, work on
it, and hopefully make it have an impact to better serve our
veterans.
God bless you guys. Colonel, thank you. Everybody, Mr.
Ortiz, appreciate your leadership there.
For the closing comments, I will ask the Ranking Member to
close us out.
Mr. O'Rourke. Well, I want to thank you. We wouldn't have
this hearing here in Lubbock if you had not requested it and
you worked with our team, our office, this amazing staff who
supports us and who really leads on these issues and does the
necessary work to make sure that our Committee can be
successful.
Again, Lubbock and Texas Tech have been incredibly
welcoming, and I am very grateful for that.
I am struck, Mr. Chairman, as I was when I first started
serving in Congress on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee,
by how veterans really distinguish themselves through their
service, that they have served in uniform, they have put their
lives on the line for so many, and they have lost so much while
serving this country, have come back and never stop serving.
They do it in veteran service organizations, they do it through
their testimony here today, they do it by holding our feet to
the fire, creating the pressure that sometimes forms the
necessary political will to get things done that otherwise
aren't going to happen of their own accord.
There are no enlightened Members of Congress who just come
up with great ideas and make them happen. We are very often
almost exclusively forced to do that in a good way by those
whom we represent. They are the inspiration, they are the
force, they are the drive, and I found that to be the case
today. I mean, so many notes that we have taken, I think
potentially good bill ideas; or, as you often remind us, if we
don't have to write an act of Congress and we get the
Administration to do it of their own volition or with our help,
all the better, but good is going to come out of this.
You facilitated it. Those on this panel made it happen. So
we are very grateful for your testimony, your contribution.
Colonel Lewis, who I had the pleasure of meeting almost a
year ago, blew me away by his leadership, what he had
organized, the people that he introduced me to here in the
community. The great VA staff in Lubbock, the excellent VA
staff in Amarillo, all the veterans who serve in this area,
like you, really make me proud. It is a huge honor. I am so
lucky and so fortunate to be here and have this responsibility,
and with you to be in these positions of public trust to be
able to do something with it.
My closing idea that came from Colonel Lewis is that El
Paso, I think at least until recently, lead the country in what
they describe as ``brain drain,'' talent that we nurture, we
educate, we provide the quality of life, the museums, the
parks, the paved streets, and then leaves our community and
flourishes somewhere else. We are also a military community,
Fort Bliss, 32,000 active-duty servicemembers and incredibly
wonderful tradition of service there, so many veterans and so
many military retirees.
I love your idea of connecting those separating
servicemembers with the community perhaps from which they came
and applying their skill or service, maybe facilitated through
a great institution like Texas Tech, and connecting them with a
career and providing that vitality that is sometimes missing
from El Paso. I don't know about Lubbock, but you mentioned
Plainview earlier. I think about just the cities of the Plains
and the Panhandle, of Pampa and Dalhart and Booker and Canyon.
Why don't we connect those veterans who came from those
communities back with careers and opportunities connected to
education? I love, love the Boots to Roots concept, and I hope
there is some way that we can help to implement that. One, and
first and foremost, it is really good for the veteran; and two,
it is just so good for those communities. And again, your
mindset of seeing veterans as an opportunity and potential and
a net contributor is a way that we have to approach it from
Congress, and we will because of your example and the way you
have shown us to do that.
So my thanks to each of you for doing this, to the great
staff who helped to make today a success, and most of all to
you, Mr. Chairman, for inviting us all to be here. Thank you.
Mr. Arrington. You know, the American people on both sides
of the aisle are fed up with Washington, and I was right there
with them as I was running, raging against the machine. I think
they are very right to feel that frustration, and even anger.
But I hope my colleagues and my fellow West Texans saw today
what I think they don't get enough of. Maybe it is just the
media. Maybe it is just not happening enough, and I think it is
probably a little bit of both, and that is people who are
putting partisanship and other interests aside, putting America
first, rolling up their sleeves, solving problems, and
delivering on the promises. That is more a credit to you and
our colleagues on the Committee than me and my leadership, but
it is an honor to serve with you, Beto.
Okay, guys, my last act as the Chairman of this
Subcommittee before we close out is to invite our Ranking
Member to a horned frog roast. I don't know if he has ever
eaten a horned frog. It tastes like chicken.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Arrington. But I will make a prediction: We will win
and win big because Cliff King is on fire and ready to prove
something to a lot of people, and I am still believing. So if
you can stick around, it tastes like chicken. Roger Williams, I
hope that is for the record and he reads it.
Now I ask unanimous consent that the Angelo State
University letter be submitted into the record and that all
Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their
remarks.
Without objection, so ordered.
Mr. Arrington. This hearing is now adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:00 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
----------
Prepared Statement of Tedd Mitchell
Chairman Arrington, Ranking Member O'Rourke and distinguished
Members of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity of the House
Committee on Veterans' Affairs, my name is Dr. Tedd Mitchell. I am the
President of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC), one
of four component institutions within the Texas Tech University System.
It is an honor to be a witness before your Subcommittee on the very
important topic of best practices in veterans' education and transition
to civilian life.
First, I would like to mention TTUHSC has had a long partnership
with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that started in 2006 with
the medical academic affiliation agreement which has allowed our
students to have rich invaluable clinical training opportunities within
the VA Health Care Systems. TTUHSC's partnership with the VA will be
enhanced with the building of the new and expanded Lubbock VA Community
Based Outpatient Clinic on the TTUHSC campus. TTUHSC is honored to be
the site of this new clinic which will provide improved and expanded
care to South Plains veterans. On behalf of these veterans, TTUHSC is
grateful for the VA Committee's willingness and foresight to authorize
the creation of this new clinic.
TTUHSC prides itself in its commitment to veterans and their
families and its recognition of their service to our country. Last
week, TTUHSC held its annual Veterans Day ceremony honoring the men and
women at TTUHSC who have served our country. As a member of the Council
of College and Military Educators, TTUHSC strives to ensure veterans
have a successful transition into the college setting and, once there,
receive the support they need to be successful.
For the fall 2017 semester, TTUHSC has a total of 118 veterans
enrolled in its programs. TTUHSC has student veterans in all five of
our schools: Nursing, Health Professions, Medicine, Pharmacy and
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. These students are located
throughout West Texas on our six regional campuses; Abilene, Amarillo,
Dallas, Lubbock and the Permian Basin. The Texas Tech University Health
Sciences Center at El Paso has a total of 21 veterans enrolled in its
programs. These students are in the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine
and the Hunt School of Nursing.
TTUHSC has committed itself to the Department of Veterans Affairs
Principles of Excellence program and has been identified as a Military
Friendly University (Bronze Level) by G.I. Jobs Magazine. Our Veterans
and Military Advising Office within TTUHSC Student Services assists and
guides prospective and accepted students from initial contact going
forward. This office assists students through the process of utilizing
their VA Education Benefits and Hazelwood Exemption which is a state
program.
TTUHSC takes the stress off veterans by ensuring all necessary
documents are submitted to the Department of Veterans Affairs to
certify student enrollments. Sarah Henly serves as TTUHSC's Veteran and
Military Advisor and is a veteran herself. Our Veterans and Military
Advising Office and Sarah's Dedication have produced phenomenal results
for veterans interested in enrolling in TTUHSC but who may have found
the experience to be too daunting.
The Veteran and Military Advising Office continues to be the
primary point of contact and resource for veterans after they have
enrolled and begin their degree program. TTUHSC hosts lunches each
semester for our student veterans on all campuses TTUHSC recognizes our
student veterans all the way to the end. At commencement, graduating
veterans receive military stoles with a red double T to recognize not
only their recent accomplishment but service to our country as well.
One of TTUHSC's more innovative programs is the Accelerated Veteran
to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (VBSN) track. VBSN is a nursing
degree completed in 12 months specifically designed for veterans with
prior military medical training. This program allows veterans to
receive competency based college credit and to earn their BSN in less
time with less cost.
This program is unique in that TTUHSC faculty developed this
curriculum with the Medical Education and Training Command (METC)
located at the Joint Services Base in San Antonio, Texas. TTUHSC
faculty collaborated with METC personnel to review the METC curriculum
for medics. The medic curriculum was examined to determine which
courses offered key elements similar to nursing courses. This program
then created a competency based examination to award college credits by
recognizing prior learning. Veterans have the opportunity to be given
college credit for four courses (14 semester credit hours).
TTUHSC received support from the US Department of Health and Human
Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to develop
and implement the VBSN program. HRSA's Nurse Education, Practice,
Quality and Retention (NEPQR) -Veterans in Bachelor of Science in
Nursing Program awarded $1.04 million. TTUHSC also received $200,000
from the Texas Workforce Commission. Both grants have been great
resources and we recommend Congress continue to fund this program.
The VBSN has had phenomenal success. The current 2017 VBSN class as
12 students. Seven students graduated in December 2016 and all passed
the nurse licensing examination. The incoming cohort for 2018 has 22
students. For 2019, TTUHSC has 45 prospects. TTUHSC anticipates
increasing our numbers annually by 50 percent. TTUHSC offers the VBSN
program in seven locations: Lubbock, Amarillo, Odessa, Abilene, Dallas,
Austin, and San Antonio. As a result of VBSN's success, TTUHSC's School
of Pharmacy and School of Health Professions are considering offering
competency-based education as well.
TTUHSC would like to offer recommendations for the Subcommittee to
consider to improve the quality of education for student veterans.
Federal funding for education programmatic initiatives Continue to
approve federal funding for HRSA's NEPQR grants. HRSA's Nursing
Education Practice, Quality and Retention (NEPQR) - VBSN Program Grant
was critical to supporting new program development to serve veterans.
Military Housing Allowance (MHA) To take into consideration the
growth in distance education, determine the housing allowance based
upon where the student does their clinical work. VBSN students do their
clinical work at a ``site,'' rather than on a campus. TTUHSC is very
grateful for the work of the Subcommittee on its passage of legislation
to expand and extend the G.I. Bill. This Subcommittee recognized that
students do not necessarily receive their training in the same location
as where the school is headquartered, in TTUHSC's case Lubbock. TTUHSC
is very grateful the Subcommittee clarified the Monthly House Allowance
(MHA) to beneficiaries of the Post-9/11 G.I. bill, to allow veterans to
receive MHA based on the location where the student attends the
majority of his/her classes. This legislation will have a profound
effect on our students at TTUHSC's six regional campuses. TTUHSC
understands the Subcommittee's concerns about schools taking advantage
of this new provision. We would ask the Subcommittee to consider the
feasibility of having the VA pay MHA based on the site where the
student is located since many programs are 100 percent online with only
clinical experience required. Again, TTUHSC is grateful for the changes
the Subcommittee has already made to the MHA.
VA 85/15 Rule Eliminate the application of the VA 85/15 rule
entirely for entities with regional and professional accreditation. The
85/15 rule is not effective in maintaining educational quality in that
it claims to use the market place to ensure quality of the educational
offerings, requiring each course to include a minimum fifteen percent
civilian population enrollment. It also does not address the unique
needs of veterans transitioning to civilian life and education,
precluding courses designed to help veterans in this transition being
prevented from certification for VA education benefits. A solution is
to allow the agencies with DOE deemed status - such as SACS/COC - to
determine quality.
Again, thank you for the opportunity to appear before this
Subcommittee and to share TTUHSC's best practices in support of our
student veterans. TTUHSC appreciates the service and sacrifice these
students have made. Assisting them to reach their academic and career
goals will continue be a priority for TTUHSC.
Tedd L. Mitchell, M.D.
President
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
3601 4th Street
Lubbock, Texas 79430
Prepared Statement of Aaron Kyle Chapman
Good afternoon Chairman Arrington, Ranking Member O'Rourke and
distinguished Members. Thank you for inviting me to appear before your
Subcommittee. My name is Kyle Chapman and I had the honor of serving in
the U.S. Marine Corp from December 2000 to December 2004 with 3rd
Battalion 5th Marines and 2nd Battalion 4th Marines. Currently I serve
as the Texas Tech University Health Science Center (TTUHSC) School of
Nursing (SON) Veteran Liaison and work closely with the Veteran to
Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) Track. I would like to share a
portion of my story about my transition from military life to civilian
life and how it has impacted what I do today.
When I exited the Marine Corp and became a civilian I was within a
month removed from my second tour of combat in Ramadi, Iraq. In 2005, I
began college at South Plains College and did well. I then transferred
to Texas Tech University (TTU) the summer of 2005 at which point I was
mentally, emotionally, and physically not coping well with my
transition. I fell into a depression trying to cope with flashbacks and
nightmares or better known as Post Traumatic Stress (PTS). I stopped
going to class and left TTU with a .62 GPA. In April 2009, through
different sorts of intervention from family, friends, and VA mental
health counselors I decided to attend the Amarillo VA substance abuse
and recovery program. I have been sober since April 2009. I went back
to school at South Plains College the fall of 2011 and restarted my
college journey. In summer 2013 I was able to transfer back to TTU on
academic probation and graduated in August 2015 Cum Laude with a degree
in Human Development and Family Studies and minor in Addictive
Disorders and Recovery Studies. My intent was to work with military,
veterans, and their families in a resource, PTS, and substance abuse
manner. Much of my success in college was due to the TTU Military and
Veterans Programs (MVP) assistance. In October of 2015, I was hired as
the TTUHSC SON Veteran Liaison.
Today I have the distinct honor to serve military and veterans
locally, in Texas, nationally, and globally through my position with
the purpose of assisting them with their transition to higher
education. On a daily basis I work with military and veterans to help
them through the application process of the VBSN track which includes
the application and admission process. After acceptance, I continue to
assist with any issues or concerns that may arise until the day they
graduate.
I believe one of the greatest ways to honor our military and
veterans is to recognize and honor the value they bring to our society
through their career and educational endeavors. In the Veterans to BSN
track we do just that. We do this in several ways but most importantly
the VBSN track honors their service by recognizing they have a working
and practical knowledge of skills obtained while serving in the
military. If they can demonstrate their knowledge to our faculty
through testing and practical application (known as a Comprehensive
Assessment Placement -CAP) they are exempt from having to take these
courses if they so choose. Therefore our veterans are able to graduate
more quickly and with less debt. (Please refer to the Veteran to BSN
brochure)
The Veteran to BSN Track is a tremendous degree plan that I believe
takes into consideration the holistic view of transition from military
to higher education. However, there is always room for improvement and
challenges to face. One challenge that is not only true for VBSN and
TTUHSC students but all institutions that have reginal campus and
satellite locations is the Post 911 G.I Bill Basic Allowance for
Housing or better known as the BAH rate. I am sure you all are familiar
with this benefit but as an example currently the BAH rate for Lubbock,
TX is $1,097 per month and San Antonio, TX is $1,811 per month. Being
that Lubbock, TX is where the official TTUHSC institution is physically
located our students attending the VBSN track in San Antonio, TX will
receive the BAH rate in Lubbock. So, our students in San Antonio are
receiving $714 less per month where the cost of living is significantly
higher.
I am thankful this Subcommittee addressed this inequity in the
passage of H.R.3218, the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational
Assistance Act of 2017. Thank you for allowing veterans to receive MHA
based on the location where the student attends the majority of their
classes. This will help our students at TTUHSC's regional campuses. I
understand the Subcommittee's concerns about some schools taking
advantage of this provision. As the Subcommittee monitors the
implementation of H.R. 3218, I would suggest the Subcommittee consider
allowing students to receive MHA at the ``site'' where students do
their clinical training as well where as many students receive their
didactic training 100 percent online. Please know, we are thankful for
the change made by H.R.3218.
Providing resources for military and veterans to transition into
college and into the workplace are very important. As a student at TTU,
the MVP was crucial to my success as it is for many military and
veterans. Also, degree plans much like the Veterans to BSN are
invaluable as they recognize the value of their service and allow them
the opportunity to capitalize on their skill set and turn it into a
career, which is the goal. I am proud to have served in the U.S. Marine
Corp, of my University and to serve our military and veteran students
at Texas Tech University Health Science Center. I am honored to have
this opportunity to share my story and am glad the subcommittee is
devoting its time on this important initiative. In closing I would like
to quote one of our current VBSN students who was recently recognized
for her assistance with Hurricane Harvey relief efforts.
``The situations in the military are uncontrolled field settings,''
Grant said. ``That training has helped me stay in the correct mindset
while I work in more controlled environments. The best part of TTUHSC
is that they have acknowledged all of my training in the Army. A lot of
places say they are military-friendly, but TTUHSC really backs it up.
They stand behind their military students. When they say it, they mean
it.''
Prepared Statement of Lou Ortiz
Chairman Arrington, Ranking Member O'Rourke, and Members of the
House Veterans Affairs Economic Opportunity Subcommittee, welcome to
Texas Tech, and thank you for the opportunity today to describe our
main campus programs that directly support the education goals of our
military and veteran students who have served and sacrificed for our
nation.
Texas Tech University Military & Veterans Programs was created in
2010 as a department solely dedicated to helping veterans and their
families succeed. We currently serve more than 2,200 student veterans
and dependents on the Texas Tech University main campus and have
developed a veteran support structure and culture that serves their
needs. We are proud to assist these students in transitioning from
military to academic life, providing them with a campus support
structure that presents the best opportunity for academic success, and
preparing our veteran graduates to enter the workforce. We serve
undergraduate, graduate, and law students on our main campus and
satellite locations across the state including Waco, Dallas, Junction,
Fredericksburg and Marble Falls, Texas.
Our core mission is to assist veterans in obtaining the federal and
state education benefits they have earned by virtue of the service to
our nation. VA federal benefits we administer include:
1. Chapter 30 Montgomery GI Bill
2. Chapter 31 Vocational Rehabilitation
3. Chapter 32 Veterans Educational Assistance Program
4. Chapter 33 Post 9/11 GI Bill
5. Chapter 1606 Reserve GI Bill
6. Chapter 1607 Reserve Educational Assistance Program
7. Chapter 35 Dependent's Educational Assistance
We also administer the State of Texas Hazlewood Act (Exemption) for
Texas veterans as well as DoD Tuition Assistance Programs for students
who are on active duty.
Beyond our core benefits role, the Military & Veterans Programs
Office serves as an integration and resource office for all military
and veteran related organizations, activities, events on the main
campus. We work hand in hand with the Student Veterans of America
Chapter--Veterans Association at Texas Tech, Tech Law Military
Association, Faculty & Student Veterans Association, Army and Air Force
ROTC, and the Military & Veterans National Alumni Chapter. We also
partner and coordinate with key veteran support organizations and
resources throughout the local community. We place significant emphasis
on providing a supportive environment and culture by instituting
programs at three key stages for veterans at Texas Tech University-
transition to campus, campus support, and job search and employment.
1. Transition from Military to Academic Life
a. Tech Vet Boot Camp - Before the start of each Fall and Spring
semester, MVP hosts Tech Vet Boot Camp. Our two-day Boot Camp is
designed to help veterans transition to college life by providing best
practices in study skills, time management, writing, and money
management. Special guests include the Brain Performance Institute
offering high performance brain training program known as Strategic
Memory Advance Reasoning Training. TechVet Boot Camp is a great way to
meet other veteran students and network at the start of the semester.
As non-traditional students, peer to peer interaction with other
veterans is vital to establishing social connections in their new
academic setting. We are developing an expanded program of one week
duration that will incorporate additional math and writing and
information on community resources.
b. Stars and Stripes Lounge - Centrally located in the Student
Union Building, our Stars & Stripes Lounge opened in Spring 2014. It
serves as a study and social area for military and veterans and is
furnished with tables, computer terminals, a big screen TV.
2. Providing a Support System and Culture for Veteran Success on
Campus - As a preface to outlining veteran support, I must tell you
that the vast majority of our military and veteran students are
emotionally mature, goal oriented, mission-driven, and self-sufficient
role models. Academically, they perform equal to or better than our
general student population. However, based on their unique military
service experiences that may include combat, some veterans do
experience social, administrative, financial, and physical or mental
health challenges in transitioning from military to the classroom.
As a starting point for campus support, there are over 300 faculty
and staff members who are veterans at Texas Tech. These faculty members
serve as role models, advisors and mentors for current student
veterans.
Another key component of our support structure is a comprehensive
Green Zone training program that incorporates 7 distinct training
modules for faculty and staff.
a. Green Zone -Our Green Zone program is tailored to provide
increased awareness and understanding of our veteran population and
guidance on where to refer them for assistance. Over 700 TTU faculty
and staff members have attended one or more of 7 training modules. Our
unique multi-module approach, incorporating training by subject matter
experts in key support areas on campus, allows faculty and staff to
gain a more comprehensive understanding of veteran challenges, how to
recognize them, and where to refer veterans for assistance.
i. Module I: Core Training is open to all faculty and staff members
as the first module of veterans' advocacy training and a prerequisite
for all other modules. This course is designed to assist faculty and
staff to better serve student veterans and their family members on
campus. Attendees learn about the transition issues veterans face as
they as they leave military service and enter campus life, specific
information about Texas Tech's veteran students, and insight about
campus and community resources. Green Zone module I must be taken
before subsequent training modules can be scheduled.
ii. Module II: Understanding Benefits is taught by MVP certifying
officials for faculty and staff who are interested in an overview of
how federal and state veterans' benefits work. Learning objectives
include having a basic understanding of federal, state, and DOD benefit
programs offered at TTU including eligibility & awards, and basic
responsibilities required of the university and the students.
iii. Module III: Mental Health is taught by Student Counseling
Services for faculty and staff members who are interested in gaining a
greater understanding of mental health issues faced by veterans and
service members. Attendees will increase their understanding of mental
health concerns sometimes faced by veterans and service members;
decrease the stigma of mental health concerns such as depression,
anxiety, and PTS; explore the nature of interpersonal violence and
sexual assault and; be provided with referral resources.
iv. Module IV: Student Disability Services is for faculty and staff
members who are interested in a basic overview of how TTU Student
Disability Services works with veterans and service members on campus.
Learning objectives include understanding Student Disability Services
programs and services offered, learning how students can register;
gaining a basic understanding about applicable federal/ state laws and
guidelines; understanding student responsibilities; and gaining greater
familiarity with resources and support available to faculty and staff
on campus.
v. Module V: Advising Veterans is taught by senior MVP staff for
faculty and staff advisors of veterans and family members on campus.
Learning objectives include a veteran `snapshot' and their
expectations, responsibilities of the advisor in the context of
Veterans Educational Benefits, responsibility of the school in
reporting to the state/federal government, and best practices in
advising veterans.
vi. Module VI: Hiring Veterans is presented by Human Resources and
open to faculty and staff members who are interested in hiring veterans
at Texas Tech University in their department. Trainees will learn about
the soft skills that all veterans bring to the workforce, how to use
the ``Veterans' Only job posting'', and ``Veteran Direct Appointment
hiring initiative'' authorized by state law.
vii. Module VII: Other veteran, military, or family related topics
are explored in this module. Guest speakers from on or off campus may
present on topics of interest to the military and veteran community.
b. Veteran Liaisons - In addition to our faculty and staff
veterans, we have over 35 veteran liaisons in each academic college and
major staff support function who are dedicated to veteran success. They
provide front-line support for veterans who have questions or need
assistance in their respective colleges or offices. A pre-requisite is
attendance at Green Zone Module 1, Core Training. Liaisons meet with
the Military & Veterans Programs Office staff quarterly to share
information and report specific veteran related information.
3. Transition to Employment - As veterans succeed in earning their
degrees, their next step after graduation is finding employment and
beginning their career. Career preparation begins before they complete
their degree program. The University Career Center has developed a
Veterans Career Program for veterans to receive the assistance they
need to be successful in preparing for their future careers. A career
center counselor meets with them to identify individual career needs
and creates a career development plan. Among the services provided are
career testing, job search resources, career workshops, mock
interviews, and translating military experience into career readiness.
a. Camo to Corporate Program - In Spring 2017, Military & Veterans
Programs partnered with the University Center to develop a pilot Camo
to Corporate Programs.
i. This program is for graduating veteran seniors designed to
better prepare them for job search and employment
ii. Students signed agreements to participate in six (6) evening
sessions including a Strong interest inventory, resume and cover letter
writing, networking, interviewing, etiquette, and proper dress
iii. As part of the program, veterans who complete all sessions
acquire valuable skills job search skills and a tailored business suit
to prepare for the professional world after graduation
b. Military & Veterans National Alumni Chapter - In May 2016,
recognizing the value of a broad network of military and veteran alumni
across the state and nation, we created a Military & Veterans National
Alumni Chapter. One of the primary goals of our chapter is to connect
current students and graduating seniors with alumni who are serving in
business, corporations, government, and the military. We have begun
connecting alumni employers who may provide internship, mentoring, and
employment opportunities to our students through the career center and
Camo to Corporate program. Additionally, the alumni chapter benefits
students by providing education scholarships for veteran students.
We are proud of our Texas Tech veterans and do our best to
recognize them at every opportunity. One way we do this is our unique
camouflage stole that we award at a special ceremony the day before
graduation. The stole is highly visible when veterans walk at
graduation and they are singled out for their service by leadership at
each graduation ceremony.
This is a brief overview of the Texas Tech programs that support
the remarkable men and women veteran students who have served our
nation. Central to our success is the strong commitment of campus
leadership in providing the resources, facilities, and support that
extends across our administration, faculty, staff, and local community.
We very much appreciate the support of the House Economic Opportunity
Subcommittee in providing your leadership, legislation, and resources
for our veterans at Texas Tech and across the nation. Thanks for the
opportunity to speak to you today. I look forward to your questions.
Prepared Statement of Staff Sergeant Nicole Meyer, USAF
Staff Sergeant Nicole Meyer, USAF (Honorably Discharged)
Enlisted in the United States Air Force on November 16th, 2010.
Attended Basic Military Training, Joint Base San Antonio- Lackland,
Texas. November 2010- January 2011.
Attended Technical Training in Material Management, Joint Base San
Antonio- Lackland, Texas. January 2011-March 2011
Stationed at 49th Logistics Readiness Squadron, Holloman Air Force
Base, New Mexico, April 2011-June 2014. 49th Aircraft Maintenance
Squadron, June 2014- August 2016.
Deployed 455th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron, Bagram
Air Base, Afghanistan, October 2013-May 2014
Deployed 451st Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron,
Kandahar Air Base, Afghanistan, January 2015-June 2015.
I began my separation process from the Air Force a year prior to my
separation date. I began researching schools and trying to learn how
the Post 9-11 GI Bill worked. I attended the Transition Assistance
Programs (TAPS). Very little of the week-long class helped me with the
transition from Active Duty to Civilian. The majority of the class
focused on searching for jobs and building a resume. But because I was
headed to college, very little of it applied to me. TAPS went very
briefly over the process of filing a claim, but mainly focused on going
through an individual on base that would help you go over everything in
your medical record to submit your claim. I was unable to use this
person due to time constraints, and had to figure out how to file a
claim on my own through E-Benefits. The class never went over
assistance organizations such as Disabled American Veterans, or
Veterans of Foreign Wars having Veteran Service Officers that could
assist with filing a claim.
Dealing with the Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical System has been a
long, convoluted process. This began with my initial claim for
disability, during which I was denied for my chronic back problems that
had been on-going for three years at the time. The doctor I was sent to
for my compensation and pension exam is well-known by local veterans to
recommend that Veterans did not incur their injuries while in-service.
The decision I was handed by the VA stated that there was no evidence
of a disability for my back. I have since been diagnosed with having
developed scoliosis while on Active Duty. My appeal for disability
concerning my back has been on-going for a year.
As a woman, it can be difficult to receive medical treatment for
women's health issues. Anything other than very basic processes, such
as prescribing medication, is referred out to the Veterans Choice
Program. Unfortunately, funding is tight, and many providers no longer
accept the Choice program. As of 2015, there are over 2 million female
Veterans in the US. I do not understand why receiving treatment for
women's health issues is such an arduous process. It took well over two
months to finally see a women's health doctor to get treatment for a
reoccurring health issue.
When I first contacted the Veteran's Educational and Transitional
Services (VETS) Office at Angelo State University, they were extremely
helpful in explaining the process of applying for my education
benefits. They offered much more help than the TAPS program, or the
Education Office at Holloman Air Force Base. Most of the time, the
Education Office either never answered the phone, or were too busy to
assist with questions. When I finally was able get hold of them, the
Education Office would give me very brief and general answers on
Education Benefits available. The VETS Office at Angelo State
University is the first organization I have encountered that actually
bothered to answer my questions. The only time I had any problems with
my benefits was when the VA was late on my Basic Allowance for Housing
payment for the first month. This was however, due to an oversight on
my part, not realizing that I needed to inform the VA that I was no
longer Active Duty.
Thank you for taking the time to listen to me today. I hope that
today can result in improvements to the current process, and that more
Veterans are able to get the help that they need.
Prepared Statement of Ikaika (Kai) Iuta
Chairman Arrington, Ranking Member O'Rourke, and Members of the
House Veterans Affairs Economic Opportunity Subcommittee, thank you for
the opportunity to speak to you today.
My name is Ikaika Iuta, but everyone calls me Kai. I am from
Hawaii. After graduating high school, I attended a junior college in
California for one year. I couldn't afford to go back to that school
the following year. This led me to enlist in the U.S. Army in 2010. I
was assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat
team as a Motor Transportation Operator in Fort Lewis, WA. From 2011-
2012, I was deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan attached to the 10th
Mountain & 82nd Airborne Divisions. In 2013, my unit was assigned in a
joint operation as the Global Response Force with the 82nd Airborne. I
got out of the military in February of 2014. That same year I continued
my education at Green River Community College in Auburn, Washington
earning my Associate of Arts degree. In 2015, I enrolled at Texas Tech
University. I am currently studying Psychology and graduating in
December.
My transition out of the military was okay but not perfect. During
the Army Career & Alumni Program or A.C.A.P, I was equipped with many
resources but no knowledge on how to access them or how these things
can apply to my particular situation. For example, ACAP helped me
create a resume and get a job but I didn't know where I was going to
live or what kind of services were offered for housing or help in
getting housing. If it wasn't for the kindness of friends, I would have
been homeless coming out of the military and another statistic to the
veteran demographic. ACAP also helped me with information about the GI
bill but it was unclear on how it worked. For example, during this
time, the Post 9/11 GI bill only covered in-state tuition and veterans
who were out of state would have to pay out of state tuition. This
means the GI bill would only cover the in-state tuition part leaving
the veteran to pay for the rest. However, there were certain states
that gave in-state waivers for veterans. I was lucky enough to live in
a state that offered this. During my time at Green River Community
College, I felt awkward and out of place. My identity as a soldier was
slowly stripped away and my service seemed like it was a different
lifetime. My daily rituals consisted of going to school and work. I
made no friends and wasn't connected to the campus or community. In
August 2015, I transferred to Texas Tech University hoping to finish my
degree and make new friends. I chose Texas Tech University because
during that time it was ranked in the top 10 for military friendly
universities.
Upon my arrival to campus, I was culture-shocked because I had
never been this far east of the United States and I had never been to
the south. My first stop on campus was the Texas Tech Military Veterans
Program where I was given a lot of information and resources for
veterans. They also encouraged me to sign up for the veteran student
organization on campus which is called Veterans at Texas Tech or VATT.
This organization was a great help because I connected with a lot of
veterans and they shared their experiences as a student at Texas Tech.
MVP also hosted a welcome event where new student veterans came
together and veteran Lubbock organizations were there for information.
The following semester I signed up for the veteran orientation program
also known as Tech Vet Boot Camp. The program gave me an in depth
training to the resources offered for veterans at Texas Tech. For
example, I learned that Student Counseling Services offers 6 free
counseling sessions to any student. I also learned that when you
graduate from Texas Tech you are awarded a military stole. This may not
seem to mean much or that significant but this little thing speaks
volumes to me because this shows the school recognizes that veterans
who are students at Texas Tech, are a part of a distinct important
demographic of the student population. Since being here at Texas Tech I
have been able to find community and I don't feel as isolated as I was
at my other school.
I think the most important thing to help service members who want
to come back school is recognizing who they are and reaching out to
them. Providing a resource such as the Military Veterans Program at
Texas Tech allows veterans to get connected and help them with their
educational needs. Sitting in a classroom with kids 10 years younger
than you can make you feel out of place and isolated. However,
providing a support system that recognizes veterans and their distinct
situations will make them feel a part of something.
I will graduate in December and look forward to receiving my
graduation Texas Tech stole. My future plans is to go on to graduate
school and study Industrial/Organizational Psychology. My future plans
is to go on to graduate school and study Industrial/Organizational
Psychology.
Thank you for time today. I look forward to your questions.
Prepared Statement of Colonel David J. Lewis, USAF (Ret.)
Introduction
Thank you Chairman Arrington and Ranking Member O'Rourke for the
opportunity to testify at this hearing.
By way of self-introduction, I am the Director of VetStar, the
veterans division of StarCare Specialty Health System. StarCare is the
Local Mental Health Authority for Lubbock and four other Texas
counties; however, our program serves up to thirty counties in the
Texas Panhandle and South Plains. I am also an Assistant Professor of
Practice in the Political Science Department and the Director of
Strategic Studies under the Texas Tech University's Institute for Peace
and Conflict. I retired from the United States Air Force after nearly
twenty-nine years of active duty, with combat tours in the air as well
as on the ground during Operation DESERT STORM. I spent two years with
the U. S. Army, two years at the U.S. Naval War College, with duty as a
Professor of Strategy, and two years commanding a foreign F-16 fighter
squadron from the Republic of Singapore. Following my retirement in
2009, I was the founder and first Director of the Texas Tech Military
and Veterans Program. The observations in this testimony are a direct
result of our work with veterans in our region through seven years of
efforts in VetStar. My testimony does not reflect the official views of
either StarCare Specialty Health or Texas Tech University; however, I
believe my comments are consistent with the values and positions of
those organizations.
VetStar was created to assist veterans by connecting them to the
resources to make them successful in the next stage of their life. Over
the years, we have narrowed our direct service focus to assisting those
veterans who are struggling in their transition from military to
civilian life, and provide referral assistance for all other areas of
interest to our veteran population. Our focus, therefore, is ``filling
in the gaps'' where the VA is unable to do so.
VetStar has four primary service lines; first, peer to peer
services through the State of Texas Military and Veteran Peer Network,
or MVPN. MVPN was created to provide a first-line of defense for the
mental health challenges of Texas veterans. This program is funded
through the Department of State Health Services, and administered by
the Texas Veterans Commission. Next is a grant from the Fund for
Veteran Assistance under the Texas Veterans Commission. This grant
allows us to provide emergency financial assistance on a one-time basis
to South Plains veterans who are experiencing a financial crisis.
Additionally, we have a Supportive Services for Veterans and Families
grant from the VA to provide assistance to veterans and families who
experience homelessness, or are at risk of becoming homeless. Finally,
we have a grant from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to
provide mental health under the Texas Veterans + Family Alliance
program. We primarily target justice-involved veterans for this mental
health grant.
VetStar also provides meeting space and chairs the monthly Veterans
Resource Coordination Group (VRCG) meeting in Lubbock. The goal of the
VRCG is to bring all veteran serving agencies together on a monthly
basis to identify gaps and/or excessive overlap in veteran services in
our region, as well as provide a forum for education and information
awareness. VetStar has a robust relationship with the MVP office at
Texas Tech University, as well as Lubbock Christian University, Wayland
Baptist University and South Plains College.
Because of my experience delivering services to veterans in
transition, I created the model we use extensively at VetStar - the
FASTRR model. The acronym is as follows: F- Find, A-Assess, S-
Stabilize, T-Treat, R-Reassess, R-Reintegrate. The details are as
follows:
Find - Veterans that struggle with their transition issues tend to
isolate themselves. This is due to a variety of reasons, including
trust and stigma issues associated with seeking assistance. Nearly all
of them have someone in a trusted relationship; a spouse, a parent, a
close friend etc. I consider them to be our ``eyes and ears'' in the
community. Many times, the trusted relation knows the VA may be able to
help, but they are generally unaware of community-based resources.
Essentially, isolated veterans must be ``found.'' Unfortunately, one of
the more common places to find them is in the local jails and detention
centers, a result of some type of justice involvement. Substance use
issues such as Public Intoxication, Driving Under the Influence, or
Possession of a Controlled Substance are indicators of a veteran
struggling with their transition, and indicators that the veteran is
attempting to solve issues on their own. Our goal is to find them prior
to justice involvement, or Intercept ``0'' in the GAINS Center
Sequential Intercept Model. \1\
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\1\ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration GAINS
Center Sequential Intercept Model
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Assess - Once a struggling veteran is identified, we want to assess
for 1) Ideations of suicide, 2) Major substance abuse issues, and 3)
Homelessness, or some combination of these. The initial assessment
determines our course of action for appropriate intervention. This is
essentially a triage operation, and it helps us develop a success plan
to move the veteran forward with their life.
Stabilize - Stabilization is the foundation for therapeutic work,
and it begins to empower our veterans to regain control of their
situation. We utilize a VA developed program known as Seeking Safety to
provide stability to veterans with co-occurring trauma and substance
use issues. Seeking Safety is present-based therapy that is designed to
keep you safe today, and in the future. It is highly scripted, and very
effective. We prefer to have our veterans complete Seeking Safety prior
to treatment, as it significantly improves their chances of
successfully graduating the treatment program. Stabilization is also
found through the Housing First model for veteran who are homeless.
Once housing is secured, the veteran receives a ``housing stability''
plan that includes wrap-around services as needed.
Treat - Treatment is based on evidence-based therapies provided by
the VA, or other local/regional providers if the veteran is not
eligible for VHA services. There is significant stigma associated with
seeking treatment, and we may start the veteran with Equine Assisted
Therapies to get them started. This non-traditional approach is highly
effective in our service area.
Reassess - Coming out of the ``treat'' phase, or directly from
earlier steps if treatment is not required, VetStar uses a unique 16-
point veteran success plan to identify vulnerabilities and capitalize
on veteran strengths in order to make them successful. We look at a
variety of issues such as Health, Mental Health, Transportation,
Employment, Family Support etc. to develop a tailored plan to maximize
the probability of success for the veteran and their family.
Reintegrate - Arguably the most critical component of our model
after FIND, our goal is to change the environment and alter the
veteran's perception of where they belong in our community. Programs
such as VetLife and Team Red White and Blue give the veteran a chance
to be with other veterans in a peer-based model. Without this critical
step, the temptation is too great for the veteran to return to the same
behaviors and locations that created the challenges. I strongly believe
that reintegration can resolve many of the issues faced by the veteran,
especially if it is delivered in a peer-based setting. One technique we
use is a program called Task Force Lubbock, where we bring veterans
together to do community service projects. The outcome is less about
the service project itself, but rather focused on bringing veterans
together for informal peer support (group therapy). Bluntly stated, our
military was trained to break things and kill people; using those
skills to create and repair is very therapeutic.
Understanding the concept of Stalled Transition - Stalled
transition is a phrase I use to communicate the concept of a veteran
struggling in their transition from military to civilian life. This
struggle may be very brief, as it is for most servicemembers, or it may
persist for decades due to personal struggles with PTSD, Moral Injury,
MST, TBI or substance use issues. Using this term helps us understand
the ``hand-up'' versus ``hand-out'' concept. The vast majority of
``stalled'' veterans require a relatively small investment to get them
back into our society, including meaningful family relationships and
gainful employment. The veteran is stalled, not permanently stuck or
``broken'' which is an especially harmful stereotype.
General Comments
The majority of our veterans transition from military to civilian
life with few or no issues. Our observation in the South Plains service
area is roughly 6% of our veteran population is struggling with their
transition. \2\ This means roughly 19 out of 20 veterans are being
successful in their transition, with few or no issues. We should always
keep in mind that the vast majority of veterans make superb students
and employees, despite stereotypes that are placed upon them.
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\2\ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
GAINS Center Sequential Intercept Model
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For those that struggle however, the ``death spiral'' can occur in
the following manner:
Veterans may be leaving the military with Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Moral Injury or
Military Sexual Trauma (MST) issues
As a result, returning servicemembers may not relate to
family and/or friends, and may struggle to identify and communicate
their issues
Inability to communicate, and reluctance to seek
treatment can lead to self-medication \3\, justice involvement,
domestic violence \4\ and family breakup \5\, job loss or rapid
switching of jobs, loss of income and/or housing, and may lead to
homelessness
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\3\ Self-medication is widely used, but not an accurate term. Using
substance for emotional control is more accurate
\4\ Families of Veterans with PTSD have more family violence,
verbal aggression, and female partners of Veterans with PTSD reported
perpetrating more acts of family violence than did their partners.
Retrieved from https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/treatment/family/
partners--of--vets--research--findings.asp
\5\ Approximately 38% of Vietnam veteran marriages failed within
six months of the veteran's return from Southeast Asia. Similar trends
are occurring with veterans of our current wars.
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While the ``spiral'' is not the sole cause, tragically,
20 veterans die by suicide every day in our country
Our veterans have earned the right to be successful in their
transition from the military, and especially to be successful as they
pursue the educational opportunities they earned as servicemembers. A
successful academic veterans program consists of many parts, such as
recruiting and transition/orientation to the university, but the most
important task, in my assessment, is retaining the veterans in academic
or other training programs. Dropping out can occur for a variety of
reasons, but if the veteran is experiencing ``stalled transition'' then
community partnerships with organizations capable of applying
appropriate interventions are essential. Traditional university
programs, such a student counseling services, are typically quite good,
but they may lack the cultural competency and timeliness to effectively
address issues such as TBI, MST, PTSD, or moral injury.
Veterans who experience stalled transition may not have symptoms
until several months after they separate from the military. If symptoms
develop during their educational experience then they may be isolated
from necessary support structures. Successful intervention begins with
the ability to FIND the struggling veteran, through eyes and ears in
the community, organizational relationships and family resource
awareness. VetStar's close working relationship with the Texas Tech
University MVP office allows for near seamless awareness and
coordination to address challenges, and intervention as required to
preclude the veteran from leaving the university. This may be as simple
as emergency financial assistance, or more complex challenges may
present, and required more in-depth interventions. The VetStar process
in place today is relatively effective, but it is a reactive process,
relying on many different agencies to get the struggling veteran to our
services. As a result, far too many veterans are falling through the
cracks and, tragically, wind up in some portion of the death spiral.
Looking Forward
My recommendations to this committee on improving both educational
outcomes for veterans, and community success outcomes in general, fall
into four categories:
Community Transition Programs
Community Awareness
Peer Support
Rural Challenges
Community Transition Programs (Boots to Roots): One of the perils
of an all-volunteer force is that communities are not well equipped to
deal with the challenges a servicemember may face upon their return to
the community, and veterans are unaware of the resources available to
them if they do find themselves in the spiral. The Department of
Defense does a remarkable, and unrivaled, job of training warriors to
go to war; however, training them to come home again is marginal at
best. The skill set that keeps you alive in combat, such as heightened
arousal, hostile appraisal of events, making quick, unilateral
decisions, sticking to the mission, and keeping your emptions sealed
away are not good skills once you return home. Many veterans who face
stalled transition issues find themselves on a new battlefield upon
their return; one they were not trained for. The Boots to Roots concept
has three components: First, an awareness of who can provide peer
support in the community, and the associated mental health, employment,
education and other resources; and second, a process to assist in
``detuning'' or desensitizing the limbic (mid-brain) psychological
training that many of our warriors go through during their initial
training in the military. \6\ Finally, for those intending to pursue
advanced education, or anyone exposed to IED blasts, an eye exam to
identify and correct any vision problems that may preclude their
success in the classroom. \7\
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\6\ For additional discussion on this issue see On Killing by LTC
Dave Grossman. The U.S. military used psychological "reprogramming"
training techniques to raise killing rates from 15% in WW II to 95% in
Vietnam
\7\ See the VA's Clinical Recommendation for Eye and Vision Care
following Blast Exposure and/or Traumatic Brain Injury Retrieved from
https://www.va.gov/optometry/docs/VCE--OMS--Eye--Care--Provider--CR--
11FEB2015--FINAL.pdf
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Community Awareness (Communities of Courage): We are an all-
volunteer force, and have been since 1973. This has resulted in a
civil-military divide as a consequence, and many communities are
unprepared to comprehend and manage the challenges of a returning
warrior force, especially when it comes to PTSD, Moral Injury and TBI
issues. Communities naturally want to honor their warriors upon their
return with a Support the Troops bumper sticker, or annual parade, but
the community must invest in their returning warriors. Those who
struggle, isolate, and wind up justice-involved should find
compassionate and culturally competent options in the community,
including specialty courts known as Veterans Treatment Courts (VTCs)
\8\. America's conflicts are morally ambitious around the world, but to
those who fight them, especially in counter-insurgency operations, they
can be morally ambiguous. We tend to view World War II as our
``touchstone'' war, yet today's conflicts bear very little resemblance
to that war. Much of our nation's perspective, good or bad, is
delivered via Hollywood, or social media, and lacks the comprehension
of what it means to serve in today's military. Communities can spend
enormous sums of taxpayer dollars addressing the challenges from a
traditional justice perspective; instead, the focus should be on
understanding and treatment, which can reduce recidivism significantly.
Formal studies are sparse, but my experience shows that only 6% of
veterans engaged by VetStar in our justice-involved program will re-
offend. A 2016 National Institute of Justice survey found just one
court reporting any recidivists, and preliminary 11.4% recidivism rates
compared to 66% via traditional criminal court processes. \9\ These
data are very preliminary, but the VTC is modeled after the successful
National Association of Drug Court Professionals model, and shows good
promise to date.
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\8\ Justice for Vets, a division of the National Association of
Drug Court Professionals, has established training and standards for
Veterans Treatment Courts
\9\ Hartley, R., & Baldwin, J. (2016). Waging War on Recidivism
Among Justice-Involved Veterans: An Impact Evaluation of a Large Urban
Veterans Treatment Court. Criminal Justice Policy Review retrieved from
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0887403416650490
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Once a servicemember separates from the military and returns to the
community, the community ``owns the challenge.'' Conversely, the
community reaps the dividends from getting the veteran back on step and
involved in the community. Communities can facilitate the veteran's
involvement with other veterans by providing peer support drop-in
centers that can begin the important dialogue.
One final observation regarding the community is that I frequently
hear professionals (Social Work, Mental Health and others) lament the
fact that they want to help, but the veteran typically won't respond to
their ``traditional'' methods of engagement. To combat this, I have
created a Veterans Studies program here at Texas Tech to help develop
the cultural competencies needed to help our workforce understand the
``lifecycle'' of our military, including recruitment, boot camp,
military life, deployment and redeployment and all the associated
traumas that may be encountered along the way. This class is in its
first offering this semester, but the challenges will be with us for
decades to come. I think it is a valuable investment for our current
and future workforce.
Peer Support: The VetStar model is based on a Search and Rescue
concept; very familiar to most of those who served in the military. Our
greatest strength is the direct veteran to veteran contact to build
trust, and then trust by extension into culturally competent service
providers. Once a veteran is ``found'' we provide the peer support
necessary to get the struggling veteran headed in the right direction.
This may begin with a casual conversation over coffee, or may require
direct intervention in support of a law enforcement or crisis team
response to a veteran in full crisis. Understanding developed by
someone who has ``been there, done that'' even with different branches
of service, or different eras of service is an important step in
gaining the trust of the struggling veteran. Virtually every step we
take in VetStar begins with the all-important peer to peer connection.
Peer support must be recognized by both the VA and the community as an
essential element of success for servicemembers upon their return.
Rural Challenges: The Department of Defense perfected recruiting in
the rural areas; this is generally considered to be beneficial
economically as job markets in rural areas tend to be less flexible.
Military training opportunities can bring technical skills to a
population that may typically find them unavailable. The challenge,
however, is delivering services to rural veterans once they return to
their communities. Many non-scientific studies estimate the percentage
of rural recruits to be somewhere between 35% and 44% of the total
military population. Many exceptional programs, such as the highly
successful Welcome Back Veterans (WBV) program, are found exclusively
in urban areas. \10\ In our area, fewer than 40% of eligible rural
veterans access their care through the VA system. \11\ VetStar has
formed a collaborative with the Texas Tech University Health Sciences
Center's F. Marie Hall Institute for Rural Health to leverage state of
the art telemedicine capabilities into veterans residing in a twenty-
county rural area of the South Plains in an effort to overcome this
lack of access to VA care. VetStar provides ``Pathfinders'' and the
Institute for Rural Health provides the telemedicine.
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\10\ See the excellent discussion about WBV from RAND Corporation
retrieved from https://www.rand.org/health/projects/wbv.html
\11\ Retrieved from VA National Center for Veterans Analysis and
Statistics GDX--16 data set
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In short, every man and woman who put their hand in the air to
volunteer to serve their country deserves the same level of services
upon their return; it is more difficult to provide those services in
rural areas.
Conclusion
Our veterans have earned the very best possible education
opportunities that we can provide for them. A smooth transition from
military service to the civilian world is essential for veterans to
take full advantage of the opportunities provided through our country's
commitment to our military forces, past and present. We can overcome
transitions that have stalled. My experience has taught me that our
communities must be engaged in this transition; the VA cannot do it
alone. Programs such as Communities of Courage and Boots to Roots as
well as Veterans Studies workforce training can fill the gaps that
exist today. We are not victims; we are not broken. But, occasionally,
we will need a hand-up to get us fully transitioned into the civilian
world.
Thank you for this opportunity.