WASHINGTON — As you walk along the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C., you can hear the sound of pencils rubbing across paper as those who served with or family of the particular veteran whose name is engraved in the stone creates a rubbing copy of the name to take with them.

On a recent Honor Flight Tri-State trip, Korean War veteran Paul Dickmann wandered along the wall in search of five names.

“I’m getting up in years and it was important to me while I was here,” Dickmann said.

With a small notepad in hand one by one he found each name.

The five names are out of a list of 20 soldiers killed in the Vietnam War who came back home to Boone County.

One of the men was Sergeant Charles Fleek of Petersburg, Kentucky. The Medal of Honor recipient jumped on top of a grenade to save his fellow soldiers. Fleek's medal is embedded in the wall of the Boone County courthouse for all to see.

Although Fleek was from Kentucky, he enlisted through a Cincinnati recruitment office.

“He's listed as a Congressional Medal of Honor winner in Ohio, but we know in Kentucky he's one of our boys,” Dickmann said.

The other names he searched for were men from Hebron and Petersburg. All five were people he had a close connection with, but did not know. The connection was only made possible by Dickmann's post-service work as a funeral director.

“I had the privilege of conducting services for nine of them, so while we're here I’m saying hello and goodbye one more time,” he said.

Having made the connection his journey ends a decades-old mission to continue to honor these men.

“Touch their spirit one more time,” he said. “I've touched their bodies, now I'm touching their spirit."

If you have a veteran story to tell in your community, email homefront@wcpo.com. You also can join the Homefront Facebook group, follow Craig McKee on Facebook and find more Homefront stories here.

Hundreds of thousands of veterans are sitting and waiting for their claims for benefits to be reviewed as the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs pushes to hire 2,000 employees to help with the growing caseload.

In an email sent out to veterans in October, the VA projected a backlog of pending cases to reach 260,000 out of an inventory of 603,000 cases.

This backlog comes as the VA is adding three new presumptive health conditions to those deployed to Asia.

“These three conditions are respiratory conditions: chronic asthma, sinusitis, and rhinitis,” said Beth Murphy, Executive Director of Compensation Service.

She says those impacted by the new conditions are those who deployed to southwest Asia from August of 1990 to present day or were deployed in Syria, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan or Djibouti from September 19, 2001, to present day.

“There's a potentially eligible population, among those folks, up to 3.5 million veterans,” Murphy said.

That's a case load that, depending on how many of those eligible apply, will bog down a process with a 125-day average timeline for a case decision, according to Murphy.

She says teams are working overtime to process claims.

“Just since August, we've already processed 4,000 claims, millions of dollars in benefits and health care to these veterans,” Murphy said. “We continue to process the claims as they come in. And we're encouraging folks to file if they have one of these conditions, or if they have a respiratory condition, and they're not quite sure if it's one of those three. Please reach out, ask questions, file a claim. We're here to help.”

As of the 4^th quarter of fiscal year 2021, Kentucky has 4,125 servicemembers signed up to the "Burn Pit Registry," according to data on the VA website. Ohio has 6,215 participants and Indiana has 3,489.

Those are just those who’ve signed up for the registry, and the presumptive conditions are not just tied to the burn pits. The conditions are tied to particulates in the air from a range of sources.

If you’re a veteran who has already applied for benefits, you should receive something in the mail notifying you of the new illnesses tied to presumptive conditions and toxic exposure.

“If you've already filed a claim for one of these conditions, but it's still pending, you haven't received a decision yet, we’re asking folks to sit tight on those. They will be processed, and they will be considered under all available service connection,” Murphy said.

If you haven’t filed and you’re a veteran who served in those regions, head over to VA.org to begin the process for applying for benefits.

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EVENDALE, Ohio — There’s something to be said about keeping secrets, and GE Aviation has done a pretty good job with that over the years. During the early 1980s, many of its employees built engines in a special assembly line, but never knew what aircraft the engine would fly.

“When they first started to produce these, they had to build a separate classified production line so the people in the manufacturing plant couldn’t know what they were making, and they were shipped in crates off to Burbank, California, to Lockheed Martin to put them in the jet,” said Cole Massie, media relations for GE Aviation.

Those engines powered the F-117 Stealth Fighter.

GE Aviation got its footing on military aviation, despite it being only about 15% of the work it does today. The major work the company does is tied to commercial aircraft engine building. As you drive along I-75, you can’t help but notice the gigantic GE Aviation facility in Evandale.

“The Air Force actually encouraged GE to buy this plant,” Massie said.

Over the years, GE Aviation played a critical role in every major combat situation, whether through its first venture into aviation technology ensuring World War II bombers could get to their target, or the A-10 Warthog flying inverted toward enemy tanks on the battlefield. Engineers continue to gain the eye of Air Force contracts.

“The Air Force is fielding the F-15EX, which is the most up-to-date version of the F-15, and the Air Force selected GE’s engine to power the first eight examples of that jet,” Massie said.

GE Aviation is also working on a prototype engine to attempt to revolutionize the Air Force fleet.

“This is the next generation of engine architecture,” said David Tweedie, general manager of Advanced Combat Engines for GE Aviation.

He says the XA100 hit the drawing board in 2007 and it’s taken this long to get full testing underway.

“Right now, it’s a prototype we’re looking forward to putting into production for the F-35 and the airplanes that come beyond the F-35,” Tweedie said. “We have now run the two prototype engines; currently running the second.”

The engine design is called adaptive and will seamlessly change fuel use based on the need of the pilot or situation in flight.

“Fighter engines are typically sized to maximize thrust at the expense of fuel efficiency,” said Tweedie.

The XA100, according to Tweedie, will change the game when it comes to that fuel efficiency component, extending the capability of the Air Force and any aircraft flying it.

“They will fly and operate the airplane the way they will normally do, and the engine will decide which mode is most appropriate based on what’s needed at that point,” Tweedie said.

The House of Representatives has given GE Aviation an expected deadline of 2027 for full production status.

It’s another engine in a long history of engines created in secret to maintain the military advantage over other countries.

“If you think about some of the secret programs that have come to light in the past, you think about the F-117 Stealth Fighter. That engine was built by GE under complete secrecy,” Massie said. “The B-2 has GE engines. Those were developed in secrecy. The U-2 spy plane has GE engines developed in secrecy, and GE has a history of working on classified and military products and this is the next in a long line of military programs.”

There are approximately 1,400 military veterans currently working at GE Aviation. The company was recently named a Top Veteran-Friendly Company by U.S. Veterans Magazine.

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NORWOOD, Ohio — As the final hours of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan tick down, some cases of mental health tied to post-traumatic stress sparked by the chaos in Kabul have some veterans reaching out for help.

“It was heartbreaking. To see what people sacrificed and gave up for 20 years to watch it all just crumble before us,” Air Force veteran Tyler Britton said.

He’s served on a critical care transport team during the war. It was a fast-paced job he said he loved, and one he felt played a role in the ongoing fight against the Taliban.

“There were three tours, there were about 90 missions, 150 or so patients all around the world,” Britton said.

Now, 20 years later, the Taliban is back in control. As a veteran looking at the uprising of concern across non-military or veteran groups, he said he can see an awakening regarding the fact U.S. troops were still in Afghanistan.

“I've heard more about Afghanistan in the past two weeks than I had, you know, since I joined in 2000,” Britton said. “It's kind of disheartening to see, it's disheartening on both ends, right. You got an American public who, quite frankly, didn't care. And then you have the, the other side where you watch all the sacrifices that people made, and now it's just gone. It's all for naught.”

Frustrations being experienced by many Afghanistan War veterans.

“The primary reaction has been increased PTSD symptoms, which can include flashbacks, nightmares, panic attacks, hyper arousal, hyper vigilance,” said Cher Runtenelli, director of the Cincinnati area Vet Center.

She said the number of walk-ins and return veterans coming in the door of the center on Montgomery Road in Norwood with specific issues tied to the images they’re seeing on television has increased. In some instances, they’re Vietnam-era veterans with memories of the evacuation of Saigon.

WCPO Staff

The predominant veterans coming through the door right now, Runtenelli said, are those who’ve never really sought treatment for issues dealing with their wartime experiences.

”One symptom of PTSD is what we call avoidance, and you want to avoid all your thoughts and feelings related to your experience,” she said.

Army National Guard and Iraq War veteran Taylor Cott decided to use his school benefits after his service to become a certified counselor to help his fellow veterans post service. He now works at the Vet Center.

“We are getting blown up with calls," he said. "I mean, there's just call after call of people who have never engaged in this is the tipping point for them.”

He said one part in the process toward healing is to ensure these Afghanistan veterans focus on the single mission they were responsible for and the fact they completed the mission they were tasked with during deployment.

“You did your part, like don't carry the weight of the world almost,” Cott said. “That's all we can ask for any service member.”

Being mindful of your thoughts and what you're feeling and thinking during this time is also critical to realize you may need to reach out to the Vet Center, he said.

“Realize that maybe there's something past anger, push past that anger, maybe, maybe you're hurting," Cott said. "And hurting is best realized in community. We're not meant to be an island. So come, you know, hurt with us because we're hurting too. But we, thank God, have some skills. And we've learned a few tricks and we want to share those tricks with our fellow veterans.”

WCPO Staff

The counseling sessions have turned the compass for him, Cott said, and he encourages his fellow Afghan war vets to take that first step.

“A lot of veterans, are kind of taught to suck it up and move on,” he said. “So, I think it'll take a while for these groups to really get going. But once they do, I think there'll be a lot of freedom in that and realizing you're not alone – and your experience and what you're going through.”

Due to the increase in the number of veterans coming through the door the Vet Center has extended its counseling services. Patient walk-ins are welcome anytime during normal hours. Group sessions for Afghan War veterans take place every Tuesday at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.

The Vet Center is located at 4545 Montgomery Rd, Norwood, OH 45212. Their phone number is 513-763-3500.

If you have a veteran story to tell in your community, email homefront@wcpo.com. You also can join the Homefront Facebook group, follow Craig McKee on Facebook and find more Homefront stories here.

HILLSBORO, Ohio — Veterans returning to civilian life sometimes face mental health issues as a result of their time spent during deployment. One local charity, Save a Warrior, helps soldiers deal with those issues through an intense program.

“Once you have an absence of hope, inside of the spirit inside of somebody's psyche, that's when the trouble starts. That's when you can start going down that really dark path,” said Adam Carr, executive director of Save A Warrior.

The non-profit focuses on ‘alternative holistic’ approaches to overcome the symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress and suicidal ideations, according to its website.

“We would love to be the first stop on somebody's journey as they're getting ready to transition,” Carr said. “We're here through transformation to inspire hope inside of a human being so they can take a different path, because we know our veterans and first responders, they deserve it. They've served our country; they've given everything to ensure that we get this incredible life of freedom that we have.”

Carr went through the program himself, following his time as a soldier within Special Forces. He discovered an all-too-common sense of trouble navigating the world outside of deployments and military structure. He missed the sense of serving.

“I was losing friends in combat," he said "I lost friends to suicide, commanders. I mean, the list goes on, we could have a whole segment just on that. And I was really looking for something that was having an impact in this area. And I found that through Save A Warrior.”

The SAW program is an intense 72-hour initial experience to get to the root of the issues followed by a 500-day plan to get the veteran back on track.

Courtesy, Save a Warrior

“I tried to go back into my old life, though, afterwards, you know, I tried to cope with my problems, the way that I knew how to cope with them. It wasn't until I actually hit my, you know, my real bottom, after Save a Warrior that I decided to, like, really buckle down,” Army veteran Keith Johnson said.

His journey after the military had its ups and downs. He used the education benefits he earned during his service to send himself to culinary school, with the goal of becoming a chef. However, despite his full certification, his lifestyle had veered him off course.

“I ended up at Save a Warrior after I caught a few felonies," Johnson said. "And basically, crashed my life in the ground.”

Save A Warrior was the lifeline he needed. He now serves as the organization’s executive chef planning and cooking for the dozen or so attendees to the program during different class groups or cohorts.

Courtesy, Save a Warrior

To date, the organization said they’ve had 1500 veterans and/or first responders come through the program. Those attending range from modern day veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq to veterans from World War II who are still dealing with the effects of their service.

“What happens is a 500-day, well-executed plan that really helps somebody get into a community, that 500 day starts when they come through the program, and then take a day by day, daily practice into account, whether it's meditation, serving other people, a lot of times, that's volunteering, and getting things back on track, into where life really, if you're to look at things in the fork of a road looks completely different 500 days later,” Carr said.

Rosa Torres is the Female Programming Facilitator for Save A Warrior and describes one of the principals behind what they do to help those attending process whatever weight the person is carrying.

“We're not negating what happened, we're not trying to erase what happened,” she said. “What this program does is it strips away the power, what happened, happened, it's how we perceive it, how we accept it, how it occurs to us, that can either affect our lives negatively, or just be another thing that we can accept, learn how to accept, and then continue to live a full life.”

Courtesy, Save a Warrior

According to Torres, women veterans or first responders carry the burden tragedy in a different manner which means women coming through the program often take a different route to free themselves.

“Women, by and large, carry a burden that men don't carry, because life comes through us. And we are responsible for life,” Torres said. “And then when we were present when lives are lost or taken, or even more so responsible for taking lives, as in the military, something inside is wounded, to the point where we start to feel that there will, never be a healing for that. This program, by and large, helps us address those wounds, and heal them. So that we can take our lives back and live with the freedom that life should bring us.”

The Save a Warrior headquarters is also expanding to be able to help even more veterans and first responders improve their mental health and overall well-being.

“We have the construction of the first ever National Center of Excellence for complex post-traumatic stress in the United States,” Carr said.

They hope to have the facility completed by the end of 2021.

People interested in finding out more information about the Save A Warrior program can visit their website.

If you have a veteran story to tell in your community, email homefront@wcpo.com. You also can join the Homefront Facebook group, follow Craig McKee on Facebook and find more Homefront stories here.

CINCINNATI — It’s summertime, and that means it is time to pack up those sleeping bags and backpacks for Veteran Camp. At least that’s the goal for Crossroads Church as they focus on bringing area veterans together for fellowship.

“No expectations other than to being community, recharge yourself, you know, forget about the things that you left outside our camp walls, and just focus on yourself, and be remembered that you have a community to help you moving forward,” said Mike Crossley, Base Camp director.

Crossley is a Marine Corps veteran, having served from 1986 to 1994 working in the field of reconnaissance. He is also a longtime member of Crossroads Church, which already had what they call "Man Camp."

“We recognized right away, the organic experience that Man Camp was, you know, totally transferable to the veteran community,” Crossley said.

It wasn't long before Air Force veteran Chris Yeazel joined discussions about launching Veteran Camp.

“We just keep pressing each other saying that, you know, we need to do this for vets, because it just made sense with the camaraderie and working together, building relationships,” Yeazel said.

When asked about veterans who aren’t regular attendees of the church or who practice another faith, Crossley said he understands why there could be some reluctance to attend.

“One thing, if anything, Crossroads does, we don't care where you are; we don't care what you look like; we don't care what your religious beliefs," Crossley said. "We just want you to here. We just want to show you what love is. Our number one priority is just being in community.”

That said, faith is at the heart of the camp, and Crossley pointed out that veterans can make a very familiar connection to what’s written in the Bible.

“There is one of the things that a veteran understands, is in the book of John, this is there's a verse that talks about, there's just no greater love than to lay down one's life for a friend," he said. "A veteran understands that. A veteran understands sacrifice.”

The 24-hour camp experience was created three years ago. The pandemic forced them to cancel the camp in 2020, so this upcoming camp will be its second.

Army veteran Chris Macklin works for Easterseals of Greater Cincinnati within the military and veteran services section.

“I signed up as soon as I saw the email,” he said.

Macklin spends his days helping veterans with everything from housing and automotive issues to employment opportunities, often working outside any type of normal hours to get the mission done.

“My tank was empty,” he said. “I needed somebody to pour some back into me because I was just feeling drained and didn't really know it.”

Macklin said he went to the first Veteran Camp held by Crossroads, and it led to great personal discoveries and a new network of support.

“To my amazement, it wasn't about church," he said. "It's really about building fellowship, creating a network, meeting other veterans that were struggling just like me, if not worse, and everybody just trying to find their own path to get out of what the bears they were facing."

Macklin is now planning to attend the second camp at the end of July.

“I got a championship — I got the arm-wrestling championship,” he said. “So, you guys out there that think you can handle, let’s go. Start to work out right now.”

As of now, the camp is only for male veterans. There is a registration fee to sign up for the overnight camp, but Crossley said veterans should not let the fee stop them from signing up.

Veterans interested in signing up for the camp can find more information on the Crossroads Church website or email manveterancamp@crossroads.net.

If you have a veteran story to tell in your community, email homefront@wcpo.com. You also can join the Homefront Facebook group, follow Craig McKee on Facebook and find more Homefront stories here.