Group works to ensure vets’ benefits
A veterans advocacy group based in southwestern Pennsylvania has been working for the past two years to ensure that benefits for our nation’s veterans are preserved and secured for years to come. Since its inception in early 2000 in Verona, COVA (Coalition of Veteran Advocates) has grown from a dozen members to 70 members and has made itself heard by the key players in Washington, D.C., involved in veteran’s affairs.
COVA director Bob Brenner said the idea to form an organization began two years ago, when a dozen individuals got together in Verona. Brenner, a retired colonel of the U.S. Army who is a veteran of World War II and Korean War, said the members are simply a group of taxpayers and veterans trying to help improve the Veteran’s Affairs health care problem.
Brenner said the group is not chartered by Congress, and, therefore, not political. “We speak out when veterans groups can’t,” he said.
He said representatives of the group have made two trips to Washington, D.C., to visit the officials from the department of Veterans Affairs. On one occasion, eight COVA members met for 45 minutes with VA Secretary Anthony J. Principi.
COVA members also met with other influential politicians, including U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, and U.S. Sen. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.), chairman of the House Committee on Veteran’s Affairs.
Brenner said the COVA members include three gold star mothers, two wives of deceased vets, VA employees and post commanders of such organizations as the Disabled American Veterans, VFW and Catholic War Vets.
As a way to gain more exposure, Brenner said COVA will participate in the Veteran’s Day parade in Pittsburgh today. The goal of the organization is to help the VA improve the system.
“Veterans come first. We want to try to improve the system for vets,” Brenner said.
Brenner said although Allegheny County has the second highest number of veterans of any county in the country, no Pennsylvania congressman or member of the U.S. House of Representatives is on VA committees.
In addition to speaking with officials who have the ability to help them, COVA also was instrumental in assisting a veteran to obtain medication when the VA didn’t want to give it to him.
According to literature distributed by the group, cuts in benefits are not only an injustice to those who have served and sacrificed, but impact our military preparedness as well.
“We vehemently believe that an underfunded veterans health care system, benefits administration and cemetery network, even as our troops engage the forces of terrorism, is shortsighted and fails to demonstrate the level of commitment our veterans and military service personnel deserve,” the brochure states.
The group meets at 5:30 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month at the Southwestern Veterans Center, located on Highland Drive. There is no fee to join.
However, during the meetings, the group passes the hat to collect for refreshments that are served prior to the meetings.
The address to the organization is P.O. Box 175, Rural Ridge, Pa., 15075.