New VSO appointed for Lavaca, Colorado counties

Steven Greenwell, head of the ad hoc committee named in July to come up with potential candidates for a local veterans service officer, went before county commissioners Monday to address the need for a local VSO here in the county.
The committee included retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Jerry Tanner, a Baptist preacher who today leads a congregation out of Weimar, and James Fenner, who like Greenwell, is a former U.S. Marine. In fact, Fenner was one of the pilots for Marine One, back when Ronald and Nancy Reagan were in the White House. 
Marine One, for those who may not know, is what they call the helicopter that ferries the president of the United States to various locations, especially those where Air Force One might prove too cumbersome or otherwise impractical.
Greenwell touched on a few facts about veterans here in Lavaca County when asked to report on the committee’s findings. Facts like there are more than 1,200 veterans herein the county, which doesn’t necessarily include those not receiving benefits, he said
That 1,200 or so veterans living here, however, together bring in a whopping $17 million worth of military benefits each year, Greenwell reported. That’s according to the county’s latest VA data—that’s veterans affairs, for the civilians reading this, too.
So, the work of the local veterans service officer makes a substantial impact locally, both in terms of the sheer number of people they assist and the overall financial footprint they make locally.
“We reviewed several very qualified applicants, but one truly rose above the rest,” said Greenwell, who is also the new sheriff-elect for Lavaca County. That applicant, it turns out, was Jo Ann Reeves, whose husband James Reeves, just so happens to be the county attorney-elect. 
Both Jo Ann and James are former military and members of the Sweet Home American Legion Post and the VFW in Hallettsville, on which they serve together with Greenwell, a fellow VFW member as well.
In that capacity, Greenwell said he’d already witnessed Jo Ann’s tireless work ethic as well as her dedication and compassion for local veterans. “I’m quite confident she is the best person to serve those who served for us all,” he said, which drew a round of applause from the 50 some veterans and supporters in the courtroom that day.
With that round of applause, Jo Ann was brought up before commissioners.
She thanked county leaders and the committee who nominated her for the job, but most especially her “many brothers and sisters out there,” referring to the day’s many veterans in attendance, who she later explained, that during her own active duty service and now as a veteran and member of a few veterans organizations, those military brothers and sisters have often become far closer to her than her own flesh and blood relatives.
“I thank you all,” she said, “and I’ll consider it a heartfelt honor and duty to happily serve and represent each one of you.”
With that the commissioners called for a vote on her appointment to the office, a motion the was resoundingly accepted. Not only that, but her new office will be set up in the Lavaca County Annex Building. The previous quarters in the 
courthouse basement were less than ideal, because it wasn’t the most accessible place to those in wheelchairs and others who were otherwise limited in their mobility.
The new digs will be set up between adult probation and the Texas DPS offices there, once it gets set up. In addition to the many Lavaca County veterans, she’ll also be VSO for Colorado County as well.
As Jo Ann made her way to the courtroom gallery to take her seat after the vote, she was met with a standing ovation, a show of support and appreciation for the task she undertook. 
It went on for several seconds and left her visibly flushed.
“I’m so not used to that,” she later confided, far away the spotlight of attention cast on her that day, down in the courtroom. “I’m much happier to just work in the background.”
Growing up in Southern California, Jo Ann said she had several close family members who were in the military – her father was Army, and her grandfather and several uncles had been in the Navy – so when the time came for her to consider the military for herself, she made the only logical choice open to her: She joined the Air Force.
“Well, my dad didn’t want me anywhere near the Army, and my grandfather and uncles all wanted me to join the Navy, to kind of relive their experience. I checked them all out. 
I just felt like the recruiters with the Air Force were the only ones who really listened to me. I connected with them.
As a member of the Air Force, Jo Ann said she went into security forces, the law enforcement end of the services. 
It was 1994, and her first post came by way of Offutt AFB in Nebraska.
Next came her time in Saudi Arabia, admittedly one of her lower times in the service, generally speaking, being stuck out in the desert in the middle of a warzone. 
Still, Jo Ann says she came to know an awful lot about herself during her time spent there. 
That, and she couldn’t have been happier to put it behind her, when it came time to go. From Saudi, she made her way to the Orient, where she was stationed in Japan as she made regular jumps over to Korea. 
For everything she had disliked about Saudi, her time in the Far East seemed to make up for.  In fact, it was there she met James Reeves, the man she’d later marry.
Upon their return to the states, Jo Ann said she and James decided they’d finish up their service together at Lackland AFB in San Antonio. 
She was to finish up as a security forces instructor, but then just as summer ended and she was counting down her days left, another date that would become forever infamous occurred, this one falling on a Tuesday.
It was Sept. 11, 2001, and of course, no discharges went through until months afterward.
It’s at times like those, not able to leave her service, or stuck out in the sandbox in an active warzone, that she came to lean on the military family hardest, she said. “It’s that same sense I get today still in groups like the Legion, VFW and the VVA,” she said.
“And that’s why I used the words I did earlier in the courtroom. Because I fully intend to treat them like the family that they are. It’s the least I can do because they were there for me when I needed them most,” she said. 
“And not just the veterans, but their spouses, widows and widowers, too. That’s who I hope to aid and assist as well.”
One of the packages that got handed to her by one of the veterans earlier that day contained several old news clippings detailing discussions back in 1995, that essentially eliminated the veterans service office here in Hallettsville. 
Sure, they had various part-timers and even a few full-timers in that post, Jo Ann said, but the office never quite saw its return to the good old days prior to that 1995 parting of ways.
Jo Ann says she hopes to see that change.
Something that many in the military are beginning to realize, too, that if you’re willing to send them, you need to be willing to mend them, especially when it  comes to so many of our youngest veterans coming home from those desert warzones.
And while not anywhere near the same national mention, there’s another fact of military life for many here in the county that Jo Ann said she felt we here in Lavaca County could do a far better job of. 
That is, dealing with the many veterans we have who have been here all along, and now find themselves moving into nursing homes or in otherwise declining health brought on by their many years here on this earth.
While Lavaca County may have a much higher than average concentration of people who sought full retirement benefits from their time in the military—the numbers here when it comes to full retirees in Lavaca County are about 30% higher than most other places in Texas, the latest census numbers say—when it comes to those who just did their service and got out, sure there are veteran benefits, but usually just enough to get those who need them up to the poverty level. Nothing more, she said.
“Let’s face it,” she said, “veterans are proud people. It’s just who we are. And proud people don’t ask for help.”
As such, when it comes to asking for basic things like food, for instance, or other necessities like underwear or socks., many times they’ll simply go without if they can’t get it themselves. I think we can do a lot better than that here in our county, and I intend to do all that we can to see that we do.”