‘Every day should be Veterans Day’

In Veterans Day tradition, we honor the men and women who have served the nation. We march in parades, salute their bravery, and offer our heartfelt thanks.

But in Uniondale, which got its name from the Union soldiers who were stationed there during the Civil War, it’s clear that more can, and should, be done for our war heroes.

According to local veteran and activist Ray Ramos, truly honoring the area’s military history, and its veterans, means going beyond the flag-waving and expressions of thanks: It means recognizing that many local veterans are in desperate need of the support they deserve — investments and improvements in mental health services and health care.

“We have to find better mental health services and medical care for our veterans,” Ramos, 61, explained. “There are too many of us in this area with addictions, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other injuries and ailments resulting from their service, and they need to be able to have access to the right type of staff to deal with their situations.”

Based on census data from the Town of Hempstead, veterans make up roughly 10 percent more of the local population than Nassau County as a whole, and account for about 90 percent of veterans in the entire state

“Every day should be Veterans Day,” said Ramos, a 21-year combat veteran. “It’s the responsibility of the communities and the cities where they reside to take care of them.”

When veterans return from service, he said, they are at the “beck and call” of the Veterans Affairs which, Ramos added, is overwhelmed and short-staffed, especially when it comes to finding proper treatment for military-related injuries and mental health issues.

“You call for a basic appointment or checkup, and it would be months before you can get a doctor’s visit, and the quality of medical care is not the best,” Ramos said. “I retired in 2004, and when I first started dealing with my PTSD, I struggled to get in front of a good therapist.”

Frank Neal, a local Vietnam veteran, has had similar experiences struggling with his parkinsons. “I joke that the Marine Corp gave me parkinsons, and people laugh, but I was in Camp Lajeune and we drank the water.”

Neal is referring to a five decades-long environmental crisis at Camp Lejeune, a Marine Corps base in North Carolina that dealt with massive water contamination issues from the 1950s to the early 2000s, leading to wide-spread health issues among veterans who have spent time here.

“The VA has what I call a ‘means test,’ meaning if you make a certain amount of dollars, then they will take you in, but if they come back and determine that you can afford to treat it yourself — good luck,” explained Neal.

Ramos believes that more public resources need to be made available to help veterans. “There are some organizations that are out there and help veterans, but these are things that should be done on a larger scale,” he said. “It’s not enough. I don’t feel it.”

One of the organizations that is trying to help area veterans is the American Legion Post 390 in the Village of Hempstead. The American Legion is the nation’s largest wartime veterans service organization, committed to advocating for veterans and offering them much-needed resources like access to counseling, free and low-cost healthcare services, food pantries and more.

But according to Mary Burns, a board member for the legion post, it has struggled to stay afloat since the coronavirus pandemic. “We’re currently unsustainable,” Burns said. “We cannot afford to continue at this rate.”

Burns explains that the post is really the only asset for many veterans in this area and that without them, those living in the Village of Hempstead who are in need would have trouble finding and accessing much needed resources.

Currently, Nassau County’s budget for 2024 is $4.1 billion, with $29.9 million being set aside for the Division of Veterans Service, a county-level agency dedicated to serving the needs of veterans and their families. The division often helps veterans find mental health care at no cost, free transportation to and from doctors’ and consultants’ appointments, and assistance with claims and benefits.

But in a county with over 38,000 veterans, that means there is only about $787 allocated for each veteran, for services and programs including community outreach, advocacy work, transportation, administrative tasks, and claims processing.

“We live by a motto in the military. We say ‘Never forget’ and ‘Never leave a man behind,’” Ramos said. “There’s no way you can tell me that we don’t have it within the budget when we go off and spend billions of dollars on other countries for their wars, and meanwhile we have veterans here that cannot get that same kind of commitment.”