PaintedCrow

13 November 2023 

Greetings to all those invested in the wellness of military Veterans and their families. I wanted to share my thoughts during this weekend of honoring Veterans. 

Did you know there are approximately 1,000 Veteran women in Merced County? I would like to find them... and if you read this, please be in touch.

I spent this past Tuesday reminding our board of supervisors how they let down one of the oldest Veteran organizations in our county by not supporting them with a place to do their Veteran business and forcing them to shut their doors on what is now a nonexistent building. I reminded them that they should not be speaking about their support for Veterans anywhere because of this failure to support the VFW in Merced. This board hangs on the coattails of their family members who served, pretending they understand, yet none of them have served in the military. Their lack of support is so evident.

I also spent this weekend in Coulterville, California, doing a blessing on 11 acres of land; a project being designed by a Vietnam Veteran to help Veterans. 

You may wonder why he is investing his time and energy into doing this with so many programs (they say) are available to Veterans... It is because he can see the need.

This 11-acre site will house the traveling Vietnam wall permanently. It will provide housing for Veterans and a travel-trailer parking lot for those visiting the wall. It will include a building space to provide job training programs and wrap around services. 

This Veteran gets what our board of supervisors do not. And although they are in another county, they complain of the same issues from their local government. This Veteran is implementing a nonprofit to make this happen and is funding it himself until he can get help. 

There are also a few of us here in Merced County committed to create something here that doesn’t require the red tape that is always included when asking for county assistance. Our biggest barrier is the lack of interest our local politicians take. We would like to create something that really takes care of Veterans. Even our local Veteran Service Officer position seems to be just a steppingstone to move up in county positions; thus, failing to truly support and assist our Veterans. 

We need your feedback, your ideas, and your support to bring something forward that will truly assist our Veterans here in Merced County and provide them the services they deserve. Please if get in touch with us. You need not be a Veteran; just have a passion and commitment to help us help our brothers and sisters in arms. The bare minimum offered, like a free meal on Veterans Day, just isn’t enough.

I hope you all had a blessed Veterans Day. 

For those family members who have lost a loved one through their service or suicide, we need to do more than sit with their grief alone without support from our communities. I have met family members here in Merced who have loss... 

Please be in contact with us; share your point of view and what you see as a need to help the Veteran community of Merced County.

SFC PaintedCrow Retired