Greenville County has a Veterans Affairs Service Officer to meet the needs of veterans in our community, and on today’s episode of Simple Civics: Greenville County, you’ll hear from him and how he is here to help you or your family members with veterans benefits. Alan Dabney, an Army Veteran, is interviewed by Charlie Hall, a retired Marine, and President of Upstate Warrior Solution. Navigating veterans can be challenging, and Alan and his team at County Square are a resource to you if you’re a veteran or if you are a family member of one. Take a listen and share with someone you know who served in our US Military.
Produced by The Greenville Podcast Company. Simple Civics: Greenville County is a project of Greater Good Greenville.
Transcript
Charlie Hall
This episode is posting just after Veterans Day when we honor those military veterans who served in the United States Armed Forces. Of course our veterans deserve more than just our respect. The US Department of Veterans Affairs is here to fulfill our nation’s commitment to military veterans. Greenville County has a Veteran’s Affair service officer to meet the needs of our veterans right here in our community. And on today’s episode of Simple Civics: Greenville County, you’ll hear from him and how he is here to help you or your family members with veterans benefits. Alan Dabney and Army veteran is interviewed by Charlie Hall, a retired Marine and President of Upstate Warrior Solution. Navigating veterans benefits can be challenging, and Alan and his team at county square are a resource to you if you’re a veteran, or if you’re a family member of one. Take a listen and share with someone you know who served in our United States military.
Charlie Hall
Yes, I’m Charlie Hall. I’m with upstate warrior solution here in Greenville. Proud to have a good friend of mine, Alan Dabney, retired Army and our current Greenville County Veterans Affairs service officer. So, Alan, good to have you on today.
Alan Dabney
Good morning, Charlie.
Charlie Hall
Yeah, why don’t you first off…Army. Why didn’t you join the Marine Corps back in the day?
Alan Dabney
Well, I actually took the ASVAB for the Marine Corps, because I had got the free hat and a free utility cap in the mail. And I liked it. It was.. it looked good and the uniforms and took the ASVAB. And I was very proud of the scores I got. And I was talking to my father who was at the time in the army. And so then I got a lot of colorful words about what in the world son of his is taking the ASVAB for the Marine Corps.
Charlie Hall
So I love it. Where… are you from the area?
Alan Dabney
No, I was born in Fort Bragg. Both my parents are from Rock Hill. So we have lived around different places but I’ve been in here in upstate since 1979, in the Greenville area.
Charlie Hall
Awesome. So tell me just a little bit about your experience in the military, and then how you transitioned into this role working with the government?
Alan Dabney
Well, I started joining the National Guard for part time. And after about 12 years, I had an opportunity to go full time with the Army National Guard. And because that was in the communications arena. And anyone knows if you’re gonna stay in long enough, you’re gonna do a stint as either a drill sergeant or with recruiting. And I chose recruiting because I had a sales background and marketing background. And then stayed in signal through the end and stayed in the signal range. I loved the travel, love the communications. Computers are right up my alley. And I had worked for Fluor Daniel before when I was still a part time soldier for it. And then I retired in 2017. And was not sure that I wanted to do anything for a while and I tried that for about nine months. And then I had to find something to do according to my wife too, because you only cut your grass so many times, you ca only play so much golf.
Charlie Hall
She’s ready for you to get out of the house.
Alan Dabney
Mostly, mostly. So then that led me to as a contractor with the South Carolina Army National Guard service member Family Care program. And that was a veteran advisor. And my job as an advisor was connect veterans to services. In over the years of my service, I had plenty of administrative duties and was comfortable with with regulations and administrative things that are required for soldiers. So that transition led me to with your office and other contacts that recommended me to the delegation to be appointed as the Veteran Service Officer for Greenville County. And I’ve enjoyed it since then. And it’s it has become more of a passion than it is a job and frankly, if I didn’t serve with these veterans, I’d need a lot more counseling because it’s my counseling and therapy everyday to be with these veterans.
Charlie Hall
So just zoom out a little bit. I know there’s over 400,000 veterans in the state. So talk a little bit about the veteran population here in Greenville County and then why we have county service officers.
Alan Dabney
We’re right around 31,000 veterans in Greenville County. We’re also the third largest in the state for veteran population. But we’re the largest county veteran population without benefit of having a military base unlike Richland County or Charleston County. There’s no military base here but the industry and the economy is very well.. draws veterans to the area for the job opportunities. And our job is the counties, the 46 counties in South Carolina have a veteran’s service officer in of the 46 county, 45 are full time employee. There’s one county that has a part time employee. Smaller county, smaller veteran population. With here the larger veteran population that we have, we service those veterans. Now 31,000 only includes the veterans that are in the system, whether it’s been the GI bill or compensation, or even health care. So we think there’s a greater number of veterans, probably double that in the area that have never registered are using any kind of VA related services.
Charlie Hall
So I might be a good example where if I’m not using VA health care, I haven’t done a VA home loan, I may not be considered a veteran on paper. So that’s why it’s important for vets to actually come see you.
Alan Dabney
Absolutely.
Charlie Hall
Yeah. So you’ve got an interesting situation, because you’re a county employee, but you actually are appointed by the legislative delegation, and that’s the state delegation. So not the federal. So the delegation that appoints our county service officers is actually a compilation of the South Carolina senators and representatives that are elected to represent districts in the state and in Greenville County.
Alan Dabney
That’s correct.
Charlie Hall
So talk a little bit about that. And I don’t know if you know why it set up that way. But it’s, it’s an interesting set up, in my opinion.
Alan Dabney
It is. The counties are funded by the state through the state to have a Veteran’s Affair office in their counties. And because of that, the delegation has control of who they name in and out of the office to control that. But yeah, we’re appointed by the delegation. And we’re funded and mandated by the state as an office, but we’re actually county employees, because we’re on county property. And, you know, a lot of our salaries are through the state retirement funds for municipal employees.
Charlie Hall
So you’re at the county level, you’re one of 46 County Service officers. So talk about the distinctions between the state VA and then the big federal VA, of which you partner with, but you’re not actually the VA. So talk a little bit about that.
Alan Dabney
Right. So many times one our veterans are come in, they’ll refer to us, they’ll tell someone on the phone, hey, I’m down to VA office and like, wait a minute, we got the same initials, but we are not veterans administration, we are Veterans Affairs for the county. So what we do is connect the veterans to the VA Veterans Administration, if it’s actually enrollment for health care, or do we do the claims and compensation or some of the survivor benefits, so we connect them to their services. So we’re not the final authority on deciding their claims or deciding their enrollment, we just connect them to that service.
Charlie Hall
So I’ve had a steep learning curve working events over the last 10 years. So we’ve got basically three arms of the federal VA. The Health Care Administration, the benefits administration, and then the Cemetery Administration. So would you say you do most of your work through the Benefits Administration?
Alan Dabney
Absolutely, we do.
Charlie Hall
So tell me about that. I walk.. I walk into your office, I’ve never filed a disability claim, I’m interested in using my GI Bill, maybe I can get a VA home loan, you know, those those things you can help me with?
Alan Dabney
They absolutely are. Sometimes it’s through our office or participating community support partners that we have for the veterans and loans. But if someone needs to file a disability claim, then what the first thing is to use a DD 214 their military discharge. And with that, what we say there’s three tenants to a good Compensation claim. The first is a chronic and continuing illness that is sustained or aggravated because of military service. And the second is the continuing illness or injury sustained because of military service. And the third most important part is documentation to show that injury that was occurred during your military service, or immediately after service.
Charlie Hall
And then so that’s awesome that you can help vets like me with a disability claim but then can you get us connected to the VA Health Care System. And maybe tell us a little bit about how that systems set up here in the upstate.
Alan Dabney
Absolutely, we can do the enrollment for health care for them. And the healthcare is has two different avenues approaches. If you are service connected for an injury, then you can be automatically enrolled in health care. There’s also an income level. So if your income based on you and your dependents, the veteran or dependents income base, so there is a pro rated there for veterans.
Charlie Hall
That’s, that’s interesting. So I mean, you could you could actually potentially make too much money and not rate VA health care, the health care system, but you could still have a VA disability claim. Is that right?
Alan Dabney
Yes, yes. But if you have a disability claim, well, an adjudicated disability, a registered disability, then you will be enrolled in health care.
Charlie Hall
Okay.
Alan Dabney
And it doesn’t have to be here in the Greenville area healthcare. You could be in the healthcare system and Anderson or Spartanburg there’s different people like different doctors different locations. We have Dorn that’s in Colombia and we also have ash.. the Columbia healthcare system as part of the South Carolina veteran Health Administration program here for South Carolina. So the Dorn center in Columbia is made up of the clinics in Anderson Spartanburg and Greenville. And then the North Carolina System includes Charles George, which is in Asheville, which is closer than Columbia for some veterans who live in the upper part of South Carolina.
Charlie Hall
So as a veteran, maybe based on where I live, or some of my conditions, I can actually choose whether to go to the Columbia system or the Asheville systems, right?
Alan Dabney
You absolutely can choose.
Charlie Hall
I’ve heard from our health care system that about three quarters of our Veterans use the Columbia health care system and about a quarter actually use Asheville because of its proximity. So veterans actually have that option of which system to use, Columbia or Asheville.
Alan Dabney
They absolutely do because it’s a federal health care program, and not a state bound.
Charlie Hall
And not to be morbid, but there’s also the Cemetery Administration. So you know, how would.. how do you advise families on kind of end of life benefits? Tell me a little bit about the Cemetery Administration.
Alan Dabney
Well, with the Cemetery Administration, we have local cemeteries. There are federal cemeteries in South Carolina. There’s Fort Jackson, there’s Buffort, and there’s also the Dolly Cooper in Anderson. And for that, you know, they offer the burial program down there with the honor guards, and it’s, it’s just an application process for them. Of course, they need that 2 14, that military discharge of their veteran to start applying for those.
Charlie Hall
Allen, upstate where solution has been sending veterans to you guys for years to do disability claims and other things that the VA Benefits Administration focuses on. Talk about how you maybe get to know veterans at a deeper level when you’re doing a claim and how you may.. when you peel that onion back, be able to connect them with other other benefits.
Alan Dabney
That’s right, Charlie, well, we have some of the veterans that come in their office. And there are… if we start unpacking a lot of things that the veteran brings with him, we found out there’s other needs for some time for employment for themselves or deeper healthcare needs that we didn’t know about. Sometimes there’s counseling needs for that. And luckily, we have the good partners that we can refer them to. But there’s there’s housing issues, there are employment issues..
Charlie Hall
A scenario one of the veterans we sent over to you guys a few years ago, didn’t tell us they had housing issues, you guys found out about it, and were able to connect him with the VA HUD VASH program at the clinic here in Greenville to get them a voucher for a home and the section eight process. So it’s a it’s an example of how it really takes a village. And we’re not all doing this in a silo but we do it collaboratively to really figure out what’s going on with our vets.
Alan Dabney
Absolutely. And that’s part of getting to know the veteran and seeing what their.. the underlying needs are. Some times if it’s if it’s income base needs, is it because of employment or underemployed. So there’s a lot more needs to have better than just a simple compensation claim on many times.
Charlie Hall
So how do vets find you guys? I’m sure you guys have a great website. But I’m sure you prefer to see people face to face, knee to knee. So tell us about how we can find you.
Alan Dabney
Well, we are at county square downtown, but they can also look for the Greenville County Veteran Affairs Facebook page too, it has a lot of updates. And we keep up with the happenings and any other event calendars of other.. our other partners in the area, such as Upstate water solution.
Charlie Hall
So tell us about the building. I’ve been driving by county square for a couple of years. So March opening, I know I probably can’t quote you on that. But is that the estimated day of opening?
Alan Dabney
They’re saying from mid to late March is what we’re looking at. And so our office will be closed down for about two days, three days to get everything moved. But we don’t have the hard date yet for it.
Charlie Hall
And you were telling me earlier you guys are going to be on the main floor. So no elevators, no stairs required.
Alan Dabney
That’s right. We’ll be on the main floor. But depending on if where they’re parking in the parking garage or outside, there’ll be elevators access for any kind of ama access for.
Charlie Hall
Okay, so last question. I know you can’t predict how long you’re going to do this. But when you retire Alan, I know that you love the outdoors and gardening. Tell us tell us about your future plans.
Alan Dabney
You know, I love gardening. I love growing things. And so I think I will continue on as a volunteer basis to offer farming and veterans growing their own fruits and vegetables as a therapy as it has been for me for about 12 years now.
Charlie Hall
Awesome. And we actually have a couple a couple of retired Army Sergeant Majors down in Anderson that are in charge of the Veteran Farmer Coalition here in South Carolina. So something tells me you’ll you’ll be a good asset to them
Alan Dabney
And we’ve got a new partner on board down in grey court and with 26 acres and he’s offering up some space for that. But that’s to come on announcements here within the next few months after the first year we’ll have announcement of of bringing together veterans that are looking for farm therapy for learn how to grow and it’s helping them grow their own seeds to start their own vegetables and care for it.
Charlie Hall
Awesome. Anything else that you want to add? I know a lot of our listeners probably don’t know a lot about the VA system but most folks know a veteran. So anything else to add?
Alan Dabney
If they know or veteran and the veterans having some kind of issues, have them call our office. We tell our veterans we don’t know everything because we’re not the smartest game in town. But we know people who are much smarter than us and we have great community partners and we appreciate all of our community partners as well.
Catherine Puckett
Simple Civics: Greenville County is a project of Greater Good Greenville. Greater Good Greenville was catalyzed by the merger of the Nonprofit Alliance and the Greenville Partnership for Philanthropy. You can learn more on our website at greatergoodgreenville.org This is a production of the Greenville podcast company.
