Serving after service

It's a lesson Pat Ford learned time and again since his days as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Marines Corps.

"We've all matured, grown up, and we see that life is fragile, so fragile, it behooves me when I see people gaff it off. You and I don't know when we're gonna die," he told the Journal.

Ford enlisted in the Corps in 1966, and his aptitude tests showed him suited for interrogation work.

"I was facing the draft and I had a choice. And I didn't want to be a grunt so I enlisted for three years. That was after I got thrown out of college - I got thrown out of the girls' dormitory at Loyola University in Chicago - they had some kind of rules about that," he recalled. "It was a different time."

When he came home from the war, he was disappointed with the service provided by the Veterans Administration.

"I was really frustrated. It was a system designed in the 1930s and it wasn't meeting the needs of veterans."

So when he joined a local Veterans of Foreign Wars in central California, he was made the local post's service officer, an unpaid title.

"How could I take anything for it?" he asked.

As he became more adept at the work, he became the first Vietnam-era district commander for 30 VFW Posts during a time when a sea change was happening with veterans.

"Those guys from World War II and Korea, they were anti-Vietnam because we didn't win the war. And there were nearly 2 million veterans at that time, so service was a real big issue, but it was my job to provide the information so vets could file a claim," he said.

Eventually, he got involved in social work for the state of California and was struck by the similarities of the issues facing people on welfare with those of his comrades.

Then he landed a job with the state as a veterans' representative outside Naval Air Station Lemoore.

"I got sick and tired of vets coming into my office asking, 'What am I entitled to? What can I get? Why isn't the Navy doing that?'

"And so I went to the Navy and asked them."

Ford started what became a plan of action, the Career Awareness Program, for the Navy, which was eventually adopted by all branches of the service. It's now known as Transitions Assistance Program, to help veterans adjust to civilian life.

What Ford is extremely adept at is helping veterans recognize their disability and steer them in the right direction.

"The military is doing their damnedest to inform vets of what's available but maybe the vet doesn't trust the military. Another big thing is denial. They think, 'Hey, there's nothing wrong with me.'

"I know a guy, he's 91 now, and when he was 17 he was driving a Navy destroyer through minefields. When he was 17, he didn't think anything of it," Ford said, but the duty took its toll.

"Talking to him about it I learned that he'd never filed a claim, 'no way,' he said, 'not me. There's nothing wrong with me.'

"Now, I'm not a psychologist and I don't pretend to be but I knew a little about PTSD (post-traumatic stress syndrome) and it took me about 20 years to get that guy to file the claim. When you're 17 or even 50, you don't think about how you're going pay for your retirement."

When Ford moved to Washington he joined a coffee klatch in Union, where he found himself talking to another veteran who was having issues with the VA. That was in 2015, and he's worked with dozens of fellow veterans since then.

"I was just talking with a guy who's so deaf, I have to yell at him. Well, he was in 42 firefights."

Ford said he'd be happy to help any vet with their questions.

"As a society, we don't tell our people much. Sometimes the only way we get our information is from a newspaper. So come down, have a cup of coffee. If you don't know how to file for benefits, I'll tell you what forms to take with you, where to take them, I'll tell you every bit of knowledge I have," he promised.

Ford is available most mornings at his "office," the Union Deli in Union.