From Albert Evans, Winthrop, MA:

At the outset, I wish to declare that my wife, Gloria, and I are avid Ziegler fans. While I can no longer use braille, owing to multiple sclerosis, she is a voracious and a prolific reader, thereby keeping me right up to date.

In Readers Forum in June, Roger O'Shields wrote about the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). As a retired veterans benefits counselor (VBC) during more than 31 years, it was my responsibility to apply for VA benefits for veterans, widows of veterans, children of veterans and, at times, dependent parents of deceased veterans. It's a lot more complicated than that, but the VA provides a myriad of monetary, educational and home-loan entitlements, inter alia.

Mr. O'Shields seems to have a blurred concept of VA, which is federal in nature, and state veterans' services, which are administered by several states, but do not provide the same entitlements or benefits whatsoever. There may be the occasional dovetailing of some benefit or other but, by and large, there is an enormous difference.

My service as a VBC gave me the responsibility to file for, follow up, explain, and, at times, oversee (in the office) certain entitlements, depending upon the situation. There are as many different situations as I used to have hairs on my head.

My suggestion to Ziegler readers who may be interested in a clear, practical picture of VA programs is to call their local VA regional office and request an I.S.-1, which is an annually printed summary of all programs and entitlements.