Hello Allan,

Please Note>> Click here to load the entire newsletter into a new window

This message applies regardless of your faith - just change the names!

Happy Holidays

(Only 24 days 'til Christmas!)

Congratulations to the Space Force on their 5th birthday!

December 7, 1941 - A day if infamy!

There are only two dozen survivors still alive from the attack.

Veteran Memorials -Wauconda

Prayers to all our

Korean War Families

The VAC Commissioners meetings for 2024-25 will be held on the following dates

March 19.2025

June18, 2025

September 10, 2025

November 19, 2025

At the Gurnee American Legion Post 771 (749 Milwaukee Ave).

Meetings begin at 10:30 am. Visitors are welcome.

You can also use the link below to log into the meeting:

https://meet.goto.com/754472005

OR dial in using your phone.

in United States, call: +1 (312) 757-3121

and use Access Code: 754-472-005

Contact your Congressional Leaders

to get the STAR Act Passed!

The proposed Star Act (H.R. 1282/S. 344) removes a current requirement to offset, dollar for dollar, combat-injured veterans disability pay against retirement pay. There are other factors related to the percentage of disability and what income is taxable, but the issue is clear.

As an example, if a combat injured veteran would be eligible for $1,000 per month retirement pay, and disability pay of $600 per month. The veteran would not receive a total of $1,600 per month. The $600 disability pay would be offset against the $1,000 retirement pay, so the monthly pay would be $600 disability pay, and $400 retirement pay, for a total of $1,000.

There is a significant cost associated with passing the Star Act. However, to reduce earned retirement pay because of a combat disability is a clear injustice.

Please contact your congressman and your senators to encourage them to move this important act through Congress before we have to start all over again in the new session.

Click to contact your Congressman -

Click to contact your Senators -

It's Veterans Day!

The VA says it can't help thousands of vets it left stranded

(Pic) When you walk up to Natalie Donaldson's little cottage-style house in Tulsa, Okla., you're greeted by her bright smile, and her well-muscled pit bull named Sigrid.

"She's friendly but she's gonna want to check you out," Donaldson said.

Donaldson is an army vet, and she had a rough go in the military. She has PTSD. And that's partly why owning this house is important to her — she has her own space where she feels safe.

But these days Donaldson is barely able to scrape the money together to pay her mortgage, because she was hurt by a botched VA home loan program. The program was meant to help her, but instead it stranded her in a modified mortgage with a much higher interest rate that has raised her payments by 50% — nearly $500 more every month, permanently…

A program to help vets is hurting them

This all started for Donaldson after COVID hit. She'd been working as a schoolteacher after leaving the Army but her grandfather was dying and she needed to stop working to care for him.

Donaldson called her mortgage company, desperate for help. "I was crying and she goes, 'Oh honey, why are you crying… it's gonna be OK.' "

It should have been OK, because back then Congress said anyone with a federally backed mortgage could pause their payments for up to 18 months through what's called a COVID mortgage forbearance. Donaldson, like millions of other veterans, has a home loan backed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. So she was told she could stop paying her mortgage.

A mortgage forbearance gives a homeowner a way to temporarily stop paying their mortgage, and then when they get back on their feet financially, they're supposed to be able to resume paying and be current on their loan. A forbearance is not supposed to result in a massive increase in a homeowner's mortgage payment because the whole point is to help somebody who is struggling to pay in the first place.

Editor's Comment: If you are caught in this trap, don't forget that you can also refinance with a commercial mortgage lender and pay off the VA Loan. However, depending on your circumstances, the interest rates have changed drastically so that might or might not work in all cases.

Click here to read the complete article

Calling Women Who Served



Operation HerStory seeks to highlight the service of women who served in any branch of the military during WWII, the Korean War, or the Vietnam War (or who served in the military between 1940 – 1975). You do not need to be a combat veteran or have served overseas to be eligible to be honored by Operation HerStory’s next mission. EVERYONE who served on active duty is deserving of this honor! Please nominate others and yourself – join us in telling your story and participating in future Operation HerStory events!

To learn more about Operation HerStory or to donate th their next flight - hopefully in October -

CLICK HERE

Survivors of Suicide Loss Support Groups

If you are struggling with the loss of a loved one due to suicide, this is a list of support groups in Lake County that you might wish to contact.

If you live in Kenosha or McHenry County, the attached PDF includes groups in those counties.

New ID Badges Are Coming

The article below outlines a process for getting your new VA ID badges. The most important thing to do first is to register for a DS LOGIN. While the article refers to the RAPIDS Locator system, I didn't find any reference to RAPIDS when I registered, but I did find a locator process to get to the Lovell FHCC. It is likely that the requirements for get a new card differ depending on whether you are retired or not, or on some other criteria - The article below was in a Tricare magazine. I am not military retired, I am 100 % disabled and my current card shows an INDEF expiration date. I went to the big box "tab" that was for family sponsors. I followed the steps and discovered that, in my case, I didn't need to go in for a new card - it would be mailed to me. So now you have to figure out which way you need to go. Read on below.

2025 American Legion

Oratorical Contest

The 2025 American Legion Department of Illinois Semi-Finals & Final American Legion High School Oratorical Program will be held February 28-March 1, 2025 in Springfield, IL at the President Abraham Lincoln Springfield—DoubleTree Hotel by Hilton.

Click here to see the overall program for the American Legion Oratorical Competition

10th District American Legion Preliminary Oratorical Speech Contest will be held – 

Saturday 12/14/2024, Grayslake Central High School - 8:00 AM until complete. Note:

Applications must be submitted by December 4th - see the detail instructions attached.

VA Offers Help to Military Scam Targets

Veterans, active-duty military and their families are often targets of scammers. Current and former service members reported $477 million in losses from scams last year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says.

In response, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) launched VSAFE.gov and 833-38V-SAFE (833-388-7233). The new website and call center will coordinate efforts across the federal government to protect veterans, service members and their families from fraud and scams.

The website includes resources on identity theft and the most common scams targeting veterans, including romance and other impostor scams, fake job offers and bogus investment schemes.

The call center provides a simple way to report scams. All federal agencies will be advised to route military members and veterans reporting scams to the correct place for assistance.

“This is a positive step,” says Juanita Jiménez-Soto, AARP national veterans and military families manager, noting how crucial it is for veterans to understand the red flags for fraud. “They protected us. We should be protecting them.”

Last year, military consumers lost a median of $599 to scams reported to the FTC, which was 20 percent more than the $500 median loss reported by nonmilitary consumers, according to the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2023.

An interesting perspective is provided in a survey published by AARP (see below).

Supreme Court hears challenge

to denials of disability claims by veterans

Stars and Stripes • October 16, 2024, By Linda F. Hersey

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court weighed oral arguments Wednesday in a case over how a century-old law is applied to decide Department of Veterans Affairs benefits when there is an equal balance of evidence to support or deny a disability claim.

In Bufkin v. McDonough, the nation’s highest court is examining the existing “benefit-of-the-doubt rule,” which requires the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims to favor the veteran when supporting documents including medical records are considered close calls in determining disability compensation.

“There may be no more fundamental precept in the system of veterans benefits than the rule that the veteran, not the government, receives the benefit of the doubt in a close case,” according to the complaint brought by veterans Joshua Bufkin and Norman Thornton against VA Secretary Denis McDonough.

Read on here

Tricare Changes are Coming in 2025. Here’s What Beneficiaries Need to Know Right Now

Critical changes taking place for Illinois 

Military.com | By Amanda Miller

Published November 15, 2024

Tricare beneficiaries need to be aware of changes taking place in both the East and West regions that could, at worst, get many users inadvertently kicked off their health care plans come next year if they don’t take certain steps.

The insurance program available to active-duty military, reservist and retiree households is transitioning to a new set of so-called “T-5” contracts for the management of its two regions starting Jan. 1, 2025. The West Region is getting a new contractor and a new network of health care providers, while six states are moving from the East Region to the West.

The open enrollment season for Tricare Prime and Tricare Select users is currently underway for 2025 coverage. Neither the contract changes nor open enrollment apply to the Tricare for Life automatic wraparound coverage for Medicare Part A and Part B users.

Tricare says the new contracts “will improve the delivery, quality, and cost” of its services for beneficiaries who live in the U.S. by providing better “network flexibility,” “beneficiary choice” and telehealth appointments. Meanwhile, future congressional oversight included in both House and Senate committee reports, made during the drafting of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, will purportedly address the ability of Tricare’s provider networks to entirely meet beneficiaries’ needs.

Karen Ruedisueli, director of government relations for health affairs for the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA), shared some of the following advice for navigating 2025’s Tricare changes, including the possibility of “a large number of people being disenrolled as of Jan. 1” if they don’t provide their payment information to a new contractor.

Here’s what you need to know:...

Six States Are Switching Tricare Regions

The U.S. government’s goal in moving six states from the East Region to the West was to better balance Tricare’s beneficiaries between the two regions, Ruedisueli said. The six states where 1.1 million eligible beneficiaries will move from the East Region to the West are Arkansas, Illinois, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin.

Click here to read the complete article.



100th Fisher House - Lovell FHCC - Is On Schedule!

Most of the work is being done inside now, so we won't have any new pictures after this one.

Click here for more pictures on Facebook

If you are interested in supporting Northern Illinois Food Bank by volunteering (as I do), Click here to see the types of volunteer opportunities you can sign up for and where they are.

If you have any questions, contact Allan Ayers at 847-377-3344

In all the situations below, you can always contact the VAC (847-377-3344) directly for further assistance. If you are struggling with rent or mortgage payments with the elimination of pandemic forbearance programs, Call the VAC immediately!

• Rent or Mortgage payments or Emergency Housing
• Utility payments
• Food - Northern Illinois Food Bank - See Schedule or
• Midwest Veterans Closet (See the calendar below)
• Medical Care - Contact VAC when civilian benefits lost - Do not go to VA if not registered with them. Contact the VAC to get you registered.
• Family problems - In Lake County, contact 211 for referral to proper resource.

If you're wondering what the VAC and other veterans organizations are doing.

Northern Illinois Food Bank

There are three types of resources within NIFB

-- My Pantry Express

Pre-register at the link and order from list of items - limited locations and times -

See below for all county locations and times, or click on the link below for all the counties.

-- Mobile Food Pantry and CLC Pop-up Pantry

Hot Tips from the VA Weekly Newsletters

This Benefits Bulletin provides links for vets to understand benefits they might be eligible for.

• Survivor Benefits and Reporting a Veteran Death

Losing a loved one is a challenging time — we are here to help. As the survivor of a Veteran or Service member, check to see if you qualify for survivor benefits, including help with burial costs and survivor compensation.

Please contact VA to report the Veteran’s death and avoid an overpayment of the Veteran’s benefits. You can report the death in person at a VA Regional Office, by mail, or by phone. When you do this, VA will stop any benefit payments the Veteran received as required by law. Reporting the death timely will help ensure survivors or executors of the Veteran’s estate do not experience additional financial stress.

Visit the James A. Lovell FHCC News summary - The Launch

VA News - 11/6/2024 -

• Resources To Manage Anxiety Symptoms

Some Veterans develop anxiety from service-related trauma, while others experience it during stressful life events, such as transitioning from the military. Learn about tools and resources to help Veterans manage their anxiety.

• Preparing for Tax Season: Tax Scams

Now more than ever, it's important to understand how to identify tax scams, how to protect yourself, get help and report. 

VA News - 11/13/2024 -

• FREE Career Mentoring, Guidance - Apply for a career mentorship today

American Corporate Partners (ACP) connects post-9/11 Veterans with corporate professionals for customized career guidance. Veterans find meaningful employment, whether it's a higher-paying job or a promotion. The average starting salary for Veterans who use ACP is more than $90,000.

Insights from the MOAA

(Military Officers Association of America)

MOAA – 10/30/24

• Older Veterans File These Types of Financial Complaints Far More Often Than Non-Vets

By: Kevin Lilley

OCTOBER 30, 2024

Older veterans were much less likely to file complaints about their credit report in 2023 than the general population … but other types of scams, frauds, and financial concerns were much more prevalent among former servicemembers, a government report found.

• Season's Shipping: Know Your 2024 Post Office Holiday Mail Deadlines

Sending your packages early could mean big savings. Check out your options (and mark your calendar)

MOAA – 11/13/24

• Texas City Takes Over Top Spot in Yearly Best-for-Veterans Rankings

Austin, Texas, ranked first among the nation's largest 100 cities in WalletHub's annual Best and Worst Places for Veterans to Live report, improving on last year's runner-up finish.

Orlando, Fla., and 2023 list-topper Raleigh, N.C., rounded out the top three on a list assembled from 19 "key indicators" ranging from veteran income growth to VA health care facilities to affordability to restaurants offering military discounts.

Newark, N.J., ranked last, one spot ahead of last year's "worst" city, Detroit. Memphis; Baton Rouge, La.; and Indianapolis completed the bottom five.

MOAA – 11/20/24

• TRICARE Guide 2024-2025

Whether you’re stepping into the TRICARE health plan for the first time or you’ve been using the plan for decades, this guide will help you find your way through changes in the benefit and health care services for you and your family. See below for the entries in this year’s guide.

You may also be interested in our TRICARE Toolkit (updated monthly).

• Crucial Veterans' Bill Clears House, But Senate Fate Is Unclear: Take Action NOW

The Dole Act would create life-changing upgrades to health care, caregiver support, and other programs. Make your voice heard.

• Give Smart: How to Support Your Favorite Charity and Trim Your Tax Bill

These tax-friendly techniques will help your charitable efforts make even more of a difference.

Stars & Stripes - 10/30/24



• House lawmakers seek permanent office for veteran feedback to improve VA

Two lawmakers are looking to codify the Veterans Experience Office within the VA after the office expanded outreach to women veterans, created a mobile app and, according to the VA, improved trust by 25%.

Have you ever seen the magazine Military.com

Your copy should address 3 key questions: Who am I writing for (audience)? Why should they care (benefit)? What do I want them to do (call-to-action)?

Create a great offer by adding words like "free," "personalized," "complimentary," or "customized." A sense of urgency often helps readers take action, so consider inserting phrases like "for a limited time only" or "only 7 remaining!"

If you are still working and thinking about changing jobs, check out the Veterans Jobs @ Military.com

Recent edition of Veteran Jobs Insider

• What Trump's Win Could Mean for the Military
• What to Do When You Drop the Networking Ball
• Veterans File Class-Action Suit over Medical Retirements for Burn Pit-Related Illnesses
• Who Is Doug Collins? A Look at Trump's Pick to Head the VA
• Conflict in the Workplace: Do You Negotiate or Debate?
• The Unspoken Online Code of Conduct: What Employers Expect
• Updated: Hearing Aids for Military Retirees
• VA Medical Services May Face Cuts Under Trump Administration
• Do You Have Any Questions for Me? Epic Follow-up Questions that Make You Sound Brilliant

What are the best follow-up questions for a job interview? When veterans and military spouses interview, they always get asked one last question: Do you have any questions for me? Find out how to answer this question so that you get another bite at the interview apple and land a job offer today.

• Montgomery GI Bill User's Guide
• How Veterans Can Protect Themselves Against Scams

+++++++++

There is far too much in the various issues of Military.Com to write or even extract from them. The trick is to find the pieces that are important to you. Therefore, we have provided a graphic that shows the various dropdown choices. As you will see, there is information on general news – with the choice to see the news for your own branch, service benefits, Job and transition support, military life and family issues. I get several versions, and then I’ll scan for titles that seem to be related to me. For example, I decided to try the the Veteran Jobs tab for Lake County. It provided over 400 postings for Lake County and Northern Cook County. See the dropdowns below. Then you can click on military.com to set up a subscription and select versions that you are interested in.

In addition, there are a wide assortment of resource links (including discounts for vets and families) to find other specific information. You might want to give the magazine a look.

James A. Lovell FHCC

To stay in touch with the James A. Lovell FHCC, subscribe to the “Launch”, the Lovell Newsletter.

To get a subscription, – click here. 

Here is a directory of the resources at James A. Lovell FHCC. To access the electronic directory, click here and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Here are the available hot links to some of the various VA Resources available. The actual hot links can be accessed at the

bottom of the welcome kit.

Click here to subscribe to the Weekly VA Newsletter.

Click here to see the FHCC Electronic Record log in Primer

 How do you get "Veteran" on your driver's license?



Effective January 1, 2020, it will be easier to get "VETERAN" recorded on your driver's license. To get the “VETERAN” designation, veterans can bring their DD214 or other acceptable discharge document directly to a Secretary of State Driver Services facility.

If veterans choose to add the designation prior to their renewal date, they may obtain an updated driver’s license for $5 and an updated ID card for $10. Veterans over the age of 65 can obtain an updated state ID card at no cost.

A special note - If you are an older Vet and your DD214 was lost in the St. Louis fire in the early 1970's, you can obtain a "certificate" that replaces the DD214. However, for one vet we know, the DMV didn't accept that certificate.

If you need a complete set of your military records



If you need a set of your military records for any reason, you can obtain them by faxing or mailing a request to the National Personnel Records Center. While they will accept a letter (if you get all the right information into it) it is best to use the standard form SF-180 to request it. You can download that form at Standard Form 180

Mail the completed form to:

National Personnel Records Center

1 Archives Drive

Saint Louis, MO 63138.

OR

Fax the form to 314-801-9195

If you need the records in emergency circumstances, contact our office 

Where is an IDVA Office?

 Deerfield - co-located with the 

Illinois Student Assistance Commission

Deerfield Facility

1755 Lake Cook Rd, Ste 1409

Deerfield, IL 60015-5209

847-948-6981 and 847-948-6982

Hours Monday - Friday 

8:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Palatine - located in the Palatine Township offices at:

721 S. Quentin Rd, Room 102

(847) 485-2772

Hours Monday -Thursday

8:00 am - 4:00 pm

Factual Accuracy and Disclaimer:

Accuracy is important to us. if you believe an error has been made, please email the Lake County Veterans Assistance Commission at veterans@lakecountyil.gov. Use of social media does not imply endorsement on the part of the VAC. Content on these sites is not edited for accuracy and may not necessarily reflect the views of the VAC.