New services welcome veterans

Of the thousands of area military veterans who came to the tarmac of Lunken Airport Saturday for the Cincinnati VA Medical Center’s Welcome Home Celebration, there were few who felt more welcomed than Ralph "Frankie" Steward of Hillsboro.

The U.S. Army veteran of Iraq, who left that war zone last fall when a bomb took off his right leg below the knee and left him with a panopoly of injuries, had just come home two days before after months of treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and rehab at Fort Meade, Md.

Late Saturday afternoon, he was in a wheel chair, moving around the festival grounds with his parents, his wife and his three children at his side.

In front of the brand new VA mobile health van – on display to the public for the first time Saturday – the Steward family found itself surrounded by members of the Military Support Group that meets each month in Blue Ash – a group that had informally adopted Frankie as one of their own after they heard about his injuries last fall.

"It is so good to be home," Frankie told the support group members, who hugged his parents and his wife, some bending down to give the wounded Army sergeant a peck on the cheek. "So good to know people care."

For the VA Medical Center and the Thank You Foundation, a local non-profit organization formed to aid veterans and their families, telling those who have served in the military and their families that they are appreciated is what the festival that began late Saturday afternoon and ended Saturday night is all about.

It is the second year in a row for the Lunken Airport event, which was interrupted briefly late Saturday afternoon when heavy rain rolled through.

It featured free food, games and a playground for the kids, live music and a chance for many of them to be introduced for the first time to the the veterans benefits the VA offers.

The newest of those services offered by the Cincinnati VA Medical Center is the 40-foot mobile health care van that was on display as the centerpiece of this year’s festival

Emma Bunag-Boehm, a nurse practioner at the VA Medical Center, guided hundreds of veterans and family members through the van, which was built by Armor Mobile, a Mason firm, with funds provided by the Farmer Family Foundation.

The idea behind the van is to reach veterans in remote areas of southwest Ohio, northern Kentucky and southeast Indiana who may not make the trip to the Cincinnati VA Medical Center in Corryville or one of its satellite offices.

It contains a small reception area where veterans can sign up for health care benefits, a medical examination rooom, a small dental exam office and a small consulting room for those veterans seeking mental health care services.

The mental health care room will contain a plaque dedicating it to Douglas Barber, a veteran of Iraq and Cincinnati native who committed suicide that was a result of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Barber’s mother, Martha Moore, who now lives in Cambridge, Ohio, said she was proud to have her son’s name carried on in this way.

"I feel like my son is now able to help every veteran who walks in here," Moore said.

Tom Vossmeyer of Erlanger, a Korean War veteran who served with the 1st Marine Division at the battle of Chosin Reservoir, toured the mobile health care van and said it was "wonderful."

"A lot of people who wouldn’t get health care otherwise are going to get it now," Vossmeyer said. "The VA will bring it to them