By Samuel Strait, Reporter at Large – May 3, 2021 Recently a call from a concerned citizen put me in touch with Jerry Johnson a long time Marine Veteran who has advocated for Veteran affairs for many years. Mr. Johnson, the former and long time president of the VFW, Veterans of Foreign Wars, had become concerned upon returning from a hospital stay in Redding, California that the PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, group which typically met at the Veterans Hall had been prevented from meeting and professional volunteers who provided medical and mental support were being denied access to the group. While the Veterans Affairs is a County operation, some funding comes from its Federal partners. Because the local office had closed due to Pandemic mandates, the PTSD group as well as other groups which formally met in the hall had been left out in the cold over the winter months. When the office was allowed to reopen in March, is was not clear that this was the case as veterans efforts to restart the PTSD meeting ended by encountering locked doors. A call to our new Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Mr. Neal Lopez resulted in his authorization of the Veterans Memorial Hall to be reopened to the public on Monday April 19th sometime after other offices had opened their respective doors. It still can be confusing when attempting to access the building unless you know which of the building six doors happen to be unlocked at any given time. Generally that will be one of the two central doors. Many vets have reported being turned away when finding the building doors appear to be locked. The Veterans Affairs Office could also use consistent hours of operation postings on the website, the doors to the hall and on their phone messaging system. Many of the services formally offered to vets have long since gone by the board, but a substantial list of offering still remain for veterans to access. Medical and Mental services remain problematic and are very often resulting in a referral to Health and Human Services. There do not appear to be any local providers specifically for Veterans with service related injuries after the Brooking location ceased its operation. As of this moment, no group meetings have been held at the Veterans Memorial Hall for the PTSD group, the VFW, or the Women's Auxiliary to the VFW. It is hoped that by shining the light on Veterans Affairs, these groups will be able to resume their important contributions to the veterans community, who at last census represented over 2100 of Del Norte's residents, many of which are homeless.