YOUNGSTOWN AMVETS chief tours Ohio posts

The AMVETS national commander's Ohio tour included a stop at the Youngstown Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic on Belmont Avenue.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- W.G. Kilgore, the American Veterans national commander, said Ohio, with 35,000 members, has the largest state AMVETS department in the country.
And he came to the Buckeye State to find out why.
Kilgore, who was in the Youngstown area Wednesday and Thursday visiting AMVETS posts and other veterans facilities, said part of his reason for touring Ohio is to learn what the AMVETS here is doing to attract members, and try to replicate it in other states.
The service projects draw veterans' interests, said Youngstown's John Brown III, commander of the Ohio Department of AMVETS.
Community service projects that AMVETS members work on include Special Olympics, Boy Scouts and Reserve Officers' Training Corps programs in high schools, said Brown, who accompanied Kilgore on his tour.
On Thursday, Kilgore's tour included a stop at the newly expanded and renovated Youngstown Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic on Belmont Avenue, the Mahoning Veterans Memorial at the Canfield Fairgrounds, the Vienna Air Reserve Station, which houses the 910th Airlift Wing and Navy and Marine Corps Reserve training center, and AMVETS Post 290 in Vienna.
Kilgore spent time Wednesday at AMVETS Post 45 in Salem.
Kilgore, who became AMVETS commander Sept. 1, said he was impressed with Youngstown's VA Outpatient Clinic.
Community clinics like this are the best way to provide medical care and the most convenient for veterans, he said. If they need treatment not available locally, they then can go to the major facilities like Cleveland.
His vision
The national commander envisions a day when veterans have medical cards that allow them to receive medical care anyplace and then have the medical facility reimbursed by the VA.
Kilgore said he became interested in veterans' organizations because of his father, who was wounded and disabled in World War II. He began volunteering at VA hospital in his mid-20s.
He said the AMVETS' mission is to serve veterans' needs in the community though local programs, and nationally by lobbying Congress and the Bush administration.
"A lot of people, including members of Congress, don't understand what veterans are all about. They are people who gave parts of their lives, and sometimes parts of their bodies, to preserve our freedom and way of life. They should be taken care of," he said.
Renovation
The Youngstown VA Outpatient Clinic is among 12 VA clinics affiliated with the Cleveland VA. There are also clinics in Warren and East Liverpool.
The Youngstown expansion and renovation project began in October 2001 and is expected to be done by this December. A grand opening is tentatively planned for January 2003, said Edward Maurer, clinic director.
The size of the building, which is leased by the VA, went from 14,000 square feet to 26,000 square feet, and a number of services were expanded. The government's cost to equip the building is $1 million, Maurer said.
"One of the things we're most excited about is digital radiography [filmless X-ray]. We don't have a radiologist on site, so it is a convenience and great time-saver to have X-rays read in Cleveland in real time," Maurer said.
The Youngstown clinic, established Sept. 30, 1991, is also the site of a proposed teleconferencing system that can link patients and doctors and be used for staff education, he said.
Other services, such as podiatry and optometry, were expanded.
The biggest benefit to veterans is that the clinic can move people in and out more quickly. There are additional physicians, and the enrollment has grown from 7,500 to more than 9,000 in the past 18 months, Maurer added.