CW5 (R) William R. Halevy
VHBM Chairperson and Founding Member
When people ask me why I am spending so much time effort and money assisting our veterans, I must reflect on my 40 plus years of Army Aviation Service. For all of us who were threading the combat needle, there were over ten support personnel behind that one combatant. Finding and now supporting those former military personnel who supported our nations call to duty and made the combat operations successful are the thrust of my efforts.
Maj. Gen. Mark A. Graham, U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) Deputy Chief of Staff G3/5/7 (Operations/Plans/Training) presents the Department of the Army Certificate of Appreciation on behalf of the U.S. Army Chief of Staff to Chief Warrant Officer 5 William R. Halevy for his exceptional 40-year service to the U.S. Army and our nation.
After retirement I had a pretty good knowledge base of how the Army components interacted having served in the National Guard, US Army Reserves and Active Duty to include Title 10 Guard Service at the Army National Guard Readiness Center, National Guard Bureau and then US Army Forces Command, FORSCOM. So what does a Lifer do with all that experience behind him?
Within a year of getting caught up with my family, I was asked to visit our local political organization and thought it would be interesting to see how the political system operated. This is where I was asked to put together a dinner supporting our veterans by the Chairman Nick Freitas, a fellow Iraqi veteran and now 30th District Delegate to the Virginia State House. The dinner was a great success and you can read about my putting it together in this Culpeper Star-Exponent article.
After the dinner I was approached by several veterans asking for advice on their situations dealing with the Veteran’s Administration. Having a smooth departure from Active Duty and transition through the VA system, I was surprised to hear of some of these incredible stories of lack of support and denial of compensation claims. I began to investigate through the local veterans organizations and found there was a need for local veteran service officer support. And that began my new adventure using the many years of experience working at the higher level of military command.
After being contacted by over 200 veteran and families, traveling thousands of miles and spending thousands of dollars, I decided to start this web site to further my efforts and hopefully raise expense money to pay for my out of pocket costs. There will be no salary or wages paid out of the contributions donated—just the expense of operations.