Story and Photo by Van Mitchell, Staff Writer

Leo Webster, a 24-year Air Force MSgt/E7 RET, knows first-hand the importance of communication when helping other veterans.
In July 2018 he started Vet Chat, a monthly meeting where veterans can gather and communicate with each other and learn about resources that are available to them.
Meetings are held the second Saturday of each month at 9 a.m. in the lobby of Cornerstone Church located at 9900 SE 15th Street in Midwest City.
Vet Chat allows veterans and service members to network and fellowship while learning about the resources available to Warriors, spouses, family members, and widows.
The program’s goal is to give a source of support while also connecting and encouraging veterans by sharing stories in passing of useful advice, information, or resources.
Topics include education benefits, VA burial benefits, Wills, Power of Attorney, disability rating, housing and spousal benefits.
“We strive to connect our veterans with local agencies, organizations, and civic groups that specialize in assisting our heroes and their families,” Webster said. “The goal of this group is to be a source of support while also connecting, encouraging and motivating veterans.”
Webster said Senior News and Living will host a Veteran’s Resource Fair at Cornerstone Church on Saturday, Sept. 14 from 9 a.m. to noon in lieu of the regular Vet Chat meeting that day.

Webster said the idea of Vet Chat began while sitting in church.
“I was sitting in church one day and just looking around at the number of veterans in my church. And being a 24-year Air Force veteran myself, I said, “We need to start talking to each other.” This is just going on in my mind,” he said. “So, I invited a group of veterans to my house to have lunch.”
Webster said he and the rest of his invited guests sat in his living room and started talking to each other.
“You put a table full of food out, you can get a lot of people,” he said. “We started thinking about what are the things that we can just start helping veterans with? And obviously benefits and services and things that were available to veterans. So, I just ran a poll around the table and said, ‘Okay, what are some things? Just write down some things that you think that we can work on.’ Each person came up with a list of things they thought.”
Webster said the Vet Chat meetings outgrew his living room.
“We met in my living room at my house for a long time, but it just mushroomed,” he said. “I asked my pastor, Ron McKey, at Cornerstone Church if I could just start using the foyer in the church. He said absolutely. He said anything that we can do to help our veterans is welcomed.”
Webster said initially the Vet Chat meeting started with around eight veterans, but has grown slowly, but steadily.
“We started off with about eight people, and we’ve had as high as 57 people,” he said. “I would love to have over 100 veterans attend the Vet Chat meetings each month.”
Webster said he gets self-satisfaction from helping others.
“If someone needs something and I can help them, I feel that if I don’t do it, then I’m not fulfilling my calling of giving back,” he said.
Webster said the military teaches toughness, but that process has its challenges.
“Being in the service, us veterans are tough. We don’t ever want to admit that we have challenges, or we have aches and pains,” he said. “I’m a veteran and tried navigating applying for VA disability myself and ended up discouraged. My experience was frustrating like many others, but I had a gentleman, a good friend of mine said, ‘Leo, I’m not going to let you give up.’ He came to my house and picked me up and said, ‘We’re going down to the VA. I’m going to sit with you and you’re going to do this. He loved me through the process and just kept on loving me. And I’m comfortable right now.’”
“We help our veterans, their spouses and especially their widows.” Webster noted. When Sue Bruce lost her husband, the only thing she was sure of was she needed someone’s help. “They supported me through every part of the process. I had no clue as to all the benefits that were available to me. They just did everything, like family.” Bruce said. Carla Evans and her husband came on a Saturday earlier this year, seeking information primarily for her father and also her husband. Just weeks later her husband unexpectedly passed away. Evans said, “I could not have made it through that time without Leo and Vet Chat.
Webster said we also look out for our active service members.
“We have several wonderful retired women, like Barbara Curry, AF MSgt RET and Deborah McQuillar AF SMSgt Ret who love to support and mentor active duty females.”
Webster said he wants Vet Chat to be a safe harbor for every veteran.
“I want Vet Chat to become the model place in Midwest City where veterans can come and know, first of all, you’re at a safe place,” he said. “What you share with us is not going to be put on Facebook, it’s not going to be put out online. You are in a safe place. We are here to help you, and it’s going to be very private and confidential what you share with us. I just want to be here for our veterans. Being a veteran myself, I know how complicated it is and I just want to make life easy for these heroes and give them a safe place to just come and hang out.”
Webster said he works hard to earn each veteran’s respect.
“I have been there (Air Force) for 24 years, and I worked hard to earn the respect of the people that I serve,” he said. “And I venture to say everybody that comes to Vet Chat will tell you how hard I work to earn their respect. And I believe they all respect me, I really do. Because I don’t take anything for granted. I’m persistent when I know that I’m doing something that God would want me to do. I’m passionate about it, and I don’t want to leave any stone unturned. I want to do it with all my heart.”
Webster said while he enjoys how Vet Chat helps veterans; he will never be pleased until every veteran’s need is met.
“Yes, I am happy to see how the program is growing, but I will never be pleased until I know every veteran’s needs or services of what they need is met. And I’ll probably never accomplish that, but that gives me the drive to keep pushing every time,” he said. “Our goal is to assist our veterans to get everything that they’re entitled to. I want to be a friend to my fellow heroes, and not just be there for them.”
For more information about Vet Chat contact Webster at (405) 202-0661 or via email at lcweb@cox.net or contact James McQuillar at (405) 659-2116 or via email at jmcquillar@cox.net. See our Resource Fair Flyer on page 22

Story and Photo by Van Mitchel, Staff Writer

The Military Retiree Activities Office (RAO) at Tinker Air Force Base serves as a liaison between the active-duty community and the retiree population.
The RAO is located in Bldg. 1, Door 7, Room 153 at Tinker AFB, and is manned by experienced military retiree members Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“Our office is here to serve every retiree, regardless of rank or branch of service, when they need guidance or assistance with any issues, “ said RAO Director/CMSgt. (Retired USAF) Lorraine Caddy. “We also provide volunteers to support the Tinker mission at the RAO Office, and the Tinker Clinic Pharmacy.”
Chief Caddy said the Tinker RAO was started in 1982, and she has been with it since 1985. She started as RAO Director in 2014.
“Our primary mission is to be available for any military people or their families, regardless of rank or branch of service, to help them with whatever difficulties they’re having or get them to the right people to help them, which is really what we are,” she said. “We’re more of a referral agency than a doing agency. We have somebody here Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and they’re all trained with as much knowledge as we can give them. We just take the questions as they come on the phone or through the door.”
Chief Caddy said when someone calls or comes by the RAO, the process begins by determining what their problem is and how we can help
“Most military retirees should know how to handle their own personal business, but unfortunately, a lot of people don’t talk. Husbands and wives don’t talk, so they don’t all have the same information,” she said. “We try to find out exactly what their problem is, number one. We try to give them information about this office so that they know they can always come back here. I always tell people, “If we haven’t solved your problem, please come back. We’ll find somebody else who can help you,” because we always try to be available.”
Chief Caddy said once a veteran separates from their branch of service, it becomes more challenging to find help with services needed.
“When someone is on active duty, they basically have face to face help with all their human resource issues and things of that nature. But once you separate, you’re done. You don’t really have a local office to go to for admin information, things of that nature,” she said. “We try to get them the resources they need.”
Chief Caddy said one of the ways the RAO works to get information out is through its Military Retiree Appreciation Day happening on Saturday, Sept. 28 at the Tinker Event Center starting at 7:30 a.m. with the formal program starting at 9 a.m. with several speakers scheduled.
Chief Caddy said the 2023 Military Retiree Appreciation Day had 200 attendees.
“In years past, before COVID, we had more than that, but we had to stop completely for two years,” she said.
The event is planned by Chief Caddy and a committee of volunteers that she selects.
“We’ll open the doors to the public at 0730-for those attending with lite refreshments available while they last,” she said. “I currently have 20 booth folks lined up, meaning people will come and be at a table where you can go and speak with them, and these are people from TriCare and Casualty Assistance, VA, and more. We also have a bus tour that’s available for those who want to take it around Tinker. It takes about 45 minutes to do the bus tour.”
The Military Retiree Appreciation Day also includes the naming of the Volunteer of the Year.
“That award is presented by the Wing Commander at my request to the person at the Retiree Day Service ceremony, so that they know that we give a darn that they’re there, because these people are giving their time and they’ve already given 20 years or more of their life to service,” Chief Caddy said.
Chief Caddy encourages those attending Military Retiree Appreciation Day to ask their questions.
“When I send an email, I encourage them to bring their questions, and before I dismiss any speaker, I always say, ‘Do you have more questions? Please don’t wait until he leaves and then ask me,‘ which is what happens sometimes. They’re shy,” she said. “There’s no question that’s stupid, in my opinion. There is no such thing. If you have a question and you need answers then you need to ask it. Sometimes those questions can’t be answered at the meeting, but then I make sure that that person has an appointment with the people they need to speak with.”
Chief Caddy said she has a desire to keep helping veterans as she was helped along the way.
“I did 20 years of service, and I enjoyed every minute of it,” she said.
Chief Caddy said she was very fortunate to make Chief Master Sergeant after 15 years of service. She started her AF Creer in 1957 and retired from active service in 1977, and she was one of the first 10 women to achieve the rank of CMSgt in the entire United States Air Force.
“I was fortunate because I worked with people who cared,” she said. “Women veterans at that time were not assigned worldwide as they are today. I was working on an IG team and because of that was able to spend three years at Wiesbaden, Germany. My volunteer work with the RAO is great. I meet so many wonderful people and am happy to provide this service to our military retirees.”
Chief Caddy said veteran retiree volunteers are welcome to help with the RAO.
“We would love to have you join us as a volunteer in the Retiree Activities Office, and the Clinic Pharmacy,” she said. “We only ask for 3 hours a week of your time and you will know the joy of “continuing to serve.”

For more information about the RAO or to sign up for the Military Retiree Appreciation Day call (405) 739-2795 or email Chief Caddy at lorraine.caddy@us.af.mil

Story and Photo by Van Mitchell, Staff Writer

Cornerstone Home Health has been providing services to seniors and veterans in the Oklahoma City metro area since 2003.
Ballinda Callison, President of Cornerstone Home Health said in an interview with Bott Radio serving veterans is a core aspect of their business.
“We service a lot of our veterans, and in fact, probably 80% of our business right now is with the veterans,” she said. “We take care of the veterans, we can do therapy for them, nursing wound care, all those types of things. We can also do their personal care, help them with showers or as little as driving them to an appointment for a doctor’s appointment, going grocery shopping for them, helping them strip and remake their bed, emptying the trash.”
Callison, the daughter of a nurse, has been helping to take care of patients in their homes since she was a young girl. As an adult with small children of her own, she brought meals and did light housework for members of her church, who appreciated the help and enjoyed seeing her children.
She later went back to school, earned a Business Administration degree in Health Care, and was licensed to work in Oklahoma as a Home Health Administrator. She was a co-owner of a staffing firm providing home health care services before starting CHH.
Callison said the lessons she learned as a child with her mother helped shape her vision for Cornerstone.
“My mother did work in convalescent homes,” she said. “She was working almost 16-hour days, and she ended up getting her RN license through the convalescent home years ago. After my dad got back from Vietnam, she started working in private homes for individuals. Somewhere between eight and nine years old, I went with my mother at times to go out to these people’s homes and help her work alongside her because we became their families. Senior care or the home care portion is a big part of keeping people in their home and keeping them from having to need advanced care.”
Callison said Cornerstone Home Health is about building relationships with their clients and families.
“We’d find out what their needs are and if they’re needing transportation to the doctor, if they’re needing physical therapy, if they’ve got a wound or if they’re, then we have to find out first what their needs are,” she said. “Then we would discuss what our services are.”
Callison said faith led her journey to Cornerstone Home Health.
“I look back on my life and the Lord had been preparing me ever since I was a young girl for this kind of work,” she said. “It’s very challenging, it’s rewarding, it’s hurtful. You’ve got to have a passion because if it’s about the money, it isn’t going to happen.”
Now, the veteran-owned company is expanding its footprint by opening a location in Weatherford.
“We’ve opened an office this summer in Weatherford and started taking clients here, within about a 35- to 40-mile radius of Weatherford,” Kathy McGee, Business Development Administrator. “That’s going to include Custer County, Blaine County, basically all the way up I-40 back into Oklahoma City.”
McGee said Cornerstone saw a growing need for its services outside of Oklahoma City.
“It wasn’t necessarily a decision to press forward in one area. It just came out of being contacted to take care of a client, then another,” she said. “Instead of bringing people from Oklahoma City to do that, we decided that we would just go forward this way. We opened the office in the summer, started getting to know some people in the area, and we are really starting to dial into community activities and taking more patients.”
McGee said Cornerstone Home Health wants to hire local caregivers in their expanded area.
“Clients that are here in the Weatherford, Clinton area, their caregivers are going to be from the Weatherford, Clinton area,” she said. “If we have a client that’s in Hinton or Watonga, it’s probably going to be more like someone from that area. Our goal is hiring caregivers in those areas that are closer to those clients that we have in the rural markets.”
McGee said Cornerstone is focusing on personal care services for seniors and veterans in their expanded area.
“We’ll start with maybe light duty housekeeping, meal prep, cooking. We can help with some showering, running errands, some of those kinds of things,” she said. “We offer nursing services for veterans now and will expand nursing services to seniors in 2025.”

For more information call (405) 354-5454 or visit www.cornerstonehomehealthservices.com.

Today, VA OKC Healthcare System (OKC HCS) announced that it housed 367 Veterans experiencing homeless in Oklahoma this fiscal year. A total of 98.8% of these Veterans have not returned to homelessness and the OKC VA HCS Social Work Services continues to reach out to any unsheltered Veterans to ensure they have access to housing and other wraparound services they deserve.
Nationally, during this same time period, VA housed 43,116 Veterans experiencing homelessness, surpassing its fiscal year 2024 goal to house 41,000 Veterans a month earlier than anticipated. A total of 96.3% of the Veterans housed have not returned to homelessness, and 38,476 unsheltered Veterans have been engaged nationally.
Preventing and eliminating Veteran homelessness is a top priority for VA and the entire Biden-Harris Administration. Between 2022 and 2023, VA permanently housed nearly 87,000 Veterans. As a result of these efforts, the number of Veterans experiencing homelessness in the U.S. has fallen by over 4% since early 2020 and by more than 52% since 2010.
“No person who has served this country should ever have to experience homelessness,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “As a result of this year’s efforts, more than 43,000 formerly homeless Veterans now have access to the homes that they deserve. And make no mistake: we won’t rest until every Veteran has a safe, stable, accessible, and affordable home to call their own.”
VA and the entire administration have taken considerable steps this year to combat Veteran homelessness. This week, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness released the federal government’s first ever framework for homelessness prevention and launched a new series spotlighting local and federal efforts to prevent homelessness. Last month, VA awarded more than $800 million in grants via its Supportive Services for Veteran Families and Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem programs, and in July, awarded over $26 million in grants to support legal services for Veterans facing homelessness. Additionally, last month, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and VA announced policy changes that will help more Veterans receive housing assistance under the HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program.
VA’s efforts to combat Veteran homelessness are grounded in reaching out to homeless Veterans, understanding their unique needs, and addressing them. These efforts are built on the evidence-based “Housing First” approach, which prioritizes getting a Veteran into housing, then providing or connecting them with the wraparound services and supports they need to stay housed, including health care, job training, legal and education assistance, and more.
Every day, VA staff and VA’s community partners nationwide help Veterans find permanent housing, such as apartments or houses to rent or own, often with subsidies to help make the housing affordable. In some cases, VA staff and partners help Veterans end their homelessness by reuniting them with family and friends.
Visit the VA.gov/homeless to learn about housing initiatives and other programs supporting Veterans experiencing homelessness.

Story by Megan Brown,
Navy Office of Community Outreach

Ensign Samuel Sharp, a native of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, graduate from the Navy’s Officer Candidate School (OCS). Sharp is a graduate of Gulf Breeze High School and an Oklahoma Baptist University graduate. “I joined the Navy because I wanted to serve my country and follow in the footsteps of my family members who also previously served,” said Sharp.
The skills and values needed to succeed in the Navy are similar to those found in Oklahoma City. “A few lessons I have learned from my hometown that have helped me throughout my time in the Navy and at OCS are the importance of being resilient, adapting to new circumstances and stepping up as a leader when needed,” said Sharp.
OCS is one of four officer accession programs operating at Officer Training Command Newport (OTCN). OCS is the final step in a sailor’s transition into the Naval Officer Corps. This rigorous 13-week program is comprehensive, intense, and designed to reinforce understanding of the responsibilities of a naval officer.
Located in Newport, Rhode Island, the command’s mission is to develop newly commissioned officers morally, mentally and physically, and imbue them with the highest ideals of honor, courage and commitment in order to prepare them for the Fleet. Additionally, this program prepares officers to become effective leaders by developing fundamental skills in leadership, written and oral communication, career management and administration.
With 90% of global commerce traveling by sea and access to the internet relying on the security of undersea fiber optic cables, Navy officials continue to emphasize that the prosperity of the United States is directly linked to recruiting and retaining talented people from across the rich fabric of America.
Sharp serves a Navy that operates far forward, around the world and around the clock, promoting the nation’s prosperity and security. “We will earn and reinforce the trust and confidence of the American people every day,” said Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations. “Together we will deliver the Navy the nation needs.”
Sharp has many opportunities to achieve accomplishments during military service. “So far, my proudest accomplishment while serving in the Navy is having the opportunity to come to OCS as a student naval aviator,” said Sharp.
As Sharp and other sailors continue to train and perform missions, they take pride in serving their country in the U.S. Navy. “Serving in the Navy means that I am able to build myself and other sailors into great leaders,” added Sharp. “It also means setting an example for others to follow, not only in the fleet, but in society as well.”