By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jerry Jimenez, Navy Office of Community Outreach

Hunt attended Moore High School and graduated in 2016.
Hunt joined the Navy four years ago.
“I joined the Navy so I could see the world,” said Hunt.
Today, Hunt serves as an electronics technician aboard USS Chief.
Skills and values learned in the Navy are similar to those found in Oklahoma City.
“I come from a city with a small-town feel, which helped me get a sense of the Navy community,” said Hunt.
USS Chief is an amphibious warship. These types of ships embark, transport and land U.S. Marines for a variety of warfare missions. Because of their inherent capabilities, these ships have been and will continue to be called upon to support humanitarian and other contingency missions on short notice, according to Navy officials.
As a member of the Navy, Hunt is part of a world-class organization focused on maintaining maritime dominance, strengthening partnerships, increasing competitive warfighting capabilities and sustaining combat-ready forces in support of the National Defense Strategy.
“The Navy is important to national defense because at the end of the day it’s really the Navy that will prevent our enemies from getting to the United States.,” said Hunt.
Hunt serves in Japan as part of the Forward Deployed Naval Forces. These naval forces operate with allies and partners to preserve a free and open Indo-Pacific region. Service members in this region are part of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, which has the largest area of responsibility in the world.
“As the largest force in our nation’s front line against revisionist actors, U.S. Pacific Fleet meets this great responsibility with strength, resolve and confidence,” said Adm. Samuel Paparo, U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander. “Together with our joint and combined partner operations, we are positioned to defend – across all domains – any attempts to threaten our nation, our allies and partner’s security, freedom and well-being.”
Hunt and the sailors they serve with have many opportunities to achieve accomplishments during their military service.
“I am most proud of being able to have the technical knowledge to solve equipment malfunctions on the ship while underway at sea,” said Hunt.
As Hunt and other sailors continue to train and perform missions, they take pride in serving their country in the United States Navy.
“Serving in the Navy means showing our allies that we’re here for them,” said Hunt. “Recently we went to Okinawa and the people of Okinawa really showed their appreciation.”
Hunt is grateful to others for helping make a Navy career possible.
“I would like to thank my parents,” added Hunt. “They were really supportive of me. Also, my recruiter, Toni Knight, was very helpful in navigating my way and helping me understand the process.”

From Terry “Travels with Terry” Zinn t4z@aol.com

When you think of visiting Georgia you may only think of the big towns like Atlanta or Augusta, but there are other fascinating towns if you can make the time to travel by car which produces your own unique road trip.
Atlanta does have a lot to offer and I have to say I am impressed with my overnight stay at the Westin Peach Tree Plaza Hotel
(http://www.westinpeachtreeplazaatlanta.com/), with its downtown location, comfy rooms and an impressive observation deck on the 73 floor, capped off with a cocktail lounge and The Sundial Restaurant on adjoining floors. During the cocktail hour I enjoyed their Bar 73 New Georgia Peach Martini ($14) of Grey Goose, Peach Schnapps and Amaretto, to accompany a small Caesar salad ($9). The rotating cocktail lounge is a combination of exhilaration and relaxation with incomparable views of Atlanta.
Augusta (http://www.visitaugusta.com/) offers the historic yet quirky Partridge Inn which was the center of tourist attention of 1889 to 1930. After a recent renovation following many more previous additions, the Partridge Inn sits on “the hill,” as a testament to time and travelers of all seasons. A cocktail or light supper out on the verandah offers a tranquil and southern elegant evening. And while Augusta’s funky, The Bees Knees Restaurant is known for its variety of Tapas, I delighted in my first chicken and waffles. Among many attractions, Augusta offers for your education and enjoyment; the Canal National Heritage area, the Museum of History with a special exhibit of home town musician, James Brown, and an historic downtown with its Haunted Pillar. Touching or moving it may result in a death.
Escape to Statesboro (www.visitstatesboroga.com) where you will find a banquet size meal served in family style elegance complete with ghosts stories in the Historic Beaver House Restaurant
(http://www.thebeaverhouserestaurant.com) at 121 South Main Street.
The home dates back to 1911 and has an antebellum charm but in a real family residence, where room sizes are small but portions are large. The Traditional Boarding House Dinner served on Friday and Saturdays offers exceptional Prime Rib and Fried Fantail Shrimp which is served along with a plethora of homemade sides. And if you need a sweet desert or more, try the Cotton Patch Bakery and Deli for more homemade madness. If you are in a shopping mode on certain days take in the Main Street Farmers market and the nearby comic memorabilia shop, that brings out the kid in us all.
Statesboro is also home of legendary entertainer Emma Kelly. She was called by song writer Johnny Mercer as the lady of ten thousand songs, She is featured in a chapter in the book “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” and I was privilege to have sat in on a couple of her cocktail lounge performances in Savanah in past years. It was a life affirming joy to see that Statesboro renamed a theater in her honor before she past.
(http://www.averittcenterforthearts.org)
You may think you are in Europe when you stay at the Hotel Indigo in Athens, Georgia. The rooms are equipped with modern amenities, and light switches that may take a little exploration for you to work. This modern design and the hotel’s LEED Gold Certified property of sustainability, fits perfectly with Athens being the host to the University of Georgia.
As one might expect of a university town, Athens has upscale dining as I experienced at The Five & Ten Restaurant where I had a pre fix dinner of Smoked Kielbasa with artichokes, radicchio, fermented sunchoke, sorghum gastrique with sunflower seeds, and an entrée of Glazed Lamb Shoulder with pickled blueberries, hakurei turnips, fennel, smoked pecans and onion broth. A red wine of Minerviois, Chateau D’Oupia, from Languedoc, France 2012 accompanied the meal before the desert of Panna Cotta with pecan sandie thumbprint and pickled peaches. All was impeccably served and while the Lamb was delicious the Panna Cotta was ecstasy! And the true test of fine dining is a properly prepared Martini, which Five & Ten poured to my satisfaction.
Besides the Georgia Museum of Art, artistic delights should be consumed at a number of other eateries, including The Place, Creature Comforts Brewery and the roof top of the Georgia Theatre at Phickles Pickles serving Fried Chicken Skins and Pimento Cheese made with goat cheese. Yum!
Albany, Georgia (http://www.albany.ga.us) has the Ray Charles Plaza complete with a bronze of the entertainer and his piano at Riverfront Park, the Welcome Center in the old bridge house of the Flint River, the Civil Rights Institute and the new Flint River Aquarium. Albany is home to eight golf course and a number of entertainers including, Ray Stevens, Luke Bryan and American Idol Winner, Phillip Phillips. To round out your road trip a stop in Washington (www.historyofwilkes.org) will be a surprise you will not forget with its quaint town square, row upon row of architectural house gems, and the Washington Historical Museum in a home built in 1835, and today serves as a reminder of the past to understand the future of Wilkes County.
When in Georgia think about taking in one of these under sung locales.

Mr. Terry Zinn – Travel Editor
Past President: International Food Wine and Travel Writers Association
3110 N.W. 15 Street – Oklahoma City, OK 73107
https://realtraveladventures.com/?s=terry+zinn
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www.martinitravels.com

Dear Savvy Senior, Is it possible to collect Social Security benefits from my ex-spouse? We were married for 12 years but have been divorced for almost 20 years now. Never Remarried

Dear Never,
Yes, depending on your specific circumstances, you may very well be eligible for divorced spouses Social Security benefits. Here’s what you should know.
Who’s Eligible? A divorced spouse can collect a Social Security retirement benefit on the earnings record of their ex-husband (or ex-wife) if you are at least age 62, were married for at least 10 years, are unmarried, and are not eligible for a higher benefit based on your own earnings record.
In order to collect, your former spouse must also be at least 62 and eligible for Social Security benefits. But he doesn’t have to be receiving them in order for you to collect divorced spouse’s benefits, as long as you’ve been divorced for at least two years.
Even if your ex is remarried, it won’t affect your right to divorcee benefits, nor will it affect your ex’s retirement benefits or his current spouse’s benefits.
Benefit Amount. A divorced spouse can receive up to 50 percent of their ex’s full Social Security benefit, or less if they take benefits before their full retirement age, which is 66 for people born in 1945-1954 but is gradually increased to age 67 for people born in 1960 or later. To find out your full retirement age and see how much your benefits will be reduced by taking them early see SSA.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/agereduction.html.
Keep in mind though, that if you qualify for benefits based on your own work history, you’ll receive the larger of the two benefits. You cannot receive benefits on both your record, and your ex’s work record too.
To find out how much your retirement benefits will be, see your Social Security statement at SSA.gov/myaccount. And to get an estimate of your ex’s benefits, call Social Security at 800-772-1213. You’ll need to show your marriage certificate and divorce decree to prove your marriage lasted at least 10 years along with his Social Security number to get it.
Other Factors to Know. You also need to be aware that working can affect your divorced spouse’s benefits. If you start taking benefits while working, and are under full retirement age, your benefits will be reduced $1 for every $2 you earn above the annual limit, which is $21,240 in 2023. In the year you reach full retirement age, however, the annual limit increases to $56,520 and the reduction lowers to $1 for every $3 above that limit. See SSA.gov/pubs/EN-05-10069.pdf for more details.
Another factor that can reduce your divorced spouse’s benefits is receiving a pension from an employer that did not withhold Social Security taxes (like a government). This is a rule know as Government Pension Offset (see SSA.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/gpo-calc.html) which can reduce your benefits by two-thirds of the amount of your pension.
Divorced Survivor’s Benefits. You also need to know that when your ex-spouse dies (and if you were married for 10 or more years), you become eligible for divorced survivor benefits, which is worth up to 100 percent of what your ex-spouse was due.
Survivor benefits are available to divorced spouses as early as age 60 (50 if you’re disabled). But if you remarry before 60, you become ineligible unless the marriage ends. Remarrying after age 60 will not affect your eligibility.
Also note that if you are receiving divorced spouses benefits when your ex-spouse dies, you will automatically be switched over to the higher paying survivor benefit.
For more information visit:
https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/applying7.html and click on “Benefits for Your Divorced Spouse.”

Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book.

Large Revenue Gap Remains

Care Providers Oklahoma President and CEO Steven Buck today thanked the Legislature for including in their budget agreement a $47.8 million increase in funding for Oklahoma’s skilled nursing facilities and for Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (ICF/IIDs). The funding replaces a roughly equal amount of federal dollars made available through the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency that will no longer be available starting July 1, 2023, and avoids a steep funding cliff for skilled nursing in Oklahoma.
However, Buck also warned that nursing homes and ICFs still provide a large amount of uncompensated care that threaten the financial viability of many homes and may lead to closures. According to OHCA projections, the cost of treating a typical Medicaid resident in a skilled nursing facility is $246 per day. With the $47.7 million in additional state funding, nursing facilities will now be compensated approximately $225 per day per Medicaid resident, a $21 per day deficit.
“The Legislature has averted an outright catastrophe by replacing federal dollars that have been revoked due to the end of the COVID-19 emergency declaration,” said Buck. “That action will likely be enough to avoid widespread closures within the industry and provide some sense of stability for most residents and staff. We are grateful to our lawmakers for taking action on that front.”
“However,” continued Buck, “the majority of skilled nursing residents pay for their care using Medicaid. Each of those residents costs their facilities $21 a day in uncompensated care. In the long run, we cannot continue to expect reliable, high-quality services unless we can at least match the cost of care for our residents. Furthermore, facilities will not be able to hire and retain qualified workers at the $13 to $15 an hour rate that our current funding levels support.”
“The work our lawmakers did in 2023 prevented a disaster,” finished Buck. “But they can expect that we will be asking them to do more in 2024 so that we can adequately care for our residents, staff our facilities with qualified workers, and avoid more closures which disrupt the lives of vulnerable Oklahomans.”

Jim Gebhart was selected to lead Mercy’s operations in Oklahoma, including its clinics, nine acute care and two rehabilitation hospitals across the Sooner state. Gebhart currently serves as community president of Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City and will continue in this role.
As community president of operations for Oklahoma, Gebhart will focus on developing and implementing strategies to create the best experience for consumers and patients across the state who seek care at Mercy regardless of where they live.
“We want to focus on all of our Mercy Oklahoma hospitals and clinics working together to make a consistent experience for patients whether they live in Tishomingo, Watonga, Ada, Admore or Oklahoma City,” said Gebhart. “We learned a lot over the last three years working more closely than ever during the pandemic. During that time, we realized there are so many challenges to overcome in health care – and many continue today. It’s better for our patients and our co-workers when we work together as a region to share resources, expertise and innovations.”
A native of Burns Flat, Oklahoma, Gebhart has led Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City since 2009, overseeing the building and expansion of Mercy’s campus off I-35 in Edmond, the Coletta Building in Oklahoma City that houses oncology services and the addition of Mercy’s hospital in south Oklahoma City in 2020. He is currently overseeing the building of the Love Family Women’s Center and leads Mercy’s relationship with Oklahoma Heart Hospital, which provides cardiology services for patients on both Mercy hospital campuses in Oklahoma City.
Gebhart is a graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University, where he earned a bachelor’s in business administration. He also holds a master’s from the University of Dallas Graduate School of Management in health care administration.
For more information about Mercy Oklahoma, visit: https://careers.mercy.net/

Controlling a sometimes-deadly respiratory virus is a step closer to reality following U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of the first preventive vaccine for older adults, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientists say.
The FDA this month approved a vaccine to prevent respiratory syncytial virus, better known as RSV, in people aged 60 and older. The vaccine is made by the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to follow the FDA’s approval, clearing the way for RSV vaccines for older adults to be available in the U.S. this fall. Drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna are also in the late stages of developing RSV vaccines, including one for pregnant women.
“This is a major step, and even more progress against this virus appears to be on the horizon,” said OMRF physician-scientist Hal Scofield, M.D. “RSV annually kills thousands of seniors in the U.S. and has recently played a big part in stressing global health care systems, so this first vaccine approval is welcome news.”
RSV typically produces a cold-like illness, but it can cause lower respiratory infections like bronchiolitis and pneumonia. At greatest risk of RSV complications are older adults with chronic lung or heart disease, those with weakened immune systems, and young children. Scofield said the virus is “woefully underdiagnosed” in adults.
The CDC estimates that RSV leads to more than 60,000 hospitalizations and over 6,000 deaths among adults 65 years and older annually. According to GSK, in a clinical trial of 25,000 adults, its vaccine was more than 94% effective in preventing severe RSV.
GSK’s shot involves technology dating to the 1980s. Called a recombinant subunit vaccine, it is used in numerous immunizations, including those for hepatitis B and whooping cough.
OMRF scientist Susan Kovats, Ph.D., studies RSV. She is working to understand why the virus impacts children more frequently, with more than 2 million outpatient visits for children under age 5 annually, but generally hits older adults harder. The work is setting the stage for better treatments and will aid in vaccine design.
“There seems to be a correlation between virus load and age,” she said. “The preliminary data in our models of older adults shows that the older you are, the harder it is to eliminate the virus.”
Scofield and Kovats said the approval of the first vaccine for RSV is good news, as long as those eligible take advantage.
“Time will tell how widespread uptake of the vaccine will be,” said Scofield, “But for older adults most at risk of a bad outcome from RSV, I hope that getting vaccinated when it becomes will be an easy decision.”

The Oklahoma Mobility Institute (OMI), a connected organization to the Oklahoma Transit Association (OkTA), has been awarded a $10,000 local coalition grant from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA).
“OMI is a relatively new organization, and we are honored to receive this funding from APTA to further our mission of helping to facilitate an unparalleled transportation ecosystem with advanced mobility connectivity through shared resources and interorganizational partnerships,” said OkTA Executive Director Andrea Ball.
The grant funding will be used along with seed money from OKTA to support a Mobility Summit Listening Session for the State of Oklahoma to learn what services and support are required by transit providers. It will help OMI to develop tactics to achieve its goals over the next three to five years to advance transportation equity, inclusion, and mobility access for all Oklahomans.
“OMI’s goals include reducing no-show rates for appointments to medical and social services, ensuring weekly food access options for each community, providing grant support and application assistance to public transportation providers, and promoting mobility coordination and coordinated use of federal transportation funding,” Ball said.
The funding will also fund an OMI website that will provide online access to mobility resources in Oklahoma.
“The future website address is www.okmobility.org, and we expect it to be completed this summer,” Ball added.
APTA provides grants to help the fight for public transportation. Generally, grants awarded to coalitions range from $5,000 to $10,000.

Scammers are always finding new ways to steal your money and personal information by exploiting your fears. The most effective way to defeat scammers is to know how to identify scams and to ignore suspicious calls and emails.
One common tactic scammers use is posing as federal agents or other law enforcement. They may claim your Social Security number (SSN) is linked to a crime. They may even threaten to arrest you if you do not comply with their instructions. Here are three things you should do:
* Hang up right away or do not reply to the email.
* Never give personal information or payment of any kind.
* Report the scam at https://oig.ssa.gov/ to immediately notify the law enforcement team in our Office of the Inspector General.
You should continue to remain vigilant if you receive a phone call from someone who claims there’s a problem with your SSN or your benefits. If you owe money to us, we will mail you a letter explaining your rights, payment options, and information about appealing.
There are a few ways you can identify a scam call or email. Remember that we will never:
* Threaten you with benefit suspension, arrest, or other legal action unless you pay a fine or fee.
* Promise a benefit increase or other assistance in exchange for payment.
* Require payment by retail gift card, cash, wire transfer, internet currency, or prepaid debit card.
* Demand secrecy from you in handling a Social Security-related problem.
* Send official letters or reports containing personally identifiable information via email.
If you do not have ongoing business with our agency, it is unlikely we will contact you. Again, if you get a suspicious call claiming to be from us or law enforcement about Social Security, you should hang up and report it right away to our Office of the Inspector General at https://oig.ssa.gov/.