Charles Brimeyer

TH: How did you happen to come into getting this job nine years ago?
CB: I saw that it was advertised. I had been at Flexsteel 30 years. I always wanted to do this type of work, working for veterans. I had previously been president of the Tri-State Vietnam Veterans Association and was doing some of the work before - not a whole lot, but just enough to be dangerous. When I saw this had become available, I applied for it. I thought I had about as much of a chance of getting it as ... none at all.

Charles Brimeyer Age: 59 Occupation: Executive director, Dubuque County Commission of Veterans Affairs, 1995-present. Family: Husband of Pat, also a Vietnam veteran. Son of Edward N. and Gladys Mehl Brimeyer, both deceased. Father of Wayne, of Moline, Ill.; Steven, of Dubuque; Barbara Klauer, of Albuquerque, N.M.; Sarah Brimeyer, of Dubuque; grandfather of four. Hometown: Dubuque. Education: Graduate of Wahlert High School. Certified financial counselor and certified union counselor. Military: U.S. Army, 1965-67. Two Vietnam Campaign ribbons. Certificate of Achievement - Fourth Infantry Division. Professional associations: Iowa State Commission of Veterans Affairs Education Committee, Iowa City Veterans Administration medical center customer service committee. Community memberships: American Legion, Tri-State Vietnam Veterans Association, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans. Hobby: Woodworking.

TH: Now, for people who are not familiar with the department, is this a state department, a county department, a federal department?
CB: This is a county department. It's called Dubuque County Commission of Veterans Affairs. Or, if we're on the phone, it's Dubuque Veterans Affairs.

TH: So your funding comes through the county property tax?
CB: The county taxes, yes. The supervisors in Dubuque County have been very, very good and Veterans Affairs has been well received by them. We work for the county.

TH: How large is the budget for this office?
CB: For fiscal 2004-05, it's just under $394,000.

TH: That's for everything?
CB: Yes.

TH: You mentioned earlier that you were drafted. What was going on at the time when you got the notice that you were going into the service?
CB: Well, that's a story. I was in college in '63. I did not know that I had been given a deferment to go to college. I dropped out of college because I wanted to further my life experiences. I don't know how else to put that one.

TH: Well, let's back up. You were considering the priesthood.
CB: I was at that time. I had gone into the minor seminary at Loras College. After being there for a short period of time, I didn't think it would work without some type of other life experiences. I quit college and then I started working little jobs here and little jobs there. In 1965, the Draft Board over in Galena, Ill. - because I had turned 18 in Illinois and I signed up over there. In '65, they called me over and said, "You know you had a deferment?" I said, "No, I had no idea." "You don't get that deferment. You're not in school." The day before Thanksgiving in 1965, I was on the mail train going to Chicago be sworn in.

TH: Then you did your basic training and then you shipped over to Vietnam?
CB: We did basic at Fort Lewis, Wash. Then we went over to Vietnam aboard ship. I even remember the name of the ship. The USS Gordon. It was a trip. Twenty-eight days on the ocean. We had to go around a typhoon at that time. We landed in Quinhon, which is on the coast.

TH: In Vietnam, you were a combat engineer.
CB: I was a squad leader and combat engineer. When I landed in Vietnam, I was a corporal. We flew from Quinhon to where they left us at, which was Camp Enari, outside of Pleiku. A day later, they came and gave me a third stripe for the squad leader. So I made rank within six months. I was up to a sergeant. As I said, they needed somebody to shoot at with stripes on, that's all.

TH: For those of us who aren't familiar with all the duties, what did you do as a combat engineer?
CB: When we first landed in Vietnam, we were there before the infantry, so we had to start building the base camp, which means we had to clear some trees off some land and we had to start putting up the barbed wire, concertina wire, putting the perimeter up. After the infantry showed up, we went out into the boonies and we swept the road for mines. If you'd find a mine, you'd dig it up or destroy it in place and then we'd have to repair the roads. We would go out when the infantry would find a bunker complex. We'd be called out to go out and blow it up. We did a lot of demolition. A lot of road sweeping. If we weren't doing that, we blew up mountains to the gravel and make little rocks out of big ones and repair bridges. When one of the infantry outfits would get overrun, we were taken out in helicopters with demolition, of course, and had to clear a bigger landing zone for them and blow the trees out. We'd do whatever. Help evac the wounded and the dead out. Basically, a combat engineer is an infantryman with a shovel.

TH: And a rifle.
CB: Yeah, we had the rifle, too.

TH: How did your service in the Army change you as a person?
CB: Well, before the military, I was jumping from job to job. Right before I left in February of '65, I had a job at Flexsteel. When I came back, I stayed at Flexsteel for 30 years. It brought in me a sense of duty. A definite sense of honor, especially for this country and the flag. Once you're in the military, every veteran is a brother or sister. Every veteran, you can identify with them. Because I've had life experience now, since the military, and the military has actually made me, I believe, a stronger person. It's given me the ability to go ahead and do things when I don't know if I would have done that if I would have not gone into the military. I would have had a totally different life experience. I would more than likely never have known what life and death on the plane that I know it right now. I believe that every soldier has looked death right in the face, because everyone faces death, stands in harm's way, as they say, and knows what life is about and chooses life. It sounds philosophical, but it's real.

TH: That's very real.
CB: It really is. The troops in Iraq that are there today are facing it every day. There's no doubt in my mind. I don't care if they're in a rear area or in a forward area, because I don't believe any more there's such a thing as a rear area. The green zone is no longer green and safe. Never was. So you learn how to deal with adversity. You learn how to live.

TH: Probably from the Vietnam era more than any other era, we have noted how many of your brothers and sisters who served in Vietnam seem very reluctant to talk about their experiences. You work with those folks day in and day out. Are they still not wanting to talk about it, or are you seeing that change?
CB: No. It isn't only the Vietnam veteran. We assumed that it would only be the Vietnam veteran because they came home not to a good welcome for most and to a lot of misunderstanding, so they didn't talk about it to anybody at all. What I'm finding out in doing my job and in my capacity here, it isn't only Vietnam. The only difference in the wars is the year it happened. I have dealt with World War II veterans who, maybe for the first time, they may tell me something about what happened, but their spouses don't even know it. As soldiers, Marines, whichever, it isn't a matter of telling everything because some of the stuff - how can we tell our loved ones what we really did? Not that they don't already know, but the point is, we don't like to verbalize it. What I've seen is that Vietnam veterans don't like to try and remember any of it, as bad as it was. Vietnam was bad. I will never say it wasn't; it was. But how bad was the Bataan Death March? I can't imagine how bad that is. I slept with rats and bugs and things that go bump in the night that I never liked. And somebody trying to shoot me. But what difference would that be than the horror of being a POW or the horror of Bataan Death March or the Chosin Reservoir. But the thing is, we don't want to tell people the bad part of it. A lot of us will tell stories that are just humorous. Then, nothing must have happened. Well, yeah, that's right. But Vietnam became more apparent, I believe, because of that.

TH: How would you describe our government's overall treatment of veterans? If you had to give it a letter grade, if you would, how are we as a country doing by our veterans?
CB: This going to run after the election? I separate country and government, OK? Our country, I believe, is treating all of its veterans with great dignity and honor. It's the greatest honor, medal, that you could given a veteran is just to say thank you to any of them for serving their country. I know this is a sidebar, but when I was down in Des Moines the other week for schooling, there were three Marines that were at the hotel we were. They were lining up some kind of doings. But it dawned on me all at once. You know, they're in uniform so I can go to this hotel and I can sleep at night. And I walked up to them and thanked them for allowing me a good night's sleep. He just turned to me and said, "Well, thank you. I appreciate that." That's all. No big deal. But I believe this country is honoring its veterans and that's the way it should be. I think that anyone that sees a person who is in uniform or knows a veteran should just go up and "thank you." That means more to us sometimes than anything else you could do. Now, we may not be able to answer you because we choke up easy. Now, the government. I work a lot with health care. I work with Iowa City VA and I work with the Dubuque VA Clinic. In funding for the VA health care, we need to stay on top of it. These people in that profession, people at the VA in Iowa City, the people at the VA, they call it a CBOC (Community Based Outpatient Clinic) up at the Dubuque VA Clinic, they're there to help care for veterans. It's a passion. I believe the most difficult people to care for are veterans.

TH: Why?
CB: Where else are you going to find somebody who has post-traumatic stress disorder, gunshot wound or shrapnel wound, maybe flat feet or frozen feet? This doesn't happen in the regular population. These all are particular to military duty. Police officers have the same. Firefighters. Even the health care professionals have the same problems. But try dealing with them on a basis where you first need to get their trust and then you need to be able to understand when they come in and they're in pain, they may not tell you. But the whole scheme of things on who a veteran is and what pain are they going through because veterans are notorious for if the wound isn't close to the heart, "I'll be OK. It'll be all right."

TH: Sort of a macho thing.
CB: Well, you're trained when you go in, if you don't have an open, sucking chest wound, you might as well get up and do your job because somebody else's life depends upon you.

TH: I got you a little off track about the government aspect of it. We talked about health care. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I'm getting the impression that the government's assistance to veterans in terms of health care is not measuring up.
CB: They're trying to balance the VA budget on the back of the veteran.

TH: How?
CB: Funding for the VA is all done out of one budget. That's for comp and pen, is the same budget as health care is.

TH: I'm sorry. Comp and pen?
CB: Compensation and pension. Those are for injuries received on duty or for unable to work and you get a pension from the VA. If you are disabled or over the age of 65 and your income is under a certain level. That's also tied to the veteran's health care. We have also had in the past few years where veterans, no matter what their income was, Congress said they all will get seen at the VA for health care, if they want it. Health care and medications. If they have a certain amount of money, they're going to be paying for their health care, co-pay and medications. Now, in the last few years, it's been proposed by the government that co-pay start at, I believe it's $230 or $250. It's an up-front payment before you can get seen at the VA. And the medications, they want them to go to $15 a prescription. VA Secretary (Anthony J.) Principi just declared POWs with heart conditions and strokes are service connected because the stress of POW. Estimated at $26 million. This was an article in the Telegraph Herald. Twenty-six million it's going to cost this year for that program. And it's coming from veterans' health care. Where is that $26 million going to come? That's a little over a million dollars from each area, it's called a VISN, that Veterans Integrated Service Network, and that's like what Iowa City sits in. Iowa City, Des Moines, Knoxville, Minneapolis, Fargo, Lincoln. They're going to lose a million dollars - not lose, but they're going to have a million dollars already earmarked that they hadn't planned on and it's an unfunded mandate again.

TH: It's coming out of that same pot.
CB: Mm, hmm. It's coming out of the same pot that's already been allocated out. Not all veterans can be seen at the VA now because the secretary, due to constraints, part of them budget and part of them so many veterans wanting to be seen have taken what they call Priority Group 8 and say you are no longer eligible to sign up for health care because you don't have a need because you have more money than $80,000 in the bank. Ever look at what health care costs a year? And medications? I mean, that's a big deal. But now we can't see them, any new ones.

TH: OK, let me make sure I understand this. Say there's a veteran - Gulf War I, Vietnam, whatever. If a veteran has more than $80,000 in the bank or
CB: Income and assets.

TH: Income and assets, which really isn't a whole lot if somebody has worked all their life after the service
CB: No, it's not.

TH: If they've done a decent job saving part of their check and so on, now they are no longer eligible for health care?
CB: If they are not in the system and they sign up today, they won't be able to get seen at the VA because they're outside the priority groups that are allowed, that's correct. Eighty thousand dollars? One hundred thousand dollars? Nursing homes are now $45,000 to $50,000, plus medications. I mean, in two or three years, you're out of money.

TH: So if a veteran has to buy this care privately and they get below that $80,000 level, then
CB: Then we can apply and get them in there.

TH: But they have to spend down their assets to get there.
CB: Basically. Or they still come in and apply. We want them to come in and apply. We want them to call the office (563/589-7840) and apply for those benefits. Make the VA do their job. If you have a Purple Heart and you have a million dollars in the bank, you're eligible for health care from the VA because you have a Purple Heart. If you're a POW, you're in. There's no questions asked. Same with veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq; they are eligible for free medical care immediately, regardless of income or assets. But if, on the other hand, they come into the office and they say they want to file for that and the office staff talks to them and they say, what did you do in the service. And the guy will say, "Well, I was in the artillery." "Do you have a hearing loss?" "No, no, I don't have one." If the wife is with them, we get the direct answer. And the wife says, "Well, you don't hear me." I mean, that's what we do. What happens is, even if they're over the income and asset guidelines, if there is anyway that we can get them service-connected and get them compensation - the minimum amount is $109 a month - they are automatically eligible for VA health care. Irregardless of income and assets.

TH: This seems to be an important point. It doesn't matter when you served, where you served, what your experience is. Say you were one of the very lucky ones and you got through with no apparent health problems or wounds or injuries. Even if you got through without a scratch, you still want veterans to come in and get their names on the rolls here.
CB: Yes. I would love to have every veteran in the area sign up for health care. We'll even help them fill out the application for other states and that. But I can't help them do a claim unless they're from Dubuque County.

TH: You've been in this job nine years and you probably wouldn't stay in it if you didn't like it.
CB: I work for the best people in the United States. I work for every veteran and every veteran's spouse in Dubuque County.

TH: What makes it such a good job?
CB: Dubuque County Veterans Affairs is a relief office. We do not give hand-outs. We will give hands-ups. We will help you up, but we're not just going to keep paying. That's a welfare and we don't do welfare here. It's so good when you have a veteran or a surviving veteran's spouse or minor child that's living in a home that the electricity is going to be cut off or the gas is going to be cut off, to be able to make sure that they have a roof over their head, the help them get their life back together. To help them do something positive that they are in such dire need. I've been there. And when you're in dire need, first of all, sometimes you don't think just correctly because of the stress. How am I going to feed my children? How am I going to pay this electric bill? The gas is going to be shut off. Veterans don't like to come and ask for help. We always try to give them their dignity. This is what's so nice about it. They're dealing with a veteran here.

TH: You're very wrapped up in the lives of thousands of veterans, people coming to see you. Do feel yourself leaving the office with a little extra weight on your shoulders, in knowing about so many veterans who do have difficulties?
CB: When I leave the office at night, I'm pretty well spent. But sometimes you can't help but take them home. Yeah, I worry about them. It's real difficult to sit there sometimes and talk to a veteran and try to - you always want to be professional - but that veteran is no different than the guy sitting on the other side of the desk. You know what the difference is between me and the guy or gal sitting across the desk?

TH: What's that?
CB: Three feet of space. But, hey, that's what makes the job so good. I'm helping veterans who have done the same thing I've done and I'm able to do something about it.