His younger brother, a Vietnam veteran, couldn’t talk about the war unless he was “stinking drunk,” Juan Blanco said. Only then would all the pain come pouring out.
So many military veterans, particularly those who’d experienced combat, are very similar, but a good deal of them will open up among their own. That’s a big reason why Blanco, a United States Army paratrooper and the founder of Coffee4Vets Inc., started the group, he told The Signal during last week’s meeting at Crazy Otto’s Diner in Canyon Country.
“There’s a lot of pain,” he said. “There’s still a lot of pain, and in this room, they get a chance to alleviate some of that pain with the stories they can tell. But they’re telling it in a friendship way and not in a horrible way. So, it’s the friendship and camaraderie that make this room successful.”
Free steaming pots of coffee came around for veterans throughout the morning in the diner, and half-priced breakfasts, too. Any United States military vet of any era can just show up for a Coffee4Vets gathering, from 8 to 10 a.m. every first and third Thursday of the month at the Canyon Country Crazy Otto’s on Soledad Canyon Road.
According to Coffee4Vets literature regarding the nonprofit organization, family members of veterans are also welcomed to participate.
During the meetings, vets not only get a chance to come together and socialize with each other, but they also receive updates on veteran benefits, upcoming veteran events, and current news and legislation information from Capitol Hill, Sacramento and Los Angeles County.
At last week’s breakfast, constituent liaison Chris Ward from the office of Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, spoke to the veterans in the room about the Fisher House Foundation, which offers what its website calls comfort homes at military and Veterans Administration medical centers where veterans and veteran families can stay free of charge. For example, if a veteran family has a loved one in the hospital in West Los Angeles or a veteran has an early-morning appointment there, both the family member and the veteran can stay at the Fisher Home.
“Say your exam is at 8 o’clock in the morning,” Ward told the veterans, “and you’ve got to be there at 6. Are you going to leave here at 4 in the morning? Maybe. Well, the West Los Angeles V.A. has what’s called the Fisher House. If you have not heard of it, the Fisher House is literally like a hotel. That is for the veteran and their family member or their caregiver or whoever is bringing that veteran for that test. You can stay there for free, literally across the street from West L.A. V.A.”
After she spoke, Ward told The Signal that she tries to assist veterans in any way she can. She’ll help them file their service-connected claims or obtain their military records and get their awards and medals. She added that many Vietnam-era vets never got their medals because they didn’t want anything to do with being honored for their service in Vietnam.
“But now that they’re this age, I kind of tug at the heart,” she said, “because it’s like, ‘But you’ve got grandchildren now. You’ve got kids now. They’ve got to know what you did to sacrifice for them.’ So, I put it that way, then they say, ‘OK, go ahead and get me those medals.’ And the one thing that the congressman will do is, once I get those medals, then because he is a veteran himself, he wants to make sure he’ll officially present those medals to the veterans, and we have medal-pinning ceremonies.”
Jerry Rhodes, an area veteran at Coffee4Vets, who’s also the communications officer of Chapter 355 of the Vietnam Veterans of America, told The Signal that Vietnam veterans, as Ward suggested, were certainly not always forthcoming about their service.
“We didn’t get a big welcome when we came home from Vietnam,” he said. “But this country is opening up and this is a very patriotic valley. I marched in the Fourth of July parade, and people stand up and applaud now.”
Blanco echoed those sentiments and said it’s why the Coffee4Vets motto is “pride of service.”
“When we first started out, they (the vets) may’ve come in with a hat,” he said. “Now, some of them will come in with jackets — well, it’s not wintertime anymore — but they’ll come in with the jackets with logos on them and patches from when they served. Pride of service is what was born out of this.”
Rebecca Chavez, one of the owners of the Canyon Country Crazy Otto’s with Jin Hur, said she’s proud to play a part in what Coffee4Vets is doing. She offers her establishment and services to the group because, she said, she has military family members who she’s seen struggle with various difficulties as a result of being in the military.
“I figured, ‘Why not have it here?’ And if they (her family members) want to come and be a part of it, they can, and if not, at least somebody gets help from it,” she said. “I think it’s important for them to have a meeting place where they can have a safe place to talk and figure it out and get the information they need, because some of them don’t know that that information is out there.”
Those who spoke to the group at last week’s breakfast also included Jimmy McCoy, a volunteer for the Santa Clarita Junior Chamber International and former Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq. He talked about JCI’s Veterans Resource Fair, scheduled 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sept. 21 at William S. Hart Park, which is a free event for veterans looking for information on mental health services, education benefits, disability benefits and financial grants.
Shonte’e Pettus, a veteran outreach specialist of Mental Health America of Los Angeles, shared how her organization helps veterans with housing.
In addition to those who presented to the veterans last week, Coffee4Vets also offered a table of flyers with information on how to get help with V.A. loans or on upcoming events like the Strikes for the Troops Bowling Fun-raiser scheduled 4 to 6 p.m. Aug. 18 at Valencia Lanes.
Those who attended the Coffee4Vets gathering last week came from most branches of the military and from many eras, including Korea, Vietnam and Iraq. Saugus resident Donald Kuehl is a 99-year-old World War II veteran who was in the U.S. Army serving in Italy. He was 18 years old when he enlisted in the Army. He said he did it after the attack on Pearl Harbor. As for Coffee4Vets, he told The Signal that he’s so glad he was able to find the group.
Kuehl’s caregiver, Francesco Leon, who was with Kuehl at the breakfast, added, “This is his camaraderie, and he’s appreciated by other military.”
Kuehl doesn’t have many family members in the area. He said he outlived most of them. But that makes going to Coffee4Vets all the more important to him.
Blanco stressed that therein lies another big reason he started Coffee4Vets, which he also offers in Lancaster for Antelope Valley veterans.
“The thing I try to stress upon all of this is that we’re family,” he said. “We care about one another very much. And you get a chance to tell tall stories.”
Tall tales were indeed told. But who’s to argue with the teller? During the breakfast, the diner was filled with chatter, warmth and laughs. The place was packed, and as so many of them said, the time was well spent.
For more information about Coffee4Vets, go to coffee4vets.org.
