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Featured Profile: highlighting the work of a doctor, researcher, or other professional.
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David Hencke, Veteran Outreach Coordinator at VA Boston Healthcare System says one of the reasons the American warrior serves his/her nation is because of the great principles such as those found in the Declaration of Independence which includes every person’s right to pursue happiness.
“Notice that it doesn’t guarantee happiness – just the opportunity to pursue it,” Hencke said. “Yet it is a tragedy that today so many Veterans suffer needlessly and miss that opportunity because they fail to take advantage of the great benefits they have earned by taking the oath, wearing the uniform, and being willing to lay it all on the line for country and home.”
To help secure that quality of life for Veterans, the Outreach Coordinator position synchronizes existing VA outreach functions to more effectively find, engage and establish local Veterans in the VA network of care.
The Veterans Outreach Task Force, coordinated by Hencke and Assistant Director Karen Acerra-Williams, brings leaders together from various services in VA BHS, the Massachusetts Department of Veterans Services and other community agencies to develop a comprehensive campaign plan that will result in at least 1,500-1,800 new participants in FY12.
“It’s a tough challenge in some ways because military members are often the worst at taking care of themselves. By nature and by training, they often think of others first, and tend to their own needs last or not at all,” said Hencke. “Many live in the moment and attempt to shrug off pain as weakness; and for the current generation, thoughts of providing for the future are rarely their first concern.”
Hencke hopes that all Veterans will come to see VA Medical Centers as safe havens and a valuable resource center. “Getting them through the door once will go a long way towards generating return visits in the future,” Hencke said.
Hencke, an Army Infantry officer, served several years as a full time operations officer with the Virginia National Guard, worked in Mobilization and Strategy & Plans at the National Guard Bureau in Washington, DC, and is currently assigned to the Massachusetts National Guard. He was inspired to seek service with the VA in part from seeing the exceptional treatment that his father, an Army Air Force gunner on B-29 bomber in the Second World War, received from his local VAMC when he lost his sight several years ago.
A life lesson Hencke learned in military service and carries with him to VA BHS comes from one of his training sergeants at the US Army Airborne School in Ft. Benning, GA. One concern on every paratrooper’s mind when jumping out of an airplane at 2,500 ft. above ground is what to do if the main parachute fails to open. When one soldier asked the sergeant when they should activate the reserve parachute, the sergeant responded, “Son-you have the rest of your life to pull that rip cord. It’s all up to you.”
“Taking a lesson from this, our mission at the VA should be to help our Vets to take the initiative to pull that rip cord now and start making their lives better; that there’s no need to suffer endlessly or subsist at a lower quality of life when abundant help is here for Veterans, ” said Hencke.
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