Forum aims to provide aid to vets

DANVERS – Looking tired and a bit dazed, Jerry Parisella stood up from his plastic chair and waved at the crowd of 25 or so veterans and their families who were clapping for him Friday night in Danvers.Just the night before, the Army Major had stepped off the plane at Boston’s Logan Airport after serving 11 months in Iraq. He spent most of his first day in America catching up with his 7-year-old daughter, Sophia, and 21-year-old stepson, Chris. But Friday night, he suited up to join veterans young and old at Holten Richmond Middle School for a forum on veterans’ aid.Hosted by Congressman John F. Tierney, the event was aimed at connecting North Shore veterans and their families to the myriad of services available to them.Parisella, also a state representative representing the Fifth Essex district, said it was important for him to get connected immediately to support.”It’s been an interesting transition,” he said, describing missing his daughter’s birthday and trick-or-treating – “all of the things you take for granted.”With a panel of key figures for area veterans’ affairs, including Coleman Nee, the secretary for the state’s department of veterans’ services, the panel discussed everything from medical benefits to licenses denoting veteran status to the new law passed this week creating tax incentives for businesses that hire veterans.The amount of information can be overwhelming, Nee said, and it’s always a challenge to disseminate it to veterans more concerned with catching up with their families than signing papers. But it’s a challenge the state will keep pursuing, he said.”You can’t take advantage of something you don’t know exists,” he said.For 63-year-old Vietnam veteran Jim Rooney sitting in the front row, he was hoping to take advantage of a key component for returning veterans: medical disability support.Rooney, of Lynnfield, has had three brain tumors, the last one cancerous, and can’t afford to pay all of the bills.”I don’t know why they won’t help pay more,” he said.Behind him, disabled veteran Tim Ryan of Georgetown reached down to pet his cock-a-poo, Pepe. The military had provided him with Pepe six years ago as part of a new program enhancing service dogs for veterans.Although he had spent much of his life in the Coast Guard and now as a veteran, he said he has a hard time keeping track of services available to him.”Even today, I keep learning more and more,” he said.But his efforts are paying off: On a visit to his old base in the Caribbean several years ago, he said fellow servicemen were grateful people like Ryan had made an effort to use veterans’ services.”‘If we need it, we get it, thanks to you,'” Ryan said his servicemen told him.Amber Parcher can be reached at [email protected].