BROOKINGS – “I check all the boxes,” said Courtney VanZanten, fairly new to the job of Brookings County veterans service officer.
She came on board July 26. She’s also the American Legion services officer for the state of South Dakota.
Being a veteran is a pre-requisite for both jobs. She’s more than well-qualified for the VSO job here. The boxes she checked are for membership in Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW); American Legion (AL); and Disabled American Veterans (DAV). Add to those qualifications five years as the VSO in Madison in Lake County.
By way of background, VanZanten, 38, is a native of Chester, where she graduated from high school in 2001. Next came South Dakota State University, where she graduated in 2005, having earned a degree in history and political science.
Additionally, she was enrolled in the Air Force ROTC program and was commissioned a second lieutenant. She calls herself an alumna of Det 780.
Finally, while attending SDSU, she took four semesters of Arabic. She admits to not being fluent. But she knew “enough to get by, enough to be conversational.” Her language skills would prove to be especially valuable in a future assignment.
VanZanten’s first assignment as a newly minted “butter bar” second lieutenant was to Elmendorf Air Force Base, Anchorage, Alaska, as a logistics readiness officer. She spent three years there before being assigned to Iraq in 2007 for an “in lieu” tour of 10 1/2 months with the Army.
Serving with ‘survivalists’
The Army was short of positions in some units, so the Navy and Air Force were sending personnel in lieu of soldiers to fill those Army billets. VanZanten was assigned to an Iraqi base training Iraqi soldiers who were fighting against ISIS.
“I was with Iraqi Special Operations Forces, where I was training an Iraqi logistics officer on how to do his job,” she explained. When the Iraqis went into the field, she went with them. ”Whatever the Iraqi Special Operations forces were doing, we were right alongside them. It was a really unique mission. There were 150 U.S. forces and 1,500 Iraqis and their families.
“It was actually really neat. I just did a post about it with 9/11 on my Facebook page. We got to hang out with the kids a lot. It was actually one of my favorite things to do. I got to go hang out with the families. The cultural interaction with the kids was a big part of what we did over there. It was expected of us.”
She ordered kids’ books on Amazon and read them to the kids in Arabic. She got to interact with the families a lot: “It was a really rewarding experience in that regard. Just absolutely adored it.”
In a nutshell overview, she saw the Iraqi Special Forces she served with, most of them Kurds, as “survivalists.” Many had lived most of their lives with the nation on a wartime footing.
‘Scarlet letter’ less of a stigma
“When I cut ties, I just got out and came back home,” VanZenten said of her leaving the Air Force in 2010. “I spent a few years just staying at home with the kids and then decided to get back into work as a veterans service officer.”
As a VSO, she sees her mission in simple terms: “Tying veterans into their benefits with the VA is my primary role.”
She’s the go-to for questions regarding health benefits, disabilities, pensions, housing loans, and educational benefits. One benefit she specifically cited was mental health.
“The VA has made leaps and bounds in terms of mental health,” VanZanten said. “The Sioux Falls VA, as a matter of fact, has a new mental health building being built upon the campus right now, looking to be opened in 2022. That’s going to be phenomenal – and deservedly so.”
Drilling down a bit on mental health, she focused on post-traumatic stress disorder.
“We had five people go back in a C-17, with the unit I was with.” And she goes to therapy through the VA in Sioux Falls.
“I’m glad that the scarlet letter (PTSD) is less of a stigma,” she said. “I don’t think we’ve gotten to where it (PTSD) needs to be yet. I do think there has been significant progress made. I’m a huge proponent of therapy,” she said. Laughing, she added, “I think everybody could use it.”
“I like to think I give a really good Memorial Day speech,” she said, again laughing. She continued in a more serious and philosophical tone.
“Look at what veterans go through and what they’re exposed to, through the exposures of combat, whether it be the traumatic events or just even the moral injury,” VanZanten explained. “You’re raised with ’thou shalt not kill,’ and then you’re given the direct orders to do so. You’re faced with this moral injury that’s hard to overcome.” She tied that aspect of “moral injury” being closer to this geographic part of America.
“Especially where we are,” she explained. “The upper Midwest tends to be a fairly conservative, church-going population, rural America. You see it a lot around here. People struggle with that moral injury.
“They don’t necessarily recognize it as such, because it isn’t a common term people throw around. And once, I think, they recognize that that is what they’re struggling with, it’s a lot easier to tackle.”
Get into the VSO
VanZanten is pretty sure she’s the first woman to fill the VSO post here in Brookings and was also the first to fill the Lake County post back in Madison.
Her message to Brookings County veterans is a simple one.
“Get into the Veterans Service Office. The best thing any veteran can do is get into the VA and really get their service documented.
“The VA is like any government system: If you don’t use it, you lose it. The more people use the VA system, the better funded it is.”
VanZanten says that veterans don’t use their VA benefits enough. She noted that many veterans don’t because they believe that if they do, they’re taking benefits away from a veteran who needs them more – such as an amputee.
“I’ve heard multiple excuses, but the most common of which is other people need them more than I do,” she explained. “They’re thinking of people who are missing an arm.
“But, again, if you aren’t using (the VA), you’re not providing the funding for the person who is missing the arm.”
Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.
