Officer assists veterans in receiving services
By DAVID LOWE Staff Writer

PHOTO BY DAVID LOWE Lampasas County Veterans Service Officer Jesse Hurst, left, talks in his office with John Connolly. Hurst, in his ninth year as county veterans service officer, helps those with honorable discharges receive a variety of state and federal veterans benefits.

They come from a variety of backgrounds. They served in vastly different wars. Jesse Hurst pursues the same objective, however, with each veteran he assists: securing the benefits earned through sacrifice.

As Lampasas County's veterans service officer, Hurst helps service members obtain everything from home loans to medical care in Veterans Affairs hospitals.

Lampasas County's estimated 3,252 veterans received $21.6 million in 2006, according to a Texas Veterans Commission report.

Those who apply for benefits do not have to have retired from the military, Hurst said. As long as they have not been dishonorably discharged, service members can qualify for government benefits even with a short military record.

Texas Veterans Land Board loans for land or home purchases and home improvements, for example, are available to those with 90 or more days of cumulative duty or active duty training in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, reserves or the Coast Guard.

Veterans can receive below-market interest rate loans of as much as $60,000 for land purchases, $25,000 for home improvements and $240,000 from participating TVLB lenders for home purchases.

Hurst, a veteran with 32 years of combined active duty and reserve service, bought 25 acres in the country with a Veterans Land Board loan.

Land programs have become more flexible in recent years, he said, as veterans now can purchase tracts as small as one acre.

Improving technology and an increase in VA doctors means hospital care for veterans is improving at the Temple facility, Hurst added. The service officer attributes criticism of the VA to "system overload," as the influx of soldiers from Iraq means doctors cannot respond as quickly to older veterans.

On the other hand, the Temple hospital recently added five inhalation therapists to treat soldiers returning from desert combat with respiratory disorders.

"It's gotten tremendously better," Hurst said of VA medical care. "We're getting some pretty good doctors and physician assistants at the VA hospitals."

Other state benefits include free state park admission, license plates and hunting licenses for veterans with at least a 60 percent VA disability rating, and interment honors -- free for veterans and $300 for their spouses or dependents -- in state veterans cemeteries.

Hurst assists service members in applying for federal, as well as state, veterans benefits.

Hurst is available in his office at 412 S. Live Oak St. on Wednesdays from 9-11 a.m. For information, phone 556-8271 and ask for the veterans service officer.