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Towns Appoint Veterans' Services Contacts

As of Oct. 1, a new state law requires each Connecticut town to appoint a veterans' service contact person.

The appointee's job is to coordinate "all matters concerning [town] veterans and their dependents" and to connect them with activities and programs of public and private agencies and facilities for veterans' reemployment, education, rehabilitation, and adjustment to peacetime living.

Under the act's provisions, each city or town can either establish a local veterans' advisory committee to serve this role or may designate a city or town employee to be the town's veterans' service contact person. Each contact person must complete during his or her first year a course on veterans' benefits given by the state's veterans' advocacy and assistance unit.

Appointed to serve as the Town of Westbrook's appointee-and a committee of one-is John Johl. Johl is a property owner and taxpayer in Westbrook and a military veteran. Commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Force Reserve after college graduation, he served on active duty during the Korean War (1952-'54) and the Berlin Wall Crisis (1961-'62). He also was a member of the Connecticut Air National Guard, the New York Air National Guard, the New Jersey Civil Defense and Civilian Air Patrol, and currently is a member of Westbrook's Veterans Honor Guard and the Westbrook Drum Corps.

Old Saybrook First Selectman Carl Fortuna, Jr., designated the town's director of Youth and Family Services, Heather McNeil, as the town's veterans service contact person.

Since 2007, McNeil has been a professional member of the Connecticut Military Support Program. For two of those years, she also served as an embedded clinician attached to a Connecticut military unit. In this role, she worked with members of the military and their families before, during, and post-deployment.

Since this position is new, Westbrook First Selectman Noel Bishop decided to bring together area towns' veterans service contact persons to talk about their new roles.

Bishop has organized a Tuesday, Nov. 12 breakfast event in the Westbrook Senior Center for area veterans contact persons and their first selectmen. Attending the meeting also will be representatives of the state's Veterans Affairs Department's new unit that will oversee the new network of local veterans' contacts and train the veterans' contact appointees.