{"id":1316557,"date":"2019-11-09T22:00:52","date_gmt":"2019-11-10T05:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=990631"},"modified":"2019-11-11T08:09:04","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T15:09:04","slug":"sunday-profile-thank-you-for-your-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/sunday-profile-thank-you-for-your-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Profile: \u2018Thank you for your service\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Garfield County VSO Lisa Reed-Scott speaks with Lt. Col. Dick Merritt at the Veterans Resource Center’s open house on Tuesday morning in downtown Glenwood.<\/strong>
Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Garfield County Veterans Service Officer Lisa Reed-Scott had a busy day Tuesday.<\/p>\n

She, along with members of the Western Slope Veterans Coalition, celebrated the third anniversary of the Jesse Beckius\/Casey Owens Veterans Resource Center in downtown Glenwood Springs with an open house to the community.<\/p>\n

The location<\/a> is named after two local veterans who died by suicide in 2013 and 2014, respectively.<\/p>\n

The alarming rate of suicides among veterans is one of the many challenges Reed-Scott hopes to combat by raising awareness.<\/p>\n

Reed-Scott was named<\/a> Garfield County Veterans Service Officer (VSO) in February, after working at the Colorado Veterans Community Living Center in Rifle for 11 years.<\/p>\n

Although the Rifle resident is still settling in to her new position, helping local veterans in need has been a longtime mission of hers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here for them,\u201d she says. \u201cI need to make sure that I listen to every veteran that comes through this door and help them in any way I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the veteran services Reed-Scott provides include assistance with paperwork for disability claims, education benefits, health care, and Veterans Administration appointments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go on the military, they train you to be a soldier, but no one trains you to be a civilian,\u201d said Charles Hopton, Board President of the Western Slope Veterans Coalition<\/a>. \u201cOur job is to provide that information and help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reed-Scott and the Western Slope Veterans Coalition share offices and efforts at the Resource Center building located at 803 Colorado Ave. in Glenwood Springs.<\/p>\n

She also works part-time from the Garfield County office in Rifle.<\/p>\n

Something Bigger Than Herself<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The sole woman to serve in a family with three generations of veterans before her, Reed-Scott enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 at age 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople thought I was crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to do something bigger than myself,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause of Desert Storm, the Marine Corps was the only branch allowing women to go in at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Marine Corps has the lowest ratio of women<\/a> among all of the U.S military branches. Even though that didn\u2019t stop Reed-Scott from enlisting, it was a constant challenge throughout her service years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were not a lot of women,\u201d she said. \u201cI had to do it better because it was so difficult to gain their respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reed-Scott served as a communications operator, MOS 2542. She was stationed in Japan and California and was close to being deployed to Somalia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was on-call 24 hours a day,\u201d she recalled. \u201cWe were preparing, that\u2019s what our job was.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Michigan native got emotional when remembering her time in service.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite part was the camaraderie with the other Marines,\u201d she said. \u201cYou learn not to take life for granted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tough experience, but it\u2019s worthwhile. You are doing something bigger than yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

After being honorably discharged in 1995, Reed-Scott moved to Parachute before settling in in Rifle \u2014 a city she hopes will be her forever home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to raise my kids here.\u201d<\/p>\n

No One Left Behind<\/strong><\/h3>\n

According to Reed-Scott, the majority of veterans who seek help from the Garfield County Veterans Services are Vietnam veterans, followed by those who served in the Korean and Gulf Wars.<\/p>\n

She continues to point out that female veterans are a rarity.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting through to a woman can be 10 times harder than getting through a man,\u201d she says. \u201cThey just put their walls up.\u201d<\/p>\n

She affirmed that until recently there were no services or groups focused on women veterans in the Western Slope, which made it difficult for those seeking specialized assistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a woman was assaulted in service, do you think she would want to discuss that with a group of men?\u201d Reed-Scott said. \u201cIt makes it harder for them to reach out for help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Housing, substance abuse, homelessness, mental health and suicide are the main issues affecting Garfield County veterans of all ages, the VSO reports. <\/p>\n

But she believes everyone can find their own way to help, and a simple way to start is by showing appreciation.<\/p>\n

From making financial donations to the Coalition, which Alpine Bank will match up to $5,000<\/a>, to more local businesses providing special military discounts \u2014 Reed-Scott said just listening to veterans or offering a simple \u201cthank you for your service\u201d can go a long way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese men and women are fascinating and have so many amazing stories to share.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on veteran services provided by Garfield County, contact the VSO Lisa Reed-Scott at 970-948-6767 or garfield.vso@outlook.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first step is contacting us, we can get help,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m a Marine and I don\u2019t leave anybody behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video<\/h3>\n

The Tuesday event also celebrated the United States Marine Corps\u2019 244th birthday with a cake-cutting ceremony.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

nolen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Garfield County VSO Lisa Reed-Scott speaks with Lt. Col. Dick Merritt at the Veterans Resource Center’s open house on Tuesday morning in downtown Glenwood.Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent Garfield County Veterans Service Officer Lisa Reed-Scott had a busy day Tuesday. She, along with members of the Western Slope Veterans Coalition, celebrated the third anniversary of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1316557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 13:56:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1316557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1316582,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316557\/revisions\/1316582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1316557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1316557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1316557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}