EPISODE 28- How NCOA Supports Southern Oregon Veterans

In this episode, Jamie Callahan talks with Terry Haines, Chairman of the Non-Commissioned Officers Association (NCOA) Rogue Chapter 1260 — the largest NCOA chapter in the entire country. With decades of advocacy behind him, Terry shares how this volunteer-powered organization is improving quality of life for enlisted veterans and their families right here in Southern Oregon.

You’ll hear:

• Why the NCOA was founded — and why their mission still matters today
• How Southern Oregon veterans are being honored through the Vietnam Memorial Wall project
• The impact of care packages, legislative advocacy, and mental-health programs
• How events like Vet Run, golf & bowling tournaments raise vital local support
• The meaning behind the veteran medallion program — and the emotional reactions it inspires
• Ways our community can get involved and help prevent veteran suicide

🎖️ From active service to aging at home, the NCOA continues to show up for those who showed up for us.

📞 Connect with NCOA Rogue Chapter
Website: NCOARogue.org

📞 Team Senior resources: 541-295-8230

At Team Senior™, our mission is to guide you and support you through the maze of Southern Oregon Long-Term Care.

📞 For Team Senior resources, call: 541-295-8230

Or visit our website for more information: https://www.teamsenior.org/

Transcript

TEAM SENIOR PODCAST - TRANSCRIPT

Host: Jamie Callahan
Guest: Terry Haines, NCOA Rogue Chapter

JAMIE CALLAHAN: Hi, this is Jamie Callahan with the Team Senior Podcast. Our goal is to simplify aging. Society grooms us to plan for retirement, but what about life beyond retirement, where the rubber meets the road? Perhaps you've had a stroke, or you've been diagnosed with cancer, or maybe you're forgetting things and now you have dementia. That's our area of expertise, and we are here to share our insight.

And now, the Team Senior Podcast.

Hi, this is Jamie Callahan, and we are in the studio today with Terry Haines, who happens to be one of my very favorite people in the entire world. I often describe Terry by saying that I'm busy—I'm really busy—but Terry runs circles around me when it comes to serving veterans.

Terry is with the NCOA, the Non-Commissioned Officers Association. Terry, I want to let you introduce yourself. Tell us what the NCOA is and what your role is with the organization.

TERRY HAINES: I'm thankful to be here today because NCOA has been a part of my life since about 1987. And every once in a while, I get a phone call from people thinking that the NCOA stands for the National Council on Aging. And after a short period of time, I get them to understand that, no, we're the Non-Commissioned Officers Association.

And what NCOA does is—they're an organization that represents all the enlisted personnel in all branches of the service: active and reserve, National Guard. And we basically try to take care of the enlisted folks and their needs, as well as their family needs, because the needs of enlisted are often quite different than, say, the officer corps. E-1s through E-9s—they have different needs when you're first starting out in your service versus the E-9 that's been there for 25, 30 years, that pretty much just got their act together. And everything in between. That's what we do.

The local chapter here in Southern Oregon—the Non-Commissioned Officers Rogue Chapter, Number 1260—I've been involved with that, and I was tricked into becoming the chairman early on in my career because somehow they thought there was something good about me. And so I went to a meeting, and we were elected, and I got railroaded into this thing. And then everybody sits around and they say, "I'll take the vice chair," and "I'll be the secretary," and "I'll be the membership," and "I'll be the treasurer." And they all turned around and looked at me simultaneously. I guess that means you're the chairman. And that's how I got wrapped into becoming the chairman of the Non-Commissioned Officers Rogue Chapter.

JAMIE: I think that was a good decision on their part, if they actually had a decision to make in it.

TERRY: I haven't been the chapter chairman all this time. A lot of others have held the position. I got deployed overseas, and my father held the chapter chairman, and several others have done it in the meantime. But I've been the chapter chairman for the last, say, 10 years, primarily because everybody seems to be happy and I still have the energy to do what I do. And to me, it takes energy, it takes drive, it takes passion.

And I have been involved for a long time helping veterans ever since I was a congressional aide for Congressman Robert F. Smith way back in the eighties, and I was his veterans and military caseload worker. And that absolutely planted the seed of caring for veterans and has never ceased from that point forward.

JAMIE: That definitely exudes from everything that you do. So you talked a little bit earlier about serving folks that are enlisted. Tell me, what is the NCOA doing for enlisted people right now?

TERRY: We're providing legislative representation, which a lot of veterans organizations do, but our focus is strictly on taking care of the quality of life for our enlisted—whether it's housing issues, healthcare issues. The housing issues are much different for an enlisted family than they are for an officer's family. And that's not to diminish the needs of our officer corps, whether you're on a base or not, but the pay discrepancies between what enlisted make and what an officer makes is night and day.

It's gotten better over the years, and a lot of that is because of NCOA and a lot of other veteran organizations basically saying, "Hey, we make up 80% of the entire military, and yet we only get about 20% of the attention on the part of the military or the Congress." And it all boils down to—somebody had to step up. And in 1960, when NCOA was formed, it was by a bunch of crusty old senior enlisted sitting around a bar, drinking beer, and saying, "We've identified that there's this problem, and I think we need to do something about it." And so that's how NCOA was formed, by a bunch of people just saying, "Hey, there's a problem and we need to do something about it. Let's do it." And back in 1960, that's when we were congressionally chartered and came into existence.

JAMIE: That is awesome. I actually had no idea about that backstory. I know you personally do things for enlisted folk as well, so—and maybe not just you, Terry, but the local NCOA chapter—sends boxes overseas to folks that are enlisted.

TERRY: Everybody may know that our local National Guard has been deployed in the Middle East. One of our chapter members, Brian Simpson, is currently our point of contact in Egypt. And I have been communicating with him via email back and forth, and we sent 49 care packages to him alone that he then distributes out to the rest of the troops based on the needs of the people on the ground.

We've had some great support from Harry and David. I think they donated roughly $7,500 worth of coffee and beef sticks and other things that we doled out between us and the DAV. And I tell you, every one of them—49 care packages—I had to pack individually, and you have to do a customs form for each one of them. And I tell you, I got writer's cramp a few times. But I know, when I spent a year in Iraq, I know the value of what it means to get something from home. And I will never get tired of doing whatever it takes to help improve the morale of those who are deployed.

There's still pictures on the wall at the post office in Central Point where we sent care packages—almost a hundred of them—to Afghanistan, and I'd sent them to a sergeant major over there. We went through several sergeant majors, and those pictures are still on the wall, yellowed from time, but they're still there. And they make me want to continue to do what I do, because you put a smile on the face of somebody that doesn't have it.

JAMIE: Sure. You have some very close-up, close and personal, firsthand experience around what it meant to you. So I can see why you are so motivated to do that. I know that there are lots of ways that the chapter here in Southern Oregon is really unique, but one really big thing that sets you apart is that you are the largest chapter in the United States, right?

TERRY: We have been the largest chapter for six out of the last seven years, worldwide. We've got a chapter of approximately 420 members. Some of those members are—I've got some members in almost every state of the Union. I've got some former sergeant majors of the Army that are members of my chapter. I've got the former CMSgt John Troxel, who's a member of my chapter. The former Eighth Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard, Vince Patton, is a member of my chapter. The current president of the association is a member of my chapter because our chapter communicates. Our chapter does things.

And we usually give away roughly about 20,000 hours-plus every year in volunteer time. The last several years, we have given away over $50,000 to $60,000 worth of funding, a large part through our Veteran Run project, which has really taken off. The medallion program, which we do, has been a huge benefactor for keeping us actively engaged. And it's not just me. I've got numbers of people.

In fact, just yesterday, I got a picture of a friend of mine who's a retired master chief back in Jacksonville, Florida. They did a bunch of presentations of Vietnam, Cold War, and Global War on Terror medallions to a veterans breakfast back in Jacksonville, Florida. We do it all. And I've basically taken it upon myself—it doesn't come out of chapter funds—I pay the postage to send the medallions wherever, just so that we don't have to spend money that is set aside for medallions for things like postage. I pay that out of my own pocket because I believe enough in the project, and I believe that every person who ever served in the military deserves to be recognized with one of our medallions.

JAMIE: Yeah. You definitely have that heart of service, and it is one of the things that I absolutely love. Everything you are doing for—I want to chat just a little bit about some specific things and take a deeper dive into each of them. So you, alongside the Southern Oregon Veterans Benefit, have been an intricate part in getting the Veterans Memorial Wall installed here in Southern Oregon. Talk to us a little bit about that.

TERRY: This is a project that started many years ago, and we were lambasted by COVID, which cut down our fundraising. It cut down our ability to even be in public, for obvious reasons. But here recently, we've been able to get a location, and as of today, the wall itself—minus the panels—is up. And as of tomorrow, we will have half of the sidewalk in front of the wall poured. And next Wednesday, July 2nd, we will have the other half. So we will have the wall itself set up, then the sidewalk in front of the wall.

This morning, we decided they're going to have the wall backfilled behind it so that it acts more like a sound barrier, because it's right on Ross Hanley Road and North Ross Lane, between Rogue X and Logos Charter School. We decided we're going to have a 45-foot American flag pole—American-made—and we're working hard to get all of these things. We've got a number of contractors. Built Backhoe is our primary contracting force, and they're doing an outstanding job of literally making this thing happen.

And we went out there. We buried a Purple Heart right at the apex of the wall in the concrete, and every one of the people working out there—they just couldn't say enough good about what they were doing and how wonderful putting this wall together. And it will be a 360-foot replica of the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C., with all 58,479 names on it. And it will be the only one with all 58,000-plus names west of the Mississippi.

So not everybody is physically able to go all the way back to Washington, D.C., to see the one back there, but there's a lot of vets out here in Oregon, on the West Coast, that can come here. It'll be great for tourism for the valley. It'll be great to have a healing wall much closer than having to go all the way to Washington, D.C. And it's a permanent installation. It's eight feet tall at the peak, tapering down to two feet, just like the one in Washington, D.C. Once the sidewalks are completed and the electrical lights are installed, then we'll be able to start putting up the plaques with the 58,000-plus names on them. And we anticipate that before this podcast probably plays, that wall will be up.

JAMIE: I know. It's so exciting. This has been years and years in the making of just being on the sidelines, helping to cheerlead and advocate for the project getting done, making sure there's enough funding—all of the things that have played a part in getting this done. Absolutely.

TERRY: Yeah. Yeah. We're not getting any younger, and we wanted this thing to be up so we could enjoy it while we were still alive.

JAMIE: I'm sure if Ron Kohl were here, he would be laughing right alongside you at that statement. Absolutely. Yeah. At some point, I would like to have Ron back just to talk about that wall and everything that he endured in the process of pulling all of this off. It has been a massive project.

TERRY: Absolutely has. We're down to meeting every two weeks now because we're literally operating at warp speed.

JAMIE: I'm sure. Yeah. Compared to what you were at before, especially.

TERRY: Yeah, it wasn't even snails. Snails would be outdistancing us how slowly this thing was going. And it didn't help to have COVID bring us to a screeching halt.

JAMIE: Yeah, I remember you guys weathered some really painful things during that with regard to fundraisers that you had in place that ended up not being able to come to fruition as you had anticipated. Let's talk about the Veteran Run.

TERRY: Absolutely. Just yesterday, I got a thousand-dollar donation. I love it. And just this morning, I got a $500 donation. So our goal this year is to raise $60,000 between our golf tournament, our 5K fun run, and our bowling tournament. And this is one of those things that—it started out because a retired Navy chief petty officer was sitting at one of our executive meetings, and we were having a conversation: "How can we—what can we do to get younger people involved?"

And this guy says, "Why don't we put on a run? Young people like to get out and get active and run and do all this kind of stuff." That was back in 2017. And so we did. And the Vietnam Wall was a benefactor of one of the charities that we supported that first year. And we raised and gave away $8,000 that very first year in 2017. Last year, our eighth year in, we gave away $57,400. We'd added, two years ago, our golf tournament. And last year, we added a bowling tournament, which is how we've been able to get the increase from $8,000 to where we're at today.

This year, we've got Honor Flight of Oregon—again, is going to be a benefactor of this. And from what I've been able to gather, if we are able to reach our goal, we will be able to fund one flight for all 25 honored vets.

JAMIE: Wow.

TERRY: And that's one of the reasons why we want to get to that $60,000 goal. Another charity that we're going to be able to fully fund an outing for is White Heart Project, which is run by a Marine friend of mine from church that lost both of his legs to a roadside bomb in—I never remember whether it's Iraq or Afghanistan; they were in both places. But he's one of the happiest people I know, and he takes veterans suffering from PTSD out in the boonies. And I have pictures of this guy with no legs, rock climbing the face of a cliff.

And he takes people on whitewater rafts and doing all kinds of things. But the most significant part of this is campfire therapy, where they all sit around—just like in Honor Flight—and talk with brothers who've been there.

JAMIE: I love it.

TERRY: And it really—they've got counselors that go with them, and it's really a helpful, therapeutic process. And every charity that a veteran has sponsored deals in some way, shape, matter, or form with helping improve the mental health of our veteran community.

And the last charity that we're supporting this year is a program called Mighty Oaks, which deals with suicide prevention. That is one of my passions, because my father, on October 20th, 2002, committed suicide. He was a World War II vet and a Vietnam in-country vet, and it had a forever impact on my life. Because, as tragic as it is, it helped me have a purpose.

And this Veteran Run—every year, this being our ninth, we have had a suicide prevention charity that we support with this project. And it doesn't—I don't know whether it's 22 a day or 40 a day; it depends on what your sources are for your figures. Way too many veterans commit suicide every single day. And if I can do anything to help curb that loss, I'll do it. And I don't care how much money—I've literally invested tens of thousands of dollars of my own dollars to help support causes like Veteran Run and the Medallion Program and things that our NCOA chapter does, because I believe in what we're doing.

And I have a motto: strength and unity, and leadership by example. I retired as a master chief petty officer, and you cannot expect people to do things that you're not willing to do yourself.

JAMIE: Nothing truer. I so agree with that.

TERRY: And so I believe—when I first became a chief petty officer, something that they hammered into us is, "It's your responsibility to take care of the troops." And I've never forgot that, and I've always tried my damnedest to live up to that motto—to take care of the people that need the help. And that's what we do at NCOA, and that's what I've done ever since I figured out what a veteran was.

JAMIE: You do a remarkable job of taking care of people. I know that. I see you do it every day. You talked a little bit about the Medallion Program, but I don't think we've really dove into what it is and why it's significant.

TERRY: We started the Medallion Program in NCOA way back in the late nineties, early two thousands. We had a gentleman who got a grant from some organization—I have no idea who it was—but he bought all these medallions, and they were really fantastic-looking medallions. And at that time, the program was only for World War II vets, and right on the front of that medallion, it says "The Greatest Generation." And that's what our World War II vets were part of—not just the veterans, but their families. Those who grew up serving in World War II, they had to serve for the duration. Those families back home had to undergo mandatory rationing for the duration of the war. And they did it willingly as a sacrifice because they wanted their loved ones to come home.

And it's funny when I hear what some young people today think is a sacrifice, and I compare it to what real sacrifice is—what I experienced when I was in Iraq, what my father and my friends who are World War II and Korean vets experienced when they served. When you're in the military and you're deployed to a combat zone, you don't get to go home for birthdays. You don't get to go home for anniversaries. You may get to go home for the death of an immediate family, but like your mother or your father. If your aunt passes or your uncle passes—it may have been your godfather—sorry, they're not immediate family, so you miss out on a lot of things.

That's a sacrifice. But you willingly do it. And I've said a long time ago that when you go in the military, you write a blank check for up to and including your life in order to make sure that this country stays free. And most people don't really understand that, but I do.

And our chapter has given away more medallions than any other chapter in the entire association. Each one of these medallions costs us $25. You stop and figure out—we've given away, so far, 1,612 medallions through the end of last month. That's between $30,000 and $35,000. That's a lot of money. And we thank the West Family Foundation, who has given us, so far, $7,000. We've got a program coming up where the Rogues Baseball Team is going to provide us with the proceeds of their jersey raffle after the game to help support our Medallion Program. We sit in front of grocery stores and raise money to purchase medallions.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do we support this program? One medallion at a time. And I believe that every single veteran who ever served and wrote that blank check deserves to get recognition from one of these medallions. And they are solid metal. There isn't a piece of plastic anywhere on them. They're a conversation piece that will open up a level of communication between you, the veteran, and your family.

I had a widow of a Vietnam vet come out of Food for Less, and she said, "Wow, what's that?" And I said, "That's a Vietnam medallion. We give them to Vietnam veterans." And she started crying. "My husband just died last week. He was a Vietnam vet, and he died from Agent Orange." And I said, "I would love to give you one of these medallions in honor of your husband and his sacrifice, so that you had something to share with your family." And she just grabbed ahold of me and started bawling.

How can I not want to recognize family members or veterans when you get that kind of an emotional response to something—some inanimate object—but it has meaning?

JAMIE: It absolutely does. I'm a big supporter of the Medallion Program, and I've seen with my own eyes people be very moved emotionally, just in the receipt of a medallion—or maybe not even them, but their spouse that's in the room with them.

TERRY: Yeah. I mean, a couple years ago, we did the Senior Fair over in Grants Pass, and we awarded 85 medallions at that time. They were all for either—we didn't have Vietnam at the time. All we had was World War II and Korean medallions. And it took us over an hour to award all those, and I had half a dozen people sitting there helping process.

JAMIE: I'll never forget that. Yeah, that was a big project.

TERRY: It was, but it was absolutely worth it. Yeah. This program is worth it. And I just ordered a hundred Global War on Terror medallions, because I anticipate that's going to cover everything from 9/11 to present. Sure. So that closes a loop. And we now have a medallion that we can award to every single veteran that ever served: our World War II, our Korea, our Vietnam, our Cold War medallion, and then finally our Persian Gulf/Global War on Terror medallion. And every one of them is absolutely impressive.

JAMIE: Yeah. It is. The medallions are beautiful. They truly are. What programs or initiatives can veterans and families expect that we haven't already talked about, and that may not already be in the works, that might be coming in the future?

TERRY: We just got approved as a sponsor for Wreaths Across America. Each one of these wreaths is $17. And I was at a state NCOA meeting in April, and the county commissioner up in Roseburg came and did a presentation on what happened in Roseburg last year at the VA cemetery. Every single grave had a wreath on it—8,000 wreaths. He was so impressed, and the community was so touched by that. And it's not just having the family see a wreath on the grave. They had youth groups—Civil Air Patrol, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, youth groups, high school students—out there helping put these out and pick them up. And it's an opportunity to teach the young people: What is service? What is that service that person is being recognized for on that headstone? What does it mean? What did they do?

They don't teach a lot of things that are historical in nature and things that matter to we, the veteran community, in schools anymore. They teach all kinds of alternative stuff that's just gibberish, as far as I'm concerned. But things that matter—we, the veterans, have the opportunity to teach about what matters to us. And Wreaths Across America—I talked to the curator out at the VA cemetery in Eagle Point. I asked her, "How many graves do we have at Eagle Point?" 27,417 graves. And that was a few weeks ago, and it's growing. And I said, "Roseburg had a wreath on every single grave. How many wreaths did they have at Eagle Point last year?" About 3,500.

Wow. I said, "That's disgusting. We can do better than that. We're a much bigger area. We have many more veterans than Douglas County has, and we've got a lot more graves." My ultimate goal would be to have a wreath on every single grave.

JAMIE: Oh my gosh. I think that's totally doable. And not just through the one program, but by supporting it through other programs.

TERRY: Absolutely.

JAMIE: Yeah.

TERRY: The way I look at it is, if you or a family member—you go out to the cemetery on December 13th, and you want to look at your grave, and there's a wreath on your grave, but not one on the next one over—why don't they have one? Or if it's on the next grave and not on yours, why don't I have one? Every person buried in that cemetery is equally worth our recognition.

JAMIE: Agree. Agree. I would love to find a way to help support that program. I think that there are a lot of things—through Wreaths Across America is going to be a large part of it. But I think that there are other ways that you can get a wreath on every single site as well, maybe that doesn't cost as much money. Just something that could definitely be explored at another time. But absolutely, I agree with you. Every single veteran is deserving.

TERRY: I'm looking at—I'm heavy into fundraising right now for Veteran Run, obviously. But I've got a list of businesses that—maybe they've got some employees that are vets, or maybe they've got employees that have a veteran that may be buried out there. If you can sponsor one or ten wreaths—yeah, that's doable. Ten wreaths, $170 bucks. Totally. And it's tax deductible.

JAMIE: Yeah.

TERRY: That's a program that's coming down the pike for us that I look to be our next thing. And I know we're going to work with the Old Guard Riders and several other veteran organizations. I talked to the Purple Heart organization, and they're interested in getting involved in that. And if we can get all the different organizations to get out there and try to make a dent in this thing—I go back to that old saying: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. We don't all have to go out and donate a thousand dollars or $20,000 or a hundred thousand dollars. If we just each—a bunch of people donated a hundred dollars—we could get it done.

JAMIE: Totally. Yeah. We talk about that all the time with regard to fundraising. It just takes everybody doing a little bit to get it all together.

TERRY: Absolutely.

JAMIE: So I want to close today by giving you an opportunity to share with folks how they can support your chapter.

TERRY: Well, we're always looking to find ways to connect with the younger generation. I think the Global War on Terror medallion is one way we can provide some recognition for each of these individuals. We have a website that has a lot of information, and our chapter sends out a newsletter every month with information relative to supporting issues that are important to the military and their families.

We have a website called ncoarogue.org. You can go on to that website, get copies of our newsletter, see information about our Veteran Run and all the different projects that we're doing. You can get links to our legislative—you can get links to government benefits, so many different things that are on that website that may answer questions. I'm constantly getting questions from people wanting to know about this benefit or that benefit. And that's what our chapter is out there for. And I'm always seeking input. If there's something that's important to you, then it's important to me. And our job is to answer those questions, or if I can't answer them, send you someplace that can.

We've got to work together. And our chapter membership is only $30 a year, which is cheaper than just about every other veteran organization out there. And you don't have to provide a DD-214 or give me your next child in order to join our organization. We've got an auxiliary in our chapter, which are for family members, 18 and older, of anybody that has served in the military. And that's only $20 a year.

We're out here to serve, and I've got younger people that are coming on board and getting involved. We're going to be—our Medallion Program, our Veteran Run program, our Wreaths Across America program—each one of these are a program that evokes an emotional reaction. And if we find a program, or you have a suggestion of something that you think we ought to be involved in that will benefit our military and family community, let us know, and we will definitely work to try to make it happen. Because we're here to make your life easier. We're here to answer questions for you. We're here to help you get ahead in this world.

And I passionately love this organization, and I've been in every position in this organization, from the local, state, national—I was chairman of the board for the International Board of Directors. I've done everything except be the president of this entire association. And I don't live on the East Coast, so that's okay.

JAMIE: Terry, thank you so much for your time in the studio today. I want to remind everyone that if you want to reach out to the NCOA in the Rogue Valley, right here in Southern Oregon, it is ncoarogue.org. You can also always reach out to Team Senior. If you're trying to hunt down Terry and you can't find him, or you forget that website, you can always just give us a call. We know how to get you in contact with him. Terry's very accessible, and he is super happy to answer any questions that you have, literally anytime.

TERRY: Absolutely.

JAMIE: Terry, thank you so much for your time today. We look forward to having you back again someday. We have all kinds of things we could take a deep dive into.

TERRY: Oh, absolutely. And it's absolutely a pleasure, so God bless you.

JAMIE: Thank you so much.

All right, that's it for today. This is Jamie Callahan, and until next time, thank you for listening to the Team Senior Podcast. We're here every week sharing new and relevant information. Remember that we're just a phone call away. Team Senior can be reached at 541-295-8230. Again, 541-295-8230. Until next time, this is Jamie Callahan.