{"id":74334,"date":"2019-09-11T19:02:59","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T19:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/stand-down-for-veterans-assists-with-military-benefits\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T15:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T15:59:08","slug":"stand-down-for-veterans-assists-with-military-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/stand-down-for-veterans-assists-with-military-benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"Stand Down for veterans assists with military benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=972e699a-8fc7-4a21-8c2b-8175d3516a55&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1614\" alt=\"Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5231 and Montezuma County Veterans Affairs will hold a veterans information day on Sept. 20  at the County Annex, 107 N. Chestnut in Cortez.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5231 and Montezuma County Veterans Affairs will hold a veterans information day on Sept. 20  at the County Annex, 107 N. Chestnut in Cortez.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Courtesy photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Montezuma County Veteran Services and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5231 will hold a Stand Down for Veterans on Sept. 20 to provide information about benefits and programs.<\/p>\n<p>The event runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the county annex, 107 N. Chestnut St., in Cortez. Food will be served.<\/p>\n<p>A \u201cstand down\u201d is a traditional military term for time off at the end of the month to take care of family and personal business, said Post Cmdr. Tom Endres. Having one in Cortez for the first time is meant to draw in veterans from all over the Four Corners.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe intent is to give veterans access to information about all the benefits they earned by serving their country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Booths will be set up with information about accessing benefits programs ranging from financial, medical, transportation and education to housing, mental health, employment and legal assistance.<\/p>\n<p>Veteran Affairs officials will be on hand to evaluate a veterans individual benefits and guide them through the enrollment process. Veterans can access their military records and find out what they are eligible for.<\/p>\n<p>Please bring a military ID or a DD 214. If you do not have one, assistance will be available to obtain them.<\/p>\n<p>There will be free haircuts, hygiene supplies and other items. Free food and beverages will be served as well.<\/p>\n<p>Endres said organizers urge homeless veterans to stop by.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are so many programs out there to help get veterans into homes, and I\u2019ve seen it happen in Cortez,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He added that some veterans can be stubborn about receiving their benefits and too often suffer needlessly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to change that. They have earned it, and it\u2019s a part of their pay for serving. We are saying, Don\u2019t leave it on the table,\u201d Endres said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>aims to improve access to benefits<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5738,5740,5737,5736,5735,5741,6089],"tags":[21,13,28,29,185],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-74334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cortez","category-frontpage-lead","category-headlines","category-local-news","category-news","category-newsletter","category-serving-veterans","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-serving-veterans"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92493,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74334\/revisions\/92493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74334"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=74334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}