FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, Oct. 3, 2016

For more information, contact: Audry Ricketts at 605-773-8242 or audry.ricketts@state.sd.us (South Dakota Department of Veterans Affairs)

It’s a well-known fact that I am a Denver Broncos fan! Not that I am counting, but they have won eight AFC championships and three Super Bowls. Every week as they don the orange and blue, I can’t help but think about our own football team within our veteran network.          

Our Department, along with the veteran service organizations and the county and tribal veterans service officers, serve as the fullback, the left guard and the right guard. We are there to protect the quarterback – which is our veteran.  

We have a playbook full of both offensive and defensive plays, all of which are used to assist veterans in filing claims and securing their benefits.   

It is said that the action of a player who enables a teammate to score is said to be a champion. We want our team of advocates to be the champions for our veterans.   We want to assist our veterans in receiving their benefits. We want to help them in securing their safeties, field goals and touchdowns.

From those brave patriots who fought for this Nation’s independence straight through to the young men and women serving so valiantly in Iraq, Afghanistan and across every continent and ocean today, America’s veterans have earned and deserve our respect and appreciation for their sacrifices and the sacrifices of their families.

Soldiers have a creed that in part, makes four simple, declaratory statements:  I will always place the mission first; I will never accept defeat; I will never quit; I will never leave a fallen comrade. To some, these may be just words, but they mean a lot more—no matter the uniform, no matter the nation, no matter the affiliation.  These are, after all, promises that soldiers make to one another.

If you have lived that life, then you know the meaning of commitment to a greater cause. And if you have worked, as I have, with the men and women of our military, you know there is nothing they would not give to protect the people of this country.

That is why our team is always analyzing plays from previous seasons. We revamp plays in the gamebook.  We keep track of the downs, the fumbles and the interceptions. Federal benefits are ever changing and we are not always able to run the same play. If the first play is unsuccessful, we go to the playbook to find a play that will work.  

At the Department, we are successful because of our gamebook and our talent.

It is true that America is strong and free. But we would never have come this far without the heroes we call veterans.

Larry Zimmerman, Secretary

South Dakota Department of Veterans Affairs