MISSION — Veterans in Western Hidalgo County will now be able to connect with services they have earned with “blood, sweat and tears” a little closer to home.
Hidalgo County Precinct 3 hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony for its new Veterans Services Office Wednesday morning, citing a great need to raise awareness about services that are available to veterans.
The ceremony was preceded by a few brief statements by local representatives, including state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez and Hidalgo County Precinct 3 Commissioner Everardo “Ever” Villarreal outside of the Veterans Services Office building, located at 2401 Moorefield Road.
One of the speakers was Veterans Service Officer Victor E. Torres, who delivered passionate remarks about the importance of the services provided by his office.
“Veterans are entitled to a lot of benefits that they’ve been leaving on the table for years,” Torres said. “They may not be aware, but we are here to educate them and assist them.”
Torres said there are roughly 20,000 veterans in the county, but only about half, or 10,000, are enrolled in veterans services.
“That means the other half of veterans in our population are being undertreated,” Torres continued. “They’re not getting the benefits that they deserve. Together, we need to close that gap. We need to make that gap nonexistent.
“Even a single veteran is too much.”
The new Veterans Services Office aims to close that gap by making its benefits and services more accessible to Mission area veterans and their families.
Felix M. Rodriguez, department head for Hidalgo County Veterans Services, said various veterans organizations need to promote the services offered by the VSO.
“I believe that the different veterans services organizations (including) the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, the Military Order of the Purple Heart and the Texas Veterans Commission as well — all of us need to play a part in being stakeholders and getting the word out to veterans,” Rodriguez said. “To the veterans community too, take advantage of the benefits.”
Veterans need to take advantage of the benefits they’ve earned, he said.
“Ain’t nobody giving us nothing. These benefits — we earned with blood, sweat and tears,” Rodriguez said.
Hidalgo County Precinct 3 Commissioner Everardo “Ever” Villarreal said veterans services for his precinct have been a priority since he took office a year ago.
“Obviously one of the main things that we noticed was that there wasn’t any area for our veterans to come and receive services,” Villarreal said. “They had to go to Edinburg or to Harlingen. It was important to me having the area here. We had some offices available to put to good use and go ahead and service our veterans.”
During the ribbon cutting ceremony, Villarreal shared the large scissors with a 99-year-old World War II Army veteran, Savas Sandoval, who will be celebrating his 100th birthday Thursday. The vet was honored during the ceremony by Hinojosa with a flag from the Texas State Capitol and Villarreal who presented him with a bible.
The end of the ceremony was marked by a birthday cake in Sandoval’s honor, with everyone in attendance serenading the veteran with the singing of “Happy Birthday.”
If you have any questions or would like more information, Hidalgo County Veterans Services can be reached at (956) 318-2436.
