Disabled American Veterans Take the Wheel Transporting Veterans

DAV volunteers take the long road to get vets to and from VA hospital
Jacksonville Daily News
By Terry Dickson
August 9, 2014

BRUNSWICK | At 5:45 a.m. Thursday, Wayne Coleman climbed behind the wheel of a Ford Explorer with a six-hour round trip ahead of him.

Coleman is a volunteer driver for the Disabled American Veterans Transportation Network. Each Thursday morning, he and other drivers start in Brunswick and make stops in Darien, Ludowici, Glennville and other cities to fill the six available seats with veterans bound for appointments at the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center in Dublin.

While the veterans were on the road Thursday, President Barack Obama signed the Veterans’ Access to Care Through Choice, Accountability and Transparency Act. The bill is intended to reform the scandal-ridden Veterans Administration after whistleblowers told of fabricated wait times at VA hospitals. The act provides $16.3 billion to hire more physicians and nurses, to build or expand facilities and to give veterans the option of getting treatment in their local hospitals rather than travel long distances to VA clinics or hospitals.

Shawn Davies might qualify.

Davies, 51, met Coleman at the Winn-Dixie on Altama Avenue for his first trip in the red-white-and-blue Explorer. Davies, who served in the Marines in Operation Desert Storm, normally gets treatment at the VA Clinic in Brunswick, but his VA-supplied CPap machine for sleep apnea needed service, and he had to go to Dublin for it.
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