Advocating for Napa’s veterans

A wonderful story of a veteran serving veterans everyday, not just one. This was also written by a wonderful friend, Lily Casura who blogs at Healing Combat Trauma. Consider this. When my brother passed away last month, I had to fly back to Massachusetts. Lily was attending to some family business in Rhode Island. She is such a dear friend that she drove up to see me and attended the wake. While we've been emailing and talking on the phone for a few years, we never met. Lily did all that just to support me in my time of need. She's an amazing woman with a heart of gold!

Advocating for Napa’s veterans
By LILY G. CASURA
For the Register
Patrick Jolly is so dedicated to helping veterans, he even started opening a claim for one he happened to meet while standing in line during a vacation at Disneyland.

Jolly, a Vietnam Navy vet, has been Napa County’s Veteran Services Officer (VSO) since 2006, when he came to Napa from years spent doing the same job in Sonoma County.
Today, 11,000 Napa veterans of various wars as far back as World War II — or 25,000 people, if you include veterans’ family members — rely on Jolly to get the straight scoop about filing claims, getting benefits approved and learning what they’re entitled to.

“We’re very lucky to have him,” said Carol Sanders, senior office assistant with Napa’s Comprehensive Services for Older Adults, who is herself a six-year veteran of the Air Force. “He cares so much about his clientele,” she says, adding, “As a veteran myself, I appreciate that he’s here for county veterans.”

Jolly arrives in his office before 7 a.m. most mornings to respond to the many needs of local veterans. He gets an average of 300 phone calls a month — just transcribing the messages veterans and their families leave on his voicemail takes up multiple pages of a legal pad daily. The best way to get in touch with Jolly is actually by email — vets@napavets.com — because he can’t pick up the phone when he’s with a client, or when he’s researching a veteran’s claim.

Jolly spends the bulk of his time in the office, but sometimes he goes to convalescent homes to meet with veterans, or even makes house calls to consult with those who aren’t able to make it into his office in downtown Napa. He also heads to the Veterans Home in Yountville frequently. There’s a memorial service there every month for the often eight to 12 veterans who have died the month before. Jolly is such a treasured friend that periodically he’s asked to do a veteran’s eulogy, or present the memorial flag to the family member.
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