Brings vets together, the USUVA

Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Katherine Taylor, Student Life Senior Writer, and Isabel Forinash, Student Life Staff Writer

The Utah State University Veteran’s Association is an organization that provides a community for veteran and non-veteran students to share experiences and have some fun doing good for others.

When Jake Falcon decided to create the USU Veterans Association, people told him it would probably fail.

Falcon was a recently returned veteran of the Marine Corps when he came to USU and he wanted to find other veterans. At the time, there was very little resources on campus to help veterans connect with each other. This is where the idea for the USUVA came from.

“A lot of veterans don’t really reach out to things around them and I get the impression that a lot of people are just ready to do their own thing,” said Brandon Steed, treasurer of the USUVA, “but within the group of veterans that we have here, there’s a lot of common interests and if you can get the guys and the gals together, you can go out and do pretty much anything you want without having to worry about getting hurt or being alone.”

However, some vets had seen multiple organizations like Falcon’s come and go, and told him it likely wouldn’t last very long.

“They said, ‘go ahead, give it a shot, they don’t have much success,’” Falcon said. “And I was like, ‘Alright.’ I founded it in 2012. I went through the whole process of getting a constitution written, all of that, and at the time it was just me and one other friend.”

With the help of Ashley Scharr, another USU student, Falcon officially started the USUVA.

Four years later, the USUVA is still alive and thriving. Though for some time it was just Falcon and the club’s officers, most activities now see numbers in the double digits, sometimes more than thirty. At the beginning of this school year, the USUVA organized a weekly pizza social every Wednesday in an effort for the club to gain momentum and popularity amongst students.

Steed said that their current club e-mailing list hosts about 200 students, but there are about 500+ veterans within the community that they could still reach out to.

“There are people with similar interests, there are people with like minds, so my contribution is trying to make sure that there’s always someone there,” Steed said,  “I just want to see the organization itself succeed. Whether the event has a high turn-out or not, I like the idea that everybody has the opportunity to get together.”

After three years as president, Falcon now advises the club and has passed the presidency to Kevin Contreras.

Contreras said his primary focus has been to find a way to get the population of student veterans more involved on and off-campus.

Currently a full-time senior at USU and a veteran with 9 years of experience in the United States Navy submarine force, Contreras said he has benefited greatly from the experience he has gained from meeting veterans that have served in all branches of the armed forces.

Both Contreras and Steed said community service is one of the club’s main goals.

“Men and women who have made great sacrifices for their country may not know there is a greater veteran community ready to help,” Contreras said. “The bond between servicemen and women is just as strong after their active duty time and there is no reason for a vet to be left behind or without assistance. This club and its members have never not answered a call for service.”

Their events have included everything from barbecues, to learning about brewing beer, to reshingling the roof of a local Vietnam veteran. According to Falcon, one of the hardest parts of the job is catering to the wide demographic of veterans and their diverse interests, hence the wide variety of activities.

“Being in the military, a lot of these guys and girls are used to a certain social environment, where it’s very rigorous and mission-oriented,” Falcon said. “So they get out and they can do whatever they want. They have a lot of freedom. A lot of the returning veterans — the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans — want to do something. They don’t want to just sit around. So that’s what we do. We try to provide an outlet for them to do something.”

Though sometimes the USUVA organizes pub nights, they are just as likely to organize public events to raise awareness for veterans’ issues.

One of these events was a reading of the names of all the fallen soldiers of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, something the club repeats every few years on Veteran’s day. The event takes more than 12 hours — the first one lasted 7 a.m.-9 p.m. just reading names.

“It was definitely moving for a lot of people. It has a serious impact on some people, showing them the meaning of Veteran’s Day,” Contreras said.

This year, the USUVA has two events planned for Veteran’s Day: a barbecue on south side of the TSC from 11 a.m.-1 p.m., and Ruck for a Reason, in which students are invited to join them in 22 laps around the quad to raise awareness and support for veterans in need.

— isabel.forinash@aggiemail.usu.edu

@imforinash

— katdiane17@gmail.com

@kd_taylor96