TOPSHAM — For the last 25 years, Robert “Ki” Owen has served as the American Legion Department Service Officer in Maine — striving to connect veterans returning from combat with service providers who can help prevent the transition from war to civilian life from becoming a living hell.

Along with his assistant, Owen is one of two in the office certified by the Veterans Administration to process benefits claims. The 78-year-old says the work involves hours of training in the various VA programs, as well as a clear understanding of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

“It’s extensive but needed,” Owen said in a recent interview in his office, tucked in a corner on the third floor of Building 205 of the VA Togus campus.

Compared to when he began, the computers in his office make things much easier, he said. He pulled a CD from a drawer with the current year’s veterans benefits manual and related law and regulations. He then grabbed another containing all Veterans Administration automated forms.

Automation makes it easier to deal with the forms, but no computer can replace the experience and compassion required to deal with the unique problems veterans encounter when adjusting to civilian life and coping with the after-effects of war.

“You can’t walk in off the street and have it all together,” Owen said. “There are things you learn over the years that aren’t even in the books. It’s no different than anything else you do. There’s a way to make things happen quicker and more accurately — that again are not in the books.”

Owen is a Brunswick native who lives in Topsham. He is a veteran who lost a brother in combat.

After his older brother was killed in Korea during the latter part of 1950 while serving in the Army, Owen said he wanted to be part of “it” — “call it revenge if you want” — and enlisted that same year in the Marine Corps.

He served three years as a machine gunner. He spent more than 18 months overseas, including stints in France, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, Greece and Korea.

He married his wife, Theresa, in 1954 and moved to Topsham after leaving military service.

He worked two shifts at the Varney Mill in Brunswick before it closed. Then he worked a “mishmash” of construction jobs before getting involved in the American Legion after his three children were grown.

He joined the post in Topsham when it formed and was the chaplain, then commander. He went on to become the American Legion’s Sagadahoc County commander, then a Third District commander, then the American Legion Department of Maine historian and serve in other statewide positions. He now serves as the state’s representative on the organization’s national executive committee.

Owen credits former state Adjutant Dan Lambert, a World War II Army Ranger who has since died, with ushering him into the higher positions within the organization. Although he was deep into the work already, Owen admitted he was hesitant to continue taking on higher positions in the American Legion, because the added responsibility at each step meant “you were taking away more time from your family because it got so you were gone weekends and nights.” As a service officer, Owen’s workload totals 6,345 claims, which is the number of people somewhere between an initial and finalized claim. Half are Vietnam veterans. Owen expects that veterans of the Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom will trickle in.

Most veterans don’t realize that it takes almost a year to fully process a claim, he said. Most of the claims are disability claims, but his office also works a lot with people on matters such as Dependence and Indemnity Compensation claims they are entitled to if their spouse was a veteran who died of a service connected condition.

PTSD and TBI

Veterans are eligible for a wide array of disability benefits, Owen said, but they must file a separate claim for each body part injured. Psychiatric disabilities are common today, with conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury.

In fact, Owen was appointed to an ad hoc committee created by the American Legion National Executive Committee, which he served on until June, that aimed to convince Department of Defense and Veterans Administration officials to discuss taking a unified approach to PTSD and TBI.

The committee worked to ensure that both federal departments treated veterans suffering from these conditions in the same way.

Traumatic brain injuries, which result from blasts, have spiked in recent years. Exposure to roadside explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan is “raising havoc with our guys,” Owen said.

Owen said PTSD wasn’t recognized as a significant medical disorder by the VA until the 1990s. It was called “shell shock” or “battle fatigue” during World War II and Korea, he said.

“Everybody who has been through combat has a degree of PTSD,” Owen said. “Everybody.”

That doesn’t mean they all require treatment, but he fears that denial and the notion that fighting men and women should project invincibility prevent some veterans from seeking treatment. Pride makes many veterans choose not to seek Veterans Administration assistance, he said.

“They don’t want to get that label, that stigma of PTSD,” Owen said. “They don’t want to have some shrink tell them, ‘Well, you’re not PTSD, you’re schizophrenic or you’re bipolar or you’re this or you’re that.’ They don’t want to face up to the fact.”

With female veterans becoming more prevalent, the VA has had to adapt to meet their needs. Unfortunately, Owen said, many female veterans experience what he called military sexual trauma, as well as sexual harassment.

The American Legion worked aggressively during the last few years to establish a women’s clinic at Togus. The effort originated, in part, from the belief that female veterans weren’t being treated equally to their male counterparts when they sought VA assistance.

Still fighting

Many can’t understand why Owen wants to be a member of the National Executive Committee. The only reason why, he said, is because it is the organization that sets the policy for the nation’s veterans, which means 2.6 million veterans agree on policies that go to Congress for possible action.

Everything the national organization has championed for veterans — from the GI bill to the presumptive disabilities — is important to him because “veterans are my heartbeat … A veteran is a veteran is a veteran.”

One issue he has been working on relates to Agent Orange exposure. In Maine, hundreds of reservists and National Guardsmen who served in Gagetown, New Brunswick, Canada, were exposed to the defoliant, which has been linked to nerve damage and other medical problems.

Most of the reservists went annually for two-week training periods. Owen said the Canadian government confessed to the use of Agent Orange in Gagetown about five years ago. Canadian officials admitted that they used more of the defoliant per acre in Gagetown than was used in Vietnam.

Owen has 38 cases already and said some veterans who went to Gagetown are developing cancers, diabetes and other diseases that can be traced to Agent Orange exposure.

As a member of the NEC’s National Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Commission which reviews resolutions, Owen said he gathered documentation including spraying records from Canada. He pushed the matter at the national organization, which accepted a resolution last year, that will be presented to Congress, to provide compensation to veterans exposed to Agent Orange in Gagetown.

Owen acknowledged that the VA, like any government entity, is a quagmire of paperwork. He said his biggest frustration is the timeliness of getting claims processed.

“I get wrapped up in a lot of these guys, these individuals who come in, and I should probably just consider it part of the business,” Owen said. “But you feel bad for them and we try to help them any way we can.”

Owen said he’ll remain the service officer “as long as they’ll have me,” because “this is an enjoyable job, and when you’ve got a poor guy coming in crying and thanking you for doing what you did for them — we have our bad days; you have days that you can’t get over it — you’re elated.”

dmoore@timesrecord.com

¦ THE ANNUAL NEWSMAKERS SERIES profiles local individuals whose circumstances reflect major stories of the year. Returning from combat poses challenges that only those who have been there can fully comprehend. Robert “Ki” Owen of Topsham, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Korea, devotes his life to helping U.S. fighting men and women receive the services and benefits they need to make the transition back to civilian life. Through his work in various leadership posts with the American Legion and his job as a Veterans Administration service officer at the Togus center in Augusta, the 78-year-old helps veterans directly by expediting claims for benefits and broadly by advocating for legislative and congressional action to improve treatment options for veterans who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, traumatic brain injuries, exposure to Agent Orange and other combat-related conditions.