Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner Kent Davis remembers his father, badly wounded in World War II, suffering from PTSD before anyone called it that.
Davis remembers his own anxiety after a combat deployment to Afghanistan.
Seven months into his job as head of the ADVA, Davis said he’s found an abundance of good will across Alabama to help with the problems that can follow military service. His goal is to harness that with better communication and collaboration.
Davis, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, said he won’t let the difficulty of tackling problems like PTSD, homelessness, addiction, and suicides steal his positive outlook.
“We should treasure veterans,” Davis said. “They bring skills, they bring time management, they’re upstanding citizens. They’re generally not law breakers. They’re ability to abide by the law is better than the general population.
“They’re good citizens and we need to be mindful of that and appreciate what they’ve done.”
In January, the Alabama Board of Veterans Affairs chose Davis to replace Commissioner Clyde Marsh, who retired after 13 years.
A Montgomery native, Davis holds degrees from Louisiana State University and the Georgia State University College of Law. Over a 30-year career, he worked military and civilian jobs in the Navy, Army, and Air Force, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Before starting work as ADVA commissioner in February, he was chief communications officer for Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base.
Davis wants veterans to know how to get benefits they’ve earned and help they need. He wants the public to know how the ADVA’s work complements the work of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The ADVA has veterans’ services offices in 50 counties that help veterans, their dependents, and survivors apply for benefits and entitlements available from the federal VA and from the state. They can help appeal decisions by the federal VA and with requests for military service records and other needs.
The National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics estimates there are almost 380,000 veterans living in Alabama. Davis said the state has a strong mix of grassroots organizations that help veterans. He said examples are Still Serving Veterans in Huntsville, the Greater Birmingham Area Veterans Stakeholder Group, Veterans Recovery Resources in Mobile, and Samson’s Strength in Clay County.
Davis said part of the ADVA’s job is to promote those programs and identify unmet needs.
“We can help them communicate, share lessons learned, do a little gap analysis around the state to see are there subject matters that we’re not covering,” Davis said. “Things like sexual trauma, the things we don’t like to talk about for veterans. PTSD, homelessness, opioid addiction, things like that. Or, are there geographic gaps in the state? Are we missing the poor areas of the state?”
Davis created a new position, assistant commissioner for outreach and engagement, to build partnerships and spread the word about what groups are doing to help veterans. He hired Bob Horton, public information officer for the Alabama Department of Corrections, to fill the new position. Horton, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Alabama Army National Guard, starts work Oct. 1. Before going to the ADOC in January 2015, Horton spent eight years as public information specialist for the ADVA.
In July, the ADVA launched a revamped website. Davis said it was rebuilt from scratch in an effort to set up a one-stop site for veterans to find services.
Long-term care for aging and chronically disabled veterans is a main responsibility for the ADVA. That’s provided through four state veterans homes that give nursing home-level care.
There are waiting lists for admission to the four homes, which are in Alexander City, Huntsville, Bay Minette, and Pell City. Plans are in the works for a fifth home, a project started under Marsh.
A feasibility study determined the greatest need is in the Wiregrass. The state Board of Veterans Affairs will review proposals and select a site. The state DVA will apply for a federal grant that will pay 65 percent of the construction cost, which Davis estimates will be about $60-$65 million for a home that will house about 175 veterans. The state share of the cost is already in place.
Another priority for Davis is helping with efforts to reduce the high rate of suicide by veterans. The Legislature passed a resolution by Rep. Neil Rafferty, D-Birmingham, a former Marine, to create a Task Force on Veterans’ Suicides to investigate causes and prevention. Davis picked Paulette Risher, CEO of Still Serving Veterans, based in Huntsville, as chair of the task force.
Veterans are about 1.5 times more likely to die by suicide than non-veterans. An average of about 20 veterans per day nationally lose their lives to suicide. The suicide rate is rising fastest among veterans ages 18-34.
The University of Alabama is exploring the issue in conjunction with America’s Warrior Partnership and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation. Their study is called Operation Deep Dive.
The suicide rate for veterans in Alabama was higher than the national average in 2016.
“I’m really hopeful this is going to do some good on a pretty sad issue,” Davis said.
Davis’s father, Joe Davis, was badly wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. He spent nine months in an Army hospital and was disabled and disfigured the rest of his life, Davis said.
Davis remembers his father waking up screaming in the night. He remembers his mother talking about his father’s struggles. Joe Davis, a Woodlawn High and Auburn University graduate, died in 2002.
“I’ve never been diagnosed with PTSD,” Davis said. “But I will tell you it is sometimes a tough transition."
Davis was deployed to combat zones five times, including Afghanistan when he was 49. He said the head-on-a-swivel alertness developed there is hard to shut down, like worrying that an approaching vehicle could be carrying a suicide bomber.
“In talking to veterans, I know some have had much tougher times in the transition than I’ve had," Davis said. "I know dear friends who have been diagnosed with PTSD. And I’ve seen in them where they had problems adjusting to their job when they got back. Problems adjusting to family life when they came back. It is a psychological transition sometimes.“
This story was edited on Dec. 9 at 8:53 a.m. to correct the name of the organization Veterans Recovery Resources.
