Tell me what Mission Roll Call is and what attracted you to join them.

Yeah, Mission Roll Call is one-of-a-kind, not-for-profit, where our sole function is to amplify the voices of veterans across the country to decision-makers at the state, local, and national level.

We do this through interactions with veterans at our symposiums, at off-sites, but we do it at national level through our polling and surveys.

So we do these surveys in a very scientific way.

We ask non-leading questions in a non-affiliated way.

It's not a Democratic question.

It's not a Republican question.

So

Tell me what Mission Roll Call is and what attracted you to join them.

Yeah, Mission Local is one of a kind, not for profit, where our sole function is to amplify the voices of veterans across the country to decision makers at the state, local, and national level.

We do this through interactions with veterans at our symposiums, at off sites, but we do it at national level through our polling and surveys.

So we do these surveys in a very scientific way.

We ask non-leading questions in a non-affiliated way.

It's not a Democratic question.

It's not a Republican question.

That's not easy to do.

Is, is, is that kind of what you reference when you say we've been here before? Or, you know, there seems to be some conventional wisdom out there that AI is just revolutionary and unlike anything, and I, I kind of get the sense that both of us feel that there's a lot we can take from, from other innovations.

Well, you know, you and I have talked a lot about the history and evolution, especially as it relates to technology in, in both your practice and my practice and what that's meant, and certainly your business is different today than it was 20 years ago.

Um, not, not in what you ultimately deliver, uh, but what, the way in which you deliver it.

And, um, I th- I think that businesses, I think it's well documented that they've always looked for ways to continue to improve the sort of tasks that are very difficult and try to optimize.

And before I-- before there was AI, there were things like expert systems.

Uh, we ta- we talked about it in that res- respect.

We used all sorts of tools, just like AI does, to, um, to build expert systems.

We've, we've touched on it, but let's, let's synthesize that, uh, just to kind of wrap up.

So what does Mission Roll Call do to help in this particular case? And what do you think the federal government needs to do?

Well, what we do is make sure that we amplify the voices of those 18 million veterans across our countries and their families and share that data and information and white papers and research with elected officials and those that are making decisions at the VA and in the administration, and also share it with good people like yourself so that we can heighten the awareness of the struggle that some of the veterans across our nation have and do our best as a country to stop this.

It's embarrassing, right? As a country as powerful and as rich as ourselves that we have veterans that on occasion get used as political pawns and that are left behind in the process of achieving the American dream.

Do they struggle reaching out for help?

Oh, absolutely.

Veterans are wonderful about helping other people and they're great about helping other veterans.

What they kind of fall short on is sometimes helping themselves.

So to your point, going to a food bank or going to a church food bank or something like that is difficult for them.

Can you tell us a little bit more about what the ACCESS Act means here? Just a little more, uh, for, for maybe the common layman who doesn't quite understand the need for it and then what it solves.

Sure.

Well, uh, to keep it, uh, a- as tight as I possibly can, it, it allows veterans to get healthcare in the community type of way.

So, let's say you're a veteran and you're 250 miles away from the nearest VA.

Uh, that's difficult for you to get to, especially if you're sick, especially if you're financially strapped, uh, especially if you have a job and it's hard to get there.

The whole idea is to allow veterans to use community care to be able to get, uh, the healthcare that they need.

Uh, there's a lot of veterans that slip through the cracks because they can't do that.

Everybody shares that burden, right?