Veterans Benefits Information

On a hillside near Vandenberg Air Force Base a crowd of space enthusiasts, scientists, engineers and journalists roared with excitement, then fell silent as the Falcon 9 rocket blasted into space. The sunset mission created an artful sky visible throughout Southern California with each phase of the launch as the rocket moved up and through the atmosphere.

The Falcon 9 rocket was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, Calif., at 7:21 p.m. PT on Oct. 7, to deliver a satellite for Argentina. The Falcon 9, a product of SpaceX, is named for its nine rocket engines using liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene propellants to deliver cargo to space. The missions include supplying the International Space Station and putting satellites into orbit.

SpaceX is a private company that was started in 2002 with a mission to decrease the cost of space flight and colonize Mars. Sunday’s flight marked the 17th one for SpaceX this year.

The mission put a SAOCOM 1A satellite into orbit. This microwave observation satellite is the first of two, SAOCOM 1A and 1B, equipped with polarmetric synthetic aperture radar to help predict, monitor and mitigate natural disasters.

With the satellite deployed, the Falcon 9 returned as dramatically as it left replete with a sonic boom and flames just a few hundred meters from where it took off. Most remarkable for this particular launch is that part of the Falcon 9 returned to Vandenberg Air Force Base to be refurbished and reused. This is the first land recovery on the west coast. There have been now 30 successful booster recoveries accomplished by SpaceX in other parts of the country, including 11 at Cape Canaveral in Florida and 18 on ocean-going deck barges called drone ships.

"Sonic boom warning. This won't be subtle," SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted just before the launch. We are booming into a new phase of space exploration and occupation as technology has come very far since the spectacularly memorable walk on the moon all those years ago on July 20, 1969. “If you go back a few hundred years, what we take for granted today would seem like magic,” Musk said.

The people around Lompoc are so used to rocket launches that they all sit around comparing the number they have witnessed, many with numbers over 100. With the clear night sky of this particular launch it was visible far beyond those who knew what it was. In order to help squash some of the conspiracy theories, Legionnaire and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti tweeted a photo of the rocket, "Nope, definitely not aliens. What you’re looking at is the first launch and landing of the @SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the West Coast."

Vandenberg Post 125 Adjutant Harley Santos Jr., has personally and professionally witnessed much of the growth in the aerospace industry, including watching the launch of Falcon 9. Santos enlisted in the Air Force and started as a propellant transport systems specialist and worked on the Atlas D missile at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The SM-65 Atlas was the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile developed by the United States and the first member of the Atlas rocket family.

“I started out in ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles), with the Atlas D missile, working for the office of aerospace research, testing nose cone ablatives for our missiles,” he said. “From there I went on to the Titan II’s, which were silo born missiles, ICBM’s. I cross trained into aircraft avionics, spent a lot of time in aircraft avionics.”

Once Santos retired from the Air Force he worked for a major aerospace corporation and spent 20 years as an engineering manager for systems safety. Santos continues to use his expertise to support this community by being a member of The American Legion’s National Aerospace Committee, a subcommittee of the National Security Commission.

“What we do on the National Aerospace Committee is to try and ensure that there’s enough funding to ensure that the military, and in particular the Air Force and the air components of the other services, have enough funding to maintain their aircraft and their infrastructure,” Santos said. “As well as ensure that NASA has correct funding to continue on with its exploration of space.”

Santos still embodies the tangible love for space flight that envelops the entire area around Vandenberg Air Force Base. He stays informed of when the launches take place and can actually see them from his front porch. “I get up at 2 o’clock in the morning some mornings to watch a launch and its pretty nifty as the rocket is heading down south for a polar orbit,” Santos said.

There are a lot of veterans working at Vandenberg Air Force Base who have transitioned from the military and use their skill sets in the civilian sector. “A good example is there are a lot of people in propellants, oils and lubricants who have transitioned into fuel systems out here on the base,” Santos said.

SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell is responsible for day-to-day operations and company growth and said SpaceX does not plan to slow down, and has in its sights on Mars.

“I hope to be doing hop tests next year with the second stage, the spaceship, and make an orbital flight in 2020,” she said. “We would like to put large cargo on the surface of the moon by 2022. And we have our eyes on the prize to send people to Mars in 2024.”

As a child, Kendra Ryan and her military family moved frequently. For the past 19 years, Ryan has served her nation, currently as a captain in the Navy Reserve.

Ryan found her community at American Legion Post 119 in Estes Park, Colo., where she is assistant services officer and hosts a weekly yoga and stretching class.

“I never had a community that others might call their community,” Ryan said. “I went to seven different schools growing up, and moved seven times in my first five years in the service. I never had a sense of community until I moved to Estes Park. It was the first time I was able to experience what a community is all about, and The American Legion within that community is an even more special smaller group of individuals that I feel very fortunate to be a part of.”

Terry Rizzuti, a former commander, lured Ryan in by convincing her that the post was passionate about community service.

“One of the main reasons that I joined the Legion is to have a mission, or a continued obligation, of service,” she explained. “Once I do retire eventually, I would like to continue my service to my community and to the larger country. The American Legion post is a great way to do that.”

The post — chartered in 1920 — has sponsored Boy Scout Troop 8 since its founding 80 years ago. More recently the post began to support the troop’s Explorers club. “A young lady expressed how much she enjoyed the club last year,” said Loren Shriver, commander of Post 119. “We’re thrilled to be a part of it.”

During October, Post 119 hosts a haunted house for children. After Thanksgiving, its Tiny Tots program allows children to visit Santa Claus. It also sponsors a Legion baseball team and is looking to add a second one next year. A Riders chapter has been launched with 17 members ranging in age from their 20s through 70s.

Post 119 was not always this engaged in its community. The post’s resurrection began to take shape when Rizzuti took office as post commander a few years ago. A 13-year resident of Estes Park, he was concerned about the post’s declining stature in the community but was optimistic for the future.

“I liked what I saw for the future but I didn’t like what I saw right then,” he says, noting the post was turning into a bar and away from its community. “I began to look at programs — what is the post doing? And I was stunned.”

Under Rizzuti’s leadership, the post prioritized its programs. “I believe that is what The American Legion is here for,” he said. “It’s not to operate a bar. The bar is to go and celebrate what we accomplished.”

The post has not only grown membership and become a more integral part of its community, it found a creative source for revenue. Four food truck owners now rent the post’s kitchen. “That brings in some income,” he said.

Post 119 is the only veterans organization in Estes Park, which sits at 7,500 feet of elevation about a 90-minute drive from Denver.

“I have always thought veterans were a cornerstone of the community and I feel that way about this post. We are not only a cornerstone in terms of people, we are a cornerstone in terms of location,” Rizzuti says, noting the post sits in the middle of town at the intersection of two main highways. “We are extremely visible to almost every visitor who comes into this town.”

Shriver credits Rizzuti for envisioning the post’s role in its community. Support for veterans, their families and the community is a prime mover of the post now.

“Our veteran and family support is now more noticeable,” Shriver said. “Membership has gone up for the post. We are getting more and more information about other veterans in the area. We'll go work on them a little bit and see if we can interest them in joining.”

Dick Life is among the post members charged with recruiting. “We want everybody — American Legion members, Auxiliary, Sons and Riders — to be recruiters,” he said. “Not just the three of us whose names are on the list.”

Life and Ryan talked about the importance of personal relationships with potential members. “Especially in our small town, it’s about building relationships,” she said. “Many of us already know so many veterans who are not members. When I think about how I joined the post, it was someone reaching out on a personal relationship and continuing that conversation.”

When Ryan joined the post she wanted to make a difference. Her weekly yoga classes are a combination of movement, breathing and meditation exercises that promote well-being among her comrades who participate.

Called Yoga for Resiliency, the six-week sessions began when another post member asked if Ryan would lead them. As a yoga practitioner for 19 years and instructor for a decade, she jumped at the opportunity.

“Yoga for Resiliency is about finding and learning techniques, breathing, movement and mindfulness techniques to overcome the stresses in our life, whether those were past stresses from the wars or current stresses that we face in our daily lives,” she said. “Our members are finding that just with an hour a week, they're learning these new techniques that they can take then out into their daily lives. It's not just about doing yoga on the mat or in the chair. It's about taking it, and applying it through your day to increase resiliency to those stresses we face.”

Ryan is resilient herself, balancing a young family, her yoga business, Navy duties and her American Legion volunteerism. Once she understood Post 119’s mission, she committed to the Legion Family community.

“It's a funny question when we ask ourselves, ‘Why do we continue to serve,’ and why we served in the first place,” she pondered. “I think it's something that's innate into us. There's just a driving mission to continue to serve. It feels great to do, and I love the relationships, and the community building, but it just feels like something I have to do. It just wasn't a choice.”