Governor Janet Napolitano issued a call to action today for Arizona organizations to cooperate in support of veterans returning from Iraq & Afghanistan at a roundtable designed to facilitate networking between military organizations & faith-based & community groups. Dubbed Arizona Operation Family Support, today’s meeting was the first of its kind in the country, bringing together federal, state & local groups to discuss ways to work together & help returning veterans & their families.
"We're doing this because there is a higher obligation to take care of these young men & women & their families after they've sacrificed so much for us,” Governor Napolitano said. “We want to put our appreciation into action & make sure returning veterans & their families receive all the care & resources they deserve.”
The Governor encouraged groups across the state to coordinate together & develop local community networks to prevent any veteran or veteran’s family from falling through the cracks. Today’s roundtable provided a forum for military leaders, faith-based organizations, & community groups to share strategies to reach out to veterans & their families, & to begin forming those local networks. There are resources available to returning veterans & their families available through numerous groups across Arizona. A list of these resources is available on the Governor’s web site.
Today's roundtable is the most recent action Arizona has taken to help returning veterans & their families. Arizona established the Military Family Relief Fund to provide financial assistance to family members of military personnel killed or wounded in the line of duty, & who were deployed from a military base in Arizona or were members of the Arizona Army or Air National Guard. The state now offers tuition waivers for the children & spouses of military members who are residents of Arizona or stationed in Arizona & are killed in the line of duty. By the end of the year, there will be a veterans’ benefits counselor - an expert trained to help veterans access the benefits to which they are entitled - within an hour’s drive of virtually every Arizona veteran. The state income tax exemption for the military income of service members on active duty is now permanent, & the Governor signed legislation this year to protect members of the military from losing professional licenses while on active duty.