County re-establishes veterans advisory committee
After more than 10 years of dormancy, a Lee County panel dedicated to enriching the lives of local veterans has been reformed.
Earlier this year, the Lee County Veterans Advisory Committee was brought back thanks to the work of local veterans who want to assist their fellow comrades. Each county commissioner appointed two individuals to make up a committee of 10. The reformation of the committee, which was dissolved in 2012, was spearheaded by Army JROTC instructor and retired Army Col. Steve Epkins.
At the newly formed committee’s recent first meeting, Epikins was elected to serve as the chair of the committee, while Chris Cammarota was elected as vice chair and John Thomas as secretary.
“It makes me feel good that we got something going for local veterans,” he said. “I just hope that we’re able to reach out and help. We’re looking to educate, assist, support, solve problems — things like that for our veterans and surviving spouses and their families.”
“This is long overdue,” Cammarota added. “There’s money available through the county for veterans, and our job is to make suggestions to the county commission, and if they like it, they’ll follow through. Whether it’s for homeless veterans, job training, or money for a parade or something like that. Veterans need a voice, and I’m just happy to help out and do the right thing.”
The Lee County Veterans Advisory Committee is made up of:
– Chris Cammarota, who served in the U.S. Navy
– Retired Navy Capt. Tim Cook
– Florida Army National Guard Capt. Joseph Duhain
– Retired Army Col. Steve Epkins
– VFW Post 8463 Cmdr. Gerry Harvey, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps
– Armando Hernandez, who served in the U.S Marine Corps
– Stephanie Neurock, who served in the U.S. Army
– Retired U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Dale Spain
– Retired Army Lt. Col. John Thomas
– Retired Navy Rear Adm. Roger Thriftshauer
Epkins said the committee is still shaping exactly what its goals will be moving forward.
It will meet once each month, and the next meeting is Aug. 14.
One of the ideas he proposed was a book for veterans with information on how and where they can receive assistance.
“There are answers out there, and people know those answers, but there are those that don’t know where to find them or the organizations that do certain things,” Epkins said. “Some kind of book just for veterans, so when (a veteran’s) car won’t start and they need assistance and doesn’t have the money, where can they go? Or if they’re homeless, what do they do?”
Other ideas included a quarterly veteran calendar and newsletter that includes all of the local veteran events taking place over those months.
“This next upcoming meeting, we’ll start working on definitive plans and talking about this stuff,” he said.
Epkins talked about a “veterans and homeless veterans stand-down,” where veteran groups could gather and assist the needs of the community.
“We could do it at a local college or a park,” he said. “It could be something once per year where veterans could come and get all the things they need — the essentials, or a resume review, or a job. Things like that.”
According to statistics from Lee County and the state of Florida, there are between 55,000 to 62,000 veterans in the area — the fifth largest veteran population by county in the state.
Additional topics to be discussed include a committee-organized Veterans Day and Memorial Day services.
All members of the committee had to fill out an application to volunteer their services and submit it to Lee County Veteran Services Manager Rodney Van Ness.
“Our goal is to make things better for veterans and their families,” Epkins said. “That’s all I’ve been doing since I retired from JROTC is working with veterans groups and JROTC.
The committee hopes to be involved in the county commission meetings and will have quarterly updates with Van Ness and county staff.
“We want to be an overarching veterans group that’s looking to help and support and fix things and make things better,” he said.
To reach CJ HADDAD / cjhaddad@breezenewspapers.com, please email