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Bettye Lynn Fuhs served in the United States Air Force for eight years from 1976 to 1984. Fuhs suffered from bi-polar disorder, anxiety, depression, bradycardia, and several physical health issues stemming from a car accident that were found or caused during her time in service.   

It may come as no surprise that veterans deal with a multitude of physical, mental, and emotional problems after their time in service. When seeking help for those problems, the path to get assistance is often long and arduous. Fuhs did not file her Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits claim until 2009 and finally start receiving benefits in 2011. Fuhs died due to heart complications on March 7, 2015, at the age of 57 surrounded by family.   

According to www.va.gov, each claim is different and it usually takes three to five months to process a claim. To be seen at a VA hospital, you must already be receiving benefits from the VA. To get the process started on the benefits claim, you must visit your local VA representative. For some, the process can take over two years before they start to receive any benefits.  

Fuhs’ daughter, Emily Labenz, supported her mother with the entire process.  

“She had to go through numerous appointments, I do remember, a lot of appointments, in order to get the disability claim even started, in the first place,” Labenz said.  

Fuhs had to go through psychiatric and internal medicine appointments to determine if the current and past diagnoses were in fact related to her time in military service.   

“She was frustrated just because of the amount of effort that she had to put into it,” Labenz said, “She was frustrated because she felt as though if she was in the military this is something that should have just kind of been an easier process.”   

Labenz went on to state that the hardest part of the process of filing claims for a veteran is trying to remember specific past dates to match the military medical records. Thankfully, Fuhs was a meticulous record keeper for herself.  

“She was super organized and had everything in files and labeled accordingly, but when she could not find those dates, that process itself ended up being more of a hassle because she had to go through and contact certain military bases to get the proper medical records,” Labenz said.  

For a veteran dealing with psychiatric conditions such as irritability, depression, and bipolar mania, this process can be extremely difficult.   

During the two-and-a-half-year process of filing VA benefits claim, Labenz said her mother went to at least one to two appointments a month.   

Labenz attributes Gene Cavanaugh, a VA representative who also served 20 years in the military, as the biggest supporter in helping them successfully navigate the VA benefits claim process. Without him, Fuhs may have never pursued her claims benefits.   

This is the story of my mother. A glimpse of the hardships she had to endure before and during the time of requesting her VA benefits. She always struggled with mental health issues throughout my childhood but could never find the proper help for herself. Many organizations emerged to help veterans with their claims and other difficulties that may arise. American Veterans (AMVETS), Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW)¸ Disabled American Veterans (DAV), and the American Legion to name a few. While these organizations provide free services to veterans to put them in contact with a Veteran Service Officer (VSO), many female veterans felt the need for their own community to form. Thanks to social media, an organization focused on supporting women veterans emerged in 2019.   

“I’m notorious for having these epic ideas that epically fail,” said Alyssa Flood, founder and board member of Bombshell Patriots, a non-profit women veteran’s organization. The idea to form a women veteran focused organization stemmed from Flood’s disappointment in the lack of women veterans attending veteran organization events and charity campaigns.    

“Where are the women at? Where are the female veterans at?” Flood had asked her husband.  

Flood immediately set out to change that perspective and reached out to her friends who served with women in the military and asked for contacts.   

“It instantly just pissed me off and it made me think of my friend Lori,” Flood said. Her friend Lori had joined the Army fresh out of high school and died in 2015.    

Flood set out to talk to her contacts to ask about the experiences of military life and their transition back to civilian life. That small group of women suggested to form a Facebook group to gather more individuals. By the end of the tenth day of opening the Facebook group, she had more than a thousand members from all over the world.    

“Almost four years to the day of us losing Lori, I went to the Secretary of State (of Iowa) and filed for a non-profit status,” explained Flood about filing Bombshell Patriots as a non-profit charity organization. And from Sept 24-Sept 26, 2021, the organization held their first conference bringing ‘bombshells’ from the Vietnam War and from states as far as Alabama and Pennsylvania. This also marked Iowa as the fifteenth state to hold a State Female Veterans Conference.  

But Flood wanted to do more. During the hustle and bustle of planning the event, she had requested a proclamation from the state.  Announcing it for all the attendees to hear, this proclamation made Iowa the twelfth state to have Women’s Veterans Day, marking June 12, 2022, as the inaugural day.     

Holding up a notebook during the interview, Flood said: “This is the original notebook I started Bombshell with, and when I first started it, I had all of these ideas for building services and programs. But the longer I do this, I realize there already are services and programs that are established, funded, and running. However, they have no idea the understanding of what female veterans are going through and what their needs are.”  

 The focus of Bombshell Patriots is education, resources, and advocacy for female veterans and actively serving women. The main priority at the moment for the organization is to help veterans navigate the long and arduous process of the VA benefits claim.   

As Bombshell Patriots grow in numbers, the future looks especially bright for the community-based organization with a grass-roots effort. ‘Bick,’ as she is only referred, is one of the original Bombshell members and a Grand View student, helps Flood with the organization’s events.    

When asked what attracted her to Bombshell, Bick said: “It is a bridge to community. Resources for female veterans in need is a huge thing and I’ve been ‘Admin’ my whole career, so people are my career.”    

Bick is referring to the administration side of military personnel who take care of other personnel, equipment, funds, and other military-related activities. ‘Bick’ also talked of the past events that Bombshell Patriots were participating in including a 2020 Coat Drive hosted to supplement the Annual Homeless Stand Down put on by the Des Moines Veteran’s Affairs and the Polk County Veteran’s Affairs Annual Coat Drive. This established an overabundance of coats that not only clothed all homeless veterans, but also all homeless shelters in the state.   

After I listened to Alyssa Flood share the various ways the Bombshell Patriots have been helping women of service over these past few years, I cannot help but think of how beneficial this would have been to my mother; how she could have used a few friends with similar backgrounds that were willing to help her find the care she needed. Hearing Cole and ‘Bick’ explain the sense of belonging in the Bombshell Patriots made me reminisce of my mother’s troubles while my sister and I grew up. If a female-oriented veteran service had been around for her at the time, I have no doubt she would have joined in a heartbeat. It has truly been something missing from the veteran community and light needs to be shed on these women of service.  

Cole, a Grand View student, who joined Bombshell a few months back has enjoyed finding somewhere to belong and has enjoyed her new role as Social Media manager.   

Cole said, “I like the community it provides. I recently (medically) retired from the military and just didn’t feel like I belonged anywhere. Once I found Bombshell, I finally feel like I belong.”