WINNSBORO – For the last three years, Albertha Woodard, Director of Fairfield County’s Veterans’ Affairs Office, has organized and hosted a luncheon to celebrate Veterans Day. And this year was no different. Approximately 100 veterans attended this year’s luncheon last week at the Boykin Recreation Center in Winnsboro.
The focus of this years’ celebration was female combat veterans, with a special recognition for the county’s oldest female combat veteran, Edith ‘Dee’ Krause, 90, who was not in attendance. Six other females were also honored and wrapped in quilts of valor by Col Richard Mullinax of the S.C. State Guard and Albertha Woodard, Director of the Fairfield County Veterans Affairs office. Recipients are Tenika Watkins (Army), Tracy Johnson (Army), Diana Robinson (Marines), Melody Hair (Navy), Melissa Outen (Army), and Edna Valaquez (Army).
Speaker for the program was Jelani Edwards, Midlands Regional Integration Officer. The Fairfield Central High School Chorus performed and Col. Richard Mullinax of the S.C. State Guard assisted Woodard in remembering Fairfield County’s fallen heroes.
Woodard did not let the opportunity pass, however, without reminding veterans in the audience that her office exists to help them, outlining all the ways she could help them, from financial benefits to food needs.
Albertha Woodard said the effort to help veterans receive the benefits they are due began with putting herself in their shoes.
She too is a veteran, and she said she remembers the first time she applied for benefits herself: She was denied. It wasn’t until she tried again – eight years later – that she was successful.
“I was scared, didn’t know any better. I wish I had filed a lot sooner again,” says Woodard, who enlisted and served in the U.S. Army starting in 1988. Four years of active duty followed by four years in the reserve before being discharged as a sergeant.
Woodard works to spread the word about benefits that exist for veterans.
“You have to keep appealing, and that’s where a lot of people make the mistake at: They just give up,” she says.
“And you know my personality: I’m not one to give up. I’m very pushy, in a good way. I’m strong-willed when it comes to it; I’m adamant about trying to help. The only way you don’t get what you’re supposed to get is that we have exhausted every possible avenue.”
In the Army, Woodard served as a laboratory technician, and afterward she went to work in the health care field. She worked at Fairfield Memorial Hospital as a lab specialist for 18 years, then at Chester Medical Center for 9 years before her position there was eliminated.
It was only after all those years in health care, she says, that Woodard came in to her current job as director of veterans’ affairs for Fairfield County.
She says it’s the best job she’s ever had, mainly because of the satisfaction she gets from helping other veterans get access to benefits that, in many cases, they aren’t even aware of. And while she’s been heavily praised for her hard work to help the county’s veterans, she says that for her it’s easy.
“When you love something you do, you don’t really work hard at it at all,” she says. “This is not just a job; this is a ministry …I want you to have a comfortable life with the help of the benefits you deserve.”
When she thinks about her success in her three years on the job, the list she rattles off is long. In several cases, the veterans had never applied for benefits, believing that they might be needed more by someone else. It turned out they were eligible for thousands of dollars.
When one 80-year-old veteran she assisted got his first check in the mail for $17,000 – several months’ worth of a tax-free monthly compensation – he called her, thinking it was a mistake. He, like a lot of older veterans, had just never filed.
“I had another one in his 60s, who had never filed before – and when he filed, he got 30% [disability] and he was just the happiest,” she says. “He was able to add his wife. And I think the main thing was that tax-free compensation.”
In some cases, she says, she’s helped people to finally receive a long-awaited benefit – whether a hearing aid or a grave marker.
“It’s just being diligent and using your resources,” she says. “One thing about me: I’m not afraid to call somebody and ask.”
A Fairfield County native, Woodard is also delighted by the opportunity to work in her hometown, surrounded by people she knows.
She also works to spread the word about other benefits that exist for veterans – from health care access to tax benefits to hunting and fishing licenses to the opportunity to shop at the commissary at Ft. Jackson. She also helps to connect veterans to services in the community to help them with things like food if they need it.
The services she offers to veterans costs them nothing, and she encourages everyone to call.
“A lot of the veterans have been paying people to do the same job that we do for free. So, we’re trying to get veterans out of that mode of paying people to do stuff that we can do for you,” she says. “The income and even just the access helps a lot with health care costs. So, if you can get a little compensation and get the health care that goes along with it, then that’s a win-win situation.”
The Office of Veterans’ Affairs is located at 96 U.S. Hwy 321 Bypass. Hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. For more information or an appointment, call 803-635-4131.
