Young is new VA director

Montgomery County’s new Veterans Affairs director is settling into the new post.
Recently, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors approved Veterans Affairs Commission Chair Jerald Palmquist’s recommendation to hire Ed Young as the director. In May, the supervisors approved the hire of Bret Sherkenbach, though he later declined the position.
Young moved to the Red Oak area in 2020, after previously living near Glenwood. He grew up on a small farm near Winterset, and spent nearly a decade in the army.
“I was a drill sergeant for three years. I spent eight years in the Army, and I was a gun chief, drill sergeant, and also worked in nuclear weapons when I was in. That was from 1971 to 1979,” Young said.
After leaving the Army, Young said he went to college and moved back to Winterset for a time.
“I have a bachelor’s degree in business and also language arts. And then I started working. My wife and I moved back to Winterset, and then I became an ag loan officer for two years. Two years later, I went to a bank up in northern Iowa as an ag loan officer. After that, I came down to Massena, which is not very far from here, and was the president of the bank there in 1985, then in 1987, I moved to Sioux City and was the president of one of the bigger banks up there,” explained Young. “In 1988, I became an investment advisor. Up until the year 2020, I was a stockbroker investment advisor. In 2002, I actually started my own company, which was an investment firm. We actually did third party administration and investments both, planned services and planned services investments before I retired.”
Young also became a pastor in 2016, He’s the current pastor of Fifth Avenue Community Church in Council Bluffs, and did substitute teaching at the Red Oak Community School District. Young had nothing but praise for prior director Curtis White, who passed away unexpectedly earlier this year.
“The gentleman that was here, Mr. White, was a fantastic guy. I had met him, and I’d worked with him, I’ll be hard-pressed to be as good as him. I couldn’t give him enough praise. And he really cared, that was the important thing. I’ll try to do my best to try to fill his shoes.”
Young said he had been interested in the post in May, but decided against applying at that time.
“I saw it originally when Mr. White had passed away. I thought at the time, ‘should I talk to my wife about it?’ And then I thought, ‘no, just keep substitute teaching, and that’ll be okay.’ Because I stay pretty busy with the church and stuff. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought I could help some of the VA guys and some of the other veterans,” Young advised. “I talked to my wife, and she said that as long as it wasn’t full-time, which it’s not, t she had no problem with me going in to do that.
So then I talked to one of the supervisors. I know a couple of the supervisors, because they’re neighbors of mine. And I asked him about what was going on, and they seemed happy I was interested. So I went ahead and contacted the committee, and then they contacted me. I actually know one of the committee members very well, too. And so it didn’t take long after they contacted me.”
Now that he’s in the role, Young said there will be quite a bit of prep work before he can handle the official duties.
“I have to get certified before I can actually even open any files. I just submitted my paperwork this morning to start my first training. And then I probably will not be certified until after September. There’s a class I have to go to in Des Moines, it’s a week-long class. After that, I have a test, which I should be able to pass the test.,” Young stated.
Young said one of the things that is always a struggle with the VA is getting the veterans to seek the help they need.
“Veterans are very independent. They’ve really kind of done everything on their own, and they don’t like to rely on anyone. They truly like to say, ‘I’m my own person.’ So it’s very difficult a lot of times for them to reach out and contact someone. I hope I can break that stigma a little bit and let them know that we’re here, and that I’d love to help them in any way, shape, or form. Because veterans are a little different than most other type citizens,” commented Young. “When they took their oath, they actually made a contract with the United States that they would do everything to protect this country, including giving their life. Because of that, we need to make sure that we take care of them. Because they have gone the extra mile. I’m not saying that other people aren’t patriotic and all of that. But veterans actually put up and did it. They really need as much as possible.”
Providing that help, Young said, is what he took the job for, as there is a lot available to assist veterans.
“Some of it is just regular benefits. They don’t have to apply for disability. There’s all kinds of assistance that can help them including  getting employment, training. All we have to do is make sure that we talk to them and get them to come in. In my case, I’m going to try to go knock on some doors. I’m going to go around to different meetings. Even before this, I had referred a lot of veterans to get veterans benefits before, because I truly believe they deserve them. If the heating bill is too bad, we can actually get some money for you. Those are things that they don’t know that we have, but we have it. If you can’t make the rent and you’re going to get kicked out, of where you live, give me a call. We have money for that. I don’t have a ton of it, but by gosh, we have it and we’ll help you and we’ll get you through.”
Young also feels that one of the best VA hospitals in the nation is located right in Omaha.
“You have no idea how good it is. My wife is on Medicare, and the VA does mine. My health care is much better than hers. I think the people need to know that, because they read all these things and they hear all these things about these different VA hospitals and stories of people dying in the waiting room and all that. That does not happen here. The people at the Omaha VA Hospital care. We have by far one of the best VA hospitals.”
While he can’t directly provide assistance, Young said any vet in need can come to his office and he’ll connect them with a neighboring VA office, or get the answers they need.
“I want them to not be afraid to come in, because I will get the information for them. We will get them involved, we’ll get them enrolled. They should not be hesitant just because I can’t do it myself. If they have questions, and if I can’t answer the question, I’ll get the answer for them. If you call in here and leave a message, you will get a message back within 24 hours. I think communication is probably the most important thing that we do,” Young said.
Young also plans to continue doing outreach in the community and connecting veterans.
“I will keep doing the veterans coffees,and I probably will expand it a little bit more. I think I’ll stop at some of the nursing homes and see if we have vets in there. Talk to them. Wherever I go, I run into veterans, and we are a brotherhood. It makes no difference what service we are. One time I was at Heathrow Airport in London. I was coming back to the States and we had about a two-hour wait. A guy had a hat that said he was a veteran. I went over there and I started talking to him. Before I was done, there were 10 other veterans that were there. We all got together and we all talked. There’s a camaraderie in between all of the services? You have a brother no matter where,” Young stated.
In his free time, Young said he likes to hunt, and was actually returning from a hunting trip in Scotland when he was at Heathrow.
The VA hours will be Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to noon, and from 1 to 4 p.m. Young can also be reached at 402-657-9032, or 623-3180.