LEE LULL HELPING VETERANS COUNTY WIDE

By Debra Haight

ST. JOSEPH – November is the month during the year when people once again remember the sacrifices and service of military veterans over the decades and the centuries. For Berrien County Veterans Service Officer Lee Lull, it’s his focus year round as he works to help Berrien County’s nearly 12,000 veterans in any way he can.
Lull, a Navy veteran himself, has had his position as the county’s leading veterans’ advocate for over four years. He first applied in the 1990s when Don Olivia was chosen for the job and then later when Dan Stice got the post. Lull was chosen when Stice retired in 2012. “It shows that tenacity pays off,” he said.
“It always seemed like it would be a very interesting job,” he said. “I was in the Navy Reserves when I first applied. I retired from the Navy Reserves in 2006. I was in active service for four years after high school and then spent 17 years in the Reserves. I retired as a yeoman chief petty officer.”
Lull was on active service from 1980-84 and was overseas as part of the Indian Ocean-Iran Operations in 1981. He currently is a member of Bridgman American Legion Post 331, VFW Post 1137 in Benton Harbor, Amvets Post 1978 in Niles and the DAV Post 17 in Benton Harbor.
A Berrien County native and currently a Sawyer resident, he first got interested in working for county government when he was 17 and went to the courthouse in St. Joseph to get a copy of his birth certificate. “I thought it would be a good place to work so I applied when I got out of the Navy,” he said.
“I applied 19 times before I got my first interview and I didn’t even get a job at first after that interview,” he added. “But they were impressed with my tenacity and they called me when it didn’t work out with the first person they hired.”
Lull’s tenacity in wanting to work for the county and for veterans in particular is symbolic in many ways of his approach to serving veterans. “When I want something, I never ever give up,” he said. “With the Veterans Administration, you have to be that way. They will tell you no at least a couple of times before they approve anything.”
While the medical aspects of his job was new, he was pretty familiar with the legal aspects of helping veterans from his years of working in the Berrien County Trial Court. “I had had 25 years working in Probate Court as the deputy probate register, that prepared me for the legal aspects of the job,” he said.
“The medical aspect was a big shock,” he acknowledged. “It’s a never-ending process when it comes to investigating the medical stuff, but it’s exciting and I enjoy it.”
“I do anything that is veteran related,” he said. “The majority of my work is helping veterans with disability and compensation claims. The biggest population of veterans are from the Vietnam era but we get veterans from other eras back to World War II and forward to the present day.”
He said a misconception some older veterans have is that a medical issue they have now isn’t related to their wartime service. “I still do a lot of disability claims for World War II veterans,” he said. “A lot of them don’t know they’re entitled to benefits and don’t realize that the things they’re suffering now relate back to then.”
As for veterans from the Vietnam era, he said over half of what he deals with involve Agent Orange and PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) issues. In addition, there are other less well-known issues that he educates veterans and their families about including the water contamination from the 1950s to the 1980s at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
While Lull’s office is in the Berrien County Administration Center on Main Street in St. Joseph, he’s often out in communities around the county. He visits senior centers around the county throughout the year and also speaks to veterans groups and service clubs.
“I go to senior centers, service clubs and all veterans related organizations and I try to get the word out in newspapers and on the radio,” he said. “A lot of times, people learn about my office and hear about us through word of mouth.”
He encourages all veterans as well as family members to take advantage of the assistance he can provide. He can help people on a variety of medical, legal, financial and educational issues and get them in touch with others who can help as well.
Lull is proud of all his office has been able to do for veterans including coordinating volunteer drivers who take veterans to Battle Creek and other locations as well as providing a place where veterans can meet representatives of other organizations.
For example, people from the South Bend Vet Center come to the Administration Center every Thursday to provide counseling and other assistance. In addition, representatives from the Michigan Veterans Trust Fund come to the center every Tuesday to meet with veterans.