Caldwell Veterans Services: Fighting for vets' benefits

Last year, a retired U.S. Army warrant officer, whose health was declining due to toxic exposure from his time in Iraq, came to the Caldwell County Veterans Services office seeking assistance.

The vet had previously filed for compensation through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and was denied.

“I’ll be honest, when I saw this person, I didn’t think there was gonna be a whole lot we could do for him based off of those previous denials,” Veterans Services Director Joseph Calloway told the Caldwell County Board of Commissioners during a presentation on Oct. 26. “But my team, they worked tirelessly. They pored through mountains of medical journals. We researched medical evidence. We resubmitted those claims, and that veteran was awarded total and permanent disability.”

The veteran’s wife also qualified for benefits through the VA’s Family Caregiver Assistance Program, providing the family with an additional $2,800 a month so she could stay home and care for her husband.

Calloway spent nearly three decades in the armed services, and his office is peppered with awards, pins, and certificates. A small statue of the iconic flag-raising at Iwo Jima sits atop his shelves.

He’s been the director for about three years, and he and his two-person team each field about 20-30 calls a day from vets asking for assistance tracking their claims, applying for benefits, and understanding the status of their government compensation.

“Every veteran is different, every branch of service is different,” Calloway explained, crossing his arms so the “We the People” tattoo mirrored the framed copy of the Constitution hanging on the wall behind him. “We have different terminology, different lingo. But I would say as a whole … (my service) helps me and that veteran connect.

“Most of them understand that the rank that I got out of it was a leadership position, obviously, but that I take care of soldiers. So, I try to project that onto them, that I don’t have soldiers to take care of anymore, so you’re now my soldiers (and) that I’m here to try to take care of you.”

Since 2023, over $243.6 million has come to the county’s vets through VA expenditures — $73 million in 2023, about $80.3 million in 2024, and approximately $90.3 million in 2025. The VA spent nearly $15 billion across the entire state in 2025, according to Calloway.

During his October presentation, Calloway said the Caldwell County Veterans Services office had a budget of $244,234 for the 2025-26 fiscal year.

There were 3,546 claims filed in calendar year 2025, which boiled down to about 14.8 filed per working day through his staff.

More than $51.1 million of the 2025 funding for Caldwell’s vets were direct expenditures, which include compensation, pensions, dependency and indemnity compensation, and survivors’ pensions.

Calloway and his team have dug into everything from firefighting foam to JP-4 jet fuel to strengthen a vet’s case.

“I’ll keep fighting as long as we possibly can,” Calloway said. “I’ll keep fighting as long as the veteran continues to want to fight. Sometimes they get to a point where they’re just so frustrated with the whole thing that they don’t want to. I try to talk them into letting me, ‘Hey, let me try this one more time. Let me try it this way.’”

About $39.15 million in 2025 came in indirect expenditures through education, memorial benefits, veteran readiness and employment, community medical care, and VA medical care.

Calloway said he often helps line up memorial services for families, double-checking that the vet was honorably discharged before directing their loved ones to where they can receive a burial flag or a furnished headstone. He also assists with setting up burials at the Western Carolina State Veterans Cemetery in Black Mountain.

He explained that service doesn’t stop at the county lines, and that as long as it’s within his scope, and he’s able to help, he supports vets from across the counties — even when they’ve already passed on.

When it comes to unclaimed remains, “anytime that (the Department of Social Services) knows that they’re a veteran, they reach out to me and let me know, ‘Hey, we’ve got this person.’ I will call and set it up for them to be interred up in Black Mountain. I’ve only had to do it once since I’ve been here, but I’ve personally went and picked up the remains and drove them up to (Black Mountain), up to the cemetery, and did a small ceremony.

“That’s my gas money, my truck. I don’t use taxpayer money to go do that. That’s not necessarily part of my job, but to me it is. … For me, personally, as a veteran, man, that’s what I’m supposed to do is help take care of my brothers and sisters as best I can.”