High Ridge Man and Guard Veteran Helps Other Vets With Retiree Benefits

By Bill Phelan

Although he retired from the Missouri Army National Guard in 1993, Dave Riley is still very much involved with the organization where he spent 26 years in uniform.  

Now a member of the Missouri National Guard Retiree Council, Riley, 67, of High Ridge, helps other Guard retirees and their spouses take full advantage of veteran’s benefits they may not even know they are entitled to.  

“If there’s a Guard retiree out there who doesn’t know what benefits they have coming we can guide them to the right people and get them taken care of in a couple of hours,” Riley said. “It makes me feel good to help them.”  

While some retired Guardsmen keep close track of their benefits, many fail to pass that information along to their spouse.  

“At a recent retiree appreciation day that we sponsored the husbands knew just about everything we told them about their benefits but their wives knew nothing about them,” Riley said. “In many cases, the husband dies and his spouse has no idea of what survivor benefits they might be entitled to. They don’t know who to talk to; they’re lost.”  

That’s where the Missouri National Guard Retiree Council steps in.  

“We can help them with any military pension issues, funeral honors or back pay their spouse might have coming,” Riley explained. “In other cases a veteran receiving benefits might die and his wife simply forgets to notify the proper authorities to stop those benefits. That happens quite often and we can help with that as well.”  

Riley notes with some irony that he often helps veterans with benefits that were not offered when he joined the National Guard. 

“I dropped out of school to join the Guard at 17,” Riley said. “That was in 1962, when Vietnam was just a flicker.”  

Riley spent his entire National Guard career with the 138th Infantry Regiment (later redesignated the 1138th Engineer Battalion), retiring as a master sergeant. Once referred to as “Weekend Warriors,” Riley points out that today’s National Guard is a far cry from the Guard of his youth.  

“Nobody uses the term ‘Weekend Warriors’ anymore,” he said. “If you join today’s National Guard for six years, you stand a good chance of being deployed. That didn’t happen when I was serving. Today’s National Guard is much better equipped and much better trained than we were.”  

Riley and his wife, Lucy, are the parents of a grown son.  

For more information about the Missouri National Guard, please visit www.moguard.com.

Bill Phelan is a public affairs representative with the 70th Troop Command, Missouri National Guard.