“It’s kind of the theory of, ‘Well, they’ve walked in the same moccasins I have, so they’ll understand better.’"”

Chris Bates, American Legion member

There is a clear separation when coming home from a community of people willing to die for each other into the fractured world of social media and partisan politics.

Which is exactly why the American Legion exists to create gathering spaces like the Marvin G. Shields Memorial Post 26 in Port Townsend.

In that warm and welcome space its easy to run into a smile on the face of someone like Chris and Kathey Bates.

Chris spent 24 years in the Navy where he met his wife-to-be Kathey — who did 21 years of her own service — in the chiefs barracks.

“Fortunately we were never in the same chain of command,” Kathey Bates said after noting that she outranked her husband.

“The first couple months that we knew each other, I don’t think he knew my first name, he just called me, ‘Senior,’” she added.

A sense of humor is a common side effect of a big heart.

It’s easy to find Bates’ care stitched into her help running the Jefferson County Quilts of Valor program. Instead of a medal that sits on a shelf, the group creates comforting quilts that honor while offering healing in a very physical way.

Chris Bates’ heart doesn’t hide too far behind his wide smile and he’s a big supporter of all the Legion’s efforts to support fellow veterans, particularly those suffering from PTSD and other mental health issues.

Following in the footsteps of the current and past National Commanders for the American Legion, suicide prevention is at the forefront.

“While it’s not a great statistic, it is an indications it’s working because we went from 22 a day to 17 a day. That’s still too many,” he said of the number of veteran suicides, adding that while difficult to hear, “it’s going in the right direction.”

Recently, the Legion’s national lobbying efforts have helped create a new way to find connection.

“In July, they stood up the National Crisis Hotline — which is 988 — and to get to the Veteran’s Crisis Hotline all you do is press 1,” Bates said.

“You will talk to a fellow veteran,” he added. “It’s kind of the theory of, ‘Well, they’ve walked in the same moccasins I have, so they’ll understand better.’”

To build resilience, it helps to start with a solid foundation at a young age and to that end the couple are working with the American Legion Boys State and American Legion Auxiliary Girls State.

“Boy State and Girl State take juniors in high school and they form a government, with a governor and the whole nine yards, and they work through the legislative process because so many schools don’t offer civics as part of the curriculum,” he said.

The results of who comes out of these programs speaks for itself.

“Derek Kilmer was in Boy State,” she said.

“President Clinton was a Boy Stater,” he added.

Their hope is to get a student from each of the three high schools in Jefferson County to participate.

The program does involve a week-long trip which the teens must find a way to fundraise the money for.

“There is some help to help out a family that can’t raise the total amount for their child to go,” Chris Bates said. “We’ll help as we can.”

On the ground locally, the Legion also makes sure to keep a hand reached out with Veteran’s Service Officers to explain the in’s and out’s of the various programs and benefits available to them.

“We have two,” Kathey Bates said. “They are instrumental in administering the county’s veteran’s fund.”

Perhaps almost as infamous as the IRS, the Veteran’s Affairs office, or VA, is known for being difficult, which is exactly the kind of thing the service officers are trained to help with.

“They spend a lot of time helping veterans maneuver through the ultra-complex, slow, VA system,” she said. “I can speak from personal experience that it is slow and complex. It’s hard to maneuver through.”

“It took me a year and a half to get into the VA system,” she added.

Even without a physical disability, the VA has ways to help.

“Nowadays just about everybody does have something because of the nature of the way we’ve been fighting war for the last 20 years, so they come out with PTSD if they don’t come out with anything else,” Bates said.