Many of Wayland’s veterans are grappling with the realities of growing older: rising healthcare costs, limited mobility, and the challenge of finding community as traditional fraternal organizations fade away.
“These veterans, like a lot of seniors, are increasingly aging in place,” said Dan O’Neill, a veterans service officer with the West Suburban Veterans District. “Their healthcare costs are becoming a bigger portion of their discretionary income, and for them to stay in their home, they’re reliant on in-home health aid.
Two hundred eighty-nine veterans (269 men and 20 women), call Wayland home, according to data from last year’s town census. Sixty percent were born in the 1940s or earlier, and another 20% were born in the 1950s and 1960s. These statistics reflect a veteran population consisting primarily of those who served in the Vietnam era who are grappling with the challenges of post-military aging, O’Neill said.
The West Suburban Veterans District serves Wayland, Needham, Wellesley, Weston and Westwood and is funded in collaboration by all five towns. O’Neill, alongside fellow VSO Dave Campisano, a 15-year Army veteran, serves the diverse needs of constituents with prior military experience and their families. For the overwhelming majority of elderly Vietnam-era veterans, that means connecting them with the benefits that can assist them in attaining adequate healthcare.
“There’s a host of benefits locally, at the state level and federally. There’s an awful lot of them, so it’s not uncommon for vets to not know what they’ve earned and what’s available to them,” O’Neill said. “Job one is to educate them, their spouses and families and ultimately help them to apply for those benefits and receive those benefits.”
O’Neill served on a Spruance-class destroyer in the U.S. Navy from 1992–1996. After completing his service, he attended college and then embarked on a career in communications and public relations for large publicly traded companies. However, after he turned 50, he looked for a role where he could use his professional expertise for a cause he cared about. Seeking information about his own service benefits led him to his VSO. On the brink of retirement, he explored what a position at the VSO entailed and ultimately “stepped up to the plate” in March 2025.
O’Neill and his associates follow updates to veterans policies, which can have a major impact on qualified residents. For instance, the federal government’s passage of the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022 granted more Vietnam-era veterans with presumptive conditions related to exposure to toxic herbicides to qualify for disability benefits. On the state level, the HERO Act, signed into law by Gov. Maura Healey in August 2024, increased the state annuity paid to disabled veterans and allows municipalities like Wayland to expand tax exemptions for local veterans.
However, while O’Neill’s team helps veterans access these benefits, this work isn’t the main focus of their day-to-day operations. Veterans are more concerned about the routine issues such as hearing aids. He also helps aging veterans find community with other vets, such as by organizing celebrations for major military holidays on Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day or simply providing a space for veterans to meet — a task that’s not always straightforward because of health or mobility issues.
The slow loss of traditional community groups is also a problem. “A lot of the fraternal organizations — Knights of Columbus, the Elks Lodge, the American Legion, VFW … decades ago these were popular, accepted places where predominantly men could find community and these organizations have winnowed in numbers,” O’Neill said. “Our office tries to mitigate that. We have monthly coffees where folks can come in and sit around and trade sometimes literal war stories, sometimes just stories of service.”
Wayland residents and veterans can visit O’Neill at the Wayland Council on Aging and Community Center on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9 a.m.–4 p.m., call his office at 781-850-5504 or email him at doneill@westsuburbanveterans.com.
