Celebrated Veterans Affair Officer Becky Burns Retires 

After seven years of serving as Alger County’s Veterans Affairs officer, Becky Burns has set her sights on retiring to the Alaskan wilderness. 

“It’s bittersweet,” she says of her departure. “These veterans have become my family.”

A lot has changed since she first responded to a job posting in the paper in 2019.  Burns, a licensed real-estate agent and a veteran herself, wasn’t sure if she would get the then-part-time VAO position, which came with the daunting task of writing grants that would support the nearly 700 veterans living in Alger County. The position posed an additional challenge: growing the Veterans Affairs Office. 

“I just jumped in with both feet,” Burns said. 

She doggedly researched grant writing and all of the requirements that come with advocating for veterans benefits, making sure “every I was dotted and every T was crossed.”

At the time, Burns said one of the biggest challenges was the fact that many veterans and loved ones of veterans were not aware that the Alger County Veterans Affairs Office even existed, let alone what services and benefits were available to them through the office. 

“So much of what we do is real relationship building,” Burns said. “I’m not originally from the U.P. I grew up in Orlando, Florida,” she adds, joking that she’s a bit of a reverse snowbird, having moved from warm weather to northern Michigan, where she previously had a vacation home.

“I’ve had to explain who I was to everybody because they want to know who I am and where I came from and who I knew,” she said. “I think it actually helped because I didn’t have connections here. I didn’t have any kind of reputation, so it was just like, ‘Here I am and how can I help you?’”

For many, Burns said seeking assistance through the Veterans Affairs Office is often a “last resort.”

“They’re very independent, and they want to take care of themselves,” she said. “Freedom isn’t free, and it really isn’t because there is a toll that is paid by veterans across the country. But they do it proudly, and they’re so proud of their service, as they rightfully should be.”

Very quickly, Burns learned that building trust with the veteran community was going to be both a barrier and the most important aspect of the work. Burns said by opening up to veterans about herself, the veterans, in exchange, let their guards down.

“That trust is so important because they’re really trusting me with details of their life that they don’t even want their spouses to hear or family to know about,” she said. “So, they come here and it’s sort of a safe and private place where they can be vulnerable when they need to be.” 

In addition to grant writing and relationship building, Burns said outreach has been key in the success of growing the office and expanding accessibility, as well as working to connect the four veteran organizations within the county that previously operated independently of one another so they would then operate as “one cohesive body supporting veterans needs.”

“Word of mouth and meeting veterans has been the greatest way we’ve been able to grow the office,” she said, citing the office’s float and presence in the Fourth of July parade, as well as attending veteran organization meetings, and even walking up to someone wearing a military hat to introduce herself and the offerings of the VAO have been critical in expanding the office’s countywide footprint. 

“You’d be surprised by how many veterans in our community moved up here like I did because it was beautiful and didn’t necessarily have strong family ties,” she said. “And with that comes some isolation, and some people do really well with that isolation and others do not.”

She added that ensuring veterans have access to mental health care has been one of the most vital components of her job. But more than anything, Burns said listening has been a superpower in connecting with the veteran population.

“You definitely need to listen to what their needs are because sometimes they’ll come in and they may be talking about a lack of food assistance, but then you have to get to the root of the cause. Why can’t they afford food? Well, they just had to replace their roof, or they have serious health issues relating to their military service,” she said. “People want to be heard and have their feelings and concerns validated, and I think it’s really important just getting to know them because each veteran’s service is unique. I’ve been doing this job for a while, and I’ve never seen two that are the same.” 

It is this empathetic and outgoing approach to the difficult and oftentimes emotional work that earned Burns the Michigan and Military Veterans Veteran Service Provider of the Year award in 2022, an accomplishment that she said is not just for her, but “for every Yooper and veteran in Alger County,” adding that if it weren’t for the veterans, this award wouldn’t exist. 

“Veterans were writing letters on my behalf,” Burns said. “It was amazing.” 

Retired Marine and Alger County Veterans Affairs board member Jim Rodgers echoes those sentiments celebrating Burns and says she “poured her heart and soul” into the position immediately upon taking the job. 

“Everybody knows her,” Rodgers said. “And everybody was kind of apprehensive when she let us know she was leaving. But she has got the office set up so well.”

He added that Burns didn’t just grow the office during her time there, she reworked it from the inside out. She optimized the office’s budget, streamlined the process so others can follow in her footsteps and secured new avenues of funding. 

For Rodgers, he said one of the most vital hallmarks of Burns’ time as VAO is her empathetic approach and her love of being the connective tissue between the community and other veterans organizations. 

“Oftentimes there are some things some veterans don’t want to talk to another man about,” Rodgers said. “So these other Veterans Affairs offices across the county would refer those vets to talk to Becky because talking to her was like talking to your big sister or your aunt, you know, depending on where you were in life. And she took that role on. She didn’t care whether it was her veteran or not, they were all her veterans.”

Though Rodgers jokes that the office has been referring to Burns retirement as “selective quitting,” he recalls the countless weekends and unpaid hours Burns dedicated to the job and the many extra miles she would go for complete strangers. 

“We’re just so happy for her to be able to do this,” he said. 

Burns is excited to finally make one of her bucket-list dreams come true by retiring to Alaska, where she plans to relocate next year. She said her move doesn’t mean farewell.

“My bucket list kept getting longer and longer and longer,” Burns said of her retirement plan, adding that time goes fast. “I had somebody in here the other day that said this was their dream and now they’re 77. But they’re going to live with me, and I’m hoping to stay connected with some of them because they’re more than just Alger County veterans. They’ve become family, and I care very much about them.”