US Navy vet takes charge

Daisy Diaz [Photo courtesy Marion County]

Daisy Diaz, a 20-year U.S. Navy veteran has been named director of the Marion County Veterans Services Office. She has served veterans in the office since 2006 and brings to her new role not only military experience but the background of a female veteran.
Diaz replaced former director Jeffrey Askew, also a Navy veteran, who retired after 25 years of dedicated service to local veterans. Her leadership position became effective May 15.

Diaz is a native of the Bronx, New York, and joined the military due to a sense of “duty and adventure,” according to an announcement from the county, and as a member of a family with several veterans.

She was in the Defense Intelligence Agency, Navy Broadcasting Service and Explosive Ordinance Disposal Mobile Unit 6. She served on the USNS Comfort hospital ship to give aid to Haiti and the USS Inchon in 1999 during Operation Shining Hope, during which she was deployed to locations including Kosovo, Egypt, Israel, Spain, Italy and France. She served in legal aid in Puerto Rico during one deployment.

Diaz retired from the Navy in 2003 as a chief petty officer and moved to Ocala. She first worked with Sen. Dennis Baxley’s office and then joined the Marion County Veterans Services Office in 2006, where she began as a veterans service officer and later became a VSO supervisor.

Diaz said her action plan as director includes increasing awareness about the office among the county’s veteran community and collaboration with many organizations and nonprofits, from the Marion County Veterans Council to Veterans Helping Veterans USA to Volunteers of America, operators of the Ritz Veterans Village.

“Every veteran deserves to know what benefits they’ve earned. We’re here to help them get the support they need,” she stated in the press release.

Veterans Administration 2023 VetPop population tables indicated that Marion County had 33,686 veterans, about double the number of nearby Alachua County.

Diaz said she is one of five authorized VSOs in the Marion County Veterans Service Center office at 2703 E. Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala, who can help veterans navigate Veterans Administration benefits, gain access to military records and replace active-duty decorations.

She said service members have heard about local VSOs in boot camp for the last few years, but she has had veterans ”80 years old who had no idea we existed.”

“We want to get the word out,” she said

According to marionfl.org, available VA benefits may include pension, health care and education, as well as death and burial benefits.
Todd Belknap, executive director of Veterans Helping Veterans USA of Marion County, said he’s looking forward to a continued partnership with the Marion County Veterans Service Office.

“We look forward to a collaborative effort to benefit the entire veteran’s community in Marion County,” Belknap said.

To learn more, go to marionfl.org/agencies-departments/departments-facilities-offices/veterans-services