About us:

First of all, we are veterans.  Anyone may join UtVet.com without cost or obligation.  To join, just get on the newsletter list.  Simply email andreww(at)iveracity.com or call Andrew at 801-224-3100.

 

UtVet.com evolved from The Utah County Veterans Council, which evolved from the Provo Veterans Council which evolved from the Provo Veterans Memorial Board.

Back in 1945 Utah County passed a "mil tax" (a special property tax) for the purpose of creating veterans memorials in Utah county communities.  The Provo Veterans Memorial Board was created to manage the funds slated for Provo.  Members of the board represented the leadership of Spanish American War Veterans, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, Retired Officers Association, and others.  Examples of the memorials built with these county tax revenues include the Veterans Memorial Pool in Provo and the Veterans Memorial Building in Spanish Fork. 

During the Vietnam War, political support for the mil tax waned.  Wise men in Provo set some of these remaining funds aside for future veterans.  About 1974 the Provo Veterans Council grew out of the old Memorial Board and the need to manage their resources and coordinate veterans issues and patriotic events with Provo City govenment.  Council leadership continued to represent the leadership of Korean War Veterans, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, Retired Officers Association, Blue Star Mothers, and others.

Veterans organizations continued to evolve through the ninties.  The Provo Veterans Council found itself with a board of directors comprised of regional leaders of its various veterans service organizations;  American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, Retired Officers Association, Blue Star Mothers, and Vietnam Veterans.  The work of the Council was increasingly of a regional nature.  Council directors voted in 2003 to formally reorganize the Council as the Utah County Veterans Council.  In April, 2003 the Utah County Veterans Council was incorporated as a 501-c-19 (veterans) non-profit corporation.  Due to illness, and other family matters among the directors, the non-profit corporate status of the Veterans Council was given up.  Nevertheless, the work on behalf of veterans goes on.

Today, we welcome a new generation of veterans home from Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.   We know from sad experience how lonely veterans can feel in the midst of a homecoming.  Sometime it seems that there is "nobody who gets it." 

We urge these young vets to get in touch.  Start with a visit to your local vet center.  In Utah County call 377-1117.  We don't claim to have all the answers.  We only claim to care. . . and to have some experience in finding needed resources needed by veterans and their families.  Check us out.