The Good Life – May-June 2024

LOCAL HERO | JIM DEREMO
HERO IN PLAIN SIGHT
Jim Deremo and His Unending Fight for Veterans
WRITTEN BY: AMY WIESER WILLSON
PHOTOS BY: URBAN TOAD MEDIA
Jim Deremo insists he’s “nothing special.” The
thousands of veterans he helped during his 35-year
career as a veterans’ service officer would disagree.
Some insist Deremo saved their lives. It’s the ones he
couldn’t save, however, that seem to haunt him most.
As a VSO, Deremo was tasked with helping veterans
navigate government red tape to get the benefits –
from healthcare to education to disability payments
– to which they’re entitled. Even in retirement, he
continues to do the same in an unofficial capacity.
It’s inadequate to call it a career, though. It’s his
passion. It’s what drives him to fight each day, even
in retirement, to take care of those who have served.
BEGGING TO GO TO NAM
While he would rather talk about other veterans than
himself, Deremo’s own military service is notable.
“I had come of age during Vietnam. After I turned 18,
I received my draft notice, so I was going to be in the
military one way or the other, and the ‘Join the Navy
and See the World’ appealed to me,” Deremo said.
“I was up for the adventure. All through high school,
Vietnam was always in the news. We were fighting
communism and if we didn’t stop them there, we
would be fighting them in our country. … All of that
made sense to me, and I decided I was going to be
part of the fight to stop them from doing that.”
Chalk it up to the folly of youth, but Deremo also
thought he’d audition for the Navy Band.
“I don’t know how I thought playing my trombone
in the Navy Band was going to stop communist
aggression. Guess I hadn’t thought that through really
well,” he said in his classic style of self-deprecating
humor.
He missed the cut to join the band by 7/10 of a point
but decided to enlist anyway, instead becoming an
aviation electronics mate.
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