For many veterans, dealing with the physical and mental cost of prior combat deployments is a daily reality. While physical and mental injuries have clear and immediate implications for quality of life, the financial effects can also be extremely severe, with many veterans struggling to make ends meet.

The anxieties this cause reach a whole new level for veterans with families to support. The downstream effects of disability are seldom discussed, despite being the source of much additional trauma, and even humiliation, for America’s finest.

Being the CEO of a veteran-focused mortgage provider, Rob Posner encounters this issue far more often than the average civilian:

“These people build their lives and careers around being strong, being capable, dependable, around always being there for the people who need them, whether that’s their squad members, their families, their country, or people in need. Anybody.”

NewDay USA, the company helmed by Rob, provides underwriting and other support services to Veteran families looking to buy a new home. This line of work often brings Rob into contact with Americans battling severe injuries, some visible, some not.

“Physical injuries are of course extremely traumatic, but mental injury—trauma, PTSD, and so forth, can be equally debilitating, especially in this modern knowledge and service-based economy where we’re all selling our brains to some extent.”

Rob continues:

“It’s deeply humbling to speak with veterans suffering from things like PTSD, especially when you learn what they’ve actually been through. I don’t know if I could survive five minutes of what these men and women spend months experiencing.”

Former US Army Ranger Jon Jackson is a prime example of the trials faced by American personnel, on and off the battlefield.

“Jon is an incredible example and an amazing human being”, says Rob, “he’s a man who did six combat deployments as an Army Ranger. These are the military's elite; the guys who get the hardest tasks and see the fiercest fighting”.

When Jon left the Rangers, he returned to civilian life suffering from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the result of the enormous amount of combat he experienced. PTSD leaves many veterans struggling to properly function on their return to civilian life, sometimes with disastrous effects for their, and their families', wellbeing.

Zina Posner (formally Zina Roberts), Rob’s wife and fellow devotee to veteran’s affairs, continues the story:

“Jon is amazing because even though he was dealing with severe PTSD, he refused to become a victim. In fact he went ahead and started his own organization to help other Veterans with similar issues. This is the caliber of people we are talking about here. It’s really humbling.”

This, and other experiences with both disabled veterans and the families of service members killed in action, inspired Rob and Zina to boost their own veteran support efforts beyond the immediate business of mortgage provision.

“The truth is that, for a lot of these people, these actual American heroes, there’s a limit to what normal people like us can do to help. PTSD, for example, is a very complex and long-term condition. But, we can help support the families," says Zina.

Earlier this year, Jon’s two children - daughter Kaitlyn and son Buck - became the latest recipients of the Alan B. Posner Scholarship Program, an initiative run by Rob and Zina to benefit the children of disabled veterans (Schol_2) or those killed-in-action serving their country.

“Our men and women in uniform take care of us every day”, says Rob, “and they sacrifice a huge amount, sometimes everything, in order to keep us safe. So when that happens, we have to—both as a nation and as individuals—we have to step up and repay that”.

Zina continues: 

“The scholarship program is designed to provide a top-quality education for as many of these kids as possible.  These kids are from families where they may have lost a parent or, like with Kaitlyn and Buck, where a parent has been severely injured while serving the nation.”

The Alan B. Posner Scholarship program is currently providing over seventy children with a top-of-the-line educational opportunity at top-flight colleges like the Georgia Military College Prep School, where Kaitlyn and Buck are now enrolled.

“It’s our privilege to honor this amazing family in this way”, says Rob, “it’s not a fair exchange considering what Jon has sacrificed for our nation, but it’s a start”.