Reprinted and translated with permission from The Sun in Lowell.
May 13, 2020
When you hear words like advocate, dedication, honorable and hero there is a person who comes to mind, and his name is Francisco Urena.
Francisco is the Secretary of Veteran Services here in Massachusetts and is both an incredible public official and human being. I have met many veteran advocates in my lifetime, and I can say very few have done more than Urena in serving his fellow veterans.
Recently there was a story released by a local television news channel that featured the death of 80 plus veterans dying at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. The story laid the deaths at Urena’s feet and painted him in an extremely unfair and unflattering light as someone lacking compassion and or dedication to his fellow veterans and their families. In my personal experience with Urena for over 10 years, he is anything but how he was portrayed.
Urena joined the Marines in 1998, and in 2001 after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he requested and was accepted into the Marine Embassy Guard Program in Syria and Kyrgyzstan. He then served as a tank commander during Operation Iraqi Freedom where he sustained injuries and was awarded The Purple Heart.
Urena was honorably discharged in 2005 and then decided to settle in Lawrence where he met then Mayor Michael Sullivan. Sullivan saw potential in Urena and hired him to be the Veteran Services Officer for the city.
As the Lawrence VSO, Urena found his calling in helping his fellow veterans, which brought him to work for the late Mayor Menino of Boston for years and then was appointed by Gov. Baker in 2015 to become the Secretary of Veteran Services.
There was a reason Urena was appointed and asked to serve in these high-level positions; he always went above and beyond the job to serve his fellow veterans. As a veteran advocate myself I can tell you that the veteran community does not operate on a 9 a.m.-5 p.m. schedule. Veterans in need have issues all hours of the day and night. Situations arise when you least suspect them and in the most inconvenient time and days, for which almost everything is either done for the day or closed. I can honestly say on numerous occasions, when I received a phone call from a veteran in distress, it was Urena I called for help, and he always answered the phone day or night.
Most recently I received a phone call from a veteran I served with in Operation Desert Storm. The veteran who called was my brother, a firefighter I served with and had not spoken to in almost 30 years. He called me from a remote location in Montana. He was out of luck and in need of help. I’d love to say that my tentacles into the veteran’s community reached well out into the remote regions of Montana, but they don’t.
However, there was one person I knew, who was able to help. Yes, it was Urena who I called, and he answered the phone at 2 p.m. Saturday. It was Urena who followed up with me at 7 p.m. Monday to help this veteran in need.
So, readers, when you see a story in the news that attacks someone of Urena’s caliber, honor, integrity, service to his country and continued service to his fellow veterans, we need to speak out. I needed to speak out.
We have a true living hero in our midst. Veterans and their families in Massachusetts are better off for having Secretary Urena serving them.
John MacDonald is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Operation Desert Storm and a veteran advocate.
