Chad Baker’s Dedicated Service
to Wounded Veterans
By Valerie Connelly, Vice President Government Affairs and Public Relations
Chad Baker is an entrepreneur here on the Eastern Shore, living with his family in Queen Anne’s County, Md. He is also a combat veteran who served 21 years in the U.S. Army as an airborne infantryman and then as a human resource manager assigned to special operations units. Most importantly, Chad is a Choptank Electric Cooperative member who exemplifies the seventh Cooperative Principle, Concern for Community, through his service to and for wounded veterans.
“As a veteran myself,” says Mike Malandro, Choptank’s President and CEO, “I am impressed with Chad’s dedication to the men and women who served our country, returned home and now need some assistance to get back on their feet.”
The 73 members of the Military Order of the Purple Heart (MOPH) Delmarva Chapter 570 can count on Commander Baker’s unwavering commitment to bring together health professionals and resources whenever they are needed. In Chad's June newsletter to members highlighting PTSD awareness, he shared his own struggles with PTSD and the relief he found through treatment.
“Mental health services are the biggest need I see in my volunteer work,” Chad explains. “Whenever I work with a veteran, I check first to make sure they are signed up for services through the Veterans Administration.”
He also works with nonprofit organizations to ensure no veteran pays for treatment, even if it is not covered by insurance or the VA. MOPH sources funds to help veterans deal with everyday struggles, job training and housing needs. Recently, a wounded veteran needed a plane ticket to attend a family funeral. Others living at Charlotte Hall, a veterans’ home on the western shore, needed a new bingo machine and TV screens for their weekly group activity.
Chad coordinates use of the Vet Mentor AI (artificial intelligence) to help veterans write their claims in a way that will be accepted by the VA with benefits paid as soon as possible. The Great Genie AI is a small business tool Chad likes that will help identify the right grant programs to get a new veteran-owned small business up and running.
When asked about how his job in the military prepared him for what he is doing now as a strategic advisor and volunteer, Chad says, “I want to help people — and the Army taught me to be humble, listen to people and take criticism without overreacting.”
Chad grew up in Delaware and was employed at a family construction company in Bethany on Sept. 11, 2001 when planes struck the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and crashed in the field in Pennsylvania. The next morning, Chad and many more like him lined up at the recruiter’s office to serve and protect our nation. Chad trained at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Irwin in California. He was deployed to the Middle East in 2003, where he was injured by an IED (an improvised bomb) and awarded the Purple Heart. After recovery, Chad continued to serve for almost two decades.
“I am proud of Chad and am eager to support his work with other wounded veterans,” says Mike Malandro. “I am amazed at the selfless volunteers I meet on a daily basis throughout the Cooperative community.”