Marine Veteran says, “Thank you” with Art

Marine Veteran Chester ‘Chet’ Zaremba had never been sick in his life, but when he had a bad cough from what he believed was mold at work, he went to his local VA Clinic. During the visit, VA found something devastating—a tumor that needed surgery right away.

Welcome to the USMC

Zaremba, 80, remembers how in high school he and four of his buddies decided to join the Marines. After bootcamp, he began his military career with the Marine Attack Squadron 231, before joining the infantry at Camp Lejune, North Carolina. Over the next few years of service, he made lifelong friendships and credits the Marines for making him the man he is today.

“It made me a man,” he said. “I was a boy when I walked in. I only weighed 126 pounds. When I came out of Parris Island, I was 165 pounds. You can’t pay $100,000 to get that kind of training.”

I was sick and no one else took it seriously, but VA did

Later, after his service, Zaremba began to notice he was having trouble breathing and was constantly coughing. He went to his family doctor with concern about breathing in mildew and mold, but the doctor brushed it off. He then went to workman’s comp and they said he had no evidence. Feeling like he was at the end of his rope, he recalled hearing from his Marine Corps days that the Department of Veterans Affairs promised it would be there for him when he got out of service.

“They told me when I was going to join the Marines, it was going to be free for me and I was going to get all my benefits,” he said. “I went to VA. I knew that VA was a good place for me.”

Miami VAMC

Zaremba’s Miami VA care team proposed a colonoscopy and some CT scans, and scheduled an immediate surgery.

“They discovered the tumor,” said Zaremba. “They discovered something that can actually kill you. So I was very grateful.”

After the surgery, which used the best technology and robotic arms, he made a full recovery. His surgeon, Dr. Spector and the entire VA team, could not be happier.

Diamond Art

“People were so nice to me, I wanted to do something for them, but I didn’t know what,” he shared. “Michele (his daughter) comes along and we have this yearly reunion where we all meet. And Michele puts together a diamond art project for me.”

That’s the moment he knew what he was going to make to say thank you for the team at VA. Diamond Art. He had done Diamond Art before, privately, and he enjoyed working on those projects. He recalled doing straight line art his whole life from elementary all the way through college.

“You know, I love doing straight line, which is not people. It’s just buildings and things like that,” he said.” Say the person isn’t a great artist and he just likes to dabble but he’s not really good. Start small and make it look right.”

If he sees a Veteran in need

Zaremba has noticed a lot of Veterans are in need and homeless. But because of how great of an experience he had with VA he has noticed himself promoting it to other Veterans and knows VA is keeping its promise to help all Veterans.

“If I meet someone on the street and they have some kind of problem, I would tell them that the reason I went is because I wasn’t feeling well. Something wasn’t right,” he said. “But they (VA) took care of me. That could happen to you.”