Richard Charron spent 30 years in the U.S. Marine Corps protecting everything from classified documents at embassies, to fellow Marines, and even an American president.

Today, as an education specialist with CalVet’s California Approving Agency for Veterans Education (CSAAVE), Charron protects veterans by ensuring that the schools who recruit veterans using their Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits comply with federal and state laws and regulations. Covering Riverside and Kern counties, he also shields veterans from the bad-actor schools known not only to burn through their benefits, but misuse federal funds as well.

“It’s a sense of duty and service,” Charron said. “Feeling like you’re still part of the military family.”

His Marine duties took him to places like Moscow, Somalia, Malaysia, El Salvador, Turkey, Guatemala, and Bolivia. He also had tours in the Gulf Wars to Iraq and Afghanistan, where he earned a Bronze Star. From 1995 through 1999, Charron served as a crew chief on Marine One, the presidential helicopter. He flew three times with President Bill Clinton, earning the so-called “Yankee White” designation—a nickname given to security officers for the president and vice-president.

“When you saw the president exit Marine One and a Marine saluting, that was me,” Charron said.

While serving at the U.S. Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, he and his team bore the responsibility of protecting “classified information and property, in that order” once the ambassador signed off for the night, he said.

Soon after retiring from the Corps in 2016, Charron became the veterans coordinator at California State University, San Marcos in Escondido. He joined CalVet’s CSAAVE staff in 2018. He makes compliance checks at educational institutions and training organizations and assists the USDVA in preventing fraud, waste, and abuse of GI Bill benefits.

By guarding the process, he protects those who, as he did, defended the nation and its Constitution. “You’re out, you’ve served, and now you’re serving veterans,” he said.

This is one of a series of CalVet Connect posts introducing you to CalVet employees who are veterans of the United States Armed Forces—thus, “Veterans Serving Veterans.”

Visit CalVet’s CSAAVE page at www.calvet.ca.gov/CSAAVE to learn more about the program.

Would you like the opportunity to serve veterans in your work? Join the CalVet team! We are dedicated to ensuring that veterans from every era, along with their families, receive the state and federal benefits and services they have earned and deserve due to their selfless and honorable military service. At CalVet, we prioritize serving veterans and their families with dignity, compassion, and a commitment to helping them achieve the highest quality of life. See our current job openings at www.calvet.ca.gov/jobs.