Author fills Web site, book, with help for vets

Veterans benefits explained in simple language.

By David Venditta
Of The Morning Call

Navy reservist Christopher P. Michel created an online service six years ago with information about active-duty and veterans benefits and the other advantages earned from military service.

His site, Military.com, has since exploded into the largest military and veterans organization in the country, claiming more than 6 million members. Membership, which is free, comes with features that include news about the military and a locator for finding old service buddies.

This year as company president, he took his outreach one step further with a book, "The Military Advantage: A Comprehensive Guide to Your Military & Veterans Benefits."

He serves a vast market; America has 26 million veterans and an army of servicemen and women fighting the Iraq war and global terrorism. They can tap myriad U.S. government programs and services ranging from home loans to health care.

Longtime veterans activist George Wilson of Bethlehem says the book is on target. "It's very valuable because of the information it gives to the average veteran. The answers are in there," said Wilson, a World War II vet, national service officer and attorney-in-fact with the U.S. Court of Veterans Appeals.

"Government publications take time to digest. They're tough," he said. "But this is broken down to be easily understood. It's in layman's language, and it's thorough as hell, totally thorough."

Michel, who went to Navy flight school and became a navigator on P-3 Orion reconnaissance planes, had completed seven years on active duty and was drilling with the Reserve on a summer weekend in '99 when he had the epiphany that led to Military.com. It happened when he asked a senior sailor about a benefits program and got clear advice he knew was unavailable elsewhere.

He felt there had to be a way to reach a wide audience with that kind of help.

"It hit me like a ton of bricks that the Internet was the perfect vehicle to connect the military community with the benefits they've earned," Michel, at his San Francisco home, said in a phone interview. "There were lots of military Web sites, but no one was really doing it in a meaningful way."

At the time, Michel was a business strategy consultant with an interest in entrepreneurship and a master's degree in business administration from Harvard University. He worked out of his living room to organize Military Advantage Inc., which would operate Military.com with the goal of serving 30 million people.

In 2000, he launched the business. Then came the dot-com bust, when Internet stocks dived. The company's employment fell from 60 to 14. "We almost went out of business," Michel said. "We barely pulled out of it, but we did. ... It completely turned around and was very profitable," making its money from advertising and government contracts.

Two years ago, privately held Military Advantage was bought by Monster Worldwide Inc., parent of the online employment service Monster.com, for $39.5 million. Military Advantage became a division of Monster Worldwide.

About the same time, Michel thought Military.com should do a book, knowing there would be a big market for one, but not realizing how much work it would be. It was as if "it took 10 years out of my life," he said, comparing it to "writing a dictionary for the first time."

The challenges included ensuring that the book covered all the relevant topics, that it was accurate and up-to-date, and that what he called "extraordinarily complicated benefits" and services were clearly explained.

Military.com worked closely with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Michel said, and turned to a host of experts. He points to his acknowledgments page as proof of the wide net his team cast: It lists 90 people, including Lou Reda of Lou Reda Productions in West Easton, a leading documentary filmmaker.

Michel said Reda initiated contact with Simon & Schuster, worked with the publisher on marketing, promoted the book on radio and even handed out fliers. "This book would not have been possible without him."

Reda, who is on Military.com's board of directors and describes Michel as "a very intense kind of guy," said he got involved in the book project "because I thought it was completely necessary."

He didn't feel that way after serving three years with the Navy Seabees in the Pacific during World War II.

"When I got out of the service, the furthest thing from my mind was what benefits I'd be entitled to," he said. "I wanted to go home and have my mother make her homemade ravioli."

But now, he's a convert to the cause. If you're a veteran seeking information, he said, "most of the time you end up talking to an answering machine. ... This (guide) is a hell of an idea. It's the kind of thing that's really, really needed for veterans who never thought about the benefits they're entitled to."

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