It started with a father wanting to do something to make a better opportunity for his grown children in Washington state after their military careers in the Air Force come to an end.

But after Dennis Primoli started looking over the laws that aid veterans in Washington, the retired colonel and former KC-135 Stratotanker and C-141 Starlifter navigator didn't like what he saw.

"A lot of the laws in the mid 1990s were weak when it came to veteran's advocacy," said Primoli, who was born and raised in Seattle and now lives with his wife in Puyallup. "I needed to find something that I could sink my teeth into - become a serious, down-to-earth veteran's advocate."

So Primoli got involved with the Veterans Legislative Coalition, or VLC, a group which brings together representatives from various veteran's service organizations to work together to present various, causes, positions and issues of veterans and their family members to the Washington State Legislature. All of the coalition's 30 members are volunteers.

"We're all apolitical ... and we leave all of our politics and (former military) ranks at the door when we walk in to serve the VLC," said Primoli, whose 27-year Air Force career included a stint as an ROTC instructor at the University of Puget Sound, a 12-month assignment as a fire control officer on an AC-130 gunship over Vietnam, a job at the Pentagon and stints as a base commander at two different bases.

The coalition's mission is to maintain knowledge of bills, sponsor bills, attend legislative hearings, support the VLC's goals, inform veteran service organizations and request support.

"We do not create bills," he said. "We try to go over bills that affect veterans, and vote within the VLC on which ones to support. Then we follow its process through to completion."

Primoli, 69, has been involved with the VLC since 1994 and its chairman since 2007. Over the years, he's seen a lot of bills become laws that he's very proud of - especially because of the fact that of the nearly 5,000 bills that are proposed each year, only about 400 are passed.

"It's tough to get a bill passed down (in Olympia)," he said.

The former colonel spends part of his time now helping walk veterans who want to become more active advocates through the legislative process. He's created a 32-step handbook that details the journey a bill takes to become law.

"We have about 670,000 veterans in this state and many get very passionate about veterans' issues," Primoli said.

And those voices have had an impact for the better on laws that benefit veterans, he said.

"We have passed more veterans' bills in the last three or four years (combined) than we have in the last 10 years," he said.

Despite the success, the chairman insists VLC members aren't the ones doing the hard work.

"We just tweak the laws that allow veteran advocates to better serve veterans in need," Primoli said. "They're the heroes."