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IN SERVICE
Members of Dickinson, Texas, Chapter
685 were special guests
of National Hot Rod Association POWERade Series driver Melanie
Troxel at the Houston Raceway Park on March 31. Troxel, who
has the VVA logo emblazoned on her dragster, and marketing
man Bobby Bennett invited the chapter members to Troxel’s
racing pit before the races began. “Bobby knows almost
everyone involved in NHRA racing,” said chapter member
Bill Meeks, who also chairs VVA’s National Membership
Committee, “and we met Melanie Troxel, Mike Ashley,
Morgan Lucas, and Tony Schumacher during our visit.” The
VVA guests were treated to food and drink. Suzie Meeks distributed
AVVA and VVA pins with the POW/MIA emblem in the shape of
Texas, Jim and Marilyn Rose gave out a set of VVA Chapter
685 prints to Melanie, and POW/MIA shirts were given to the
drivers and to Troxel’s pit crew. “We had a great
time, met new friends, and were very proud to represent VVA
and AVVA at this event,” Meeks said.
The Baltimore,
Maryland, Chapter 451 Honor Guard participated in the African
American Patriots Ceremony at the city of Baltimore’s
War Memorial Plaza on February 24. This yearly event is held
in honor of all African-American veterans. Also in attendance
were many other honor guards and dignitaries, including the
Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club of Central Maryland, most
of whom are members of Chapter 451. The Chapter Honor Guard
consisted of Lee Chance, Ray Kesterson, John T. Pearson,
Nat Richardson, Ken Cullings, Bill Ames, Ed Brown, Steve
Maddox, Ron McClure, and Wynonia Brown.
Jeanette Chervony,
Eddie Chervony, Karen Crisp, and Tony Cordero of Sons and
Daughters in Touch gave a presentation at the February meeting
of Redondo Beach, California, Chapter
53. “They spoke
about the history of their organization and about the assistance
they provide to children and spouses of military personnel
who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said
Jerry Yamamoto, a chapter member who also serves on VVA’s
National Board of Directors.
Members of Incarcerated Chapter
682 at the Powhatan Correctional Facility in Powhatan County,
Virginia, are taking part in a program with local high school
students under the direction of Gray Taylor, a special education
teacher at Thomas Dale High School who serves as the chapter’s
external sponsor, and Rev. Bob Floyd, a retired army chaplain.
Chapter members meet at the institution with small groups
of ninth and tenth graders “who are making poor choices,
and they get to see what happens to men who made some of
the same poor choices,” Taylor told the Chesterfield
Observer. “They
are told by these incarcerated men, ‘I see myself in
you when I was eighteen. I didn’t stop on the path
I was on, and here I sit.’ It’s a very powerful
message for these kids to hear. We can be very proud of these
men,” Taylor said. “They served our country and
are now serving others while serving time.”
Mat-Su,
Alaska, Chapter 903 has a web page that provides information
about the chapter’s Veterans Aviation Outreach
program, which brings much-needed services to veterans who
live in remote and rural parts of the state. Check it out
at www.vaoonline.org
El Paso, Texas, Chapter 574 held a Veterans
Day Candlelight Vigil last November at Ascarate Lake. The
chapter sold luminarias, which families lit to honor veterans
from all of America’s
wars, including recent veterans from the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. The event also included a memorial service and
a remembrance of American POW/MIAs.
Louisville, Kentucky,
Chapter 454 continued its ongoing visitation program to the
Louisville VA Medical Center in January when chapter members
put on a movie and popcorn night for patients in two wards.
Chapter members John and Judy Mitchell, Jack Spagnola, Bob
Keller, and Bill Pfeister provided the popcorn and soft drinks
to the patients.
Genesee County, Michigan, Chapter
175 held
its annual food basket distribution event for needy veterans’ families
on December 17. Chapter members and friends began working
at 7a.m., loading $2,000 worth of food into a trailer and
taking it to chapter headquarters. They put together 52 baskets
and delivered them to the families that afternoon, well in
time for Christmas.
Members of Redondo Beach, California,
Chapter 53 donated a dozen unwrapped children’s toys
to the Beach Cities Toy Drive last December, as well as a
dozen additional toys and $75 in cash to the Marine Corps
Reserve Toys for Tots Holiday Drive. The toys and funds were
gathered at the chapter’s
annual holiday party on December 13.
The float put together
by Texarkana, Texas, Chapter 278 took home the second place
prize in the veterans’ organization
category at the local Veterans Day Parade in November. After
the parade, chapter members worked at a local McDonald’s,
which provided all veterans with a free meal on Veterans
Day.
Liberty Bell Chapter 266 in Philadelphia hosted its annual
Bingo and Christmas Party on December 21 at the Philadelphia
VA Medical Center. Twenty-eight patients and two staff members
were treated to pizza, snacks (including locally baked Philadelphia
soft pretzels), soft drinks, and TastyKake pies donated by
the Tasty Baking Company. After bingo, the chapter gave each
patient a Christmas card containing a ten-dollar Sears gift
certificate. Chapter members Ron Powell, Mike Lentz, Len
Johnson, James Chappelle, Bryan Hunter, Fred Russo, Al Mikutis,
Raymon Clay El, Mark Lumpkin, Chuck Moffett, and Jerry McManus
took part in the event.
William F. Homer, Jr., the staff adviser
for Incarcerated Chapter 616 at the
Mansfield Correctional Institution in Ohio, traveled to Cincinnati on March 30 to
deliver two hundred pounds of food to the Joseph House, a
homeless veterans shelter. He also visited Carolyn Maupin,
the mother of Iraq War POW Matt Maupin, and presented her
with a portrait of her son painted by one of the inmates
at the institution.
Brian Mulcrone, the president of Chicago/Northwest
Suburban Chapter 311, appeared as a guest on WGN Radio’s “Extension
720 with Milt Rosenberg” on
March 28. The show dealt with the legacy of the Vietnam War
and also included Doug Bey, a former 1st Infantry Division
psychiatrist, and Tom Bissell, the son of a Vietnam veteran
and author of the memoir The Father of All Things: A Marine,
His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam.
The Rochester, New York,
Chapter 20 Honor Guard took part in the opening
ceremonies February 17 of the exhibition of 46 photographs
by Craig J. Barber at the George Eastman House International
Museum of Photography and Film. The exhibit, called “Ghosts
in the Landscape: Vietnam Revisited,” consists
of 46 prints by Barber, a photographer and Marine Corps Vietnam
veteran. Barber took the photos during his tour of duty and
during three return trips beginning in 1995, when he revisited
and photographed many of his old haunts with a pinhole camera.
The
Macomb Branch of Bluewater Chapter
284 in New Haven, Michigan,
teamed up with a Girl Scout troop from Detroit’s
East Side in March and sold more than 575 boxes of Girl Scout
cookies to the inmates at the Macomb Correctional Facility.
The funds from the cookie sale went to the Girl Scouts’ program
activities and special events and projects.
Newark, Ohio,
Double Nickel Chapter 55 honored the work of the Chapel of
Four Chaplains one Sunday in February with ceremonies held
at the Methodist Church in Tobosco, Ohio, during a worship
service. The four chaplains who perished aboard a torpedoed
ship during World War II after giving their life vests to
others “were live examples that
God was in the midst of these men on that sinking troop ship
and showed the real concept of love by making the ultimate
sacrifice for their fellow man,” said chapter Chaplain
Bill Burkamp.
Col. Harold F. Lyon Memorial Chapter
822 at the North Central Correctional Institution in Marion,
Ohio,
hosted and honored six former fighter pilots of the famed
Tuskegee Airmen, the World War II all-African-American Army
Air Corps 322nd Fighter Group, at the chapter’s February
meeting. Maj. Herndon “Don” Cummings,
an original Tuskegee Airman, addressed the gathering.
Members
Paul “Frenchy” Evans, Brent Cobb, and
Jerry Goodwin of Quad Cities Chapter
299 in Rock Island, Illinois, made the chapter’s quarterly visit to the
VA Medical Center in Iowa City, Iowa, on February 12. The
chapter allocates funds for these regular hospital visits,
during which the chapter members distribute cookies, fresh
fruit, games, bookmarks, hats, veteran pins, and jewelry
to women patients.
VETS CONNECT
Many members of Lake County, California,
Chapter 951, under
the direction of Ginny Craven, have raised funds, solicited
goods, packed and shipped comfort packages, and have written
letters to American service personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The program is called Operation Tango Mike, the radio code
for “Thanks Much.” To date, Operation Tango Mike
has sent more than 150 comfort packages to the troops.
Members
of Washington, D.C., area Chapters
227 in Northern Virginia and 641 in Silver Spring, Maryland, served as hosts for an
event called Wounded Warriors Night on the Town, which included
dinner at the Capital Hilton Hotel. The hotel provided the
dinner gratis for the wounded veterans, and a Chapter 227
member, who asked to remain anonymous, donated $4,600 to
pay for the bus rental to transport the wounded.
SCHOLARSHIPS
Western New York Chapter 77 in Tonawanda held its big spaghetti
dinner fund-raiser on January 25. Proceeds from the event,
which includes an auction and raffle, go to the chapter’s
Peter P. Tycz III Memorial Scholarship Fund. Among the items
raffled: a football autographed by members of the Buffalo
Bills, a fishing trip, and a flag quilt. To date, the chapter
has raised more than $2,600 for the scholarships.
MEMORIALS
Jim Schueckler, a life member of LeRoy,
New York, Chapter 193, has volunteered his services as a guide at the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial in Washington for more than twelve years.
During the antiwar demonstration in Washington on March 17,
Schueckler spent a good part of the day at The Wall, doing
his usual volunteer work. “Although a metal detector
was set up at the entrance to The Wall on that day, it was
business as usual for Jim,” said Ted Wilkinson, the
New York State Council Western District Director. “He
helped veterans, friends, and family members by answering
questions, guiding people to the names on the Memorial, and
helping them take rubbings of loved ones’ names.”
Bennington,
Vermont, Chapter 601 is spearheading an effort to build a
monument to honor all veterans of World War I, World War
II, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, the Persian Gulf War, and
in today’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The
location will be the Vermont Veterans Home. The chapter presented
a design proposal to the home’s Board of Trustees in
December and received permission to go ahead with the project.
Fund-raising has begun for the monument, which will be located
next to the current Vermont Medal of Honor Monument.
Johnstown,
Pennsylvania, Chapter 364 played a leading roll in the creation
of a five-by-nine-foot Vietnam War collage that was dedicated
in March at the Cambria County War Memorial in Johnstown.
The collage is made up of a series of Vietnam War photographs.
Choosing the photos was a “group effort,” said
chapter President Tom Haberkorn. The collage “shows
a snapshot of service in Vietnam,” he said. “We
realize that the Vietnam War affected a lot of people. This
collage shows just a few to represent all those affected.” The
collage also includes a photo containing the names of the
seventy men from Cambria County on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial,
as well as a Chapter 364 patch. Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.),
a Vietnam veteran, was the keynote speaker at the dedication.
The
1LT Nainoa K. Hoe Battle Command Training Center was dedicated
in February at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. The center,
a state-of-the-art simulation combat training facility, was
named in honor of LT Hoe, who was killed in Iraq in 2005.
He is the son of Allen K. Hoe, a member of Honolulu,
Hawaii, Chapter 858, who delivered the Keynote Speech at VVA’s
2005 National Convention.
Tyler, Texas, Chapter 932 was the
driving force behind a new Vietnam Veterans Memorial dedicated
on Veterans Day at T.B. Butler Fountain Plaza in downtown
Tyler. The chapter raised the funds for the new memorial,
which replaced one that had been irreparably damaged. The
memorial honors 44 Smith County, Texas, soldiers, sailors,
airmen, and Marines who made the ultimate sacrifice in Vietnam.
Chapter member and Chaplain Sam Hopkins gave the invocation
at the dedication ceremonies. Chapter President Robbie Robertson
led the Pledge of Allegiance and Texas State Rep. Leo Berman,
a chapter member, was the Keynote Speaker.n
BillBoards
Members
of Mt. Clemens, Michigan, Chapter 154, led by Chapter President
Pat Daniels, worked with CBS Media to come up with striking
billboards encouraging new and old veterans to find out if
they are eligible for VA benefits. The company offered the
billboards at a huge discount and the results were immediate. “The
billboard has generated numerous calls to our Vet Center,” Daniels said. “We
have had contact with many veterans who were unaware of the benefits available,
and we have received calls and generated claims for veterans form World War II
through today. The billboard is making a difference in the lives of our veterans,
their spouses, and their children.”
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2008, Vietnam Veterans of America. All Rights Reserved. 8605 Cameron
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