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MEMBERSHIP NOTES
Central Virginia Chapter 78 in Richmond continues its strong
involvement in community service work. In recent months,
the chapter has, among other things, taken part in the Virginia
Department of Transportation Adopt-A-Highway Program doing
regular cleanups of a cloverleaf intersection on Chippenham
Parkway; provided guest speakers to five area high schools;
helped fund the Junior ROTC programs at Manchester and Chesterfield
High Schools; helped underwrite biweekly bingo nights at
the Richmond VAMC; created and funded awards at the local
JROTC program in honor of two area service personnel who
were killed in Iraq; set up and manned a Welcome Home and
VVA information table at Vietnam Veterans Day at the Richmond
VAMC; and provided support at the July 4th picnic for patients
and staff at the hospital.
Las Vegas, Nevada, Chapter 17 was
the subject of a recent article in the Northern Alliante
View newspaper that highlighted the chapter’s community
service work. The article also gave a short history of the
chapter, which received its VVA charter in 1982, noting that
its members are “among
the most active in the country.” When the Chapter first
formed, “we still did a lot of fundraising work, but
we also got together a lot just to talk and kind of go through
our troubles,” Ken Braker, the Nevada State Council
President, said in the article. “We may be one of the
smaller-sized veterans groups, but we’re doing good
work, even though it may not be about a large sum of money
or something sensational. We may not do things on the grandest
scale, but we try to spread as wide as we can.”
Chapter
67 in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, this fall began its
25th year of sending speakers to schools in the county. The
Chapter has a 12-member School Lecture Committee chaired
by James Ulmer, the Chapter’s Vice President, and sends
teams of three to four Vietnam veterans to visit between
twelve and fifteen schools a year. Each team spends the entire
school day at most schools. In recent years, the teams also
have begun teaching teenagers how to respect and honor the
latest generation of veterans.
New York State Council President
Ned Foote, a member of the New York State Veterans Affairs
Commission, took part in the commission’s first meeting
in July in Albany. The commission, which provides input to
the New York State Director of Veterans’ Affairs, discussed
mental health screening for National Guard members after
they return from Iraq and Afghanistan, and ways to increase
the number of disabled veterans working in state and local
government.
Charleston,
South Carolina, Chapter 780 held its annual barbeque picnic
in July at the Short Stay Navy Recreational Area just outside
of Monks Corner, S.C. In addition to socializing, the chapter
signed up one new life member, two new annual members, along
with six prospective new members.
Mohave County,
Arizona, Chapter 975 is in the early stages of setting up
a Veterans Service Officer Program. Four Chapter members—J.
Glenn Bright, Dave Clark, Roger Griffiths, and Noel Labonte—have
completed the Service Rep correspondence course. The Chapter
will use an office in Golden Valley provided rent free by
Valley Pioneers Water Company. The hope is that the office
will be ready by early October.
Ralph A. Garcia,
a member of Bluffton, Indiana, Chapter
698, recently completed
recertification training at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis
as a Naval Academy Information Officer. As one of 2,100 nationwide
Blue and Gold Officers, Garcia will help young men and women
interested in attending the Naval Academy with the extensive
application process and also will counsel prospective Midshipmen
on all aspects of the Naval Academy.
In May, Queens, New York, Chapter
32 held
its 18th annual Veterans Information Day. Chapter members
provided nearly two hundred veterans from all eras with information
on the services and benefits they are entitled to. Among
those in attendance at the event: New York State Sen. Serphin
Maltese and New York City Council member Anthony Como.
Racine/Kenosha,
Wisconsin, Chapter 767 invited all disabled veterans to join
them at the huge Fourth of July parade in Racine, one of
the nation’s largest. The Chapter made
a trailer available to accommodate wheelchair-bound veterans
and provided chairs for those unable to walk. In addition
to the trailer, the Chapter had its two “living statue” floats,
one depicting the Vietnam Women’s Memorial statue,
and the other the “Three Servicemen” statue at
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, in the parade. The Women’s
Memorial float was escorted by women portraying Donut Dollies.
All in all, more than one hundred people participated in
the Chapter’s parade contingent.
West Palm Beach, Florida,
Chapter 25 conducted a congressional candidate interview
session in July at its chapter headquarters. The chapter
invited the three candidates running in the primary for the
Republican nomination in the 16th Congressional District
to visit the chapter and discuss veterans’ issues with
key members of the chapter. The candidates who appeared were
former Navy pilot Hal Valeche, a VVA member, and Florida
State Rep. Gayle Harrell, whose husband is a Vietnam veteran.
In
an effort to reorganize and rebuild, Capital
City Chapter 488 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, took part in the first All
Veterans Reunion, a four-day event at the Louisiana capital
in May. The event included military exhibitions and a Vietnam
Veterans Moving Wall. “This was a good way for us to
get out in public and let people and former members know
we are
still around,” said Chapter President Don Holland.
Austin,
Texas, Chapter 915 has given $500 to the VVA Texas State
Council’s Service Officer Program. In doing so,
the Chapter challenged the other VVA chapters in the Lone
Star State to match or exceed that donation. In 2007 and
2008, the Texas State Council received grants from VVA’s
Vietnam Veterans Assistance Fund to support and expand its
Service Officer program, which is open to all generations
of veterans and has had consistently high claim success rates.
Kyle
Orlemann of South Bay Chapter 53 in
Redondo Beach, California,
makes ski caps for cancer patients at the West Los Angeles
and Long Beach Medical Centers. She had been using her own
funds to buy the materials until the chapter voted several
months ago (without her knowledge) to provide her with $250
to buy materials. Most recently, Chapter member Steve Mandel
delivered twenty-two of the caps to the Long Beach facility’s
Volunteer Center.
Richard
Caputo, the former Vice President and co-founder of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, Chapter 590, was given a special award in May
for the outstanding work he has done for the chapter, including
his editorship of the Chapter newsletter Charlie Mike. “No
award could possibly be recognition enough to this Vietnam
veteran for the valuable leadership and service he has given
to Chapter 590,” said Chapter
member Daniel Levy.
In the month of July, Plymouth-Canton
Chapter 528 in Plymouth, Michigan, made three charitable
donations: $100 for the Lyman Foundation Annual Golf Outing
benefiting the Burger School for Students with Autism; $300
to help U.S. troops in Afghanistan; and $300 in memory of
Joe Piotrowski to the Prostate Cancer Foundation and Rudolf
Steiner School of Ann Arbor.
VETS CONNECT
Members of Northern Virginia Chapter
227 and Silver Spring,
Maryland, Chapter 641 took part in a Welcome Home Celebration
June 14 for more than four hundred veterans of the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan and active-duty military personnel and
their families at the Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center.
Chapter 227 members Bruce Waxman, Bill Lynch, Roy White,
and Jim Thur worked at the event, in which health screenings
and information about benefits, employment, and academic
support were offered.
Washtenaw County, Michigan, Chapter
310 sent forty-five care packages to our troops in Iraq and
Afghanistan on July 2. That brought the total number of packages
the Chapter has sent to 1,321. One of the organizers of the
project, Chapter Board member John Kinzinger, estimates that
the Chapter has sent about ten tons of goods to the troops
in the six years since the program began.
Santa Rosa, California, Chapter 223 held a Welcome Home Barbeque June 22 at the Veterans Building
Dining Room for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
active-duty military personnel, and their families to thank
them for their service. The event was co-sponsored by the
Veterans of Modern Warfare. The Chapter is working with VMW
to form a local chapter in Santa Rosa.
Nassau County, New York, Chapter
82 earlier this year adopted a U.S. Army platoon deployed
in Afghanistan. The Chapter has sent three care packages—including
toiletry items and canned and packaged food—to the
platoon, which is part of the 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry,
and is collecting more items for future shipments.
John Porter of Branson, Missouri,
Chapter 913 presented a check for $1,000 from the Chapter
on June 14 to the Adopt-A-Platoon program run by a local
Hy-Vee store. The store sends care packages to two platoons
of Army troops that shipped out from nearby Fort Leonard
Wood in November of 2007 to Afghanistan and Iraq.
POW/MIA
Paul Carro of Summit, New Jersey, a member of Westfield,
New Jersey, Chapter 688, was named the POW/MIA Activist of
the Year by the National Alliance of Families of POWs/MIAs
at the Alliance’s 2008 national conference in Washington,
D.C., in June. Carro was selected for his effort during the
past year on behalf of a bill pending in the U.S. House of
Representatives to establish a Select Committee on POW and
MIA Affairs.
MEMORIALS
Fresno, California, Chapter 933 was the driving force behind
the Vietnam War Monument that was dedicated in June at the
VA Medical Center in Fresno. The $10,000 black granite monument
honors all who served in the Vietnam War era. It features
a map of North and South Vietnam on one side and a copy of
the famed Lee Teter “Reflections” print (courtesy
of Cumberland, Maryland, Chapter 172) on the other. The dedication
was the culmination of a three-year effort by the Chapter. “We
knew we wanted to have something local for veterans, but
this is really far beyond what we first envisioned,” said
Rick Hanniford, the Chapter’s Vice President. In addition
to honoring those who perished in the war, the monument is “also
for us, for our generation to show where we served,” Hanniford
said. “The Wall in D.C. is a memorial. This is a monument
to the ones who made it.”
Beaver County, Pennsylvania,
Chapter 862 is building a Memorial Walkway at the Vietnam
Memorial in Beaver. The brick walkway will honor veterans,
both living and deceased, loved ones and friends of veterans,
and veterans’ organizations.
The engraved bricks are being donated by the Rome Monument
Company.
Genesee County, Michigan, Chapter
175 hosted the
Traveling Dignity Memorial Vietnam Wall at Bluebell Beach
in Genesee Township June 18-22. “Not everyone can go
to [Washington] D.C.,” said Chapter member Donald Lada,
who co-chaired the committee that brought the replica to
town. “This
gives people and veterans the privilege to see The Wall.” The
Chapter “has accomplished many wonderful things over
the years,” said Past President Joseph M. Mishler, “but
five events stand out: the Traveling Wall in 1988, 1997,
2003, and 2008, and the Reflections Monument.”
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©2006-
2008, Vietnam Veterans of America. All Rights Reserved. 8605 Cameron
Street, Silver Spring, MD 20910