Commander

On November 11, 2012 our nation will celebrate Veterans Day.  Originally called Armistice Day, the meaning and significance of this federal holiday have become blurred.  For too many, Veterans Day has come to merely represent a day off from school or from work.  When pressed, others are unable to explain the origin of the holiday or its intended purpose.  At one time, it was a major priority of our schools to teach students about traditional and patriotic American history, customs, and traditions.  Generally, that is no longer the case in our public school systems.

During my 32 years in public education, I saw, first hand, the gradual erosion of the emphasis placed on these topics.  At times, a curriculum crunch could be blamed for relegating the teaching of traditional American values to the sideline.  However, a very definite bias has emerged in our public schools, which has been a major influence to remove such topics from the curriculum.

Thankfully, there are many communities across America as well as inspired teachers that plan and conduct a variety of events to honor the service of those who have worn the uniform.  It is in communities such as these that our youth will learn to respect and take time to honor the service of our nation’s veterans and active duty personnel.  We are fortunate to live in a community like Edmonds, in which traditional American values, customs, and traditions are taught and reinforced.  We salute the Edmonds school-community for caring.

On behalf of VFW Post # 8870, we thank you all for your service to our great nation and recognize and honor the sacrifices you and the members of your family have made.  I join you in reflecting on the reasons we chose to serve.

Our search for our MIA’s is an on-going effort, and at the forefront of this effort is the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC).  JPAC was officially established and activated on October 1, 2003.  The organization was created from the merger of the Army’s 30 year old Central Identification Laboratory and the 11-year-old Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA).  This Command was established to combine the expertise and resources of these two organizations into one so that the DOD mission could be more effectively accomplished.  Over 400 military and civilian personnel from all branches of the Armed Forces are assigned to JPAC, and their mission is to conduct global search, recovery, and laboratory operations to identify unaccounted-for Americans from past conflicts.  The Command is located at Hickam AFB in Hawaii and continues the search for the Americans who remain listed as missing.

The Command maintains four permanent detachments that provide logistics and in-country support during investigation and recovery operations.  These Detachments are located in Bangkok, Thailand; Hanoi, Vietnam; Vientiane, Laos; and Honolulu, Hawaii.  Day-to-day operations of JPAC involve researching case files, investigating leads, excavating sites, and identifying Americans who have been killed in action.

Once a recovery mission succeeds in finding some remains of an MIA and artifacts from the site, the Central Identification Laboratory (CIL) uses its state-of-the-art facilities and forensic techniques to establish the identity of the military personnel.  Based on the conclusions of the CIL, JPAC prepares an extensive report of its findings, which is given to the surviving family members of the deceased.  These comprehensive reports summarize all of the actions that had been taken to investigate the conditions and locations of the disappearance, recover the remains and artifacts, and identify the MIA.  Family members are given copies of these reports and the remains of the family member are returned to the family with full military honors.

JPAC and its predecessors have recovered the remains of thousands of MIA’s.  We salute the efforts of JPAC to bring closure to the surviving family members of our nation’s MIA’s.

There is a word that has been appearing in the news lately with greater and greater frequency.  That word is “sequestration”.  It refers to an across the board cut to the Defense Department budget.  The law, which was established by the Budget Control Act, will take effect on January 1, 2013 and will cut an additional $55 billion a year in expenditures for the next ten years.  That would equate to an additional $550 billion in cuts in addition to the $487 billion already being implemented.  Most leading experts in Department of Defense matters predict that these cuts will have disastrous consequences for our active duty personnel, veterans, and national security.

While our nation is in the midst of one of the most complex security environments in recent memory, sequestration would severely diminish our nation’s military capability.  An additional 100,000 soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen will be separated from service.  These reductions would result in:

Our smallest ground force since 1940,

A fleet of fewer than 230 ships, the smallest Navy since 1915, and

The smallest tactical fighter force in the history of the Air Force.

Precisely at the time when our nation is making dramatic advances in military technology, we are now faced with the prospect of both a reduced military presence and capability.  Only Congress can act to reverse the provisions of the Budget Control Act, and I urge you to express your feelings to your elected representatives in the Senate and House of Representatives.

As I begin my tour of duty as your Commander, I want to recognize the outstanding record of accomplishments that have been achieved by this Post over the past three years with Jim Traner as our Commander. His leadership has been extraordinary, and Jim has worked tirelessly on behalf of the membership to make Post # 8870 a highly visible and positive influence within the Edmonds and Mukilteo communities. The Post has been restored to fiscal stability, and thanks to his inspiration, our Poppy collections have far exceeded past efforts. It was Jim’s vision that expanded Relief Fund efforts to provide assistance to veterans and active duty personnel at the local level and to support our youth by establishing the Freedom Scholarship. It was Jim’s recommendation that provided financial assistance to Boy/Girl Scouts and Little League as well as sup-porting a local Cadet Civil Air Patrol squadron. Commander Traner reached out to the Nisei Veterans Committee and established a relationship that has been rewarding for both organizations. Jim prepares the Post’s award winning monthly newsletter and maintains our web site. Perhaps, the greatest single accomplishment during his three year tenure as Post Commander has been the dramatic increase in our member-ship, and many of those new members were personally recruited by Jim. For each of Jim’s three years as Commander our membership has exceeded 100%.

Jim will continue to serve VFW as the newly elected District 1 Commander. It is my hope that the members of Post #8870 will continue to enthusiastically support Jim in this new role by attending District 1 meetings and volunteering to serve whenever help is needed. On behalf of the members of Post #8870, I want to thank Jim for his dedicated service to VFW and congratulate him for the significant contributions he has made. Jim, we salute you!

Wow, what a ride being Post Commander these last three years.  I don’t really need to repeat what we have accomplished during that span as I think everyone has a pretty good idea of those achievements.  Last month I tried to acknowledge a bunch of folks who got us to where we are, but I still managed to overlook a few so I better not try another list this month.  However, let me say that a Post, like a military unit  or athletic team, is better by the whole then by the sum of the individuals.  As a result of the efforts of the entire Post, we have achieved quite a few goals, but there were a number of others that we simply didn’t have time to accomplish.  I suspect that under Commander Fred Apgar we will be taking care of some old unfinished business, and finding new hills to climb.  I’ll be moving up to District Commander which will keep me busy. I will miss the tremendous support I received from all of our Post members over these past three years.  Not once did I look back to find no one following me regardless of the task.  I will remain editor of the newsletter just as I have these past 8 years and Julie will have the coffee ready for our monthly staff meetings at my office.  In the meantime I hope all of you members who haven’t attended a meeting recently will find time to make the June 8th meeting and show your support to the new officers being installed.  The past three years have flown by and been thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding, but now I’m ready to sit back and watch Commander Apgar run the show.

I am constantly amazed by hearing about other Posts who can’t get folks to their meetings and have open officer positions due to lack of interest.  There are other fine Posts in VFW, but we are at the top with them.  The reason is we have great members, and I will mention just a few.  You always get in trouble by not naming everyone, so I will preface this piece by saying if I forgot to mention your name it was entirely unintentional or due to lack of space.  First, we have new members who have stepped up like Pete Farmer who is our membership chair and did the “New Members” column in this issue.  Also, there is Dick Simmons who is our new adjutant and Chris Edwards who will be our Senior Vice for the next couple of years.  Then there are the older members who have stepped up to the plate like Bob Crawford who has done a fantastic job in organizing our Buddy Poppy drives.  Rock Roth has been there as Senior Vice Commander and now Chaplain but also a driving force along with Fred Apgar in the Patriot’s Pen and Voice of Democracy contests.  Jim Collins has grabbed the Safety Officer position like a dog with a bone.  Of course, not enough can be said of Elizabeth Mather’s contributions to this Post as Quartermaster before having to retire from the job.   Fred Apgar, our incoming Commander, has done more behind the scenes then can described here, including selecting the Teacher of the Year.  I want to thank Carl Kurfess for being everywhere when we needed volunteers and Don Whedon for being an excellent Service Officer.  Post 8870’s biggest problem is having too many good candidates for the positions available.   I have one more meeting in May before turning the gavel over to Fred in June.  I look forward to watching Fred take the Post to the next level and remaining the best Post in District and, for that matter, in the Department of Washington. And if didn’t mention your name , it was for lack of room, not because you didn’t deserve the recognition.

The Post has grown this past year if you hadn’t noticed.  We’ve added 23 new members which is over 10% of our membership of 201 members last year.  Unfortunately, during that same period, we have lost members who have passed and some who simply disappeared so we stand at around 107% of last year’s membership.  A number of the new members are Vietnam veterans like myself but we have a fair representation of veterans from every conflict from WWII to Afghanistan.  How do we get new members?  We have had a fair number of new members reach us through our website but I would say the largest percentage are friends and acquaintances to whom we have reached and invited them to join us.  I know I have and it’s interesting that a majority were simply waiting to be asked.  I hope you will all reach out to our fellow veterans that you know and extend an invitation to have them join us.  As you all know, we don’t have any secret handshakes, code words, or other clever initiation secrets.  All we ask is that the member be eligible by way of his or her service overseas and maintain allegiance to the United States of America.  Pretty darn simple.  So the next time someone says something that indicates they are an eligible veteran, extend an invitation to them to attend our next meeting.  We will pick up their lunch tab.  One other note for you “old timers” and that is reach out to the newer members and get to know them.  We don’t have any cliques in our Post and most everyone just finds a seat at a table but at the next meeting look for an empty seat next to a new member.  We can add new members but it’s up to all of us to make them feel welcomed.

I was recently reading a blog online blasting VFW for their treatment of Vietnam veterans who attempted to join after returning from overseas.  I guess I was startled by the bitterness that a lot of folks carried from 40 years ago and, quite frankly, I found it to be petty at best.  It isn’t the first time I’ve run into it.  I was having lunch with a local banker a few years ago who was a Army helicopter pilot in Nam.  After asking him if he would like to join our Post,  I had to listen to about his treatment from a VFW Post when he returned home.  If my client hadn’t needed a loan from the guy, I would have got up and left.  So I sat through his diatribe, picked up the check, and secured the loan from the bank on behalf of my client.

I wonder how these folks reach out and support the veterans in our community?  How do they instill patriotism in our local schools?  How do they reach out and support the young veterans returning home to insure their benefits will be provided them?  How do they reach out to the Gold Star families and say they are sorry for the loss of a son or daughter? How do they assist WWII veterans with claims for benefits some 65 years after they have left the service.  Perhaps they do, I can’t be the judge of their efforts.  I know, however, that VFW does, and most certainly that Post 8870 does all of this and much more.  So the next time some guy unloads on you or me about his treatment 40 years ago, let it go in one ear and promptly out the other.

For all of you Vietnam Vets, if you want to feel old, you were in the middle of the Tet Offensive 44 years ago assuming you were “in country” as I was.  Time sure has a way of going fast but that 7-10 day period left very lasting memories for me.  It was suppose to be a cease fire period just like Christmas had been.  I suspect that will be the last time the US military agrees to a cease fire short of the ending of a war.   Each generation has their “Tet”, whether it’s the Battle of the Bulge, Heart Break Ridge, or Tora Bora that leaves a lasting memory on those who were there and with time, they will be the only ones who remember it.  But that is only right because they have ownership to that piece of history.

In March 1969, I got off an airplane in Yakima after 18 months in Vietnam and called my Dad to pick me up at the airport.  To kill the 10 or 15 minutes of time before my Dad could get to the airport (Yakima was a much smaller town in 1969); I dropped by the airport bar to grab a beer.  Like any small town, it just so happened I knew the bar maid since I had taken her to her Prom when she was a sophomore at another school.  She took a look at the ribbons I wore on my Class “A”s and commented it looked like I had “been around”.  She then proceeded to ignore me and charged me for my beer.  I realized I was back in the “world” and most of the “world” didn’t particularly like me or any Vietnam veterans.  Welcome home.  I tied to pass it off,  but since I had already received  a few ugly looks on the trip up from the Oakland Army Base where I had been discharged, I figured I’d better move on to civilian life ex post facto.  A few months later I ran into a couple of my high school buddies who had been “in country” and we wandered over to the local VFW Post where we knew the beer was cheap and figured we would join.  However, we had busted into the “an old timers bar” and that was somewhat akin into stumbling into a minefield wearing snowshoes and the chill in the air required long-johns.  We eventually were accepted by the Post but wandered away as we moved on, got our college degrees, married, and raised families.  With time, we circled back and became involved in VFW activities.  So when I hear that VFW isn’t relevant to the generation of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, there is a bit of a familiar ring to it.  However, we need to reach out to those younger veterans as brothers and sisters because we know that they have “walked the walk” and paid their dues to become eligible as VFW comrades.  And we tip our hats to them because we know they put their asses on the line just as we did as did those who came before us and for that, we welcome them as equals.  We, as a Post and as an organization, will do all that we can to protect the benefits they have earned (operative word “earned”) and look out for their interests as they transition to civilian life by making sure that Congress and the VA keeps their commitments to this generation of veterans.  All of the members in our Post and every Post with which I am familiar, welcome the younger vets.  So let me reach out on behalf of all of our members to welcome our younger veterans by giving the traditional greeting between Vietnam Veterans – “Welcome Home”.