Commander

A couple of things.  First, I want to say thank you to Elizabeth Mather for all the work she has done for the Post as Quartermaster.  The best thing about being Commander is you know who does the work of the Post and first, and foremost, it is the Quartermaster.  Second, you know who does the work accurately and completely because you get to see all the correspondence from Department requesting this or that from the other Posts but never a request to 8870.  And finally, I want to publically thank Elizabeth in The Last Word as there are a number of you who can’t attend meetings.

As the article in this newsletter stated, the Post also participated in the memorial service  for Mary Justason, the Post’s first QM.  While preparing to say a few words about Mary at the service, I spoke with Art Perry, the first Commander of Post 8870 when it was formed in 1982.  It sounds like Mary and Elizabeth were cut out of the same mold.  Everything he said about Mary applied equally to Elizabeth.  The bottom line is Art and I were equally lucky to have two fine Quartermasters taking care of Post 8870 under our commands.

We lost some good members last month as our Chaplain pointed out in his column.  It is always difficult to lose friends.  About the same time, a young state politician died unexpectedly leaving behind a wife and two small children.  From reading the article, he seemed like a nice guy and was an ethical and hardworking individual with a bright future.   The governor declared that all the government flags be flown at half mast and asked that everyone fly their flags at half mast on that particular day.  I have no problem with that request, but we had two members who served in two different conflicts, Korea and Vietnam, who passed and no flags will be flown at half mast in their memory nor would either I suspect, if they could speak for themselves, would want the flags lowered to half mast.  Soldiers simply go about their duty protecting and defending America, and those that come home move on with life.  But I notice that when I read the obits how many are shown wearing their uniforms from a past war; a last time to wear it in public.  So Chuck and Ken didn’t have a flag flown at half mast since neither was a politician, but we members of VFW draped our Charter in black and remembered them and their service to our country.

At the National convention there was a lot of gray hair (mine included), and I walked away firmly convinced that VFW would be that much stronger if we could involve our younger veterans in all levels of VFW.  Over the last few years, I’ve watched a lot of inertia when it came to adopting what I felt were beneficial resolutions to change the National By-Laws and Manual of Procedure.  Every organization needs to adjust to the times while retaining its core values.  What we need at both the Post, Department, and National level is the energy and the input of the younger members, not just their membership dues.  We can pass on to them what we know to minimize the learning curve, but it will be up to them to change VFW to meet their needs and those of the generations of veterans to follow them.

I‘ll be in San Antonio when you receive this newsletter attending the National Convention. I keep trying to limit the number of pages I publish but to no avail. I think I‘ll give up on that goal. The Post is too active and there is too much information to convey to the members to arbitrarily limit the page count. We have added a couple of columns this month for the Chaplain and the President of the Ladies Auxiliary. And please note, the header on page one now reads “…and Ladies Auxiliary” as this newsletter will now be mailed to their members. We have had the best Chaplains over my years as Commander in Ed Gray and Dexter Miller and we have another fine one in Rock Roth. We are blessed in that department (pun intended). President Ehlers of the Auxiliary makes a plea for membership and all of you who have wives, daughters, etc. should consider making a gift of a life membership for them. Like my wife and daughters, they may still be working and not have time to be active in the Auxiliary, but they are the strongest supporters of veterans and veterans‘ issues that I have found in our society. So stop by the next meeting and pick up an application from the ladies. Both the Post and Auxiliary must grow their membership this year to remain strong and viable.

I have a calendar with every weekend in August marked with a VFW event.  If it was anything else, other than fishing with my buddies, I would roll my eyes and complain.  However, its pretty darn hard complaining when it’s a BBQ with the Boy Scouts, an evening with my Post members and those from 1040 at a ballgame, or attending the National Convention.  And August is just the lead-up to when we really get busy with Voice of Democracy contests, Teacher of the Year, etc., Buddy Poppies, speaking in schools about Veterans Day, etc.  An active Post like ours participates in all these events and that requires getting off your duff and making things happen.  I can say without any hesitation, we don’t allow any moss to grow on our backsides, although if this rain doesn’t stop sooner or later, it will.  We have folks stepping up and volunteering for anything that is coming up and I want to thank each and everyone who does take part in Post activities.  As busy as we are, we can do more for our veteran community and we are investigating ways to do so.  I ask you to please attend Post meetings and, if you can’t, drop an email to us and let us know where and when you can participate after reviewing the Post’s calendar.

I gave up trying to keep the newsletter to three pages (you folks who get it online won’t notice) Our Post is too active in the community and our Post members too involved in various activities to limit their recognition by keeping my page count down.  After Memorial Day I thought we would kick back for the summer.  Instead, we have so much stuff going on that I finally figured I’d have to pass out a sheet in the meeting listing everything because I knew I would be getting a ton of phone calls and emails asking for dates, times, and addresses.    The Post is active in the community and it seems every week when I attend Rotary I get fined a buck for having my picture in the newspaper (no—I will not pay again at our Post meetings).  The reason is that Fred Apgar does a great job of getting articles off to the various news outlets.  And finally, what can I say about our Buddy Poppy effort led by Bob Crawford; over $11,000 collected  by our members.  Those funds will all go into the relief fund and be used to assist veterans, active military personnel, and various causes such as Honor Flight, Voice of Democracy and Teacher awards, Boy Scouts, and many others. Thanks for all you do.