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.