Category Archives: HQ News

News from the national headquarters

Chicken BBQ This Saturday!

Our second BBQ of the year! It’s a great time and very important to support the post. We bring over a busload of veterans from the Coatesville VA and provide them all with chicken lunches – it’s a great way to give back to those that have sacrificed for our freedom.

If you want to help, the cooking crew fires up the grills at 6am – see Carson Kauffman for more information. The Ladies Aux. will start setting up around 10m, and you can check with Kathy Kauffman to help the ladies. We can also use runners all day, and anyone is welcome to help serve the vets!

We’ll also be hosting our very special guests from the 3622nd Maintenance Company from Fort Indiantown Gap that are coming all this way to paint our tank for us! Come give them a heroes welcome!

If you just want to purchase a dinner, they go on sale at 11am. Get there early – we usually sell out!

Thank a Wounded Vet!

With Memorial Day rapidly approaching, why not take the time to send a simple “Thank You” to a hospitalized veteran? Visit the National Web Site for an easy way to send a printed Thank You card with your name on it to a hospitalized veteran – it will make a HUGE difference to that vet!

VFW is asking you to sign a Thank You card.

But here’s the best part … When you do, we’ll print it off with your name and put a real card in the hands of a hospitalized veteran who could really use a good word.

Please help us honor the fallen warriors, the wounded and the men and women still in the thick of battle by signing your card today.

This is a great program by Headquarters. Help spread the word!

VFW WILL DEFEAT BACHMANN PLAN

From our national HQ, the VFW is gearing up to fight a ridiculous proposal from Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) to cut $4.5 billion from the Department of Veterans Affairs:

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 28, 2011 — America’s oldest and largest major combat veterans’ organization announced it will do everything within its power to defeat a plan introduced by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) to cut $4.5 billion from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“No way, no how, will we let this proposal get any traction in Congress,” said Richard L. Eubank, the national commander of the 2.1 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. and its Auxiliaries.

On her website, the three-term congresswoman lists more than $400 billion in suggestions to cut federal spending. The VA suggestion would cap increases to VA healthcare spending, and reduce disability compensation to account for Social Security Disability Insurance payments — in other words, an offset. She says her plan is intended to generate discussion.

“The only discussion the VFW wants is to tell the congresswoman that her plan is totally out of step with America’s commitment to our veterans,” said Eubank, a retired Marine and Vietnam combat veteran from Eugene, Ore.

“There are certain things you do not do when our nation is at war, and at the top of that list is not caring for our wounded and disabled servicemen and women when they return home,” he said. “I want the congresswoman to join us in a tour of the Minneapolis VA Medical Center and Poly Trauma Center the next time she’s in her home district to witness firsthand the great work the VA does every day to heal their wounds and ease their pain. Then I want her to look those disabled veterans in the eye and tell them their service and sacrifice is too expensive for the nation to bear.

“The day this nation can’t afford to take care of her veterans is the day this nation should quit creating them,” said Eubank.

Contact your representative today and let them know we won’t stand for this!

Korean War Vets: Win a Free Trip to Washington

From the National Website:

As we recognize the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War this year, VFW has some special plans for our members who served there in 1950-53.

A few projects we’ve already undertaken include: creating certificates to formally and individually recognize their service; donating $25,000 to the Truman Library in Independence, Mo., to sponsor an exhibit honoring them, as well as providing copies of the June/July 2010 special Korean War-issue of VFW magazine; and reprinting the VFW-produced book Battles of the Korean War.

Our Korean War vets also will be honored at VFW’s national convention in Indianapolis this year with a chance to win a free trip to Washington, D.C.

During this convention, we encourage all our Korean War vets who served in the war zone from 1950-53 to stop by the VFW Emblem and Supply department booth and enter their names for a chance to spend Veterans Day in the nation’s capital.

We will select four winners—one (plus their spouse or guest) from each of VFW’s conferences. In addition to airfare and lodging in Washington from Nov. 10-12, the winners also will be treated to a dinner on Nov. 10 and be guests at ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery and the Korean War Veterans Memorial on Nov. 11. Winners will be announced at the Business Session on Wednesday morning during the convention.

All our Korean War vet members who attend the convention this year will receive special recognition, and we want to make sure all attendees know their status as Korean War veterans. Their official name badges will include a special recognition ribbon identifying them as such. Attendees will notice signs publicizing these special ribbons, so make sure all Korean War veterans are aware of this.

Take a moment to acknowledge their service and thank them for their contributions.

Help VFW ‘Return the Favor’

KANSAS CITY, Mo., June 1, 2010 – the VFW Foundation is in the running to receive a $250,000 “Pepsi Refresh” grant.

But it all depends on you. Won’t you help us win?

Beginning today, please visit www.refresheverything.com/ReturnTheFavor and vote!

Your vote for the VFW Foundation’s “Return the Favor” project will support the unmet needs of U.S. military personnel and their families. For example, since 2004, the VFW Foundation has provided over $3,400,000 in direct free financial assistance to military families in urgent financial circumstances for rent, mortgage, utilities, vehicle repair, medical expenses and food/basic aid. In many instances, or intervention has stopped evictions and foreclosures. We constantly hold “welcome home” and “send off” events for troops to boost morale. We’ve distributed 10,000,000 long distance telephone cards and we pay for innovative Internet “Free Call Days” so our brave troops in Iraq and Afghanistan can call home on a regular basis.

You can vote once a day during the month of June.

The two organizations that receive the most votes win.

Tell friends and family, forward this to everyone you know.

Won’t you take a few seconds to show our troops and those they love how much our nation appreciates their service and sacrifice? They are counting on you, please don’t let them down!

“They have done so much for us…Now let’s Return the Favor”