Deputy Under Secretary Richard Wannemacher to attend EchoTaps at Fort Snelling National Cemetery

Military Salute Project ^

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We are pleased to announce that Richard A. Wannemacher, Jr., Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs – National Cemetery Administration, has accepted our invitation to address the audience attending EchoTaps Worldwide 2007 at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, MN on May 19, 2007.

VA Memorial Affairs is responsible for providing burial space for Veterans and their eligible family members; maintaining National Cemeteries as national shrines, sacred to the honor and memory of those interred or memorialized there; marking the graves of Veterans with a Government-provided headstone or marker; providing Presidential Memorial Certificates in recognition of Veterans’ service to a grateful nation; and, administering grants for establishing or expanding state Veterans Cemeteries.

Mr. Wannemacher enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1967. While serving in Vietnam with River Division 593, he received multiple shell-fragment wounds from an enemy satchel charge explosion. He was medically retired from the Navy in 1969.

Mr. Wannemacher joined the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) as a national service officer in 1978, serving in the Buffalo and Albany, NY offices. In June 1993, he was unanimously elected State Commander of the Department of New York. In 1995, he was transferred to the DAV National Service Office in Washington, D.C. and was appointed Associate National Legislative Director the following year.

Before being appointed to his current assignment in June, 2003, Mr. Wannemacher served as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs and also as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs.

For more information, please visit our EchoTaps - Minnesota web page at ... http://home.att.net/~militarysalute4/index.html

Jeff Seeber - Project Director EchoTaps 2007 at Fort Snelling National Cemetery

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We are pleased to announce that Arthur D. Smith, Director of the Fort Snelling National Cemetery, has accepted our invitation to address the audience attending EchoTaps Worldwide 2007 on May 19, 2007 in Minneapolis, MN.

Mr. Smith will deliver the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs EchoTaps Mission Statement during his remarks.

For more information, please visit our EchoTaps - Minnesota web page at ...
http://home.att.net/~militarysalute4/index.html

Jeff Seeber - Project Director
EchoTaps 2007 at Fort Snelling National Cemetery

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We are pleased to announce that Clark Dyrud, Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs, has accepted our invitation to address the audience attending EchoTaps Worldwide 2007 on May 19, 2007 in Minneapolis, MN.

Mr. Dyrud served in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968 as a squad leader with the U.S. Army's 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Mechanized Regiment and was wounded in combat. In 1973, he began working with Veterans as the Pennington County (MN) Veterans Service Officer. In 1976, he was named Community Service Coordinator for the Psychiatric Unit of Northwestern Hospital in Thief River Falls. Mr. Dyrud joined the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs in 1980 and was appointed Supervisor of the Department's Fargo Branch Office in 1981. From 1985 to 2004, he served as Claims Division Supervisor in the Department's Fort Snelling office. He was named Director of Veterans Programs in 2004 and then appointed Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs in March, 2005.

For more information, please visit our EchoTaps - Minnesota web page at ...
http://home.att.net/~militarysalute4/index.html

Jeff Seeber - Project Director
EchoTaps 2007 at Fort Snelling National Cemetery