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Members of the Mendon VFW Post 4898 from left, Merlin Huff, Morris Ballman, L.D. Ballman, Vernon Yeomans, Sharon Buchner and Ted Talbot are upset their post is closing. (Photo by Jonathon Gruenke) |
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Posted on 01/29/2008 2:39:37 PM PST by Incorrigible
By JEFF BARR
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Members of the Mendon VFW Post 4898 from left, Merlin Huff, Morris Ballman, L.D. Ballman, Vernon Yeomans, Sharon Buchner and Ted Talbot are upset their post is closing. (Photo by Jonathon Gruenke) |
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MENDON, Mich. — Powder-blue paint peels from the surface of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4898. The brick-and-wood building sits next to a farmer's field gone barren for the winter and, like the adjacent acreage, it sits empty.
The Mendon post, located south of Kalamazoo, was ordered closed Nov. 24 — 62 years to the day after being founded by 60 World War II veterans. Dwindling membership, combined with confusion and spotty adherence to state VFW bylaws, resulted in its shutdown.
VFW officials at the state and national levels, along with former Post 4898 members, say the post is symbolic of a more widespread issue.
Since 1997, the number of VFW posts nationwide have decreased from 10,500 to 8,400. National membership stands at about 1.7 million — less than 10 percent of the approximately 20 million U.S. veterans eligible to join the VFW.
Mendon is one of three Michigan posts to close since November. Post 5003 in Bronson shut down in December and Post 393 in Detroit surrendered its charter earlier this month.
"It's not just Mendon," said Robert Weiss, Michigan's VFW Adjutant Quartermaster and a Vietnam veteran. "It's happening all over."
When Weiss was appointed state adjutant in 1997, there were 404 VFW posts in Michigan. Today, there are 340. In the past year, VFW membership in Michigan declined by almost 5,000.
The Mendon building was an old schoolhouse when it was built in 1871, and then sat vacant for years. It then was transformed into a medical-implement manufacturing facility, sat vacant again, then was given to the VFW in 1971.
"We felt bad about closing down the Mendon post, but there were so few members and they weren't turning in officer-election reports or attending district meetings to keep up on VFW affairs," Weiss said.
VFW membership is aging, and as we members pass on, they aren't being replaced by younger veterans, Weiss said.
"At a lot of places, it's just a few guys in their 80s," he said.
Thirty-nine members were on the books when Mendon's Post 4898 was padlocked, but only six or seven in their late 70s or early 80s took an active role. The vets helped organize community blood drives and they marched annually in local Memorial Day parades.
"The VFW represents tradition, sacrifice and patriotism," said Ted Talbot, 80, a U.S. Army veteran who joined Post 4898 in 1948 after returning home from World War II duty in Honshu, Japan. "I think the reason posts are closing, the reason there are fewer members, is because there is less of all three of those qualities in society today than there used to be.
"Everyone is so busy ... Being a veteran doesn't seem to be as important as it once was."
Former Post 4898 member Merlin Huff, 77, a Korean War veteran who lives in Mendon, was more blunt.
"People don't even want to stand up for the national anthem anymore," he said. "It's as if they don't even understand what the flag represents. It makes me sick."
The most public displays of VFW activity might be the parades and honor guards, but the organization's primary focus is to help veterans receive Veterans Administration disability benefits.
The VFW fights for compensation for Vietnam vets exposed to Agent Orange and for veterans diagnosed with Gulf War Syndrome. The group also has worked to improve VA medical centers, including better screening procedures for breast and lung cancer.
According to VFW statistics, the organization annually recoups more than $1 billion in VA benefits and compensation claims for veterans or their dependents.
VFW officials say the claims process can be exhausting and frustrating, and often takes years to complete. The VFW guides veterans through the process.
"Without advocacy from the VFW, a lot of veterans apply for benefits, are refused and then just drop it," Weiss said. "But with our help, we let them know what to expect and we stay with them for the long haul."
The most serious ramification of declining VFW membership, according to Weiss, is the danger of the group's bargaining power diminishing.
"If we are to remain a legitimate agency when it comes to fighting for veterans' benefits, we have to be viewed as an organization that represents a good number of veterans," he said. "There are Vietnam vets, there are Persian Gulf vets, but not in the numbers we need.
"We will exist in the future, but in order to remain viable, we're going to have to be leaner and meaner."
(Jeff Barr is a reporter for the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette. He can be contacted at jbarr(at)kalamazoogazette.com.)
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Also true, we have much better entertainment options at home. Could be the age of the social club is winding down, although the Red Hat club seems to be doing well, so maybe it’s a guy thing.
Women are naturally more social.
“If a freind of yours was falling down drunk and got behind the wheel of a car, you really wouldn’t stop him?”
Sure - but I am talking about someone who drove incredibly well and incredibly safe. Obviously, he was not “falling down drunk”
Now, you tell me why he belongs in jail!
You tell me why .08 is now a death sentence - that is 3 beers in one hour on an empty stomach for most.
THAT IS HARDLY FALLING DOWN DRUNK!
Why are we putting 1.5 million in jail for this?
So, we’re back to at what level is drinking and driving safe? You think the level should be higher, but what about the idiot 100 lb college girl that can’t drive, even when sober, and how do we measure each person’s tolerance individually?
The levels wern’t just pulled put of thin air.
If he was driving so steady, how did he get pulled over 4 times?
“So, we’re back to at what level is drinking and driving safe?”
No we are not -
and that is why we dont have “how much cell phone and driving is safe” or “how much coffee drinking and driving is safe”.
How about this - safe driving is safe. If I can drink a six pack and drive safe, so be it. If a scatter brain who is paranoid of the road and has a bumper covered with AAA bumper stickers and cut off people and jumps on the brakes, lock’em up.
Its the bad driving that should be punished - not the whatever.
PS - MADD and their leftist ilk IS NOT UNHAPPY ABOUT LOTS OF MENS ORGANIZATIONS GOING UNDER. Men who gather at K of C , Elks, AL, the Legion, etc and discuss politics and the economy are dangerous. They get wild ideas about what is going wrong in this country.
I can see how MADD types, having lost a child, would feel helpless and go overboard. Not that I always condone it, but I do think that what drunks think is safe and what sober people see as safe is miles apart in all too many cases. We’ve seen them stagger out of their car and seriously wonder why they were pulled over!
Not causing accidents isn’t the only criteria for safe driving.
I fully agree idiots with cell phones shouldn’t be on the road. And actually WE DO have how much cell phone and driving is safe, more and more communities are outlawing it, and rightly so.
The difference between alcohol and drugs is it slows reaction time, there’s no warning point to suddenly being sober and safe to incapable and all over the road for too many people. It’s insidiously brain changing, inhibitions are decreased, reaction time decreased, etc.
There simply has to be some point that a rational person sees that not every size fits all and if someone has booze on their breath the police are obligated to at least investigate impairment, otherwise we’d have utter chaos...police being sued by families that had a child killed because someone was let go under the influence, etc.
I don’t think in most cases people under the influence are pulled over just for kicks and grins...there’s usually impairment and some reason for pulling over drunks.
If what you say is true, why do police wait outside of these veteran organizations and pull over vets for no reason?
Why are police roadblocks set up to stop every motorist?
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