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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.)
Not for commercial use. For educational and discussion purposes only.
Your comment is on target..but remember that those who made those comments were probably REMF's who had not left that bar stool in years. Think of them as John Kerry's....phoney heroes....
Let’s not be hasty and cast aspersions here at Freerepublic, let’s preserve the dignity of those who post; judge not please. I’ve seen too many freepers go by the way side. Without posters, we lose the glue that holds us together.
I am a lIfe member of the VFW at my hometown post.. Past Commander of the local post when I was assigned to Hill AFB in Utah.
I am also a member of the American Legion.. and even rose to the position of 1st Vice Commander.. and then I just became a member who would help.. All because I had a Legionare who told me he was a better veteran than me because I was a “gulf war/Iraq War” vet and we did not count compared to him being a Vietnam veteran..
I am a member of the legion.. but that experience left a bad taste in my mouth
The Grand Army of the Republic, the GAR, was a group of Union Civil War veterans. It was one of the most influential groups in the late 19th century. But as its members — lets face facts and call it what it is — got old and died, its influence faded. Eventually, it ceased to exist.
It’s the way of things. There are no Civil War veterans left. fewer than a handful of WWI vets. I don’t have any children, but if I manage to, they will probably never meet or remember a WWII vet. Even the very youngest Vietnam vet is pushing 60.
I guess this will go on for another 10 years or so.
No BS, my friend. My DD 214s clearly reveal my dates of service, as do my honorable discharge certificates.
The AL and the VFW clearly spell out which periods count and which periods don't count.
Look into it if you don't know that they don't accept all veterans who served their country.
I estimate the youngest VN vets to be in their early to mid 50s. If you were 18 in the early 70s, you’d be 54 now.
DD214 didn’t seem to accomplish anything. They could not seem to transcribe anything off of it correctly. The DD214 does not directly place me in VN because it was a Security AFSC and VFW had to get the info from the USAF. They got that right at least once but could not connect that with the name and number they could not get right. I have since joined American Legion but the local VFW has revived quite a bit while the Legion is moribund hereabouts.
yup... 8^) my bad
Sorry for your loss. My God bless him for his service and your family!
thank you
the cops waited in the parking lot for the men to come out after a game or such.
They did that after a clambake once and the next year, had the nerve to butt in line for freebees - the men that were cooking all stopped and stared and told him to get out.
its a crying shame that vets get treated like this.
“to the point his freedom was less imporatant than drinking and driving?”
no, he decided his freedom to drink and not have any accidents was more important than an arbitrary law that has no basis in reality.
he moved out of state and is rumored to have changed his identity.
do you know that the BA of those that have accidents is LOWER than the general driving population?
Put that in your “finger pointing” pipe and smoke it.
Didn’t the Grand Army of the Republic later relent and allow Confederate veterans to join, as Civil War vets from both sides became aged and wartime hatreds cooled?
Dumba$$ thing for an officer to say. Maybe your oxygen mask was loose at high altitude?
If you know the cops are out there then you need to follow the law. Yeah it’s lame for cops to be targeting vets, but it’s at least as lame for a vet to be in a condition to do jail time for drunk driving. Drunk drivers are dangerous, and not just to themselves, the 70s are over we as a nation have realized drunk driving isn’t cool, isn’t grown up, and is no longer to be tolerated. And nothing about being a veteran changes any of that, if anything it makes it worse, you guys are old enough to know better.
...arbitrary law that has no basis in reality.
>>>>WOW! You seriously don’t think alcohol delays your reaction time?
do you know that the BA of those that have accidents is LOWER than the general driving population?
>>>>Not surprising at all, but when they DO get into an accident they’ll be charged, even if they weren’t at fault. Because they broke the law. And if they WERE at fault, it’s senseless when there’s other options.
Sorry never subscribed to the “well everyone else does it” crowd.
And just because he moved out of state and changed his identity doesn’t mean his behavior won’t catch up to him, perhaps in a VERY bad way!
You still haven’t answered the question, would you fly on a plane with a legally intoxicated pilot, or have your brain operated on by an intoxicated brain surgeon?
The American Legion does not suffer this same problem, and that is my point. The VFW does not have to change their emphasis on war veterans, just not exclude veterans who were otherwise their peers. Otherwise, the culture of the two organizations is so different, that veterans would have a choice.
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