VFW District 8 Newsletter

CWO5 Randle M. Tolliver, USN (Ret)

Commander 

For veterans in crisis, the Veterans Crisis Line's number is "988” then press "1”.

Homebound veterans requiring assistance please contact any member. 

Veterans experiencing, or at risk of homelessness, please contact any member or the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at (877) 424-3838.

Buddy Checks! Please call or go visit elderly or homebound veterans and see how they are doing and if they need help.

We are always looking to have veterans who are eligible and want to continue serving our community to join us. If you are interested, please contact any member or post. 

For our comrades who want to continue serving their communities but no longer have a VFW post, VFW District 8 has the answer: the establishment of a VFW Detachment, having a presence in the community without the burden of maintaining a post. The Det would be in the community, doing VFW business and outreach as an element of a parent post. If you are interested, please contact (573) 924-2382.

Veterans’ news:

The Medal of Honor has been awarded to three soldiers, recognizing service members from World War II, Vietnam and Afghanistan, respectively. Master Sgt. Roderick "Roddie” Edmonds, retired Command Sgt. Maj. Terry Richardson and Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis received the nation’s highest military award for valor.  Edmonds’ and Ollis’ awards were posthumous.  Master Sgt Edmonds died in 1985 in his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee, while Ollis was killed in 2013 in Afghanistan while shielding a Polish officer from a suicide bomber. 

Master Sgt. Edmonds served in the 106th Infantry Division, 422 Regiment Headquarters Company.  He had been serving along the Siegfried Line in Bastogne, Belgium, for a mere six days in December 1944 when the Germans began their fanatical final offensive of World War II. He, alongside thousands of other Americans, were captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge — the largest capture of GI forces during the entirety of the war. Transported to German POW camp Stalag IX-A, he was the highest-ranking American non-commissioned officer at Ziegenhain stalag that day, was told to order his nearly 200 Jewish American soldiers out of the morning roll call. Instead, the master sergeant ordered more than 1,000 of his fellow prisoners to stand together in front of their barracks and when the commandant said they couldn’t all be Jewish, Edmonds responded "We are all Jews.” On March 30, 1945 Stalag IX-A was liberated by the 6th Armored Division. 

During a reconnaissance mission near Loc Ninh on 14 September 1968, Sgt. Maj. Terry Richardson waged a one-man attack against enemy forces on Hill 222, saving the lives of 85 soldiers. While assigned to the 28th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, Richardson was serving as the platoon leader when he and his men came under heavy fire from a "well-entrenched North Vietnamese Army battalion.” Completely surrounded, Richardson realized that the only way the Americans would avoid being overrun was to call in tactical air strikes — on himself.

On 28 August 2013, Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis was assigned to the 10th Mountain Division’s 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, and posted at Forward Operating Base Ghazni in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province.The base was breached by a car bomb, enabling 10 enemy fighters wearing suicide vests to penetrate the outer wall.  Simultaneously, the base came under fire by mortars and grenades. According to Ollis’ Distinguished Service Cross citation, he accounted for his soldiers and checked for casualties before running toward the enemy assault.  In company with Polish soldier Karol Cierpica, they engaged the attackers "without their personal protection equipment and armed only with their rifles.” After Cierpica was wounded and unable to walk, Staff Sergeant Ollis shielded him and continued to engage the enemy until mortally wounded when a suicide vest detonated.

Legislative news:

Folks, please contact your senator and representative to voice your support for several pieces of legislation to support Missouri Veterans. These include funding the Missouri Veterans Commission (MVC) with a stable funding solution. The MVC manages the seven Missouri Veterans Homes, six cemeteries, and numerous veterans’ programs.  Passing HJR 115 and SJR 88 to provide ‘Disabled Veterans Property Tax and Homestead Exemption” for 100% service-connected disabled veterans. Passing a Missouri law to fight unaccredited companies (Claim Sharks) that prey on veterans through misleading advertising by offering to file VA claims and the charge exorbitant fees for "consulting.” You can find your representative at https://house.mo.gov/legislatorlookup and your senator at https://www.senate.mo.gov/LegisLookup

Speaking of Claim Sharks, we are adamantly opposed to Section 42.028 of Senate Bill 974. This is a poison pill embedded in otherwise excellent legislation. We strongly support the rest of the bill that would do great things for the Missouri National Guard, but this section would effectively legitimize "Claim Sharks” business practices. Please contact your representative to voice your opposition of Section 42.028. 

Also, please support the "Major Richard Star Act” (H.R. 2102 and S. 1032). Today, medically retired veteran’s Department of War retirement pay is reduced to offset their VA disability compensation. These are fundamentally different benefits, earned for different reasons, yet Congress refuses to act.  Please thank Senator Hawley who is a co-sponsor, but call Senator Schmitt, at (202) 224-5721, and your Congressman / Congresswoman and ask them to do the right thing. You can find your congress person at https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative .

Local events: 

The time and place of these and local post meetings and other events are provided on each post’s Facebook site; come join us!

VFW Post 2593 in Arnold and the District 8 Riders will be participating in the City of Kimmswick’s annual Vietnam Veterans Day Parade on 28 March. Parade starts at 11 am.

Every Tuesday, VFW Post 5331 in Cedar Hill host "Veterans Coffee Talk” at 9 am at 1 Lynn Lane in Cedar Hill. If you have questions or would like more information, please call EverTrue @ (314) 446-2539, Col. (retired) Ted Hodgson @ (314) 221-2096 or Mark Newton @ (636) 222-3521.

Every Wednesday, VFW Post 5896 is hosting an "all-you-can-eat” breakfast at 814 E Karsch Blvd, Farmington. Food service is 7 to 9:30 am and the cost is $8 and children under the age of 10 eat for free.

Every Saturday, VFW Post 1831 is hosting a Shooting Match at 1651 Veterans Dr., DeSoto. Doors open at 10 am, practice at 11 am and shooting starts at noon. Clubroom will open for drinks & appetizers. For more information call (636) 586-9271.

Every 3rd Sunday of each month, VFW Post 6516 in High Ridge will host "Meat Shoot” at 2220 Gravois Rd, High Ridge. Rain or shine, shooting starts at noon. Ages 12 and up are welcome and they provide shells. Nothing smaller than a .678 choke tube and no scopes, optics, bull barrels. For mor information call (636) 677-1772.

On 29 March, VFW Post 6883 in Bonne Terre will host multiple BB gun shooting contest at 1112 Roe Street in Bonne Terre. House guns are available. For more information, call (573) 358-4440.

Post 6660 and VFWA 6660 are performing an environmental cleanup project across Reynolds County to remove and properly dispose of metal, tires, and other debris from along state and county roads, creeks, and with the cooperation of the owner’s, private property.  In addition to the aesthetic value of removing such material from our forest and roadways, metal waste can leach into the soil and adjacent waterways, causing soil contamination. A lot of us rely on wells for drinking water and to water stock. These pollutants can affect groundwater. Please contact (803) 924-0608 or (573) 924-2382 if you have material to remove.

Now let us talk a bit about our history:

Happy Birthday Uncle Sam! 174 years ago, Uncle Sam debuted on the cover of the New York Lantern magazine on 13 March 1852, criticizing the government's trade policies for overseas mail delivery while standing beside John Bull— his British counterpart. To this day, the origin of Uncle Sam, the iconic cartoon that commonly personifies the United States government and is the manifestation of American patriotism is unclear but his debut was created by American illustrator Frank Bellew. 

I offer this quote from President Theodore Roosevelt "There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.”

Bulletin Board:

The VA one-stop telephone number is 1-800-698-2411 and press "0” for immediate assistance. The VA one stop website is VA.gov Home | Veterans Affairs .

For more for information concerning VA "End of Life” benefits and services see www.va.gov/initiatives/end-of-life-benefits/

Veteran employment opportunities!  Please visit https://news.va.gov/138283/hiring-veterans-job .

The Missouri Veterans Commission (MVC) one-stop Benefits and Resource Portal is (573) 522-4061 or www.veteranbenefits.mo.gov .

To pre-certify for burial in a Missouri Veterans Cemetery, apply at https://my.mo.gov/gsp?id=vcp_preapplication .  For information on burial eligibility, visit https://mvc.dps.mo.gov/cemeteries . 

The Missouri Job Center offers no-cost employment assistance for veterans and spouses. Contact (417) 257-2630 or visit jobs.mo.gov/vets.

To order military service documents such as a DD 214/Separation Document or Official Military Personnel File (OMPF), contact the National Archives, National Personnel Records Center at https://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records, or call (866) 272-6272.

For more information, follow us at https://www.facebook.com/groups/967395123712841 or visit movfw.org

 

"Here to Serve”