Where did you serve and what did you do?

3AD Frankfurt, Germany with deployment to Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Bn Legal Specialist

How are you Still Serving?

Post Quartermaster VFW Post 1376, Secretary of the newly formed Jefferson County Veterans Assistance Commission. My personal goal is to build upon recruiting efforts by including all VSO’s to participate in community events such as Enlistment Day Dinner. All the VSO’s and our local Elks combine resources to celebrate our community’s young men and women who raise their right hand to ensure we continue to enjoy the freedoms we have in this country.

Why do you do it?

I have always had an immediate alliance to those families who would share that their child or relative had recently joined the US Armed Forces. I also find it quite insulting that we celebrate our kids who secure scholarships for both academics and sports while we pay little notice to our future warriors. We celebrate our war dead on Memorial Day, those who have served with Veterans Day, why not a day for those who have sworn to continue protecting this country and its ideas? It also allows all of our VSO’s to start a relationship with these young men and women BEFORE they begin their journey. That we keep record of these young people and send them Christmas and Birthday cards and remind them to visit us when they come home either on leave or for ETS. Better to know them now rather than trying to find them when they come home. If all of our VSO’s work together, we can get farther faster in our goal to build all of our lagging memberships.