Veterans groups look for new ways to survive

Veterans groups look for new ways to survive
By Holly Zachariah - The Columbus Dispatch via AP
Posted : Sunday Jan 20, 2008 9:51:59 EST

FOREST, Ohio — He was the only customer in the club Thursday, this Air Force veteran of the Vietnam War.

It was just after 4 p.m., and Larry Hannum nursed a bottle of Budweiser. A game show played on the big-screen television, but the sound was turned down. Hannum made a little small talk with the bartender, but mostly he just sat in the swiveling bar chair and relaxed.

The McVitty Memorial VFW Post 1182 in this Hardin County village was supposed to have closed two weeks ago. In a move increasingly common for veterans organizations across the state, trustees had voted to shutter the hall.

Long gone were the days of packed Friday night fish fries, pancake breakfasts and dances with live bands. The VFW’s glory days had passed.

Membership was down to 103 (the old veterans are dying, and new ones aren’t joining), meetings often had no quorum, and the bar was hemorrhaging money.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/ap_fadingvetgroups_080120/

A few years ago I joined the Legion but I don't get involved much locally. It's because of the same politics, self-importance, back-stabbing, etc. that drive people away from most groups and clubs these days.
Recently I lost an older friend who ran the only non-alcohol VFW post in the state I believe. He said it was very hard raising money that way.

The real problem is that these guys are now returning after volunteering to go into an unjustified war; in other words, these guys are not heroes, they are killers that wanted to see another human die from their hand. And that's hard for some of the others to accept. Not everybody there is a hardliner, there is booze by the bucket and if you want to fight, pile in. But after a while it's easier just not to go.

So the bottom line is that the Veteran organizations, VFW and American Legion (101st Keyboardists wannabees) are fractured on the same lines as the country. The WAR.