Boots on the ground
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Hello again from your friends at McCreary County Post 5127, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. I trust that all of you are looking forward to some warmer weather and an early spring. Life seems to slow down during the cold winter months as people stay close to the woodstove and fireplace and don’t get out in public like they do in the summertime. That has been true of our VFW post, too.
At this time of year, we reflect upon the things we have done as a Post and draw upon the records kept by our Post Adjutant. So, I would like to take some time to share with you some of the things we have done over the past year.
As I am sure I have told you in the past, our Post is governed by rules and guidelines established by the National Headquarters of the VFW. These rules are generally set down at the annual convention and we, at the Post level, are obliged to live by them, like it or not. For a few years now, four units of measurement have been used to determine whether or not a post is living up to its potential as a voice for veterans of war. These are: Youth Development, Legislative Advocacy, Veterans Assistance, and Community Service. The unit of measurement is the man-hour. For the year 2022, this is the breakdown for Post 5127.
It pains me to have to say this, but in the unit of Youth Development, Post 5127, sadly, accumulated only 29 man-hours of service. This, admittedly, is a unit that demands improvement in the future. Most of the 29 man-hours were devoted to implementing and managing the essay contests, providing hot chocolate to the JROTC cadets following the Christmas Parade, and overseeing a Haunted House at Halloween, but we did conduct some flag etiquette programs, too. Our post can do better, however, and, hopefully, I will have a better report in 2024.
In the unit of Legislative Advocacy, we had zero man-hours. This is a unit that does not belong on the Post level, but is one that should be addressed at the State and National level. As a consequence, we devote no time to achieving points in that unit.
In the two remaining units, however, our post begins to shine. In 2022, 208 man-hours were recorded as having been spent on Veteran’s Assistance. These acts of assistance ranged from transporting a veteran and his wife to the V A Clinic in Lexington to visiting ill veterans in their homes, from delivering groceries to a homebound veteran to counseling a grieving veteran who was suffering the loss of a daughter. Of particular importance was the conducting of a week-long Veterans Retreat where veterans could receive counseling and legal advice regarding a number of personal issues.
If our light shined brightly in Veteran’s Assistance, it positively glowed in Community Service. In the year 2022, the Post Adjutant recorded 577 man-hours of service to the men, women, and children of McCreary County. If! undertook to list the items of service called into the Adjutant, too much room would be taken up in this newspaper, so let me just say that there were many of them. Some acts of kindness were of short duration, requiring only an hour or so, but some required much more. All were done without hesitation, without strings attached, and at the personal expense of the post member. The VFW does not charge for its services.
Of course, I am sure that the numbers I have listed fall far short of the actual numbers performed. Not all members of the post report their community service· so the Adjutant has no record of them. But, they are enough to show that we as a VFW post are not just sitting around telling war stories. We are out and about, doing good where we can and making McCreary County a better place to live and work. Take care, and when you see a vet, don’t forget to say Thank You.
