On Friday, September 13th the Ashland Fire Department will be holding their annual golf outing at Christman's Windham House benefiting the Westchester Burn Center.
They use all funds raised to support this very important facility. If you haven’t already donated to them, please consider sending them a check to help this worthy cause. You can send your donation to the Ashland Fire Department, PO Box 129, Ashland, NY 12407.
This week has been a very good week for VFW Post 1545 in that our meeting held this past Wednesday was very positive.
Our members were “all in” on keeping our post. As I wrote last week, I was very optimistic that we would come together. Some new ideas were brought up, which I believe will bring new energy to help us move forward.
This article that I put forward has been and will continue to bring you information as in the past. If you are on Facebook, we now have a Facebook account and that will bring the community up to date with what we are planning. Don’t stop buying a copy of the Windham Weekly for heaven sakes as I bring up some facts of interest.
One thing I try not to get into, and that is being political. With that said, I want to give you a prospective on Stolen Valor.
The Democratic Vice President nominee is a gentleman named Tim Walz the current Governor of Minnesota. He has come out with information that he retired as Command Sargent Major when in fact he was not.
That rank is the highest noncommissioned officer. A rank that is of high honor. That and the fact that he has implied that he was in combat in Iraq.
Well, that is not true, and in fact he would not qualify for membership in the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.
This is not to belittle his service to our country. Every veteran who swore to defend this country wrote a blank check payable to the United States of America for a price up to including your life.
We have past and present members in our post who served and who have received distinguished service combat medals for their service in combat.
They were well deserved for the dangers and many for being combat wounded. To say that you did something that you did not, is a crime.
As a matter of fact, he should have known better. Many of the members of the VFW that I have spoken to have brought this up and are very upset.
The Stolen Valor Act of 2013, also known as Public Law 113–12, can result in fines, imprisonment, or both for people who fraudulently claim to have received U.S. military decorations or medals.
The penalties depend on the decoration that is falsely claimed. This includes Medal of Honor: up to one year in prison, other decorations: up to six months in prison. This also includes using falsified military identification.
Even if someone is not prosecuted, a public accusation of stolen valor can damage their reputation for life, which may affect their employment, rental, or economic opportunities.
Many Americans do not know these facts. I was in Vietnam and my military occupation was not an infantryman who was in much more contact with the enemy than I was.
I was at a base camp, and we were more secure than the infantryman was. They tried to get to our position but not being in the “infantry”, you still were armed and defended our position under fire.
I just want to tell you some of the facts regarding this “problem”, not tell you how to vote. That’s your privilege, thanks to a veteran.
In closing, I have to say that we are so privileged to live in America. To those who fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know.
Let us all keep our troops still serving in our thoughts and prayers and keep them safe. God Bless America.
Marc Farmilette – Commander VFW Post 1545
0 comments:
Post a Comment