I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Chris, the owner of the Windham Market, for generously donating a delicious tray of lasagna for last week’s bingo night.
We truly appreciate your support! Our next bingo night will be Thursday, October 2, at 6 p.m. I hope to see you all there!
I’d also like to express my gratitude to the Windham-Ashland-Jewett Central School for organizing the recent POW/MIA assembly.
Special thanks to Emily Lacombe and the entire staff for their dedication. Although I couldn’t attend due to an emergency, I heard our team did an excellent job explaining the POW table and its significance.
I’d like to remind all home-schooled children in grades 6-8 to participate in the VFW Patriots Pen contest, and students in grades 9-12 to enter the Voice of Democracy contest. For more information, feel free to contact me at 518-810-3109.
Lastly, it was incredibly moving to watch the memorial for Charlie Kirk this past weekend. Regardless of political affiliation, it’s impossible not to feel the heartbreak, especially hearing his wife Erika’s words.
As I watched, I couldn’t help but hope that we, as a nation, come together. No one wins by dividing our country further or by causing harm. We are all Americans, and we must support one another through both tragedy and triumph.
House Passes 14 Veteran Bills: Fourteen bipartisan veteran bills passed the House and now head to the Senate for consideration. They address a range of health care and benefits issues.
VFW-supported bills include H.R.3400, TRAVEL Act of 2025, to allow VA physicians to serve temporarily as traveling physicians in territories and possessions of the United States to provide health care services to veterans in underserved areas;
H.R.3951, Rural Veterans’ Improved Access to Benefits Act of 2025, to extend license portability allowing eligible health care providers to perform disability examinations across state lines and expanding access for veterans;
H.R.2334, Servicemember Residence Protection Act, to preempt state laws regarding squatter’s rights for premises owned by individuals who are on active military service.
VA Dedicates New National Cemetery: The VA National Cemetery Administration (NCA) dedicated the Southern Utah National Cemetery in Cedar City, Utah, that is anticipated to eventually accommodate 13,434 gravesites containing both casketed and cremated remains.
As one of eight cemeteries established under NCA’s “Rural Initiative,” this site supports the NCA’s goal of ensuring that 95% of veterans have a VA national cemetery or VA-grant funded burial option within 75 miles of their homes. Currently, nearly 94% of veterans meet that standard.
I try to bring attention to the efforts that the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency goes to in order to bring closer to our Missing in Action troops.
This week let us honor U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Blaine B. Wilcox, 26, of Pacific Junction, Iowa, killed during World War II, was accounted for on April 1, 2025. During World War II, Wilcox served as a bombardier assigned to 613th Bombardment Squadron, 401st Bombardment Group, Eighth Air Force. On Oct. 7, 1944, during a bombing mission targeting a German synthetic oil refinery in Politz, Germany, Wilcox’s B-17 “Flying Fortress” bomber was hit by anti-aircraft fire and crashed near the village of Kattenhof, Germany. All nine crewmembers, including Wilcox, were killed.
In 1948, an investigation by the American Graves Registration Command in Widziensko, Poland (previously in Hohenbruck, Germany), resulted in the recovery of five sets of remains from graves marked with American aircrew helmets. Two sets were identified as crew members from Wilcox’s aircraft. In 2019, a DPAA investigation team traveled to Poland and surveyed several American aircraft crash sites in the area of Police, Poland. Investigators determined that one of these sites, located near the village of Katy, likely belonged to Wilcox’s aircraft. While investigating incidents near Police, local third-party researchers informed DPAA personnel that an elderly witness claimed to have seen three or four unknown airmen fall from the sky near the village of Budzien in 1944. Members of the German Luftwaffe buried the remains of the unknown airmen in unmarked graves in the village cemetery in Budzien. To identify Wilcox’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological and dental analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Wilcox will be buried in Glenwood, Iowa, on a date yet to be determined.
In closing, let us keep all who gave the ultimate sacrifice , all veterans and the still serving in our thoughts and prayer. God Bless America.
Marc Farmilette – Commander VFW Post 1545
2nd Lt. Blaine B. Wilcox,
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