Letter to the Editor: VFW quietly supports community

Editor:

Ah, the VFW [Veterans of the Foreign Wars]. Who the heck are we? Good question.

Good question.

We are men and women educators, electronic technicians, logisticians with administrative degrees, dairymen, ranchers, oilmen, warehouse workers, truck drivers, business associates, etc. We are generally the regular guy or gal you meet during your normal day.

What’s the connection? We all wore our country’s colors: Navy blue, Marine green, Army green or Air Force blue. The common bond? The same patriotic heart that beat when our country called.

Many, too many, did not return, but those of us who did generally came back a bit more educated, a lot more appreciative of our country and with thousands of new brothers and sisters. We all served in a war or two or war theater somewhere around the world and brought back indelible memories that during the “just right” moment bring up smiles and sometimes tears.

We as VFW members gave up parts of our lives when our nation needed us. Now, as veterans of those foreign wars, we gather like “birds of a feather” and sometimes chat about those days and times.

Today, we have families, jobs, friends and a sense of continuing to serve. Perhaps not in the same uniformed role, but for our brothers, sisters and neighbors. We are not a branch of the “old folks’ home.” We are all former warriors. There may be snow on the roof, but the fire inside burns just as brightly. The difference is that now we fight hunger, for education, for our youth and our town’s patriots.

We support our youth by sponsoring annual speech contests, written compositions—all on patriotism, mind you—and award tens of thousands of dollars toward school scholarship for the winners at the national level. We sponsor Boy Scouts at Youth Day, Little League baseball and bowling teams through our Auxiliary. We honor our police officers, our firemen and emergency medical personnel for their outstanding services and exceptional dedication. We put on a few “feeds” a year at our Post home and invite our students and the general public during Veterans Day. We honor our fallen in all wars and participate in all patriotic functions in the community. We gift our needy during the holidays with boxes of turkey, foods, toys, etc. for our less fortunate neighbors and assist by providing wheelchairs, walkers, crutches and even air conditioners when we have them.

Did you know we built the Helipad for our town’s hospital?

Surprised? We like to surprise you.

We do much more than wear military-style hats with time-worn unit pins. We visit our veterans hospitals regularly and bring cheer and encouragement to our convalescing comrades. We have helped our neighbors in ways that need to remain between them and us, and we won’t embarrass anyone with that.

Our rewards will come from a little higher plain than down here. We will wait.

We are not the local glee club. We are retired warriors. We have been known to have get-togethers to decide what to attack next, like a practice ball field or who to help next. All this, and you never hear a peep out of us.

Don’t be strangers; visit our Post. We will be happy to show you around. You might even run into someone you know.

Art Romanant

VFW Post 8560

Sulphur Springs