Members, Friends, Veterans, Americans,
April of this year shaped up in January to be a busy time. And it came true! I want to focus on April
2008 in this heart-to-heart with our members, their families, and friends.
APRIL
11 - THE MISSING SHUNNED AT THE CAPITOL The leaders of several Veterans Service Organizations
(VSO) had been invited to an important meeting in Washington regarding the MISSING and PW. I represented
the KWVA. The hearing was hosted by Representative Peter King, R-NY(3). Advance notice stated that House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA(8), was expected to attend and address the group. Representation of the House
Committee on the Judiciary was to be present also. Thus, I believed that I could bring two major KWVA concerns
to the forefront.
The purpose of the hearing was to generate the apparently additional heat to get House Resolution
111 (see http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.RES.111:)
out of committee and to the House for a vote. There were 265 sponsors— well over the number necessary to
execute a discharge petition (one would think). The intent of the Resolution: "Resolved, That there
is established in the House of Representatives a select committee to be known as the Select Committee on
POW and MIA Affairs."
The function/mission of the House Select Committee on POW and MIA Affairs would be, "Shall conduct
a full investigation of all unresolved matters relating to any United States personnel unaccounted for from
the Vietnam era, the Korean conflict, World War II, Cold War Missions, or Gulf War, including MIAs and POWs."
The meeting was very interesting and generated much heat regarding returning or accounting for the
missing. Knowledgeable former members of the Senate Select Committee of the 1990’s (Kerry-Smith) were
in attendance and pressed for the Resolution. Staffers of the House Judiciary Committee were present and
appeared to pour cold water on any attempts to pass the Resolution—members of the KWVA can really relate
to that treatment, but the missing Americans from 1950-53 and their families do not understand such
callous treatment nor should they be expected to do so.
Representative Pelosi did not attend, send word or representation. She was
. This was interpreted
as a slap in the faces of the Missing. The leaders of six other VSO and I moved to the House Speaker’s
Office immediately after the close of the meeting and protested the Speaker's snubbing of the Missing.
APRIL 27 - MEMORIAL ACTIVITIES During this run-up to MEMORIAL DAY time each year many VA
Regional Medical Centers host a Sunday formal memorial service honoring all the veterans who departed for
their final roll call from the facility.
My wife and I attended the services at the VA Pineville-Alexandria (Louisiana) Regional Medical Center
on April 27. The occasion was somber, respectful as it should have been. The speakers were excellent. The
music was great. Part of the service was the calling of the names, from Alvin Aclise to Lee Winbush,
139 men (evidently no lady veterans had passed on from the facility). There were no local government officials
present. The local metro area population is approximately 70,000, with more than 20 veterans organizations.
Less than sixty persons were present to honor and remember their departed 139 veterans—not even one person
per family! was
application of the admonition LEST WE FORGET. Please do not let this happen in your areas.
APRIL
28-MAY 13 - KWVA 2008 BALLOTS ARRIVE Finally I want to address the 12,000 (on average) KWVA members
who have been for
years. These members have never voted in a KWVA election even though the ballot is hand-delivered in the
mail, requiring minimum effort to complete and return. MARK-LICK-STAMP-MAIL.
10,000 to 12,000
members are missing every year—they do not vote.
Our great organization, the only VSO in America composed of Korea Veterans and their friends, has been
in trouble for many years. Various talented people—all volunteers—have worked day and night round the clock
to found the KWVA, to build the National Monument, to build local monuments, to participate in Return to
Korea Visits, to take TELL AMERICA to classrooms in hundreds of locations, to seek a Federal Charter, to
donate over 1 million hours serving their brothers and sister veterans in the Veterans Administration Volunteer
Service, to guard against the abandonment of our Korean allies OR our 8,100+ Missing, and to produce
and support the great distinctive Graybeards and KWVA Website. All those activities have increased
greatly in application over the past four years.
Leadership in our organization is voluntary. It begins with electing and then supporting leaders
who will find and appoint volunteers to administer the Association in the myriad tasks expected of any VSO.
It is a fact that the largest number of voters in any KWVA election in the past decade was 4,500-4,600.
Records are not available of turnout before 2004.
10,000 to 12,000 have been
. This has allowed
a small group, with a hate-agenda, to manipulate the elections and stymie progress in the
Association. If allowed to continue it will burst out as a full scale conflagration which will destroy the
Association and its accomplishments.
I urge as strongly as possible that each the 16,000+ eligible to vote, do so—
.
The survival of your Association requires that you do so, the expectations of your buddies who have passed
on was that you will do so, the young men and women serving in our places in Korea today merit our doing
so, and 41,000,000 Koreans expect us to do so. There are two good websites where you can get voting information
and read candidate postings:
http://www.kwvavoterinfo.org/
To help encourage 100% voting we will make a special award to each chapter (and
the Department to which it belongs) which has 100% of its ballots received by our CPA in the election. For
details have your chapter Commander/President call or email Assistant National Secretary and
Past National Director Jake Feaster, 352-466-3493, JFeaster@kwva.org.
THANK YOU for your friendship and hard work, and good will which we have encountered nearly everywhere
these past four years. Please preserve and extend the accomplishments which you have attained.
National President, KWVA/US
Chairman of the Board
