Your new administration, after 81 days in operation, can report that we have become a Foreign Corporation in
Texas, Virginia and Illinois, and have updated our agents in each of these three states where we have
operations. In addition, we have been cleared in Illinois to conduct our fund raiser. This fund raiser, which
began on August 20th, will be used to help us fund our Charter and The Graybeards publication, and accumulate
emergency repair funds for our National Korean War Monument in Washington, DC.
As President, I have met many dignitaries, both American and Korean. Since we received our Charter; we
participated as a recognized Association in the Veterans Affairs Veterans Day Committee for this event in
Washington, DC on November 11th. We will have completed our first Annual Membership Meeting in Norfolk, VA by
the time you receive this report.
I have been notified that many members did not receive their magazine until the middle of September, even
though this edition was placed in the mail on August 20, 2008. This means that it has taken some 25 days for it
to reach some of our members. This is a problem which this administration will undertake to correct.
I receive many e-mails and letters asking me what the National Organization does for a Chapter/Department or
member. I find that question to be easy to answer for a Chapter or Department.
A Chapter or Department would not exist had there not been a National Organization to bring Korean War
veterans together to form Chapters and also later Departments. Those Chapters or Departments asking me that
question should recognize that they would have a hard time finding Korean War veterans in their areas to form a
group without the database of the National Organization.
It is now easy with the National Database to form a Chapter to meet together, to accomplish the great things
they do together, such as building monuments and teaching about the Korean War in schools and at other community
associations and clubs.
Chapters would not have been able to volunteer together at the VA as a group to help those veterans who need
assistance. All of these things mentioned honor your buddies who did not return as you did. They also help you
show your pride in what you accomplished in the name of freedom for a people who were in desperate need of a
champion.
Those great monuments and highways named in honor of your service to your country would probably not exist
without the Chapters and Departments which worked to have them named. Without Chapters, many Korean veterans
would not receive information at meetings on what to do or who to contact when ill or in need of help.
For the At-Large Member, the answer is not quite as easy, except to say that there probably would not be a
National Monument to the Korean War veterans if there had not been a National Organization formed to raise money
and contact those with the power to make it so. There would be no inclusive magazine dedicated to the Korean War
and Korean Service veteran.
Korean Americans and the Korean War Veterans of Korea would not be able to find you to show you their
appreciation, or offer trips to return to Korea, if National did not exist to find and give them our members‘
names.
I do not like to use words of others, but in this case I must. “Ask not what National can do for you; ask
what you can do to make the National Organization a more recognizable entity, to keep my place in history in
front of the American people and as a contact point for South Koreans to show their appreciation.”
So, I believe that the National Organization is necessary and does a lot for Chapters, Departments and the
At-Large Korean War veteran.
William F. Mac Swain
National President, KWVA/US