lic. The Detachment also was honored to host two guests during the meet-ings which including Joe
Byron, Exec-utive Director of Honor Flight New England, dis-cussing the Honor Flight program and PDC David Woodward who is this year SAL Liaison from the Depart-ment of Ver-mont to the Detachment, discussing membership and other topics. As always building camaraderie and commu-nication is a major objec-tive of these meetings and this conference has to be considered a success! At last weekends S.A.L.
Fall Conference in Barre, Vt. we had 18 of 35 Squadrons represented and 27 officers
and members signed up for the Fall Training Ses-sions hosted by PDC John Waite, PDC Henry Cleveland and PDC Steve Eng-land. Called to Order at 9:00 AM on Saturday Oc-tober 26th for the DEC meeting by Commander Dave Hendee, the assembled discussed
re-quired business, issues and opportunities before the Detachment. During the General Meeting, the training session agenda included the Duties of
County and District Com-manders, Mentoring Strat-egies, Meeting Prepara-tion for Detachment
Offic-ers and a module on how to locate the answers to many common questions that are asked of us by members, potential mem-bers and the general
pub-Detachment of Vermont Fall Conference a Success!
Detachment of Vermont National Awards Table
Last month we reportedon some of the Awards that the Detachment of Vermont captured at this years National Conven-tion in Indianapolis, Indi-ana. Last week the at-tendees at Fall Confer-ence got the opportunity to see all the awards we captured laid out on dis-play. A pretty amazing feat for such a small De-tachment as ours here in
Vermont. Shown to the left are the George B Evans Veterans Advocate of the Year Award captured by our own Detachment His-torian Lucas Herring, the Detachment History Book Winner, CWF per capita donation award, National Membership Renewal Award, CWF Certificate of Recognition and the Herit-age Circle Gift Club Bene-factor Award. Go Vermont! November 2019 Volume 12 Issue 5
The Sons of The
American Legion
Special Interests: Next up is Mid Winter Convention in
Burling-ton, VT from January 25th– 26th. Remember the S.A.L. meetings will be on Saturday morning
January 25th, 2020. More information inside. Please remember that Squadron membership transmittals now require $10 to be sent per mem-ber, not $9 like last year. Current form can be found
here: http:// www.salvermont.com/ forms_239_2995888367.pdf
Don’t forget The Dodge House is still selling bricks to
memori-alize a veteran of your choice in their flag pole area. You can locate the
order form on our De-tachment website http://
www.salvermont.com/ forms_229_282532235.
Want to know more about Operation
Com-fort Warriors? Check this out here: https://
www.legion.org/
operationcomfortwarri- ors/228342/ocw-
provides-service-dog-wounded-warrior
Please congratulate the Detachment of
Hello Everyone!
Here it is the beginning of November and the year is almost half over. I guess the next trip for my bike is to the garage for the winter.
It was great to see so many people at the Octo-ber DEC meeting in Barre this past weekend. I want to thank you for giving up your Saturday to attend. I also want to thank PDC Steve England for bring-ing the Awards and dis-playing them for all of to see. Finally a big congrat-ulations to Lucas Herring for his award for Legisla-tive writing.
Don't forget that Mid-Winter Conference is Jan 24- 26, I look forward to seeing all of you there.
Let's keep getting those Memberships in as we are lagging a little behind on meeting our renewal quota dates. Let's generate the same momentum that we had last year and keep it going. I really want is to be at the 100% mark by De-cember. If your Squadron needs help, please get in touch with your DEC Offic-ers and we will be glad to help you out.
Remember for the 2020 membership cards, it is now $10.00 that you send in to Department and for all cards after June it will be $13.00 with each mem-ber.
It has been a busy fall visitation schedule getting to the Squadron's that we have gotten to already. It has been great to visit with
the members and hear of the amazing things you do in your communities! The Donation's that you give out is impressive also. Keep up the good work, Keep track of all your hours volunteered as it does matter at the end of the year. Please get your Dodge House dona-tions in ASAP as we only have a few days left be-fore we make the presen-tation to them on Novem-ber 11th at 11:00. If you can make it we would love to see you there when we give the check to Chris. We are their ma-jor contributor, let's show those veterans there just how much they mean to us by presenting a really great check to them. I hope to see you all at Mid -Winter Convention!
Officers are here to help if there’s a need.
With the holiday season fast approaching let’s keep working our Children and Youth and Veterans Pro-grams. This time of year there is always a family in need and Veterans that could use our helping hands or just a visit. I en-courage you to reach out into your community and help someone this holiday season.
We’ll be visiting the Dodge House on Veterans Day (11/11) at 11 AM. I encour-age all that can attend to do so. If you’ve already donat-ed Thank You!! If you have-n’t sent your check in yet, I encourage you to do so. As the largest contributor to Fellow SAL Members,
Fall Conference and our Membership Roundup is all wrapped up. Thanks to all who participated in both events. Veterans Day is closing in and we have some work to do with membership. Right now we’re only at 27% and our next target date at National for 35% is fast approaching. If we all pushed to hit the next prime rib challenge tar-get of 50% on Novem-ber 7th we would be in good shape for the na-tional deadline. I know we can get this done if we all work together. Communication is key and your Detachment
the Dodge House it’s im-portant that we continue our support. Anything you can do is greatly appreci-ated by Chris and the Vet-erans living there. Don’t forget there is still an op-portunity to purchase bricks for the area around the flagpole. These could be to honor a loved one, remember a veteran or to commemorate your Squadrons help with the project.
Thank You all for what you do for Veterans, Chil-dren and Youth and your communities. We could not do the work we do without you and your hard work.
Detachment Commander Dave Hendee
Senior Vice Commander Jeremy Revell
“For God andCountry Detachment Commander Dave Hendee
We Stand for the Flag and Kneel at the Cross”
Page 2 The Sons of The American Legion
For Veterans Past, Present and Future,
Gentleman,
November is here! The smell of Hunting season & Thanksgiving are in the air!!
Keeping it short fellas. Thank you to all that made it for Fall Confer-ence, we went over a lot of training for District & County Commander’s. That said my hope is that squadron’s that did at-tend took something they’ve learned back to their Squadron’s to teach as well… We all learned something new,
Knowledge is power!! Right!? My hope is that District & County Com-manders will work togeth-er to put a training to-gether for all the Squad-ron’s within their District sometime soon to learn in-depth of what there officer position really is about & what it entails.
Let’s Talk Membership! 2020 is out! Let’s get them in ASAP boys!!! Renewal’s Notice’s should be already going out! There’s a lot of 0% in a few Squadron’s…. If you need help with this process, please please reach out!! & don’t be afraid to contact a Detachment officer if needed! WE ARE HERE ALWAYS TO HELP, Remember Membership is the blood line of our organi-zation & is everyone’s job!! Wouldn’t it be won-derful for Vermont to Reach 4,000 member’s strong!!! Keep Pushing Boys I know we can do it!! Also gentle-men, I have put out a Mem-bership Challenge: North vs South, First District that gets 100% by Mid-winter Conference will win $250 to a charity of there choosing!! (If South wins I have to pay…if North Wins South has to pay!) Let’s get it
done TEAM NORTH!! Visitations are still going great, thank you all for your hospitality, it is very much ap-preciated.
Squadron Commander’s we will be contacting you before the visitation to verify the meeting, & who will be attend-ing for officer’s, It is very im-portant that the Finance Of-ficer be present at your meet-ing’s in case you want to turn in membership to Detachment that night of the visitation. Well that’s about it for now Comrade’s, I follow up with you all next month, in the meantime keep striving high with membership!! You all have a great Thanksgiving with your families & friend’s. Please don’t forget to thank a Vet & check in with them dur-ing this time of year as the weather gets colder…!! Al-ways Remember Sons the Sky is the Limit!!
to donate $250 to the Southern Area for us to
donate to one of our pro-jects! So let's push to get this done!
Thank you all again for the work you are all put-Hello everyone!
Here we are and yet anoth-er month has gone by. I hope everyone had a great and safe Halloween.
We had a great training ses-sion and DEC meeting this last week. I was glad to see a lot of people showed up for the conference.
On membership, It is going great and I encourage you all to keep up your great work on getting them in. We still have a long way to go though.
As a reminder to the South-ern Area that if we do beat the Northern Area by Midwin-ter Convention, they will have
ting in to it and don't forget that prime rib challenge is still part of the membership drive.
If you have an event or a fundraiser going on, get it to us to put in the next newsletter.
If you need any help let me know!
Finally, congratulations to Arlington S69 on being the first to reach 100% of their membership goal.
Thank you all,
Southern Area Commander
Bill Brothers
“For God and Country!”
Northern Area Commander Brian Massey
Southern Area Commander Bill Brothers
“For God, Veter-ans & Country -Brian Massey SAL Northern Area Commander Detachment of Vermont
*My Contact Info: Email- Bri-an.massey.jr@g mail.com
Phone# 802-461-5005
Good Day,
Does the 40-foot-tall cross War Memorial Violate the First Amendment? The origins of the Amer-ican Legion vs. Ameri-can Human-ist Associa-tion date back over 90 years. In 1919, a group in Prince George County,
Maryland, raised mon-ey for a private memori-al in honor of those “who lost their lives in the Great War for the liberty of the world”. The project was com
pleted in 1925 and is known as the Bladens-burg Peace Cross. The property that the Bladensburg Memorial stands on is now owned
by a state agency. In 2014, the American Humanist Association filed suit in federal court noting that the upkeep and presence of the
Me-morial on public property was in violation of the “establishment of reli-gion” clause. Seven members of the Su-preme Court rejected this position. Justice
Alito noted the Memorial is “a historical land-mark” as well as “a place for the community to gather and honor all veterans and their sacrifices.”
In Honor of All the Vet-erans, Lucas J. Herring Historian, Detachment of Vermont Salvtle-gionpost10@gmail.com 802-272-8222 involved.
Many Squadrons host Holiday events, such as Thanksgiving Dinners, Breakfast with Santa, and other fun programs. Please look into helping out, you will love seeing the expressions on the From the Chaplain,
As we approach the Holi-day season, this is a great time to reach out to any Veteran that you know who may be a shut-in, in a Nursing Home, or maybe your neighbor. Every year, the Legion Auxiliary holds Christmas Gift Shops at the VA in White River Junction and The Veter-ans Home in Bennington. The Sons have participat-ed for many years and it is an honor and really grati-fying to see the apprecia-tion of the Veterans as you help them shop for themselves and their fami-lies. Please contact the Auxiliary if you want to be
faces of those being served, especially the children.
Please remember All of our service people who cannot be home during the Holidays. There are programs where a letter or package can be sent in time for them to receive something in time for the Holiday Season.
Always keep the men and women who are protect-ing us around the World and at Home in your pray-ers.
In Honor of All Veterans, PDC Steve England Chaplain
Detachment of VT S.A.L.
Chaplain England’s Pulpit
The Sons of The American Legion Page 4
“Always keep the men and women who are protect-ing us around the World and at Home in your prayers.”
Historian Lucas Herring
Hello everyone, I am re-cently back from Fall Con-ference which is always a busy time for the Detach-ment Adjutant. DocuDetach-ment- Document-ing the events that tran-spire and managing all the paperwork that gets distributed to insure eve-ryone gets communicated with equally after the meetings can be a chal-lenge. When most partici-pants are walking away from the meeting, the Ad-jutant’s work shifts to phase II, the generation of the official transcripts, distribution of the minutes and filing of the records. (Including sending out the official corrections too!). Anyway the new Directory is out and distributed and already we have some changes and corrections:
1. Pownal Squadron #90 has their own
mailing address at: SAL Squadron 90 PO Box 137 Pownal, Vermont 05261.
2. Mark Martin can be reached at Mar-tinjl72@hotmail.com
I have also included a piece on VA&R later in this news-letter. After a number of years without a VA&R Committee in Vermont, Commander Hendee asked me to take on that role this year and focus on those activities. In my research and with the help of Nation-al VA&R Chairman Butch Ray and PDC John Waite, I have become convinced that among all the various VA&R programs the SAL supports, Operation Com-fort Warriors is something we all should be able to get behind for 2020-2021. This month, I am going to present some general infor-mation on the SAL VA&R programs but next month I am going to go in depth on the Operation Comfort War-rior Program. Stay tuned!
membership by the Octo-ber 20th renewal due date.
(Photo: Tom and Tammy Burrows S59)
Upcoming in November, Squadron #10 will be holding the 5th Annual Veterans 5k Run/Walk for Good Day,
In October, Squadron #63 is in Northfield started to hold Friday night dinners in addition to their first Sunday of the month breakfasts. Squadron #10 in Barre started sell-ing crossbow tickets. After holding their successful Redneck Extravaganza, Squadron #59 rounded up 25% of their memberships for submission on Octo-ber 9th. I was able to stop over and visit with all of these Squadrons, along with Squadron #3 in Montpelier as part of the membership round up on October 19th and 20th to assist submission of
Veterans to support the Veterans Place in North-field. They will also be gathering items to support their Annual Thanksgiving Day Dinner.
In addition to Detachment Commander David Hen-dee’s Prime Rib Cookout Challenge, our Squad-rons, Districts and De-tachment have target dates to hit in November for National. District 3 hit the October target and will also hit the November target. I am thankful of the efforts of all the Squad-rons in District 3 in follow-ing up on renewals and recruitment of new mem-bers!
From the Very Messy Desk of Adjutant Marc Colety…….
District 3 Commander Lucas Herring
The Sons of The American Legion
In honor of all US veterans, past and present.
Marc Colety Detachment Adju-tant;
Chairman VA&R Co-Chair Public Re-lations
Webmaster Newsletter Editor (603) 543-6471
colety@gmail.com
The American Legion's top 12 Legislative priorities
The following are the top issues that The American Legion will be fighting for in this session of the 116th Congress.
Wartime veteran. More
than 1,600 U.S. military men and women since the end of World War II have been killed or were wounded dur-ing times of armed conflict not recognized by the U.S. government. The American Legion passed Resolution 1 at its Fall 2018 National Ex-ecutive Committee meeting calling on Congress to direct VA to expand the definition of "wartime veteran" to in-clude all military personnel who served honorably under Title 10 orders for at least one day during this continu-ous period of armed conflict.
Agent Orange. The
Ameri-can Legion remains firm in its position that all veterans exposed to Agent Orange – on land, sea or air – deserve service-connected disability benefits for adverse health conditions presumed to be linked to such exposure.
American flag. The
Ameri-can Legion will continue to fight for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that prohibits the physical dese-cration of the American flag. As a physical representation of the ideals that America stands for, protecting the sanctity of our nation’s flag has always been a priority for The American Legion.
Women veterans. Women
veterans are the fastest growing demographic to serve in the military and to enroll in the VA health care system. Since 2000, the number of women veterans receiving VA health care has more than doubled and that
number is expected to in-crease as more women vet-erans become eligible to receive care through VA. The American Legion be-lieves that it is vital for VA to develop a comprehensive health care program in or-der to address health care needs specific to women who have served in the armed forces, and the Le-gion will continue to advo-cate for legislation that ad-dresses these shortcom-ings.
Suicide prevention. An
estimated 20 veterans die by suicide every day and many are not receiving care or support through the VA that may have saved them. The American Legion urges Congress to provide VA the necessary funds to hire mental health care profes-sionals and proper staffing for its Integrative Health and Wellness Program. Getting veterans enrolled in these services is a priority of The American Legion.
Citizenship. Immigrants to
the United States often join the military as a path to ob-tain citizenship. However, veterans have reported be-ing deported after failbe-ing to obtain U.S. citizenship while in service. The American Legion supports measures to ensure the process of naturalization through hon-orable military service is completed prior to dis-charge.
Veteran homelessness.
VA pledged to eradicate veteran homelessness and The American Legion sup-ports the continued funding of programs to address this serious issue. Congress must continue making in-vestments in affordable housing and programs that help get veterans and their
families off the streets and into stable housing with supportive services.
VA benefits. Many military
retirees are forced to forfeit a portion of their pension in order to receive VA
service-connected disability pay. VA survivor benefits are also offset from military Survivor Benefit Plan annuities. The American Legion supports legislation to repeal both of these unjust off-sets.
GI Bill. Expanding GI Bill
benefits to include access to capital for entrepreneurial vet-erans enables them to over-come a major obstacle in build-ing a small business. The American Legion supports leg-islation that would expand GI Bill benefits to assist veterans in obtaining access to small business capital.
Veteran employment rights.
The American Legion will con-tinue to urge Congress to pro-hibit employers from pressuring servicemembers into waiving their employment rights and protections through arbitration agreements.
National security. The
Ameri-can Legion supports a defense budget that reverses seques-tration and its effects, rebuilds U.S. military end strength and weaponry and fairly compen-sates military personnel, espe-cially in an ongoing time of global warfare.
Implement, oversee new laws. The 115th Congress was filled with significant wins
for America’s veterans. Now,
these wins must be implement-ed. The American Legion will continue to support the over-sight over the implementation of critical legislation passed during the 115th Congress, securing that these laws are enacted correctly and in the best interests of America’s vet-erans.
Legislative Chairman Lucas Herring
Page 6
From the
Desk of NEC, JA, PDC John Waite
The Sons of The American Legion
Commander Dave Hendee installs newly appointed Detachment of Vermont Ser-geant At Arms Jamie Westcott during the 2019 Fall Conference in Barre, VT. Jamie is from J. Claire Carmody Squadron #39 in Poultney, Vermont and currently serves as their Squadron Adjutant.
Detachment Breaking News!
VA&R Chairman Marc Colety
Page 8 The Sons of The American Legion
It has been a few years since the Detachment of Vermont has had an ac-tive VA&R committee Commander Hendee decided this year that he wanted to reconvene this committee. He hard-ly could have found a less knowledgeable member on VA&R of the DEC to appoint to the chair than myself.
Frankly, I was not cer-tain what a VA&R Com-mittee was supposed to focus on. I had not seen or heard a VA&R report since I left the Detach-ment of New Hampshire in 2009 and moved to Vermont.
Like everything else I agree to do though, if you are going to associ-ate my name with some-thing, I am going to fig-ure it out and do every-thing possible to leave it better than I found it. Here is what I found out so far:
The mission of VA&R is simple:
“VA&R starts, sponsors and participates in pro-grams and services that enhance the lives of our veterans and their fami-lies”
Isn’t that exactly why I joined the SAL to begin with?
These committee’s ac-complish this in a num-ber of ways, but the structure falls into one of the following categories:
Volunteer Services: The goal is to have a VAVS representative in every VAMC. Vermont with only one center (White River) is proud to recognize Bill Brothers for his role on the board and as the SAL Repre-sentative to the facility. Support of Military Troops: The USO, Squadron Support (cards, calls, care pack-ages) POW/MIA issues through National League of Families, Operation Comfort Warriors (remember that name) and My Heathy Vet pro-grams.
Collaborative Pro-grams: National Veter-ans Assistance Day (3rd Saturday in May), the Fisher House and Veter-ans Suicide Hot Lines and Crisis Centers. Supporting Legion and Auxiliary Programs: Heroes to Hometown, Homeless Veterans Initi-atives, the Creative Arts Festival, the Missing in America Project, Honor Flight and State Veter-ans Homes (i.e. the Bennington VT facility). Awards and Scholar-ships: Charles B Rigby Volunteer of the Year, Kirby Kepler Memorial Award, the Allen O’Brien Award, the Earl Webster Award and the James Park Memorial Scholar-ship.
After having looked at many of these programs in action, I would like to suggest we give strong
consideration to starting, sup-porting and participating in Operation Comfort Warriors. The goal of Operation Com-fort Warriors is simple, it is to assist in the recovery of our nation’s wounded heroes. While the care at the many military hospitals and warrior transition units is outstanding, Operation Comfort Warrior was created to provide some of the “non-essentials”. Those items that help a wounded warrior’s recovery but might not show up on a budget spreadsheet somewhere. Through contact with officials at military hospitals, needs are identified, items are then ordered and delivered in an expeditious manner. Simple, no red tape, no government intervention.
Items like sweat suits, iPods, fitness equipment, gift cards, electronics etc. all can aide in the comfort and recovery of our veterans. We can help, we owe them our help.
I plan to use the next few monthly newsletters to some give examples of what other Detachments as well as The American Legion itself has done in support of this pro-gram. Upon the completion of sharing these examples of the good this program can to do for our veterans, I would hope we could all discuss a way forward to support this pro-gram at our next mid-winter convention and perhaps initi-ate the Operation Comfort Warriors Program here in Vermont and ideally, to even-tually provide some future funding for it in the 2020-2021 budgeting process.
Page 10
Marc Colety - Editor 1148 Maple Hill Road Arlington, VT 05250 colety@gmail.com salvtdec@gmail.com
Phone (802) 430-7168 Mobile (603) 543-6471 SEND SUBMISSIONS TO:
