National Executive Officers
National Board of Directors
National Regional Directors
Well after saying "welcome home" 799 times, the 16th V VA Convention started out with everyone smiling and happy to be there. The 799 is 1 short ( see Dennis B.) of 800. the total delegates who attended. This was best attended Convention by far, and one of the most streamlined and smooth running conventions. The Resolutions and constitution amendments were simple and just a verbage change here or there. And all votes were done on voice vote. No more role call votes that took well over an hour. The executive board only changed with Marsha Four as our new Vice President, John Rowan will now serve for 10 years, as our National President. As a side note a term limit vote resolution did fail to pass.
The first workshop I attended was health care and Agent Orange. It was very well attended, and had a lot of different view on our V A healthcare. 1 guy from Calif. said his agent Orange exam took 30 minutes and shirt off only, the 1 guy from Mass. said his exam took 5 hours head to toe. Same health care system diff testing, That's what we discussed at length the lack of standardization of V A exams. The Chairperson could not stress enough the fact of filing today. New Agent Orange acceptances of compensation are being review daily, from brown water Navy to blue water Navy, having found out recently that Agent Orange was in the drinking water of most ships in service in Vietnam. This is welcome news to Navy Vets with symptoms of Agent Orange
The V A Secretary spoke at the Convention that the backlog of claims recently dropped from 800,000 to 400,000 due to recent hires and completion of decision process. But is this anyway to run a multi billion dollar corp, with a backlog of 5 years claims? Someday maybe not in my lifetime, you should be able to claim disability and have results that day.
The next workshop was on PTSD. We had men crying and yelling at the chairpersons due to this back log and treatment these guys get through the V A. to learn that some guys had 20% for PTSD and some 70% for same thing a lot depended where you went to the V A in the USA. A Vet said he doesn't know what he's got but gets a lot of med's to keep him straight. That seemed to be general consensus was why some got a diff rating. I'll learn more in next few months. It does seem the V A does recognize PTSD as a cause and effect of battle, and are making a different approach to treatment and cure as if there is one. It was noted in the Incarcerated Veterans group talk there seems to be a rule , everyone in jail that's a Vet, must of had PTSD to get him there, The V A does NOT treat PTSD veterans in jail or prison they leave that up to the local state. That is not right due to the fact states don't recognize PTSD as a form of needed treatment to an inmate.
Well other than at 9:15 pm on Awards night, it was over and done with, all these wife's dressed to the 9's and no DJ or band, was weird, Whoever was in charge needs to remember people come from great distances to dance and mingle and this year nothing. They did make an announcement, you could walk 6 blocks to an Irish bar and have happy hour prices if you so desired. They couldn't even get the Hyatt to give us happy hour prices. Submitted by Ted Enright
Flying, it’s the only way to go. I caught a 6:00 AM flight out of DTW had a short layover in Atlanta and arrived at the Hyatt Regency hotel at 11:30 AM. After checking into the room I visited with John Riling and his product sales crew until the delegate registration unit returned from lunch. After a short, 15 minute, wait in line I walked away with all my convention gear which included a not one, not two, not three, yes a four zipper black VVA book bag. Later that afternoon my roomie, Dennis Waling, arrived for the AVVA convention.
President John Rowan opens the convention. He announces that this is the first VVA/AVVA co-convention. Some of the business overlaps and seating is available at the rear of the convention floor. John mentions that eight years ago the VVA membership was 53,000; today it’s closer to 70,000. This is a pretty decent gain in members and he hopes the trend continues. It was also announced that the current delegate count was 650. AVVA President Nancy Switzer also addressed the delegates. Nancy announced she was not running for President but she would continue to advocate for veterans and their families, particularly regarding the Agent Orange issue.
David Bonior was our keynote speaker. He reminisced about VVA’s early days and our present outlook. He is credited with our motto “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another”. Ron, Bob, Ted and I then broke for lunch prior to attending the afternoon committee hearings.
My first hearing was POW-MIA. At the conclusion of hostilities there were 2,646 listed as MIA, currently there are 1,645. It was explained that there could be discrepancies regarding the announced number due to the family not accepting the provided evidence. They spoke about the VVA Veterans Initiative Program which sends our personnel over to Vietnam to help with dig sites. A three week trip for three people would cost approximately $36,000.00. VVA donations to VIP would be greatly appreciated. Each dig costs approximately $1 million. It was explained that DPMO is the top governmental level and it does not investigate active war zones. JPAC is the “boots on the ground” level. VVA has presented 239 case leads of which 130 leads have been checked out. There were no new resolutions submitted to the POW-MIA committee however the push continues to get a ‘Forever’ POW-MIA postage stamp issued.
My second hearing was Public Affairs. We reviewed the existing resolutions as the committee was not going to report out any new resolutions. Brian Bobek, Chapter 154, did discuss his proposal regarding increased public awareness about veteran benefits. Brian was told he should attempt to bring it out for discussion on the convention floor. Brian did later attempt this procedure and was unsuccessful. My third hearing was the Constitution Committee. There was one committee sponsored proposal that was titled, Editorial Authorization. This proposal would allow the Constitution Committee with Board approval to correct outline designations, punctuation, formatting and grammar. Essentially it would have the ability to correct typo’s. This resolution also failed on the convention floor.
Later that night Region 5 convened under the direction of Director Sandie Wilson. All the candidates were invited to attend our caucus and Sandie moved them thru at a rapid pace, five minutes per candidate. Two hours later we had heard all but five candidates.
During the morning session there were many award presentations made before the 777 registered delegates. They included the Achievement and Commendation Medal and chapter and state council awards. We also had met up with our old chapter friend, Bill Juchartz. As it turns out the Chapter of the Year award went to Chapter 1036 of The Villages, Florida which is Bill’s new chapter. We must have taught him well! That afternoon we acted on the proposed resolutions and constitutional amendments. Later that evening I again attended the Region 5 caucus and heard from the remaining five candidates.
This morning we voted. The line was long but the actual voting process was pretty quick. This morning it was announced there were 795 delegates, however after the voting was complete it was reported 799 delegates had registered and voted. On the convention floor after the voting was complete we heard from Eric Shinseki, Secretary of Veterans Affairs. He spoke about the progress the VA has made and the things they were trying to improve upon. His goal is to eliminate the claim backlog by 2015.
More announcements and award presentations were made. We then heard a presentation regarding the 50th Anniversary Vietnam War Commemoration. This program will honor all veterans, but will be Vietnam veteran focused and will honor their service, valor and sacrifice and their families. The Commemoration Partner Program is designed for groups to assist in thanking and honoring the Vietnam veterans and their families. Groups are encouraged to participate by planning and conducting events and activities that will recognize those veterans. They are expected to plan and execute two events each year from 2015 – 2017.
We were then invited to watch a video about the 1985 New York “Welcome Home Parade”. I watched the entire 25 minute production with great interest as I was there. A small group of us from Chapter 9 had volunteered to attend to help promote the 1985 2nd VVA National Convention which was hosted by Chapter 9 at the Ren Cen in Detroit. Talk about flash-back! John Rowan said he would investigate the possibility of getting copies of this video. Also why not include the Chicago “Welcome Home Parade” in 1986? I attended that event also.
A booklet was handed out during this breakfast that contains V.V.A.’s legislative agenda for the 113th Congress. Our top three priorities are; 1) gaining the fullest possible accounting of our POW’s and unaccounted for, 2) addressing the legacy of toxic exposures and 3) fixing the VA. Other V.V.A. priorities include; PTSD & Substance Abuse, Veterans Health Care, Minority Veterans, Agent Orange/Dioxin, Women Veterans, Homeless Veterans, Incarcerated Veterans, Compensation & Pension, Economic Opportunity, the newest veterans and the Veterans Health Council.
Back on the convention floor we got the election results which are posted on our chapter website. As you know John Rowan was re-elected as President, Marsha Four is our newly elected Vice President, Bill Meeks was unopposed for Secretary and Wayne “Bow Tie” Reynolds narrowly (3 votes) won re-election as Treasurer over Tom Burke of Ohio.
Also we have a new Region 5 Director, Dennis Cohoon of Dearborn Chapter 267. Congrats to all! The Convention was now officially over. I then helped John Riling and his crew tear down the product sales booth.
That evening Ted and I were the last two chapter delegates standing at the Banquet. This two hour dinner was a rather anticlimactic ending to the convention. We heard briefly from Arlo Guthrie and then it was suggested we take a short walk down the riverfront to visit a local Irish Pub. I walked back to my room and called it a night.
I’d like to thank the membership of Chapter 528 for the privilege of representing them at this convention. In 2015 the 17th National Convention will again take place in Springfield, IL. That’s just a decent motorcycle ride away!
