VFW posts help vets navigate the system
It doesn't matter if you were in the Siege of Bastogne or the Battle of Fallujah, the Butler County VFW posts have your back.
In fact, Jason Tindall, commander of Butler Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 249, 429 W. Jefferson St., said support of veterans is the VFW's top priority.
“Nobody does more for vets,” Tindall said. “We support the veterans in this community.
“It all comes down to helping the vets, whether its filing for claims or getting veteran discharges, that's the whole reason why we are here,” he said.
Herbert Carpenter, commander of VFW Post 7505, 331 Mars Valencia Road, agreed that helping veterans is the top priority of every VFW post.
Dave Wood, commander of VFW Post 7376, 572 W. Main St., Saxonburg, said that helping spirit extends to the community at large.
“Out biggest function is helping veterans and people in need. That's the big thing,” Wood said, “There are a lot of people out there hurting and we need to do something about it.”
Butler's VFW Post 249 Tindall said his post has recently donated $15,000 to provide a police dog to a local department as well as contributing for playgrounds.
And some of the posts have been helping veterans for a really long time.VFW Post 249 recently marked 100 years of serving the needs of local veterans and their families.The VFW national headquarters gave the post the VFW Centennial Anniversary Award in recognition.There are about 30 active VFW posts that have reached their centennial anniversary through the year 2018, with an additional 46 posts celebrating their centennial in 2019.In 2020, there will be 86 posts celebrating a centennial anniversary.How many of the nearly 6,200 VFW posts worldwide will reach their centennials depends on the ability of individual posts to replenish their memberships.
Butler County VFW posts have memberships that are being thinned by time. The youngest members of the Greatest Generation are in their 90s and veterans of the Korean War in their 80s.VFW Post 429 is mostly made up of Vietnam War veterans now, Tindall said, with a smattering of Korean War and World War II veterans in the active ranks.Wood said of his post in Saxonburg, “We have about 100 active members. We have no World War II veterans as active members. They're just too old. They can't make it to the meetings.”Brian Peters, senior vice commander of VFW Post 499, 408 N. Washington St., Evans City, also said the largest bloc of the active members are Korean and Vietnam War veterans.
Tindall said for the present VFW efforts to attract new members are in a demographic vise.The older members are dying off or succumbing to ill health and the more recent veterans from tours of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan are too busy raising families and starting careers to consider VFW membership.Larry Pifer, the quartermaster of VFW Post 6231, 322 N. Main St., Slippery Rock, said, “We're trying to get the younger veterans to come to a meeting. To continue to operate, we need to get them involved.”Saxonburg's Wood said his post has had some success in courting the younger veterans of Desert Storm and Desert Shield.“We just signed up four from the Middle East, two are a husband and wife,” he said.
