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10/22/2025 - Why I Volunteered for Submarine Duty Since my recent move to Washington, D.C., I have found that, more and more, I am approached in uniform due to the gold dolphins on my chest. Some are curious, many supportive, and others are confused. They seek clarification on why a woman might want to join the submarine service. To quote a majority: “What on Earth made you want to do THAT?” While I could simplify the answer to their satisfaction, the answer is more complicated and ...

8/30/2017 - VFW Life member Rob Riggle hit the green with the VFW magazine staff in June during a visit to Kansas City, Mo., for the annual charity event, Big Slick Celebrity Weekend. Riggle, originally from Overland Park, Kan., posed for photos along the Oakwood Country Club Golf Course, shared his favorite Kansas City restaurants and chatted casually with magazine and country club staffers. Itching to get a couple swings in over the course of the photo shoot, Riggle is no strange...

8/3/2017 - Thanks to VFW’s Kahle Fund, nine Vietnam veterans who received Purple Hearts during the war returned to Vietnam in April for an all-expenses-paid excursion. The 10 days in-country included visits to Hanoi, Hue, Danang, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and points in between. Since 2005, 142 wounded Vietnam vets have returned to their former battlefields courtesy of the Ralph Charles Kahle Jr. Endowment Fund, which was established in 1999 following a $1.1 million bequest from Kah...

4/17/2017 - It happens daily: You meet someone standing in line for coffee, at a job fair, or at a networking event, and they turn to you and ask, “So, what do you do?” How do you respond? An elevator pitch is what we call that brief response that introduces you to a stranger. It might actually happen in an elevator! The goal of the elevator pitch is to be succinct and interesting enough that the other person will want to continue talking to you, and a possible professional relation...

3/13/2017 - A tradition is building at the University of Kansas. A group of student veterans — many of whom are VFW members — are using their smarts, logistical know-how and passion for running to help their fellow vets. Specifically, they are leveraging the community’s and the university’s support of the military to raise money for various student-veteran causes. Participants in the 2016 KU Veterans Day run jog along Memorial Drive on the campus of the University of Kansas in ...

9/9/2014 - This week, we honor Patriot Day and the 2,977 Americans who tragically lost their lives 13 years ago. Since that fateful day, we have fought in two wars. Thousands of our nation’s finest have paid the ultimate price defending our freedom, and thousands more have returned home bearing the physical and mental scars of battle. The 9/11 attacks were meant to weaken America and dampen her spirit. Instead, Americans united and proved that not only will we not be d...

9/10/2013 - PATRIOT DAY AND NATIONAL DAY OF SERVICE AND REMEMBRANCE, 2013 - - - - - - - BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION Twelve years ago this month, nearly three thousand innocent men, women, and children lost their lives in attacks meant to terrorize our Nation. They had been going about their day, harming no one, when sudden violence struck. We will never undo the pain and injustice borne that terrible morning, nor will we ever forget those ...

4/30/2010 - The freedom and security that citizens of the United States enjoy today are direct results of the bloodshed and continued vigilance given by the United States Armed Forces over the history of our great nation. In 2004, U.S. Congress passed a resolution proclaiming May as National Military Appreciation Month, calling all Americans to remember those who gave their lives in defense of freedom and to honor the men and women of our Armed Services who have served and are now ...

3/25/2009 - KANSAS CITY, Mo. — At a time when rest, relaxation and rehabilitation should be at the forefront of one’s concerns, Jeremiah Johnson was still trying to understand the sequence of events that had just turned his life upside down. Johnson, a sergeant serving in the U.S. Army, was on his second tour of Iraq when his career as an infantryman was cut short by wounds sustained on mounted patrol. While Johnson was standing next to his armor-reinforced humvee, a RPG hit just ...

9/4/2009 - GAITHERSBURG, Md. — Army Sgt. Kelly Keck arrived at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., last September, a week or two after he accidentally stepped on a land mine while serving as a medic in Afghanistan. Keck, 35, lost his right leg below the knee and his left index, ring and pinky fingers in the explosion. After nearly a year of subsequent therapy and numerous surgeries, he has remained positive. "For me, it's been pretty smooth most of the way," he ...