For older news headlines, please search the archive.
Veteran Floyd B. Banks, 71, lives in Pahrump, Nevada, with his wife, Bobbi. The couple has a blended family that includes three sons, Carl, Tavis and Jerry and one daughter, Lina. Banks enlisted in the Navy in 1972. “I was raised with a sense of duty and respect for my country,” he said. “I was also taught to try to make the next ...
Martin J. Barrett, 74, lives in Henderson, Nevada. He has six children: Brion, Jennifer, Melinda, Rebbeca, Jessica and Andrea. Barrett was handpicked by his local draft board in June 1970 and began serving. He served in the Army for 19 months, including nine months in Vietnam. Barrett began helping veterans with their disability claims in 2015 as t...
Dominick Kuczynski, 33, and his wife, Alexandra, live in Prescott, Arizona, with their three dogs, Kenobi, Kasia and Kingsley. Before settling in the Southwest, Kuczynski served in the Army for 14 years. “I decided to join because I believed in helping and protecting others that needed assistance,” he said. Kuczynski has that same menta...
Volunteers at the 126th VFW National Convention in Columbus, Ohio — the birthplace of the VFW — participated inthe seventh-annual Uniting to Combat Hunger (UTCH) seed-sorting event, which aims to help families affected by food insecurity. The event, hosted by VFW in partnership with Humana on Aug. 9, welcomed waves of volunteers through...
ROCKIN’ FOR HEROES delivered everything its name promised. Nearly 900 people filled the grounds of Indian Rocks Beach VFW Post 10094 in Largo, Florida, to celebrate Veterans Day weekend in grand style, honoring military service and paying special tribute to the 250th Anniversary of the United States Marine Corps. What unfolded on Sunday, Nov....
Growing up as a “voracious” reader, Wayne “Larry” Dandridge recognizes how powerful writing can be. Honest journalists, as he puts it, “...are one of the best and perhaps the most important checks on those most powerful in society.” Dandridge, a member of VFW Post 7383 in Cary, North Carolina, has written more th...
In October, VFW Post 12218 in Haymarket, Va., received a call from Steve Hood, a member of VFW Post 1177 in Leesburg, Virginia, and member of the Military Order of the Cootie, asking for help: The food pantry at the Martinsburg Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Martinsburg, West Virginia, was running short on food. The clinic, which hands out bags ...
Last winter, Louisville, Kentucky, was hit by long stretches of extreme cold. Members of VFW Post 1181 were concerned that older veterans would not be able to keep warm in temperatures below freezing. The Post offered its hall as a place for them to stay overnight. Soon, others were invited, too. “I noticed local advocacy groups that were try...
Debra S. Johnson, 72, lives in Pahrump, Nevada, with her husband Jerome, who is a veteran. “My daughter, Adrena, is from a previous marriage,” Johnson said. “Her dad was also a veteran. He was 100% disabled, but when he was discharged, they did not know what was wrong with him.” It took several doctors before Johnson’s...
Jack Hammond enlisted in honor of his four uncles who served in World War II and who were charter members of VFW Post 8818 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq in 2002 and 2003, Hammond became a VFW Life member himself. In 2012, he retired from the Army and set out to secure the benefits he had earned. “After...
t
o
p