As nation pauses to honor war veterans, New Orleans VFW post ...

?Our growth has been exponential.'' -- post commander Marshall Hevron

A former sailor who served aboard a guided-missile destroyer in the Arabian Sea, Clyde Thompson recalls the sparsely attended monthly meetings when he joined the only Veterans of Foreign Wars post left on New Orleans? east bank. ?We split two pizzas, and everybody was full,? he joked.

Just over a year later, it?s a dramatically different scene at the VFW Alfred E. Flynn Post 8973, named for a son of the Irish Channel who was killed in the Philippines during World War II.

During the post's October meeting, every available seat was taken inside the former corner grocery at Annunciation and Lyons streets that is slowly being converted into a suitable meeting place for a group whose membership requires service in harm?s way. Many veterans were left to stand against the walls as the post?s officers discussed business, such as dipping into their $11,000 in savings for roof repairs.

Welcome to the fastest-growing VFW post in Louisiana. ?Our growth has been exponential,? said the post?s commander, Marshall Hevron, a lawyer and former Marine who participated in the 2003 Iraq invasion.

In recent years, Post 8973 foundered on non-existence, following the fate of other New Orleans posts that were once populated by veterans of World War II and the Korean War. By the time Hevron joined the post in early 2005, it had ?just a handful of guys, five or six,? he said. Death and old age further decimated the post?s membership, he said.

But as the nation prepares to honor its war veterans this weekend -? Veterans Day is Sunday -- it?s a different story for Post 8973. Thanks to a resurgence of eligible members from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the post has more than 100 members, enough even to form a ladies? auxiliary and to make a sizable appearance in New Orleans? bicentennial parade Saturday.

About three-fourths of them served in Iraq or Afghanistan, although the post has also attracted some veterans from the Vietnam and the Persian Gulf wars, Hevron said. And they keep coming. Just this past week, Hevron was contacted by a woman who served in the Navy in Afghanistan; a handful of new members are women. ?I don?t even know how they find us, but they find us,? Hevron said of new members.

Brought together by common experience, the veterans include lawyers, doctors, students and even some unemployed members. ?When they step foot in here, none of that matters anymore,? said Matt Spector, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan as an intelligence analyst.

The group has an agenda that includes advocating for fellow veterans, which is a core VFW mission. During the past year, the veterans have held resume-writing workshops to help veterans seek jobs. It was that mission that attracted Tom Fierke, a retired Army colonel who served in Iran in 1978-79 and in the Persian Gulf War. He belonged to a VFW post but did not participate.

?I thought it was going to be World War II guys drinking cheap beer and smoking cigars,? Fierke said. ?And this post is doing things, out in the community helping.?

The post's members are working to establish a law clinic for veterans, Hevron said, and they?re reaching out to homeless veterans. They?ve set up a post website and a Facebook page, where last week they reached Hevron?s goal of having 500 ?likes? by Veterans Day.

In the meantime, they?re renovating the former corner grocery and its attached apartments, funded largely by the recent sale of a neighboring shotgun house on Annunciation Street. ?The dream that we had for rebuilding this place is really close to fruition,? said Ryan Smith, the post?s vice chairman who served in Afghanistan with the Army National Guard.

Another of the elder members, Larry Jones, who served 17 years in the Air Force, including in Vietnam, followed by 24 years in the Coast Guard, used to belong to the VFW Post 6640 in Metairie. He transferred to Post 8973 after hearing of the work the younger veterans are doing.

?This is what VFW is all about in the future,? said Jones, who guides the post

Indeed, said Precilla Wilkewitz of Baton Rouge, the state?s VFW adjutant/quartermaster, the organization is founded on activism, working to ensure veterans? benefits are intact. The young veterans at Post 8973, she said, are ?setting a precedent? among the organization?s newer members.

?That?s really how VFW starts,? said Wilkewitz, an Army veteran from the Vietnam War. ?They begin at the grassroots level. They?re continuing their service. They served in the military and now they?re serving their communities. That?s what they do at 8973.?

While they seek to serve, the new war veterans also are seeking camaraderie.

?We have this special connection that so few Americans have,? said Spector, who with his wife, Michele, owns hearing clinics in New Orleans and River Ridge.

For Thompson, who served as a Navy cryptologist, membership provided him with comfort when he moved to New Orleans from his native Washington D.C., to attend law school at Loyola University.

?I came down here with no family, no nothing,? Thompson said. ?They took me in.?

Source: http://www.nola.com/military/index.ssf/2012/11/as_nation_pauses_to_honor_vete.html

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