Latest Releases

Dec 02 2022

‘We Are Always Thinking About Them’

Veterans living at Brickmont Assisted Living in Woodstock, Georgia, have a “Veterans Resource Reading Area” thanks to members of VFW Post 12002 in nearby Alpharetta. Past Post Chaplain Dennis Parmer said that when he established the reading area in June, he did it so that VFW would be represented each day at the facility. “We wanted to do something to keep us in their minds,” Parmer said. “And also, that they know we are always thinking about them.” Post members save pas...

Dec 01 2022

'This is Life-Changing for Our Patients’

They gathered on an afternoon stitched in gray, serenaded by a brass band playing on the manicured lawn of the American Legion Pavilion at the local VA hospital in Bedford, Massachusetts. Several dozen veterans, many confined to wheelchairs, welcomed a new trolley draped in the proverbial red, white and blue of their beloved nation on June 23, a $129,000 donation by VFW Post 1105 members in nearby Watertown, Massachusetts. “We saw a need,” Post 1105 Commander Derek Mayer...

Dec 01 2022

When Helyn Met Astro

Standing on the precipice of a life suffocated by an abusive marriage and post-traumatic stress, Helyn Stowe had a tennis ball dropped on her lap — once, twice, and three time’s a charm. With the weight of a loaded gun in her hand and body clinging to the couch of her New York home, Stowe kept receiving the unsolicited tennis ball from her service dog, Astro. A chocolate Labrador with googly eyes, Astro’s perseverance that morning in 2015 snapped Stowe out of the throes ...

Nov 30 2022

Fewer Veterans are Recommending Military Service

A report released in July says troops, veterans and their families in 2021 were less likely to recommend military service than in 2019. While most respondents still encouraged military service, the percentage dropped noticeably over the two-year interval. The Military Family Advisory Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing help to military families, fielded answers from an online survey from Oct. 4 to Dec. 15, 2021. Some 8,638 people participated, and re...

Nov 29 2022

‘Proud Warrior Spirits’

After many years of planning, Native American veterans are set to be recognized for their military service to the nation. Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California, is the future home of the American Indian Veterans Memorial, the first of its kind. Since 2005, plans for the memorial have been in development. On March 14, then-VFW Department of California Commander Dawn Napier presented a $50,000 check to the Riverside National Cemetery Support Committee and th...