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5/28/2024 - Through our National Security & Foreign Affairs (NSFA) program, we present our views to government agencies on issues ranging from quality of life improvements for service members to promoting democracy abroad to the full accounting of those missing in action. The NSFA program articulates a national security and foreign affairs policy that calls for a strong national defense and quality of life improvements for military personnel, retirees, and their families; guarantees...

8/19/2010 - INDIANAPOLIS — The national commander of America's largest combat veterans' organization is aghast that a California-based federal appeals court would rule in favor of a Medal of Honor impostor. "The court just dishonored every genuine military hero in our nation's history," said Thomas J. Tradewell Sr., who leads the 2.1-million Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. and its Auxiliaries. The case involved water district board member Xavier Alvarez of Pomona, Calif., who...

11/19/2019 - Statement of Vincent “B.J.” Lawrence Executive Director, Washington Office Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States Before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on National Security With Respect To The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency: Bringing Our Nation’s Heroes Home WASHINGTON, D.C. Chairman Lynch, Ranking Member Hice, and members of the subcommittee, on behalf of the men and women of the Veterans of Foreig...

6/1/2016 - With over 1,700 VFW Service Officers across the globe, no one understands the frustration of the VA claims process, better than the VFW. The process can be confusing and one that service members and veterans shouldn't try to navigate alone. Since 2007, VFW Life Member, Nathan Weinbaum (and U.S. Navy veteran) has been serving veterans and helping them obtain their earned benefits and compensation in Tennessee as a VFW Service Officer. Over the years, he has helped countle...

3/27/2009 - WASHINGTON — The national commander of the country's largest combat veterans organization is saluting the president's new strategy to defeat al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan. "This is a good strategy that clearly focuses on victory and regional security, stability and growth," said Glen M. Gardner Jr., who leads the 2.2 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. and its Auxiliaries. "The surge in Iraq worked because it combined overwhelmi...

10/28/2009 - WASHINGTON — The national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. recently returned from a 12-day trip to Europe to urge the Russian government to revitalize the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs, and to meet with American service members stationed in Italy to discuss how VFW can better serve them and their families. In Moscow, Thomas J. Tradewell Sr. met with members from both houses of the Russian Federation's parliament, as well as the leadershi...

7/8/2009 - WASHINGTON — The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. is hopeful that Monday’s exchange of diplomatic notes between the United States and the Russian Federation will revitalize a joint commission that was established to determine the fates of missing American personnel from past wars Created in 1992, the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on Prisoners of War and Missing in Action had been the key to accessing Russian military archives until a reduction in the size of their go...

4/10/2008 - WASHINGTON — The national commander of the nation's largest organization of combat veterans fully agrees with President Bush that much progress has occurred in Iraq over the past 15 months, and after two days of testimony by America's top general and diplomat in Iraq, he believes lawmakers in Congress are also starting to realize that, too. But one thing George Lisicki is adamantly against is another call by some politicians to again force artificial troop withdrawal tim...

4/29/2008 - WASHINGTON — The national commander of America's largest organization of combat veterans is demanding that Congress pass S. 22, the "Post 9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act." "A new GI Bill for the 21st century must be passed," said George Lisicki, who leads the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S., a veterans' service organization that includes more than 70,000 Afghanistan and Iraqi war veterans among its 1.7 million members. "We have an all-volunteer force that...

10/17/2008 - WASHINGTON — The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. national commander’s trip to Russia included a trip to St. Petersburg to meet with the Russian Veterans of Afghanistan organization to elicit their support of America's mission to account for military personnel who never returned home from their wars. "We are veterans, not politicians or diplomats," said Glen Gardner, a Vietnam veteran from Round Rock, Texas. "We understand the true nature of war, and we and our fam...