LETTER TO THE VVA MEMBERSHIP

Gary Jones, chair POW/MIA Committee, Bill Duker Director of the Veterans initiative Program and the VVA POW/MIA Committee - In the VVA VETERAN (Vol. 29 No. 1, January/February 2009) an article about the POW issued by former Congressman Bill Hendon titled
“Cold Case” was the front cover story.

Nobody on the POW/MIA Committee and to my knowledge nobody on the Board of Directors or the Executive Board were aware of this article until it arrived in the membership’s mail boxes.

We strongly feel that Mr. Hendon has serious creditability problems among many individuals, groups and organizations, past and
present, who have worked or who are directly affected by the POW/MIA issue.

We recommend that everyone research the Internet on Mr. Hendon and develop your own conclusions regarding this issue.

At the very minimum, if the editor and publisher had decided to provide space to Mr. Hendon to publish his opinions in VVA’s National Publication, the committee should have been given the opportunity to submit a disclaimer.

One only needs to read the National POW/MIA Resolutions to know the mandates that guide the Committee.

The problem created by this unfortunate article is serious.

Our work for the past two decades has been to build our credibility, sensitivity and trustworthiness with DPMO, JPAC, and the
veteran’s organization and government of Viet Nam.. By implying that the VVA supports the position advocated by Mr. Hendon
and others of his belief, we have badly damaged if not destroyed all of this work.

With that work goes our ability to influence the effort to continue bringing home our own.

We would like to state that we, the VVA’s POW/MIA Committee do not support the position of this article.

We are greatly embarrassed by the implication of this article being in the National VVA Publication and we apologize to our
friends and partners in the POW/MIA community for the damage this will cause.

Annual Elections:

Please be notified that Chapter 649 will be holding the Annual Elections of Officers and BOD on Thursday,
April 9th @ 7:30pm at our regular meeting place, Union Town. Civic Center.

Special Recognition:

Long time member and past Chapter President of VVA, John Miller Jr. was elected as the VFW District Four Commander.
This is quite an honor.

Last month John signed up two new members to VVA.

The VFW Testimonial Dinner to honor John will be held Saturday, March 28th at The VFW hall on Greenbrier Rd Batavia.
Please make reservations by March 20th.
The cost is $15 per person.

Our own Wayne Gregory and Darryl Trace’s band “Wilderness” will provide the music.
Good food and good time.

To get a Reservation Request Form please call John Miller at 513-625-1145

Membership: VVA New Members :
:
Wayne Waigorski, Mike Luedeke, Donald Beagle Sr. & Dennis Waler. AVVA New Members – Gina Patt & Thomas Patt.

Special thanks to those that brought in new members:

Wayne Gregory, Jack Haigwood, Wally Clark, John Miller Jr., Diane Sears & others..

Membership Totals - V.V.A. 151 ... With 27 A.V.V.A. Members.

Next Meeting of V.V.A. Chapter 649 :

Location: Union Township Civic Center, 4350 Aicholtz Road ( Behind Bigg’s East Gate Mall ) downstairs.
Queen City Room, Thursday, March 12th @ 7:30 pm.

Chapter Newsletter :

Please send news article contributions via e-mail to tmillervva649@hotmail.com
or mail to 5814 Karen Lane Milford, OH 45150.