Friends,
Members--Veterans,
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By the time many of those of you who will only get this when your Graybeards arrives in late December
it will almost be Christmas and New Years, Thanksgiving will have passed. This will be on the website tomorrow.
Regardless of where you read it, please be assured of Holiday Greetings
and Blessings--Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years--from the Board of Directors,
the officers, and the staff of the Korean War Veterans Association.
Every November 11 is Veterans Day in the USA. You and I are no more veterans on November 11 than on the
11th of any month. It is just that the non-veterans are reminded via a holiday, to remember the things that
have "made and preserved us a Nation.1" - God and Country. Whether or not the non-veterans remember
such things depends very much on how well we remind them on the holiday.
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I have no way of knowing how many of you can access the internet; we were assured in the last year of
President Clinton's administration that any American can do so at their nearest public library. It is best
to have your own computer, or have a friend's on which you can "surf the web." Regardless of the computer
you go to, I would suggest that you check the KWVA homepage2 out at least twice a week (daily
is better). The KWVA News that you get there will be today's--not two to four months late which can't be
avoided with The Graybeards.
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If you were on the website this month you could have seen some great materials which the Department of
Veterans Affairs made available for us to use to educate the pubic--great TELL AMERICA materials. You would
also have seen all the great photos taken by the US Air Force at our National Convention. And you would
see photos from Veterans Day--Dallas, Texas and Arlington National Cemetery, and at our Memorial on the
Mall, in Washington on November 11.
I want to thank Chapter 299 and others from Massachusetts who provided the Honor Guard for our colors--borrowed
because some low life stole ours years ago--and the wreath laying activities. There are pictures elsewhere
on this as well as other pages in this issue of The Graybeards. Other Chapters or Departments desiring
to represent the KWVA at ceremonies in the Nation's Capitol and elsewhere should volunteer to the Secretary
or me to do so. We will give you a chance.
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I also want to repeat that if members of the KWVA, Chapters, or Departments want articles on the website
or in the magazine they need to send them in. We employ no writers/reporters or photographers. "You take/write
'em; we print 'em." It is saddening to see individuals and units wasting their time complaining and sometimes
slandering others because they do take them, they do send them in, and they do serve veterans. I have a
word for the complainers of every stripe--one that I am certain would be shared by every National Veterans'
Organization Commander/President in America. It is this: A better way for the KWVA--Lead, follow,
or get out of our way! Election days lay just ahead and you may expect to hear that phrase a lot.
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I'll be seeing you in The Graybeards, at www.kwva.org, on the
road and in the elections. God bless America and her fighting forces, Valley Forge through 2005!
National President
