Kaukauna VFW

06/03/2026

The Red Cross Service to Armed Forces in collaboration with the Service Member Support Division, is offering a couple of upcoming workshops online, including one tomorrow starting at 11! Register here or by scanning the QR code below. ✅https://forms.osi.apps.mil/r/EhCXkrXwKj

Stress Solutions (60 minutes)
"This workshop is designed to help service members, veterans and military families learn the benefits of healthy stress, recognize when stress is unhealthy and know what steps to take to effectively manage stress over the long term."

05/11/2026

Great writeup about Veterans of Foreign Wars’s National Commander Carol Whitmore.

Carol Whitmore is the first woman to lead the VFW, and she took command during one of the most chaotic years veterans have faced in a long time.

Carol Whitmore biggest priorities as the VFW National Commander are advocating for veterans, fighting claims sharks, repatriating the remains of POW/MIA, and highlighting the service of women. But she took command of the VFW at a turbulent time for veterans: a VA secretary accused of moving against veterans’ hard-won benefits, thousands of veterans facing foreclosure, and a membership base in slow decline.

It’s a historic time, but she’s accustomed to that. In August 2025, she was elected National Commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. She is the first woman and first Iowan to lead the 126-year-old organization in its history.

But Whitmore has been making history for nearly 50 years. She enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps in 1977, one of the final cohorts of the all-female military branch that would be disbanded the following year. She served 36 years in the Army, deployed to Iraq, and received the Legion of Merit and Bronze Star before retiring in 2013.

The VFW is a congressionally chartered veterans service organization representing approximately 1.3 million members across more than 5,500 posts worldwide—and Whitmore has the opportunity to make history once again by leading it through an uncertain era for veterans.

It wasn’t long after her election to the VFW’s top post before there was a flashpoint for her constituency.

An interim final rule published by the VA on Feb 17, 2026, would have required medical examiners to factor in the effectiveness of medications or treatments when determining a veteran’s disability rating—a change veterans’ advocates warned would slash compensation for hundreds of thousands of people who rely on medication to manage their conditions.

The VFW mobilized immediately.

“We sent out over 20,000 emails to the secretary,” Whitmore said, “and he came to our conference personally and apologized for that and said, ‘I will rescind this immediately.’”

VA Secretary Doug Collins formally rescinded the rule just 10 days after its publication.

“When you send out 20,000 emails to the VA Secretary, he sits up and takes notice,” she said. “He told us his top three advisors were fired for advising him to do this.”

The issue Whitmore describes as her personal passion this year is the Major Richard Star Act. The legislation would end a longstanding offset that forces medically retired veterans (those discharged before 20 years due to combat-related injuries) to choose between their military retirement pay and their VA disability compensation rather than receiving both in full.

“They’re two different benefits, earned benefits for veterans,” the VFW National Commander said. “Yet if you’re not 100% disabled, that money is offset, and you can only choose one. And that is completely unfair to a veteran.”

Whitmore says, probably one of the biggest responses the VFW gets when they ask a prospective member to join is “what’s in it for me?”

“The Forever GI Bill, the PACT Act, and now going for the Major Richard Star Act,” she mentioned. “Advocacy is by far the most unseen thing the public knows about what we do, and that’s what we do. We advocate for every veteran, for every aspect of what a veteran deserves and needs.”

“We were founded on the earned benefits that Washington did not follow through with after the Spanish-American War in 1899,” she added. “We’re not going to take that. Our service officers are second to none.”

For all the legislative and institutional battles, Whitmore’s identity remains rooted in something simpler.

“I told everybody I’m a veteran first. I just happened to be female.”

Full story by Blake Stilwell found in the comments

05/01/2026

Check out this blast from the past from Kaukauna's Loyalty Day Parade back in April 1917!

Welcome back to Way Back When Wednesday! Kaukauna’s Loyalty Parade in April 1917. How many stars are on the flag? And how many of these young men would be in Europe a year later?

04/30/2026

🇺🇸 Welcome Home 2-127th soldiers! We’re proud of you!

04/17/2026

Incredible work by the Wisconsin VFW. The Wisconsin VFW is committed to advocating for not only our membership, but also for currently serving military members, veterans, and their families.

03/09/2026

☎️ Senator Ron Johnson is hosting a Tele-Town Hall for Wisconsin constituents at 3:00 PM today.

🇺🇸 This is an excellent opportunity to engage with one of your Wisconsin Senators about issues important to Wisconsin veterans and their families. Learn more below from the original post by the Wisconsin VFW.

🚨 ATTENTION WISCONSIN VETERANS 🚨

Today at 3:00 PM, Senator Ron Johnson is hosting a Tele-Town Hall with Wisconsin residents.

This is an opportunity for veterans and supporters to ask questions directly and make our voices heard.

The Wisconsin VFW remains deeply disappointed that Senator Johnson unilaterally blocked the vote on the Major Richard Star Act, one of the VFW’s top legislative priorities. This legislation would allow combat-wounded military retirees to receive both their military retirement and VA disability compensation—benefits they have earned through their service and sacrifice.

We encourage veterans across Wisconsin to register for the town hall and submit questions urging Senator Johnson to support the Major Richard Star Act and stand with those who were wounded in combat.

Tele-Town Hall: Today at 3:00 PM
Sign up & submit a question here:
https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/telephone-town-hall-signup

Your voice matters. Advocacy works when veterans speak together.

Let Senator Johnson hear directly from Wisconsin veterans!

02/28/2026

🎗️We are thinking about our service members and their families. Including many Wisconsin Army National Guard soldiers deployed. We’re here for you while they’re abroad, and we’ll be here after they come home.

🇺🇸 Right now, many are thinking and praying for our Wisconsin National Guard soldiers and their families. As well as all the families and the service members deployed currently in the Middle East and all over the globe. These are our families, our brothers, our sisters, our friends. Our nations finest.

🎗️ We must continue to commit, and ensure, that we are always with them. While they are deployed and years after they come home. For it is these veterans and their families, that truly know and bear the full cost and the battles of war. 🪖

02/18/2026

“WASHINGTON — Yesterday, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) published an interim final rule that immediately changes how disability ratings are evaluated, prompting the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) to send a letter outlining its concerns to VA Secretary Doug Collins.

For years, courts held that VA could not reduce ratings based on the effects of medication, requiring evaluation of a veteran’s true functional impairment when evaluating a service-connected disability. This new rule reverses that standard, directing examiners to rate disabilities as they present, including the impact of medication, and to disregard unmedicated baseline severity” (Veterans of Foreign Wars VFW, Feb. 18, 2025).

VFW warns Secretary Doug Collins as VA reverses rule on medication-based disability ratings, potentially penalizing veterans for treatment.

02/13/2026

📃From the Wisconsin VFW:

“Wisconsin veterans have never asked for special treatment — only that promises be kept.

Now is the time to make your voice heard.

Across our state, critical legislation is moving forward that directly impacts how we honor our fallen, care for our homeless veterans, and fulfill our sacred promise to those still missing in action. These bills deserve strong bipartisan support — and they need to hear from you.

The Wisconsin VFW strongly supports Senate Bill 810 and Assembly Bill 817, which increases the reimbursement rate for the provision of military funeral honors. Under current law, the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs coordinates military funeral honors for deceased members and former members of the armed forces. When these honors are performed by local units of member organizations of the Council on Veterans Programs or by certified veterans organizations, the Department reimburses the organization for its costs in an amount of up to $50 per funeral. Senate Bill 810 increases this reimbursement to $100 per funeral.

This increase is both reasonable and necessary. The cost of providing military funeral honors has steadily risen due to fuel prices, uniform maintenance, equipment costs, training requirements, and the time commitment of volunteer honor guard members. For many local veterans organizations, particularly in rural communities, the current reimbursement no longer reflects the true cost of honoring our fallen comrades with dignity and precision.

Honoring a veteran at their final resting place is one of the most sacred responsibilities we have. Senate Bill 810 helps ensure that this tradition remains strong and sustainable across Wisconsin.

But that is not all.

We send a THANK YOU to our Legislators for their support on Senate Bill 608 and Assembly Bill 596, which establishes a state matching grant program for recipients of federal per diem payments and makes an appropriation to strengthen programs that serve homeless veterans in Wisconsin.

Under current federal law, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs awards per diem payments to eligible organizations that furnish services to homeless veterans in an amount of up to $82.73 per day per veteran housed. Senate Bill 608 builds on this federal foundation by appropriating $950,000 in each fiscal year of the 2025–26 biennium to the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs to provide state matching grants to eligible entities that already receive federal per diem payments.

This legislation creates a state-matching per diem program for organizations that, on the date of their application, have been awarded federal per diem funding for the upcoming fiscal year. Under the bill, WDVA may approve state grants of $25 per day per veteran housed and will distribute those funds quarterly based on the number of veterans served in the previous quarter.

In effect, this provides a $25 per day state “bonus” on top of the existing federal per diem rate, supporting nonprofit organizations that serve homeless veterans outside of WDVA-operated Grant and Per Diem programs. This additional funding will help offset increasing operational costs, sustain program capacity, and ensure that homeless veterans receive the quality care, case management, and transitional support they deserve.

As of January 2025, four nonprofit organizations in Wisconsin would qualify for these state matching grants:

• Porchlight Inc.
• Rock Valley Community Programs
• Center for Veterans Issues
• Guest House of Milwaukee

Together, these programs represent 158 available beds statewide — 158 lifelines for veterans working toward employment, recovery, and independence. These bills will not reopen former facilities in Chippewa Falls or Green Bay, and we recognize the continued gap in northern and western Wisconsin. But they will strengthen the network that remains and ensure it does not weaken further.

And finally, Assembly Bill 641 supports the University of Wisconsin Missing-in-Action Recovery and Identification Project at the University of Wisconsin–Madison — the premier program of its kind in the nation and the first academic institution to partner with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency to recover and identify our missing service members.

More than 83,000 Americans remain missing in action since World War II — including over 1,500 from Wisconsin.

They were not statistics. They were fathers and mothers. Husbands and wives. Brothers and sisters. Sons and daughters who stepped forward and never came home.

Federal funding only goes so far. Without state support, Wisconsin’s missing compete for limited resources. The request — $500,000 over four years — is modest in any budgetary sense. But to families who have waited decades for answers, it is priceless.

When veterans were asked if this mattered, they answered. Under Past VFW State Commander Corey Geiseler’s Operation Bring Them Home initiative, VFW Posts and members across Wisconsin raised more than $62,000 in just five months because they believe deeply that bringing our missing home is a sacred obligation.

Now we ask: Will the State of Wisconsin stand with them?

Here’s What You Can Do

Click the “Take Action” link below, or the link below that.

Call your State Senator and State Representative.

Email them directly.

Ask them to support Senate Bill 810, Senate Bill 608, and Assembly Bill 641.

Share why these issues matter to you personally.
Legislators listen when veterans speak. They listen when family members speak. They listen when communities speak with one voice.

This is about dignity at a veteran’s final salute.
This is about shelter and stability for those who have fallen on hard times.

This is about keeping a sacred promise: We never leave anyone behind.

Reach out today. Encourage your Post, Auxiliary, family members, and community partners to do the same.

Together, we can ensure Wisconsin honors its veterans — in life, in death, and in the promise to bring them home.

Take Action” (Wisconsin VFW, Feb. 13, 2026).

Wisconsin veterans have never asked for special treatment — only that promises be kept.Now is the time to make your voice heard.Across our state, critical legislation is moving forward that directly impacts how we honor our fallen, care for our...

01/24/2026

❤️ Thank you Chico’s Cafe for your support!

We are beyond grateful for our amazing community!
Thanks to the generous donations from our customers this past year, we were honored to donate $500 to Children's Wisconsin and $500 to the Kaukauna VFW.
Your continued support allows us to give back to causes that truly matter. From all of us at Chico's Cafe-thank you for being part of something special.