Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8947

11/04/2026

Your support is needed fighting for our veterans. Please scan the QR below and follow the link to sign the petition and send a message to congress member to protect our veterans earned benefits. Protect our future veterans.

10/31/2026

To all of our karaoke peeps. Come out and have some fun with us on November the 14th. Looking forward to seeing everyone.

10/26/2026

10/26/2026

On this we pay tribute to our deployed troops around the world and say a heartfelt “thank you” for your service and sacrifice.

10/24/2026

10/24/2026

Today, we recognize the start of the Grenada Campaign and honor all who served in support of .

10/24/2026

Captain Charles Plumb was a U.S. Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience!

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, ‘ You’re Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!

‘How in the world did you know that?’ asked Plumb. ‘I packed your parachute,’ the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude.

The man pumped his hand and said, ‘I guess it worked!’
Plumb assured him, ‘It sure did. If your chute hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here today.’

Plumb couldn’t sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, ‘I kept wondering what he had looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat; a bib in the back; and bell-bottom trousers.

I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said ‘Good morning, how are you?’ or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor.’ Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silk of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn’t know.

Now, Plumb asks his audience, ‘Who’s packing your parachute?’ Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. He also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory – he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety.

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachutes.

Sometimes, we wonder why friends keep forwarding jokes to us without writing a word. Maybe this could explain it! When you are very busy, but still want to keep in touch, guess what you do – you forward jokes. And to let you know that you are still remembered, you are still important, you are still loved, you are still cared for, guess what you get? A forwarded joke.

So, my friend, next time when you get a joke or a story, don’t think that you’ve been sent just another forwarded joke, but that you’ve been thought of today and your friend on the other end of your computer wanted to send you a smile, and is just helping you pack your parachute.

10/24/2026

When Americans Fought the Reds in Russia -While they might appear to be, these M1891 Mosin-Nagant armed soldiers are not Russians. Actually they are not soldiers either. Rather this photo, snapped on 6 October 1918 shows US sailors from the protected cruiser USS Olympia. Why are they armed with 7.62x54mmR Mosins? Many Americans do not realize that the US sent combat troops to fight the Bolsheviks in Russia in 1918/1919.

These sailors preceded the arrival of the 339th Infantry Regiment, which was part of the North Russian Expeditionary Force sent to aid the White Russians in their fight against the Bolsheviks. They fought under British command with Allied and White Russian troops. It was a dirty war and the American soldiers who fought in Russia, and the sacrifices they made, were quickly forgotten.

The 339th Infantry became known as the “Polar Bears” and the motto they adopted "We Finish With The Bayonet" is Russian and appears in Cyrillic on their insignia. Few today remember the sacrifices made in a forgotten war in the brutal conditions of Northern Russia when American troops fought the Reds. Supported by Canadian artillery and some White Russian forces they were responsible for vast territories. The American troops despised their British command, were generally unimpressed with French units but had high praise for Canadian artillerymen who steadfastly supported them no matter the odds. They also praised certain White Russian units, especially their artillery for their performance in combat. After the withdrawal of the North Russian Expeditionary Force there would be years of chaos in Russia, Soviet aggression against their neighbors in the 1920s and the Holodomor against the Ukrainians where up to 7 million were intentionally starved to death from 1932 to 1933.

10/19/2026

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) gives notice under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. Ch. 10, that the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses Subcommittee on Veteran Engagement will hold a Veteran Engagement Session (VES) on October 23, 2026 at the Fairmont Washington, DC, Georgetown, 2401 M Street NW, Washington, DC, 20037 in the Longmont room. The formal VES will begin at 1:00 p.m. and end at 4:00 p.m. (ET) followed by informal conversations with interested Gulf War Veterans until 8:00 p.m. (ET). This session will be open to the public.

The purpose of the Veteran Engagement subcommittee is to hear directly from Gulf War Veterans about past and current health and quality of life issues to better understand the Veteran's experience of living with Gulf War Illness. It is also an opportunity to share the importance of participating in research and the role of VA research in informing Veteran healthcare and policy. Information obtained from the session will be carried to the parent committee to support the RACGWVI mission to provide advice and make recommendations to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs on proposed research studies, research plans, and research strategies relating to the health consequences of military service in the Southwest Asia theater of operations during the 1990-91 Gulf War.

Individuals wishing to seek additional information should contact Dr. Karen Block, Designated Federal Officer, at:

[email protected]