VETERANS ON THE HILL

 On Wednesday, March 16^th a number of Veterans’ organizations met at the St. Paul Armory to hear talks of legislation from several legislators and especially Bob Detmer, Chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.  There was great unity in our agenda.  After that session many Veterans marched to the State Office buildings to meet and greet our Representatives and Senators.  We hope that they will support our agenda for our Veterans.  It is imperative that all of us contact our Representatives and Senators to demand their support for Veterans.

VETERANS AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

 On Monday, March 21^st the Committee met to discuss Veterans’ issues.  That Committee is chaired by our friend Bob Detmer, a great Veteran of Iraq.  Bob flew an Apache in that arena.  He has supported Veterans’ issues his entire career on the Hill.  We should call and email him our support.

The issues raised during that meeting were:

• Fishing/Hunting licenses for VETS.
• Amendments to the Spousal Survivor Benefit changing it from 8 years to lifetime survivors.
• Amending the language for the Commissioner.

Hello everyone!  The Minnesota AMVETS State Convention is only two months away.  I am asking the AMVETS members of the State of Minnesota to offer some constructive suggestions to some items within the State.  Please plan to attend, or ensure that delegates from your Post attend to offer suggestions.

Effective communication within the ranks of Minnesota AMVETS is basically non-existent.  I do not have the answer of how to correct this setback, but I will give you an example.  This Commander’s Update will be posted on the Minnesota State AMVETS website.  This update will be emailed, as an attachment, to the listed Point of Contact (POC) for each AMVETS Post in Minnesota.  The POC for each AMVETS Post will be asked to share this information with the Post members.  Many members of each AMVETS Post in Minnesota no longer live near the Post that they joined as Life Time members several years ago; therefore those members are no longer in the communication loop of the local Post.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016:  I traveled to Post 53, Onamia, and visited with the Post Commander, Allen Weyaus.  The Minnesota/Norwegian Troop Exchange is scheduled for June 16-30, 2016.  Sometime during this timeframe, the Norwegian Home Guard Soldiers will attend the Annual Native American Pow Wow in Onamia.  Now folks, this is not just local or state level news, this is International news!  I will be traveling to Camp Ripley in April to assist in deploying National Guard Soldiers from Minnesota.  At that time, I hope to visit with the Camp Ripley Post Commander, whom was once my Battalion Commander, on the upcoming Troop Exchange.  There is the news:  please share this news with every AMVETS member that you encounter!

During the timeframe of November 8-14, 2015, AMVETS National Headquarters authorized free annual membership (for one year) to new members for 2016 if they applied for membership during “Veterans’ Day” week.  That program was very successful; thousands of new AMVET members came on board, nationwide.  The program MIGHT be offered again for the 2017 membership year:  stay tuned for updates!