Benefit planned for injured Marine

Jared Poppe is currently recovering at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., but will soon transfer to a rehab center in San Diego, Calif. Many family members including his uncle, Larry Poppe, right, have traveled to Maryland to visit their wounded warrior. The elder Poppe is a veteran of the U.S. Army, having served during Vietnam.     Poppe is recovering from his injuries at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md. He has lost his left leg above the knee, his right leg below the knee, and suffered open fractures of the right femur and left arm. He has undergone 10 major surgeries and numerous other surgeries to clean his wounds. He has had skin, muscle and tendon grafts on his arm and leg, with the final surgery earlier this week. In about 10 days to two weeks he will be transferred to a rehab center in San Diego, Calif. The day of his accident, Poppe had been in front of his platoon of 48, sweeping the area for IEDs with a metal detector. "They walk behind in a straight line, about 10 to 15 meters away," he said. "I had cleaned an area for my guys to set up watch on a hill. I had gone back to check out an area that I thought looked suspicious. The dirt looked like it had been disturbed. There was this area that no one else had stepped on, and I did. I was on my way back when I stepped on a pressure plate on an IED. It was my lucky day," said Poppe attempting a joke.

He said he remembers the entire incident, and within 10 seconds his platoon members were next to him, wrapping his legs. Other visitors to his hospital room included Rep. Aaron Schock, who brought him a case of cold Coca-Cola in a cooler and many bags of Doritos, Miss America, and his favorite visitor, the Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, Gen James F. Amos. Several family members have also made the trip to Bethesda, including two of his uncles who served in Vietnam in the U.S. Army, Larry Poppe of Colfax and Donald Poppe of Bloomington.

VFW: Wi-Fi, microbrews to attract young vets - VFW Post 7356 ...

Walking into the Santee branch of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, it’s hard to see much difference from any modern sports pub.  And that’s a victory for the VFW, one of the oldest and loudest voices in Congress for veterans issues but one that suffers from an image problem as it tries to sustain its ranks by attracting young members.  The Santee post is a success story. Three of the top officers of the 485-member post are veterans of the post-Sept. 11, 2001, era. One of those is Christopher Hanson, a 28-year-old former sailor who wandered into the Santee hall two years ago to find a place for his Grossmont College veterans group to meet.  What he expected to find there is VFW’s business dilemma on a national scale.  “I thought it would be a bar for old veterans, usually guys just sitting around drinking. I didn’t think of anything else they did,” said Hanson, who is now senior vice commander of the post.  “That’s probably why I didn’t join earlier.” The U.S. military has created 2 million new veterans since 2001, many of whom are eligible to be part of the VFW’s next generation. However, the organization’s membership has declined from 1.9 million veterans in 2000 to 1.45 million today, as its mainstay World War II and Korean War participants passed away.  The VFW has to change to meet the needs of the Xbox generation, said Bobby Price, the Chula Vista resident recently elected to lead California’s VFW posts.  “They like the cafes, with the Wi-Fi. Everyone thinks the VFW is a bar. Sure, we have bars. That’s just this much,” he said, holding his fingers close together.  “Unfortunately, those bars are the biggest cash cow.” In addition to becoming more Starbucks than local watering hole, the VFW sees a need to cater to veterans with spouses and children.  “They need somewhere for their family to enjoy. So you need to set up something away from a bar atmosphere,” Price said.  “In the WWII era, it was OK to have kids sitting around a bar, but now it’s not cool to do that. Mothers and fathers don’t want to do that.”  The trend is coast-to-coast. Nationally, the VFW last year established a committee of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and another committee of women veterans.

V.F.W. magazine

Why should any member aspire to the honor of being recognized as a "VFW Crusader "? ... San Diego, Calif.; Donald Morency, Post 8835. Winslow, Maine. ...

VFW.

... Naval Administrative Command, US Nava fraining Center at San Diego, Calif, by Robert Gilman, Commande of the San Diego VFW County Council. ...

A history of drum & bugle corps

The Anaheim Kingsmen, 1968, at the VFW National Prelims in Detroit. ... At the 1965 California State American Legion Championship in San Diego. ...

Guadalcanal legacy, 50th anniversary, 1942-1992

Boot camp in San Diego, they commissioned the LISS Crescent City (APA-21 )onOct .... in the VFW for many years. He was the first All American Post Commander ...

VFW auxiliary

For eight years, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Naval Hospital San Diego has held a ... Ethel Troxell is Auxiliary President. VFW Auxiliary. ...