With a speaker and refreshments, Radford-Montgomery Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 776 will celebrate 75 years of providing camaraderie to veterans and community service at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 4, at the post at 102 Watts Street in Radford.
Established in 1944, the post currently has 95 members who served in armed conflicts including WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Our strengths are that the VFW is a national organization with a national convention every year, and a lot of community support. You wear any type of military hat, people are thankful for veterans and we appreciate it,” Gary Harris, commander of VFW Post 776 said.
Harris has been commander for 14 years. “They keep voting me in,” he said with a laugh.
Veteran’s organizations like the VFW nationwide face challenges of expressing the relevance in the lives of younger veterans. The average age of a pre-9/11 veteran is 47, post-9/11 vets are in their 30s according to a 2018 VA study, and while the VFW serves veterans, simple camaraderie is a big part of the draw.
“The VFW has two meetings a month simply because we like to get together. We have a meal and a meeting and the guys will just sit there and talk. Every day stuff. Get an update on how everybody’s doing, Bud Jeffrey’s cows up at Ingles. We drink coffee and talk. It’s not about our military past so much,” Harris said.
Radford-Montgomery Post 776 performs multiple community services including providing military honors at funeral of local veterans and sponsoring the Voice of Democracy audio-essay competition at Radford High School.
“We raise money for veterans with donations from Buddy Poppies, selling hotdogs at events, and other fundraisers. That money goes into a fund to help other veterans and we make donations to the community. We put up flags on Memorial Day and July 4th. We take care of the flag at the high school and the Central Cemetery. We have monuments at the city park. We help people replace their old flags.”
The 75th anniversary event is free and open to the public. For more information or VFW membership, contact Harris at 641-2590.
For more information about the nation’s veterans, visit https://www.va.gov/vetdata/stateSummaries.asp