Volunteering – Page 10 – Ballard Eagleson Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3063

Officer Spotlight: Bob Lehman, Post 3063 Surgeon

This is a recurring column that highlights the 2021-2022 post officers.

What is your military background?

My military service is backwards to nearly everyone else: I was in private practice for 22 years, and then joined the Air Force at age 52. Accidentally, I became a flight surgeon, that got me deployed to Iraq, and led to another residency in Aerospace Medicine. Which then led to 3 more deployments: Korea, Iraq again, and Kyrgyzstan. My role as Aerospace Medicine specialist meant I flew and took care of air crews, but it also put me overseeing shop safety and public health on the base, which put me in an experienced role when Covid arrived – having dealt with SARS1, MERS, Swine Flu/N1H1, and Ebola already.

Tell us about your position and what you hope to accomplish during your term.

I’m still trying to decide my role with the Post. I’ve enjoyed contributing to the newsletter, particularly trying to translate what is going on with Covid. I can offer medical advice to members and fellow board members as we negotiate these times where the goal posts seem to keep moving. My goal is still to meet people, and hopefully we will be able to do more in-person functions in the future as vaccination of the members increases.

How long have you belonged to Post 3063 and did you previously serve in an officer position?

I joined the VFW less than 2 years ago after I retired from the Air Force and moved to Seattle. My intent was to try to meet people, but then Covid hit. I was asked to be Post Surgeon, which is fun for some as I really am a surgeon.

Goodbye to Smoke Stained Ceilings

By Harold Rodenberger

Those of you who have been in our hall in the past few years may have noticed that the ceiling tiles are yellowish from the days of inside smoking and stained from water leaks.

A few weeks ago, our contact at FRIHET 402, VASA (Swedish Freedom Assoc), called and wanted to know if we could use some almost new ceiling tiles. They were removing a dropped ceiling in their recreation center at Lake Sammamish and were willing to donate them to our post. During normal times they meet in our hall once a month and had noticed the stained ceiling.

On January 16th, we rented a truck and, with the help of several volunteers, loaded up about 600 ceiling tiles and brought them to our post. The following weekend we changed out the tiles in the small meeting room. Next we will replace the tiles in the main hall. It’s a big project so we’ll do it over upcoming weekends.

Here’s a big THANK YOU to the folks at Frihet and many thanks to volunteers Dan Stokke, Bryce White, Russ Seelig, Pat Ronan, Joe Tiffany, Campbell Krawitz and our Commander, Joe Fitzgerald. Their help made it work.

You can really see the difference here between the new and old tiles.

Caring for Those In Need During the Holiday Season

Post 3063 leadership joined forces with their adopted unit, the Washington National Guard’s A Co. 181st Brigade Support Battalion, Dec. 18. The post donated $1,000 in gift cards to HHC and A Co. 181 BSB’s soldiers and their families. We’re looking forward to hosting the company commander, CPT Jackson Meeker, during our January business meeting where he’ll tell us more about the BSB’s mission.

The post also donated its hall for the Seattle Stand Down Dec. 19; volunteers wrapped toys for veteran families.

Our Post Assembles Buddy Poppies Part 2

By Harold Rodenberger

During pre-pandemic times, veterans in soldiers’ homes and VA hospitals would assemble the Buddy Poppies© that we distribute on Memorial Day, Veterans Day and throughout the year. Donations from recipients of these poppies go to our Relief Fund, where the money is used to support our mission of caring for comrades in distress and other charitable works.

Because of the virus, this year the normal Old Soldiers’ assembly lines became impossible, so our VFW National Commander in Chief asked local post members to assemble poppies. Our post was one of many who stepped up. We requested 100,000 sets of poppy parts and our volunteers got busy assembling those beautiful poppies.

We’ve worked hard for a little over a month on those poppies and finished about 86,000 of them. Completed poppies will be boxed up and shipped back to our National HQ ready to be shipped out to even more volunteers who will distribute them nationwide when it is safe to do so.

Many thanks to our members and friends who spent many hours diligently assembling poppies. A special shout out goes to Sue and Jack Westman who assembled over 22,000 sets. It was a tedious, time-consuming job, and we are so grateful for all you hard working volunteers who did your part.

Our Post Assembles Buddy Poppies

Because of the virus, this year the normal veteran assembly lines became impossible so our VFW National Commander in Chief asked local post members to assemble poppies. Our post was one of many who stepped up. We requested 100,000 sets of poppies parts and our volunteers have been busy for the past two weeks, assembling those beautiful poppies.

As of this writing, about half of the sets have been assembled with the remainder on track to be finished in the next two weeks. Completed poppies will be boxed up and shipped back to our National HQ ready to be shipped out to even more volunteers who will distribute them nationwide when it is safe to do so.

In next month’s newsletter, I’ll publish a full accounting of the results of this project. Meanwhile, many thanks to our members and friends who have been diligently assembling poppies.

Volunteer Jack helping assemble poppies.

Small poppy assembly line.