The following editorial is from the KWVA Chapter 180 2008 March-April Newsletter, in its entirety, with permission from KWVA President Louis T. Fechert.   We urge all voting members to explore the following websites, they all contain information on the current KWVA Election:

• KWVA National website KWVA, Inc.
• KWVA California Department website KWVA California Department
• Texas Chapter 270 website Texas Chapter 270

VOTING IN KWVA 2008 ELECTION An editorial by Chapter and National President Louis T Dechert                 

The KWVA has an election each year. The Ballots are inserted in the March-April Graybeards and must be completed and sent in as directed.

Each year (election) over +/- 10,000 ballots are not returned. Over the years this has allowed a small clique of members to control the organization, stifle its growth, and limit its services to all veterans of Korea. Of the 5 million Americans who served in Korea, 1950-2008, the KWVA has never numbered over about 18-20,000 members. The clique does not want younger members. It wants the KWVA to die as elderly 1950-54 veterans die. That attitude does not help peace in Central Asia. In fact it creates the same conditions which led to the Korea War in the first place. That attitude also violates the incorporated purposes and intent of the KWVA, and it’s Mission which encapsulates those purposes and intentions (see Mission @ KWVA Mission). The Korea War has not ended and will not be ended until an acceptable and enforced peace treaty—including a nuclear free Korean Peninsula and possible reunification—has been signed and a total verifiable accounting for over 8,000 missing Americans has been obtained. To allow this organization to perish because a small clique just doesn’t care anymore is a fundamental violation of what we fought for, and an absolute denial of the truth that we established in blood almost sixty years ago (and have protected with blood ever since): FREEDOM IS NOT FREE.

This year there will be an award for each KWVA Chapter which returns all the ballots from their members. In Chapter 180 we have 42 ballots: that is, 42 of our 66 members are National KWVA, receive The Graybeards Magazine, and will receive a ballot sometime after April 27 this year. That number of 66 members includes Honorary and Associate members, and non-members of the national KWVA who belonged to the Chapter before October 5, 2005. After that date no one can join a Chapter of the KWVA without first joining the National organization. We encourage all of the members of Chapter 180 to join, support, and uphold the National KWVA.

We intend to see that Chapter 180 sends all 42 of its ballots to the CPA as directed. A Chapter Voting Officer has been appointed in addition to the Deputy Commander. They will both discuss the issues of this year’s election with you, answer any questions and ask that you sign and seal your ballot and give it to them to mail in after all 42 ballots have been collected. Vote your consciences—  BUT VOTE!

I am frequently asked who our members should vote for. The vote is a very personal right of each member. How we vote depends on all we have experienced as American fighting men or women, and as husbands, wives, moms, dads, students, teachers, employers and employees, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, in all the years since. They are all personally different experiences. For example, I was pressured into running for President of the National KWVA/USA and accepted never expecting to be elected. I found an organization which was just completing a two year illegal administration, governed by bickering, defamation, slander, character assignation, theft, lies, and in too many instances hatred of America and our Constitution. There was an attempt to deny my taking office, and there were legal battles even to gain access to the assets of the organization. I also found that $300,000 had been embezzled and a full accounting never provided. $144,000 of assets had also been illegally converted. To make matters worse, I found that bitter hatreds had prevented the organization from even obtaining the insurance settlements covering our losses. I found an organization whose combined leadership style for many years had come to include all the worse leadership  seen on MASH, F Troop, McHale’s Navy,  and Bilko on the TV.

Most importantly, I found an organization with thousands of fine members spread from coast to coast daily dedicating them to the purposes of our Mission IN SPITE OF the miserably negligent condition of the National KWVA. In four years with their help and that of some 50 volunteers (at any one time) who were willing to work around the clock to correct that miserable neglect at the National level. And we have been successful. That is why you hear the 24 hours a day assault on me and my administration from the clique which used to run the organization as a personal social club and encouraged the same at all levels. As you read the election profiles of many of the candidates on your ballots you can easily detect those who want to return to the good old days of Happy Hours every day, all day,  at the members’ expense, embezzled funds of $300,000 and $144,000 (with no accountability) and an absolute neglect of our duties as an incorporated veterans service organization, IRS 501 (c ) (19).

I am voting for those whom I KNOW will not return to the past: Chris Yanacos, PRESIDENT, James Ferris, VP, Jeff Brodeur, DIRECTOR, Leo Agnew, DIRECTOR, George Lawhon, DIRECTOR, Tine Martin, DIRECTOR.
Louis T Dechert