VFW donates to county honor guard
By Natalie McQuilkin natalie.mcquilkin@news-herald.net
Natalie McQuilkin | News-Herald
First Alexander Bonnyman Jr. Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 12135 members gathered outside the Yacht Club on Thursday to present a $500 donation to the Loudon County Veterans Honor Guard.
The donation came from a VFW grant that supported the Village post’s Loudon County Veterans Resource and Job Fair in March.
“We asked for VFW to give us a grant to run that,” Tony Newton, VFW Post 12135 commander, said. “They did. They gave us $1,000. We didn’t need it; we needed only half of it. So, we cannot apply for another grant until this one’s zeroed, so Loudon County Honor Guard, which is a group of gentleman in Loudon County, what they do is they participate in all veteran funerals in Loudon County. To date, they’ve buried 37 veterans this year.”
The donation comes a week before Operation Honor Guard, a fundraiser 6:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Loudon Funeral Home, 2048 Mulberry St., Loudon.
Veterans that take part in the honor guard are in dire need of new uniforms and supplies, Rich Comiso, a member, said. The guard is made up of 35 VFW, American Legion auxiliary and National Guard members within Loudon County.
“(The VFW donation) will be part of what the funds will go to support,” Comiso said, motioning to his uniform. “We do have expenses in uniform, and all the equipment that we use, like the rifles, the ammunition for the rifles. We can definitely put it to good use.
“We’re on call, and we put out an honor guard of — we like to have about 17, 18 people,” he added. “We’ve got seven rifleman, nine colors, a commander, a commander for the rifle squad as well. If we have to, we’ll do the folding of the flags. The complication that the military are facing right now is they don’t have enough people around who can provide that service to the veterans that are passing away.”
Newton and other VFW members knew they wanted to support another military-based group with the leftover grant money.
“There were a number of different recommendations that came forward,” Newton said. “This was the only recommendation that was kind of military-oriented, and we’re a military group. … When these guys spend 37 days burying veterans and they need some help, you ought to give it to them. They come out — weather be damned — they are out there doing what we hope they’ll do for us when it’s our turn.”
Operation Honor Guard is one of the few fundraising opportunities the group has due to the members often being on-call for funeral events, which makes the VFW’s donation even more impactful.
“We don’t have the fundraising capability (the VFW) has,” Comiso said. “We’re a small group of people from the local area here. As a matter of fact, we’ve been going on for a number of years. I’ve only been doing this for about eight or 10 years.”
Along with supporting local veteran groups, VFW representatives said it is necessary to let Villagers know where their money is going.
“What we’re trying to do is to continue to get our name out there,” Newton said. “We’re 4 years old, and we’re the only VFW in the Village, and we’re interested in letting 8,500 people know we’re here. The biggest thing we’ve done recently is to make sure — our money comes mostly from Villagers. We want to make sure that they can visually see where it’s going. Our website will now list our donations, a date, the person’s first name only and what it was for. We’ll go back four years and see if we can wrap it all up. We’re moving. We’re getting a lot things done.”
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