This will be my last chance to invite all veterans and their families to Armed Forces Appreciation Day at the Texas County Fairgrounds on May 20.
Our mission statement for this event will be to help as many veterans and their dependents as possible. We are working to assemble as many resources in one place as possible.
One important point: We want to make sure that every veteran with a question about benefits, employment opportunities and placement, education, medical assistance, and anything else service-related will get the answers they need.
The free meal will be grilled hamburgers and hot-dogs with chips and drinks, served throughout the event. We will have a raffle for a beautiful handmade queen-sized quilt, and silver-dollar door-prizes drawn every half hour.
So mark your calendar for 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 20, at the fairgrounds just north of Houston. The Veterans Corner on May 25 will be the after-action report.
Early announcement: On the 6th of July, the Melba Theater on Grand Avenue in Houston will present “The Girl Who Wore Freedom,” a movie sponsored by the Texas County Military Museum, Houston Senior Center, American Legion Post 41 and Veterans Of Foreign Wars Post 6337 in Licking. Admission will be free.
Recent legislation of interest to veterans: Improve Healthcare for Women Veterans. The fastest growing segment of the veteran Community are women, and the Veterans Administration has an obligation to expand and improve gender-specific healthcare services for them. S.2533/H.R.4794 – Making Advances in Mammography and Medical Options for Veterans Act and H.R.344 – Women Veterans TRUST Act.
And now, the last Quapaw story.
In 1984, the USS Quapaw (ATF-110) was tasked with towing the empty shell of the submarine USS Nautilus (SSN-571) from Long Beach, Calif., to the Panama Canal Zone. This was the Quapaw’s last mission before being decommissioned. As we were passing Nicaragua (a Soviet client during the Cold War), a Russian AGI (spy) ship came out to investigate a U.S. submarine on the surface. They had a couple of speed-boats with them that came over for a closer look. About that time, our escort ship came over the northern horizon; an LST with a company of Marines aboard. The speed-boats headed for home and the Russian ship ran up three signal flags. Our signalmen identified them as “Do Not Approach Us,” “We Have Plague Aboard,” and “We Are On Fire.”
Veterans organizations in Texas County:
•American Legion Post 41 meets at 6 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month at the meeting hall on the west end of Chilton Oil Company in Houston (just north of Pizza Hut). Changes to membership eligibility now allow U.S. veterans of all branches and periods of service to join the American Legion.
•Fleet Reserve Association Branch 364 meets at 2:30 p.m. on the fourth Sunday of each month at the American Legion Post 41 meeting hall in Houston. The FRA exists to serve all veterans and active-duty members of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard.
•Veterans Of Foreign Wars Post 473 meets at 6 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month at its meeting mall on U.S. 63 north of Cabool.
•Veterans Of Foreign Wars Post 6337 in Licking meets at 5:30 p.m. on the third Monday of each month at the meeting hall on Main Street just south of Highway 32.
Houston resident Robert E. Simpson is a retired U.S. Navy chief electronics technician who served from 1969 to 1990. His columns are posted online at www.houstonherald.com. Email gfjjkaa@gmail.com.
