Last month, planning and fundraising were underway for Shop with a Hero; apparently a nation-wide program sponsored by the Lions Club.
It happened here in Texas County last week at the largest store in town; throngs of children accompanied by uniformed police officers, sheriff’s deputies and Houston firefighters, joyfully selecting items to make their family’s Christmas brighter.
There was another story that filtered down through the Internet: Another “shopper” in a similar large store in a slightly-larger town. He decided to spend an afternoon selecting his own “presents.” After picking up a large cart, he wheeled around the store shop-lifting many small high-value items.
This thief had very poor situational awareness; the store was hosting the heroes! As he tried to leave the store with thousands of dollars worth of unbought items, he was met at the exit and was apprehended by a dozen uniformed police officers.
The kids shopping with the heroes received a positive example of law-enforcement in action that afternoon before happily resuming their own shopping.
A note for veterans needing information from the National Archives: Quicker service can be obtained by asking your Veterans Service Officer to make the request. After meeting the VA representative at the old courthouse, I received a large package of documents from the National Archives: Copies of all of my DD-214s and every page of my military medical records were included. It took them about three weeks to copy all of this information and send it to me. Excellent service!
Texas County veterans organizations:
•Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 473 meets at 6 p.m. on the last Thursday of each month at their Post Meeting Hall on Highway 63 north of Cabool.
•American Legion Post 559 will meet at 6 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month at the VFW Post 6337 meeting hall in Licking. Post 559 has been revitalized by past members and will be looking for new ones.
•Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6337 in Licking meets at 5:30 p.m. on the third Monday of each month at its Meeting Hall on Main Street just south of Highway 32.
•Fleet Reserve Association Branch 364 meets at 2:30 p.m. every 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.
•American Legion Post 41 meets at 6 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month at its 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.
Houston resident Robert E. Simpson is a retired U.S. Navy chief electronics technician who served from 1969 to 1990. Email gfjjkaa@gmail.com.
