WWW.VFWPOST1260.ORG

January 2017 Volume 84, Issue 1

Harold Baggenstoss Post 1260

From the Commander

BY BRUCE MALTERUD

Comrades,

Happy New Year, The month of Dec. went by so fast and Jan. 2017 is upon us and so is our Jan. 3rd meeting. Not a whole lot hap-pening in the month of Jan. as far as the VFW is concerned. We have our Mid-Winter Conference in Mpls. on the 20th thru the 22nd of Jan.

The month of Dec. was a busy one for us. We had our annual Pearl Harbor dinner which we served 119 meals, a good turn out this year. The 9th District meeting was hosted by the Harold Bag-genstoss Post 1260 on the 10th of Dec. This was for the district Aux-iliary as well. On the 15th we held taps for a deceased veteran, Elmer Nies. I am busy now running around the district doing audit inspections. I have three left to do before the 18th of Jan. Detroit Lakes, Frazee and Audubon.

Congress Passes Major Veterans Bill: This week Congress sent major veterans legislation to the president for his signature. in-cluded numerous provisions related to several VFW resolutions. The bill expands eligibility for grave marker medallions to be issued by VA to include those veterans who died before November 1990. An-other section of the bill provides for researching how the health of children of veterans exposed to toxic substances is impacted. Changes that make uniform the definition of homelessness were also included in the bill. These important provisions were 2016 Prior-ity Goals for the VFW and their enactment into law would fully ac-complish VFW Resolution 620, and partially accomplish Resolutions 619 and 621 which were approved at the 117th VFW National Con-vention.

Once again I would like to invite anyone that is interested in join-ing the honor/color guard to please let me know or any one of our members and we sure would like to have you join us. It is very re-warding to be able to have military honors at the grave site of a fall-en comrade.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Adjutant’s Corner .................. 2

Veteran Service Officer .......... 3

Chaplain’s Corner .................. 4

Spot Light On ......................... 5

Veteran’s Employment Rep ... 5

Post Auxiliary ......................... 6

Activities Last Month ............. 7

Points of Contact ................... 7

SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST

Jan 20-22, VFW Midwinter

conference.

VETERANS OF F OREIGN WARS

Mark your calendars! Next meeting is Tuesday, January 3rd!!!

ADJUTANT’S CORNER

NOTICE: VFW website: www.vfwpost1260.org. All up-dated information is available concerning our local VFW Post #1260 as well as our state and national infor-mation. VFW Post #1260 Meeting Date: Tuesday January 3rd at 7:00 pm at the Eagles Club. 1. Jan. 1- New Year’s Day. 2. Jan. 2- Operation Bolo Began (1967). 3. Jan. 4 – Perihelion (Earth’s orbit takes it closets to the sun). 4. Jan. 17- Operation Desert Storm Began (1991). 5. Jan. 20-21-22— VFW Midwinter Conference. 6. Jan. 22- Allies Land in Anzio (1944). 7. Jan. 31-Tet Offensive Began (1968).

Bring another veteran to our meeting! Harold Baggenstoss VFW Post #1260 P.O. Box 1271 Bemidji, MN 56619 VFW Post Adjutant ckapphan@paulbunyan.net 218-243-3060

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY

January 20, 1945 - Franklin

Delano Roosevelt was inau-

gurated to an unprecedented

fourth term as president of

the United States. He had

served since 1933.

January 20, 1981 - Ronald

Reagan became president of

the United States at the age

of 69, the oldest president to

take office. During his inau-

guration celebrations, he

announced that 52 American

hostages that had been

seized in the U.S. embassy in

Tehran, Iran, were being

released after 444 days in

captivity.

January 20, 1996 - Yasir

Arafat became the first dem-

ocratically-elected leader of

the Palestinian people with

88.1 percent of the vote.

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I want to put a plug in for the All Veterans Memorial Board also which I’m on that board along with Kelly Booge, my Quartermaster, to help with the expenses at the Veterans Memorial site, we sell paver bricks for the Walk of Honor, you can purchase a brick for a deceased veteran or any veteran, they do not have to be deceased. My son and daughter bought me one for Fathers Day a few years ago they make great gift ideas for a $150.00 donation. Name, branch of service and where served. Just get ahold of me or Kelly and we’ll fix you up.

On the lighter side: A kindergarten teacher handed out a coloring page to her class. On it was a picture of a duck holding an umbrella. The teacher told her class to color the duck in yellow and the umbrella green. However,Little Ole, the class rebel, colored the duck in a bright fire truck red. After seeing this, the teacher asked asked him, “Little Ole, how many times have you seen a red duck?” Little Ole replied, “Da same number ov times I’ve seen a duck holding an umbrella.” Commander Bruce Malterud

BY SCOTTY ALLISON

VA PENSION PROGRAM In the past, I have talked about the Veterans Pension. This is a Veterans Administration (VA) benefit that many vet-erans and their families do not know about so I am going to review it again. This pension is available to wartime era veterans with limited income who are age 65 or older, or under 65, and are permanently and totally disabled, or, a patient in a nursing home, or, are receiving Social Security disability pay-ments. Veterans who are more seriously disabled may qualify for Aid and Attendance or Housebound benefits which provides higher levels of compensation. Generally, you may be eligible if you were discharged from service under conditions other than dishonorable, and, you served at least 90 days of active military service and at least 1 day was during a war time period. If you entered active duty after September 7, 1980, you must have served at least 24 months. The way this pension works is that you count all income then subtract any medical expenses from this to arrive at what you might be entitled to via the Veterans Pension. When a veteran is residing in an authorized assisted living or nursing home this benefit works the best as all costs associated with their care are considered medical expenses. As an example, if a single veteran is in a nursing home and he has a monthly income of $4000 and his total monthly medical costs are $4000 that veteran would be entitled to a pension of $1788 a month which is the maximum he could receive at this time. If you have any questions about this program please call us. If you receive medical care outside the VA and this care has been authorized by the VA, you should ensure that this authorization is in writing and that you have a copy. You then should review and understand what has been au-thorized to prevent medical billing issues later as it relates to your non VA medical care. If you were born in 1960 or later according to the law, you are supposed to register for the draft within 30 days of your 18th birthday. Selective Service can accept late registration but not after a man reaches his 26th birthday. If you do not register you may be denied student financial assistance, federal job training, and federal employment. I mention this because recently a veteran of the Army applied for help through the Dislocated Worker Program here in Bemidji after he was laid off from his job. While checking on his eligibility to participate in the program, it was discovered that he had never registered for the draft even though he served in the military. It took him about a month to correct this with Selective Service but during that time he could not access any of the benefits of the pro-gram. So my point here, is if you served in the military but did not register with the draft (or you do not remember doing so), you might want to contact Selective Service and ensure that you have been given credit by them for your military service otherwise you could find yourself penalized like this individual. If you are downloading any VA forms from the internet please remember that you can retrieve them from www.va.gov/vaforms/ free of charge. Don’t forget, if you have any questions regarding veterans’ benefits please call the County Veterans Service Office at 218-333-4177/4178.

VETERANS SERVICE OFFICER

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CHAPLAIN’S CORNER

Greetings Fellow Veterans/Friends,

Our Father, we thank You for the year we have completed, for its

successes, and for the strength You have given us to overcome its

failures. As we face a new year together, give us patience and under-

standing for all our comrades, wisdom in our decisions, and Your aid

in building a better Veterans of Foreign Wars organization. Bestow

Your special blessings upon all who assume the duties of leadership.

Walk with each of us in heart and mind, day by day, so that we may

continue to serve our God and our Country.

Amen.

The VFW Chaplains Handbook

OUR SACRIFICE

Conflict Casualties

American Revolution 50,000

Northwest Indian War 1,881

War of 1812 20,000

Mexican American War 17,435

Civil War—Union 646,392

Civil War—Confederate ~524,000

Dakota War of 1862 263

Spanish-American War 4,068

Philippine-American War 7,126

World War I 320,518

World War II 1,076,245

Korean War 128,650

Vietnam War 211,454

Afghanistan War 23,625

Iraq War 37,052

NOTE: There are other smaller con-

flicts not listed where service members

sacrificed their lives

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HOT OFF THE PRESS

The Veterans First Act of 2016

Senate Veterans Affairs Omnibus

Legislation is designed to demand

a higher level of accountability

from the 335,000-employee de-

partment in the wake of numerous

scandals over the past few years at

VA facilities across the country

involving serious mismanagement,

misconduct and mistreatment of

veterans.

The Veterans First Act also includes

numerous provisions to improve

services for our nation's veterans,

including expanding a VA program

that allows seriously-injured veter-

ans to receive care in their own

homes, enhancing programs for

veterans' mental health care, and

beginning to address the VA's mas-

sive backlog of veteran disability

claims appeals.

"www.military.com for more info.

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SPOT LIGHT ON….

Meet your VFW Auxiliary Officers:

Margaret Booge (President) Mandy Malterud (Sr. Vice)

(Jr. Vice) Janie Malterud (Temp. Treasurer)

Donna Kimmes (Secretary) Margie Luadtke (Trustee)

Jobs currently available: Stop in or visit our website to learn more about the positions available and to apply. jobs.mdu.com

Training Available. Knife River Materials Northern Minnesota Division 4101 Bemidji Ave N Bemidji, MN 56601

VETERANS EMPLOYMENT REP-

Would you like to receive the VFW Newsletter via email rather than paper

copy? Send an email to John Naastad at johnnaastad@hotmail.com to re-

quest being added to the email distribution.

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY

January 21, 1954 - The USS

Nautilus, the world's first

nuclear powered submarine,

was launched at Groton,

Connecticut.

January 22, 1943 - Dur-

ing World War II in the Pa-

cific, Japanese resistance

ended in New Guinea, re-

sulting in the first land vic-

tory of the war for Allied

forces.

January 23, 1968 - The

American ship

USS Pueblo was seized by

North Koreans in the Sea of

Japan amid claims the Navy

ship was spying. The ship

was confiscated and its crew

held in captivity until De-

cember, with one fatality.

January 24, 1895 - Hawaii's

monarchy ended as Queen

Liliuokalani was forced to

abdicate. Hawaii was then

annexed by the U.S. And

remained a territory until

statehood was granted in

1959.

Greetings Everyone, Welcome to a new year! As we start to put away the decorations, and return things to “normal” after the holidays, we need to take time to remember our veter-ans and their families. Remember the ones who are deployed and away from their families, and the ones living locally. We as an Auxiliary of the VFW have the opportunity to find ways to help our local soldiers and their families. Heading into 2017 we are continually looking for ways to interact with our veterans. Please come be a part of this group, and help us by bringing

your ideas and enthusiasm. At our January meeting which will be held Tuesday, January 3rd at the Bemidji Eagles, we will be having a couple ladies come in to help us learn how to make sleeping mats. These are made from plastic grocery bags, and could be used for soldiers. If this project feels like something we want to take on as a group, this could be one of our new projects for 2017. The Auxiliary members plan to make another batch of Towel Buddies to be used by local veterans. These will be taken to both the Veterans Service Officer, and the local VA clinic for them to distribute as they see fit. Other individual towel buddies can be given out to any veteran we feel needs one. In the next month or two, we will be helping the Post serve lunch to veterans in local care facilities. Before St. Patrick’s Day and Valentines Day we hope to complete some table decorations that we can take to the veterans in the local care facilities to help them celebrate the holidays. Another project we hope to get started is going to Neilsen Place to spend time with our veterans. We hope to help them write letters, read to them, play a game of cards, or just visit. Reminder that annual dues need to be paid up and taken care of right away. Wishing you all the best in the new year, and hope to see you at one of our meetings soon. Margaret Booge President, VFW Auxiliary 1260

POST AUXILIARY

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VFW District 9 Voice of De-mocracy win-ner

VFW District 9 meeting in Bemidji Dec 10th.

Watch the VFW sponsored Pearl Harbor Dinner on LPTV at: https://lptv.org/pearl-harbor-dinner-honors-veterans/

ACTIVITIES THIS MONTH

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POINTS OF CONTACT Commander Bruce Malterud 218-766-3898 bmjm@paulbunyan.net

Adjutant Clare Kapphahn 218-243-3060 ckapphan@paulbunyan.net

Quartermaster Kelly Booge 218-308-1171 kelbooge@paulbunyan.net

Sr. Vice Commander Dave Christianson 218-244-3381 davebeky@paulbunyan.net

Jr. Vice Commander Dr. Jason Dixon

Surgeon Bruce Skipton 218-760-1130 bskipton@att.net

Chaplain Charlie Brown 218-751-4293

Asst Chaplain Jerry Wraa 218-776-3949 jlwraa@gvtel.com

Veterans Service Officer Scotty Allison 218-333-4178 campbell.allison@co.beltrami.mn.us

Vet Employment Rep Vacant

Vet Center Shari Kosobuski 218-722-8654 shari.kosobuski@va.gov

Post Auxiliary President Margarete Booge 218-751-3258 kelbooge@paulbunyan.net Post Auxiliary Treasurer Janie Malterud 218-854-7499 bmjm@paulbunyan.net

DAV Chapter #7 Thomas Annonson 218-251-3025 torgor@lightspeed.net

Support Numbers

Education: http://www.mymilitaryeducation.org

Health Care: 1-877-222-8387

Suicide Prev. Hotline: 1-800-273-8255

Fargo VA: 1-800-410-9723

Help Line: 1-855-VET-TALK

VA Community Outpatient Clinic-Bemidji: 218-755-6360

OUR DAILY COMMITTMENT Hours served last month: 155 41 members volunteered last month Current Members: 258 2016 TAPS Jack Mattison Don Hammer Merald Meyers Irene Safford James Hensel Donald Sweeney Karel Knutson James Hensel Vernon Gary

HAROLD BAGGENSTOSS

POST 1260

The purpose is fraternal, patri-

otic, historical, and education-

al; to preserve and strengthen

comradeship among its mem-

bers; to assist worthy com-

rades; to perpetuate the

memory and history of our

dead, and to assist their widows

and orphans; to maintain rue

allegiance to the Government

of the United States of America,

and fidelity to its Constitution

and laws; to foster true patriot-

ism; to maintain and extend

the institutions of American

freedom, and to preserve and

defend the United States from

all her enemies, whomsoever.

WHAT THE VFW DOES FOR THE COMMUNITY

Youth activities, Voice of Democracy & Youth Essay

Patriotic Activities

Aid to Schools & Churches

Membership

Help to obtain benefits

Legislative Service

Buddy Poppy Promotion

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE

PAID MAILED FROM ZIP CODE 56601 PERMIT NO. 3

Harold Baggenstoss

VFW Post #1260

P.O. Box 1271 Bemidji, MN 56619

Phone: 218) 243 3060

E-mail: ckapphan@paulbunyan.net