Weekly Report 🎖
Honor Flight | Coalition Directory | Legion Family Day | New PTSD Study
The coalition voted almost 2 to 1 to have a webpage listing points of contact for the respective VSO’s in our coalition. I will leave it up to the Commanders/Presidents to decide which method of communication they prefer to list in the directory. The directory will be sent out as soon as I get consent and applicable contact information.
If you are a Commander/President, please respond to the email with the following; A good phone number and/or email address by which you want listed in the directory.
How IED’s may be physically causing PTSD
I hope everyone had an enjoyable Easter Weekend.
Our next AFA quarterly meeting will be next Wednesday (April 30, 2025) at the Golden Corral on Monroe Street from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM. We'll meet in the banquet room. As we did with our last meeting in February
Membership is open to all US Citizens
Thanks.
Tom Carney, President
AFA Bud West Chapter #419 - Tallahassee
You’re INVITED!
American Legion Family Day-
Saturday 26 April 2025
Welcome Home Our Local Heroes!
Join us tomorrow, 26 April 2025, to honor our returning Honor Flight Veterans at the Arrow Center Hangar in the General Aviation Area (look for the big AC on the side of the building). The plane is set to land at 9:45 PM (2145 HRS), but come early at 8:00 PM (2000 HRS) for refreshments and live music by the Tallahassee Swing Band!
Show your support: Grab an Honor Flight T-shirt for just $15 (cash only).
Give back: Donations are warmly accepted to support our veterans.
Easy to find: Follow the signs and lighting to the hangar.
Let’s give our heroes the warm welcome they deserve! Be there to celebrate their service and sacrifice.
At yesterday’s Legal Clinic at Lk Ella (Thursday), our volunteer team totaled 18 (including 4 attorneys), assisting 11 Veterans in person, plus several in phone responses who couldn’t come to the in-person clinic! Cases again included several county and state jurisdictions outside Leon, and requests included for housing, benefits, probation issues, real estate, consumer fraud, wills… More Vets asked for Driver’s license assistance with appointments pending for reissuance this next week. And thank you for the consistent volunteer administrative work at the front door and computer/files tables, Khalid, Margaret, and Valerie Colson, with Susie throughout our Clinic sessions.
One surprise resolution last night in the Fl House of Representatives was to recognize Vietnam Vets exposed to Agent Orange. HB 8099. The Senate version of the strongly-worded and historical resolution, filed months ago, hadn’t yet been adopted, but the House filed it last week and passed it as the final bill last night (Wed). As the Legislature rushes to pass their final bills, you may want to know more about the dozens of Veterans-friendly bills in this year’s legislative session. We can help you track any of them these final days of session, which may or may not still end May 2. Budget negotiations will include more Veterans’ local programs but seem to be slowing down (just before a likely finished product to send to the Governor?)
Leon County Veterans Treatment Court changed the date for the next Graduation from 5/19 to Monday, May 5, 3 pm. Come observe downtown in the Leon Courthouse; you may decide to become a volunteer Veteran Mentor for one or more of the Vets in the program. You won’t regret the teamwork. Last week’s VTCt session saw several promotions for Veterans working successfully through their treatment plans (and 2 who finally left the program unsuccessfully while back in jail).
Locally, VA’s housing program is soon to have a vacancy (a retirement) with no opportunity for new staffing, and medical folks have now been warning Vets of lengthy delays in referrals to specialists, etc. Reprise: Call your friends who work for the federal VA to let them know they’re appreciated and give them your contact info in case they lose their VA cell number amidst the funding cuts, layoffs and firings that are including probationary employees, as well as former military Veterans in a variety of specialties (and the latest projections target some 84,000 VA jobs and programs to be cut!) And be sure to let us know about parttime job opportunities for Veterans on subsistence, as well as any emergency housing, shared rentals, etc. since housing is still scarce and services are delayed via waiting lists. A FLORIDA SENATOR SUMMARIZED VA’S NEEDS AGAIN (LAST WEEK): more than 952,000 claims have been pending longer than 125 days, including 23,900 in Florida; the backlog is still more than 241,000 including claims that go back DECADES.
What else?
Thank you,
Dan Hendrickson, for the Tallahassee Veterans Legal Collaborative