VFW VA District 8

BLUE AND GRAY VFW POST 8469 VETS IN THE CENTER OF RECENT PRESIDENTIAL VISIT TO GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY

Blue and Gray VFW Post 8469 of Fairfax has long been involved with nearby George Mason University (GMU). A little over a year after 9-11-01, overseas veterans started trickling in to the roughly 30,000 student population in the sprawling Virginia campus. The veterans sought each other out and they noticed two older veterans auditing classes; the late Al Smith (a former 8469 Post Commander) and Blaine Friedlander (a former 8469 Post Commander, as well as a former District 10 Commander). Both attended college after their VFW qualifying overseas service and both understood the need for campus veterans to find each other and have the comradeship of peers with similar experiences. Along with former Post Commander Sandy MacNabb, the older VFW members helped the younger vets properly navigate the maze of campus paperwork to establish their GMU Student Veterans Association (SVA) and they made the young vets welcome in the nearby Post Home just off Fairfax Station Road down Rt 123 and young vets are now a significant demographic within the Post. The GMU presence inside the Post is strongly augmented by having Vietnam veteran Dr. D.R. Butler who is the Associate Athletic Director for Community Relations and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Public & International Affairs at GMU as a Post member as well.

Last year the GMU SVA was instrumental in convincing the University to spend money during lean economic times to establish a staff position titled "Director of Military Services" for the University. That new Director, Michael Johnson is on the magazine cover (second from left) and his efforts are doing a lot to help the student vets adjust to college life. On the left side of the cover photo is VFW Post 8469 member Jon Zapien. Jon, recently an Army Special Forces Staff Sergeant who served two tours in Afghanistan, achieved international notoriety by saving German special forces soldiers in combat while assigned as their liaison and being awarded Germany's highest award ever presented to a foreign soldier, the Ehrenmedaille, or Honor Medal, during a ceremony in Berlin. Third from left is Post member Jacabo Flores, a Marine Corps veteran of Iraq is a perennial volunteer at VFW Post Poppy drives, is pursuing a Civil Engineering major and he recently was elected as President of the GMU American Society of Civil Engineers. The bearded gent on the right side of the cover photo is recently medically retired Army Staff Sergeant Joshua Lawton-Bealous. Josh, VFW Post 8469's Junior Vice Commander, is also the president of the GMU SVA, runs a website called THE VIRGINIA VETERAN, founded the non-profit Education for Virginia Veterans, which successfully lobbied to have a bill (HB1109) introduced in Virginia's General Assembly to provide significant college tuition help for Virginia's veterans. Josh also organized the now annual GMU Race for the Kids, a five kilometer fun run around Patriot Circle on GMU with all proceeds going towards college education for war orphans from the Global War On Terror. Joshua's military awards include; the Bronze Star Medal, the US Army Combat Medical Badge, the US Army Parachutist Badge, the Presidential Unit Citation, the Army Commendation Medal, the US Army Good Conduct Medal. This generation of veterans is a caring, active, and very savvy demographic and the student vets at GMU may just be a bit ahead of the organizing curve because of some early assistance of VFW comrades who had "been their before" and were able and willing to lend a hand. It is no wonder then, that when President Obama wanted to kick off the new GI Bill on 1 August 2009 with a short-fused event nearby Washington that would honor our young vets as well as the Bill's sponsor, Virginia Senator (and VFW member) James Webb, the well organized vets of GMU were known to be able to get things organized. Secretary of the VA, retired General Eric Shinseki lingered with the student vets after the ceremony and admonished the crowd about their new GI Bill benefit - "make it count." We have no doubt they will.