Interview with Michael McDaniel

     Michael McDaniel, a USMC Vietnam Veteran, is spearheading the efforts to form a VFW Post in Copperopolis. The plan to organize and form a VFW began years ago with then resident Dave Pendergast, known as Uncle Dave. In 2010 Charity Maness, mother of a Marine picked up the torch and started the ball rolling with the purpose of having a place where veterans of foreign wars can come together, seek solace, or comradeship. "With all the young men and women coming home from the middle east they will need to be able to speak with someone that has seen what they have seen. More importantly, to not speak, just to be with people that understand. I say I understand, but as a mother that has not seen the atrocities of war, do I really understand? I don't think so."

     When the roster of veterans reached 25 it was necessary to have a veteran step in and take over the formation process. Enter Michael.

1: How many vets are still needed to file for a VFW Post?

  At this time we still need eight Vets, however we need many more to make a post that will work and flourish in the community. We can't just think of a minimal number, we have to have a lot of Vets really to get it moving.

2: What plans do you have have for community events?

  Well;  first of all the question should be "what do we as a vets group have planned"? The current group of guys are starting to plan a homemade spaghetti feed to bring in other Vets from within this community and hopefully have them join. Other events will be during the year to support activities of the Post and meeting  a goal of support of local Vets both those in need of Medial help and welcoming new local Vets home with community parades and get togethers

3: What is the diversity of your members: WW1,  etc.

   Right now we have from WW2 to the present wars with mostly being from the Vietnam time period.

4: Are you accepting applications from current military:

   As long as they qualify under the VFW guidelines, absolutely we want them!! But we need and want non-active military Vets to be a part of the VFW to be able to support our goals of local commitment to local Vets now and when these new Vets come home.

5: Are the dues covered by donations for those currently serving that have been overseas?

   We have been able to pay for current serving military and plan to continue with this policy as long as the money holds out, which I sure it will. The current future members are very supportive of this program.

6: When is the next meeting? where?

  We have had the privilege of being allowed to meet at the sports bar in Copperopolis at the intersection of O'Byrnes Ferry Road and Copper Cove Drive. The owners have been very good to us and allow us once a month to sort of take over the bar on the bar on every third Sunday of each month at 2:00 P.M. This will continue until we have a Post then we will have to meet at a more private location that is still under review. For now we could not ask for more generous people than the owners of the Sports Bar.

7: How much are membership dues at this time.

   A whopping $35.00, however we will take more and use it towards active duty members. The Veteran also needs to comply with the VFW guidelines regarding the specific time and dates you spent in war zones. A DD214 is also required at the time to make sure the Veteran is within those guidelines.

We have a opportunity to start something good here for both past and future war Veterans in our community. Post 2600 is very supportive in our attempt to get this going as they also realize that a Post  that is close to a community and located nearby will have better local support than one located outside of the community. Also they realize that as Vets get older it is hard to travel that far away from home. Most Vietnam Vets have always had a hard time joining anything let alone the VFW ( my self included. Even though I'm past president of Vietnam Veterans of Diablo Valley)

but as I have gotten older;  I realize who will represent me as I get older and future Vets in making sure our VA system stays intact and supporting us and other Vets.

Who else is going to be there when new Vets come home and remind the community the war is still going and the wounded Vets coming home now are coming home with worse wounds (both physically and mentality) than our generation of Vietnam Vets did.

I could go on all day about this and this part alone,  but the bottom line is this,  We as Veterans of a war have a responsibility to the past and future Veterans of this country and need to just stop watching it on the news and roll up our sleeves and start helping the Vets and their families and the most positive way to this is by establishing a VFW post and being involved.  WE NEED YOU, YOUR FELLOW VETS NEED YOU AND YOU NEED TO BE INVOLVED. IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE AND LIVES OF OTHERS.