On behalf of myself and Post 274 of the American Legion we salute you and the members of the Mount Carmel Society for the great job on Armed Forces Day for our veterans. We are proud to have your organization along with the in Peekskill be the leaders in making the and Comfort Wounded Warriors Program a real successful start.
Today was mostly the older generation veterans but the young veterans and their families will soon realize that the Peekskill, Cortlandt communities and the Civic and Religious organizations are grateful for their sacrifices and we will stand ready to keep the Covenant with them. We thank you again and look forward to your members total involvement in the Heroes to Hometown programs along with others in the community and the well established veterans groups including the Purple Heart Association, The VFW, The Disabled American Veterans,Jewish War Veterans , et al.
We encourage everyone in the community to support those who need our help through long standing Nationally chartered Veterans groups with Local Community presence and avoid the organizations who are coming out of the woodwork to take advantage of the veterans for their own profit.
Our Post has more than forty percent members from The Town of Cortlandt and with the Verplanck Post growing we are truly members of the Peekskill / Cortlandt communities and should work together. Those new groups may be well advertised and have real classy adds but a check of their required 990 tax filings for 501C organizations will convince those who want the assistance to go to the veterans and their families and the active military to stick with the real veterans organizations. and the Salvation Army for the Fisher House program at every Military Hospital where the family members can stay free and be fed free while caring for their wounded military people.
The real wounded warrior program are the transition teams for returning wounded warriors such as the one at West Point Military Hospital where Captain Scotty Smiley ( the only blind active duty military officer ) is in charge of that transition team after surviving having his eyes blown out of his head in Iraq action and the programs in effect since 1922 from the American Legion and some of the other Nationally chartered groups while the Attorney Generals in multiple states are seeking injunctions against hundreds of organizations claiming to assist veterans but lining their pockets instead.
God Bless all of your members and their tremendous success today and we look forward to joint activity in the future. I am attaching an agenda for our Memorial Day services in Peekskill Monument Park and look forward to seeing many of you there where we will publicly acknowledge your great step forward for all of our military and veterans today.
Respectfully
John Donohue a/k/a Pete
