Post celebrates 70 years of service to veterans

By William Johnson • wjohnson@dailyworld.com -Opelousas’ Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2483 will celebrate 70 years of service to veterans on July 6 and Mayor Donald Cravins Sr. has declared that an official day of celebration for the city.

"We want to recognize the sacrifices that these great American veterans have made for our country," Cravins said. "The fact that they have been active in our community for 70 years speaks volumes."

Ira Tate, the post’s commander, believes his post, created in 1939 – two years before America entered World War II – may be the oldest VFW group in the region.

"It was created by all World War I veterans," Tate said.

While veterans groups have existed since the Spanish-American War, the VFW was first chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1936 as a nonprofit service organization to recognize the sacrifices of servicemen and women.

Nationwide, it has about 1.6 million members and is the largest organization of combat veterans in the United States.

The group is open to any member of the armed services who has served overseas in a combat zone. In the case of Tate, that service came during the Korean Conflict.

"We are all about serving the needs of veterans," Tate said. "The VFW helps vets get the benefits they deserve."

By working through thousands of VFW post throughout the nation, the group regularly lobbys Congress for better veterans’ health care and benefits. The group also maintains a nationwide organization of employees and volunteers to assist veterans with disability claims.

"Numbers count when you go to Congress," Tate said.

The local post is also active in many area charity events. "We help kids at school. We visit nursing homes. We do a lot of community work," Tate said. "Our auxiliary helps us a lot with that."

While the local group currently has about 118 members, Tate said most are older members, primarily World War II and Korean veterans.

Ken Thibodeaux, the post’s chaplain and a Vietnam veteran, said it is important to attract new members to help the post continue its mission of service to veterans and the community for another 70 years.

"We have some Vietnam veterans, a few from Desert Storm and the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Young people today don’t seem to want to get involved," Thibodeaux said.

The post will hold a service day on its birthday, July 6, at 7 p.m. at the post located at 123 N. Liberty St. and Tate invited every veteran of a foreign conflict to attend.

To learn more, call Tate at 948-1762.