Declining membership gets Dalton VFW post placed on probation; post is seeking new members to reopen

Charles Oliver, The Daily Citizen, Dalton, Ga.
·2 min read

May 3—Founded in 1946, for 75 years Dalton's Veterans of Foreign Wars George Edward Smith Post 4985 was a place where those who served in America's wars could find support, companionship and camaraderie.

But in recent years, membership has dwindled, and recently the national VFW placed the post on probation and put its building at 618 Veterans Drive up for lease.

"We didn't have enough interest," said George Lo Greco, senior vice commander of the post. "They want 11 officers and three trustees, and the officers can't be trustees, so that's 14 people. We had about four members, so we had four people doing all those jobs. We just couldn't get the members, so they pulled our charter, our bank account, our building."

Lo Greco said he was also a trustee, service officer "and anything else the post needed."

Lo Greco said if the post can get to at least 25 members and 11 officers before Jan 1, 2024, it will be taken off probation.

"If we can do that, we can get our charter back, our money back. I've forgotten exactly how much we had, but it was over $100,000," he said. "I'm not sure if we'll be able to get our building back. It really depends on how quickly we can get the new members."

Lo Greco served in the Marine Corps from 1964-74 as a combat engineer and served in Vietnam from 1965-68.

He stresses the VFW is more than a social organization but a service organization as well. It represents the interests of combat veterans in Washington, D.C. And each post has a service officer to help members navigate the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs bureaucracy. The VFW sends every post service officer to an all-day school at least twice a year.

Lo Greco, who has served as the Dalton VFW post's service officer, said an experienced service officer can save a person years in dealing with the bureaucracy.

According to the VFW website (vfw.org), to join a person must be currently serving in the U.S. armed forces or have received an honorable discharge or general discharge under honorable conditions and have served "in a war, campaign or expedition on foreign soil or in hostile waters."

The latter can be proven by:

—Receiving an authorized campaign medal. The website has a full list of qualifying medals and badges.

—Receiving hostile fire or imminent danger pay.

—"Service in Korea for 30 consecutive or 60 non-consecutive days."

All of those must be backed up with appropriate paperwork.

Lo Greco said anyone who wishes to join the VFW can do so on that website.

Lo Greco said VFW members can attend any VFW post. According to the VFW website, the closest posts besides Dalton are in Calhoun, Chattanooga and Collegedale, Tennessee.