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AMVETS Post 124 in Maysville KY Treats Local Vets to Memorial Trip

by Jeff "Mario" Smith, Guerilla Reporter

No matter which direction you enter Maysville, KY, the "Gateway To The South", you will see the POW MIA Flag flying below Old Glory. I know a lot about Maysville as I went to Junior High, High School, and entered the service from that patriotic little town on the Ohio River. It is a good town with good people that care.

Recently, a new AMVETS Post opened up in Maysville. It is AMVETS Post 124 and the Commander is Gene Hook. Gene, Tony Smith, and a few other men have been burning the candle at both ends to make this new post a source of support to Veterans and the local community. It only takes a few good men to make a difference, and we already are.

AMVETS Post 124 has no real estate yet, no building of its own, and only a handful of members thus far. Through the efforts of hard working men like Tony and Gene, they have been raising some funds. What do they do with these funds? Let me brag on my fellow AMVETS a bit if you will.

Today is Veterans Day, an emotional day for many Veterans and a day to pay respect to anyone who has served in uniform, ever. We Vets know this and we constantly have to educate others as to its importance. It is catching on. I love my Combat Veteran brothers and cannot pay them enough respect. We owe them big.

Every Veterans Day in Kentucky, there is a service at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Frankfort, the State Capitol. This year, Dona Shicker and Hoss Cartwright again ran the ceremony and it was great. There were the laying of wreaths from several Veteran groups and POW MIA Activist Organizations, prayers, poems, and school children came on buses to learn about the memorial and what it is all about. Joe and Mary Milliner were there. Joe is an ex-POW (WWII), and their son William P. Milliner is still missing after

his helicopter was shot down in Laos on March 6th, 1971. I love Joe and Mary. These are a couple of American Patriots whom we will never be able to repay, no matter how hard we try.

Well, there was another bus, a chartered private bus. I got a call from my brother Tony letting me know that they had chartered a bus for all the Vets in the Maysville area that could not go on their own. This little AMVETS Post 124 with no home, and only a handful of members, chartered a bus for the older Vets so they could go to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Veterans Day. If you don't have some chills going down your back yet, have

your pulse checked fast.

They were running late and called me to ask if they could hold up the ceremony for a few minutes while they got the bus to the Memorial. I relayed the message to Dona Shicker, and don't you know that great lady made it happen. Soon that chartered bus with standing room only came around the bend up the hill to the Memorial and off came some folks who could not have come otherwise along with Gene and Tony, and then there was a bonus. It seems that our brother Scott, 173rd Airborne Infantry, Vietnam, 67-68, drove down late the night before and was also on the bus. Scott is Tony's identical twin and I am one of the only people on the planet that does not get "twinned" by them. Being "twinned" means you thought

you were talking with one, but were actually talking to the other. I love watching people get "twinned", and many did today.

After the ceremony, it wasn't over. The AMVETS Post 124 then took the bus over to Saylor's Restaurant in Frankfort for a free dinner for all their Veterans, and this Vet too, after all I did get the ceremony delayed for them, heh heh heh. Saylors was a great time and a local Vet from Frankfort who is originally from Maysville, bought everyone a round on him. What a

day these Vets and their wives had. Thanks AMVETS Post 124, Gene Hook, Tony Smith, and anyone I have forgotten to mention (CRS disease).

I love this country!

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