The American Legion Department of Colorado Blog

    For more than 80 years, The American Legion Children’s Home in Ponca City, Okla., has cared for children of veterans who are unable to provide for their families. With a dormitory that currently houses 62 young people ages 11 to 18, the home has, since 1928, served approximately 8,000 youths left destitute from loss, depravity, abuse or neglect.

    Unfortunately, The American Legion Children’s Home is among the last of its kind. The Ponca City home had a sister facility – the Indiana Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Children’s Home in Knightstown, Ind. For 144 years, the Indiana home was a refuge for veterans’ children. The American Legion didn’t own it, but for decades the Legion family provided funding for clothing, holiday gifts, and other essentials. Over the years, as the number of needy veterans’ children declined, both homes began taking in all types of neglected youth.

    That came to an end for the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home last June when the State of Indiana closed the facility despite a massive Legion family-led campaign to keep it open. The state-funded Legion Children’s Home in Oklahoma remains open but in need of additional financial backing from outside sources to avoid a similar fate.

    Chief Development Officer Kerri Bowman estimates that the Ponca City Legion Children’s Home is “about 20 years behind the curve as far as fundraising goes. Because we’re dependent on state funding, they could pull our funding with a stroke of a pen. We are in a very fragile place.” Bowman’s grandmother grew up in the home.

    Located in the heart of “Tornado Alley,” the facility needs funding to build a storm shelter. Also planned is an additional living area to house 24 more children.

    Expanded in the 1980s to assist all neglected youth – not just those whose parents are veterans – the Children’s Home teaches its youngest inhabitants the basics of living: hygiene, social skills, food planning, household shopping, community awareness, etiquette and safety drills. Residents 16 and older are part of an independent living program that encourages them to find part-time jobs and manage their finances. The home also offers recreational therapy and caters to disabled children.

    The home recently produced a video showcasing its accomplishments and featuring testimonies from alumni who have gone on to become accomplished citizens. Donations can be made online.

    “There is a lot of history here,” Bowman said. “It is really interesting to go back and talk to these alumni who say they wouldn’t be the person they are today if they hadn’t have lived here.”

Protect the warriors; go after the phonies.

September 23rd, 2009 by MOTHAX

Rick Duncan was a Marine with a compelling story to tell, and tell it he did, to anyone who would listen.  A graduate of the Naval Academy, Rick had been in the Pentagon when the plane hit on September 11, 2001.  Volunteering for duty in Iraq, Duncan rose to the rank of Captain, and although openly gay, was assigned to lead a Marine Battalion in the battle of Fallujah.  During the house-to-house battles there he had a finger shot off and suffered a severe head injury that required a plate be put in his head.  He returned to the states disillusioned with the war and became executive director of the Colorado Veterans Alliance.

    Partisan, MoveOn.com-ally VoteVets asked Duncan to be a blogger for them where he wrote under the handle of “USMCinCO.”  The radical anti-war group “Iraq Veterans Against the War” (which does not require service in Iraq) asked Capt. Duncan to appear at several of their events to talk about his experiences.  Various candidates for state and Federal offices in Colorado during the last election cycle asked Duncan to appear in their political commercials.

    But Rick Duncan never existed.  He was in fact Rick Strandlof, a man wanted on an outstanding warrant.  In March and April of this year his story started to fall apart, with military bloggers chronicling every facet of his downfall.  VoteVets and IVAW quickly scrubbed the internet of his presence, and the campaign ads featuring him speaking were removed from YouTube.  Anderson Cooper of CNN delivered the coup de grace…

    In July of 2005, Representative John Salazar, Democrat from Colorado introduced the “Stolen Valor Act.”  Briefly summarized, the act provides that (among other things):

    The bill passed both the House and the Senate (in a version sponsored by Kent Conrad of North Dakota) and was signed into law by the President on December 20, 2006.  The Denver Post reported on the bill after it was signed into law:

    Last week I began to hear rumors from people I knew in Colorado that the United States Attorney for the District of Colorado, David M. Gaouette, had decided against prosecuting Duncan/Strandlof.  Perplexed by this, I contacted his office by email:

    The response was a rather terse “Please contact FBI Special Agent [redacted] at 303-629-xxxx”  And so I did. 

    I spoke with the Special Agent, who happens to be a former Marine.  Now, let me interject that the FBI in Denver is a top notch outfit, as proven just this weekend by them arresting 3 men on terrorism related charges.     The Agent that I spoke with knew exactly what I was calling about, and every minute reference     I dropped about the Duncan Affair he knew off the top of his head.  Now, I will not relate the entire conversation, since I am sure he would rather not be dragged into this, but he made it abundantly clear that it was the US Attorney’s decision alone to drop the case (which he seemed to disagree with) and that he was not authorized to tell me much more than that.  He did inform me that the process is that the office of the US Attorney will send a letter to the FBI declining to prosecute on the charge, and generally contain the reasoning such a decision was made.  He said he had not as yet received that letter, nor would he be at liberty to release it to me even if he had.

    I once again contacted the US Attorney’s office, and the PR guy who had initially responded to my email replied to neither my follow up emails, nor to my phone message.  I next contacted the office of Representative Salazar, however two voice messages have not been returned as of the time of publishing this post.  If either the US Attorney or Representative Salazar responds, I will post that response in full.

    Outing phony veterans has been a bit of a cottage industry for Military Bloggers.  The most notorious was probably Jesse MacBeth, a man who claimed to have served in Iraq with the Rangers and having killed “hundreds” of Iraqis, some while they took refuge in a mosque.  His story was debunked fairly easily, what with wearing his beret backwards, his sleeves rolled the wrong way, wearing the wrong color T-Shirt, and the fact his stories couldn’t pass even a rudimentary laugh test.

    Earlier VoteVets had been burned by a guy named Josh Lansdale, whose tales of the horrors of war were debunked by his own first sergeant, and numerous members of the media who had embedded with his unit.  Television Ads for VoteVets featuring Josh as well as one for a Senate candidate were quietly retired.

    No case has been as abundantly clear as that of “General Baxter.”

    Jonn Lilyea of This Ain’t Hell requested the military records of “General Baxter” through a Freedom of Information Act request to the National Personnel Records Center who confirmed that Baxter had been discharged as a PFC. The Baltimore office of the FBI declined to investigate, despite a picture of him wearing a Combat Infantryman’s Badge and a Silver Star (among other unearned awards.)

     I truly don’t understand the logic of the US Attorney for Colorado and the FBI office in Baltimore.  To those of us who served in combat, each of these phonies robs a little bit of the honor we earned through our military experiences.  Duncan, MacBeth and Lansdale all used their phony war records to push a radical point of view, one which The American Legion and other veterans organizations spend a great deal of energy trying to refute.  The service-member as blood-thirsty villain meme is one we actively must refute, whether it appears in a New York Times article using skewed statistics to show that service-members are more prone to violent criminal acts, or the now discredited DHS report that returning men and women are ripe for recruitment by radical fringe groups.

    We will continue to debunk these individuals who do harm to the legacy of the warriors of today and yesterday, but it would be nice if we could count on the US Attorneys and FBI agents to uphold the law in order to help us.

     After all, isn’t that why these laws are passed?

    Growing their own vegetables and flowers is a common practice for many of Colorado’s West Slope residents, and it’s no different for the elders at the Colorado State Veterans Home at Rifle. Thanks to the “Stake Your Claim” gardening program started this year, some 30 nursing home residents and more than 15 staff teamed up to grow everything from petunias and marigolds to carrots, beets, tomatoes, parsley and cilantro.

    Residents and staff planted about 15 flowerboxes this year, including two located in a secure outdoor area for memory care residents. It’s the kind of meaningful activity that activity coordinator Deana Jacoby encourages.

    “Residents can develop relationships with staff outside of care-giving, and they get to know each other on a personal basis,” she said.

    Creating the gardening program is just one way the Rifle veterans home is working to change the “culture” of long-term care. 

    “Culture change involves de-institutionalizing nursing homes to truly become ‘home’,” explained Evy Cugelman, with long-term care consulting firm Pinon Management. “It includes empowering staff, forming staff teams on residents’ neighborhoods, getting staff and residents involved in decision-making and encouraging staff to develop relationships with residents, which is the key to happier staff and happier elders.”

    Through these and other changes that have been made at the Rifle veterans home, residents now are encouraged to participate in committees dealing with their menu, bathing areas, ice cream parlor, library and a planned chapel. Also, recently remodeled bathing areas provide residents a more soothing, spa-like experience with music and towel warmers. In addition, “Betty’s Place” – named for 84-year-old nursing assistant Betty Bendetti – now offers a gathering place where residents, staff and visitors enjoy popcorn, ice cream and other goodies.

    The Rifle veteran’s home is one of five Colorado State and Veterans Nursing Homes that have launched new programs aimed at making their facilities less like institutions and more like “home.”

    Leading the way in culture change among the five state-run nursing homes is the Bruce McCandless Veterans Home in Florence. The McCandless home is the only state veterans home in the United States and one of only 15 long-term care facilities in Colorado to be accepted into the Eden Alternative Registry. By practicing Eden principles, the McCandless team has created resident-guided programs and a neighborhood advocate program in which staff volunteer as communication liaisons and culture change leaders. In addition, resident and staff committees make decisions on pet welfare, spa bathing, warm welcome, end of life and “nurturing dining,” which offers more choices of food and mealtimes.

    At the State Veterans Home at Fitzsimons, residents’ preferences for bathing, rising, bedtimes and other personal decisions are honored and respected. The staff has initiated resident activities focused on poetry, gardening, reading and crocheting. Family members are encouraged to bring family pets for visits, and residents now enjoy the companionship of their resident feline, “General.”

     The State Veterans Center at Homelake, near Monte Vista, provides residents with an array of food choices and offers meals and snacks at residents’ own preferred times. Residents also can participate in a horticultural program, set their own daily schedules and get involved in decisions about group activities.

    The Trinidad State Nursing Home has opened a “Country Perk” coffee house available to residents 24/7. The home has created resident neighborhoods and raises funds to repaint and decorate residents’ rooms in the colors and styles of their choice. In addition, staff members and residents are encouraged to consider each other members of an extended family.

    “Each of the State and Veterans Nursing Homes is making progress in culture change,” Cugelman said. “The key is to stay on the journey.”

    Colorado’s State and Veterans Nursing Homes are operated as self-funded enterprises by the Department of Human Services. The Department oversees 64 county departments of social/human services and other services including the state’s public mental health system, and the  developmental disabilities system and services for the aging.

On Labor Day the 7th of September 2009 Colorado Legion family members participated in our 4th consecutive annual “Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon.” We took pledges over the telephone from viewers watching the telethon on Denver TV station KWGN- WB Channel-2 from all over State of Colorado.

    With our assistance by manning the telephones for a few hours taking pledges we assisted in the State of Colorado MDA raising over $1,000,000.00. The MDA telethon raised $60,000,000.00 nation-wide from National viewers for “Jerry’s Kids.”

    I was told by many of Colorado Legion volunteers they felt good about volunteering and by only donating a few hours of their time they contributed to a worthy cause and will be back next year.

    At this time I would like to say thank you very you much to the Legion family volunteers that donated their time to participate in manning the telephones taking pledges for “Jerry’s Kids.” In the photo are the volunteers and KWGN-TV Channel-2 hosts Kellie MacMullan, Jason Boyer, Jim Gillis, Anne Gillis, Rick Baldessari, JR Kent, Jim Clarke, Darlene Clarke, Rich Callan, Leonard Martinez, Carter Jones, Dean Casey, Pat Callahan, Harry Giglio, JoAnn Giglio, John Palmquist, Alonzo Rodriguez, Heather McCrary, Shawn McCrary, Anthony McCrary, Sam McCrary, Suzette Dickenson, Paul Dickenson and myself.

    While we were being televised on Channel-2 a lot of Legion Posts, Auxiliary Units, SAL Squadrons and Legion family members called in and pledged to MDA. I would like to say thank you very much on behalf of MDA for your generosity.

    I have already made arrangements with the MDA here in Denver for the Colorado Legion family members to return and participate in the 2010 telethon. If you would like to plan now to participate next years and get your name on the volunteer list please give me a call at (303) 371-5431. Take Care! Danny DuMiller, Past State Commander