Letter: Understand the purpose of the VFW

Alan Cukla's comments about the Veterans of Foreign Wars are inappropriate; the operative words here are "Foreign Wars."

The VFW Charter requires that members possess certain campaign or service medals, decorations and/or badges. Allowing the unqualified to join the VFW could cost a VFW Post its tax exempt status, rendering it nothing more than a social club.

The definition of a "veteran" in this country is someone who served on active duty during a period of conflict; so he is a veteran, but Vietnam is the qualifying period of conflict, and not the place where he served.

My father and father-in-law were both soldiers in the Pacific during World War II, and career military thereafter. Their headstones in Arlington read World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, though neither set foot in Korea or Vietnam.

I gave up a 2-S deferment to enlist, and passed on the opportunity to attend West Point, opting to attend Flight School. I flew Hueys in Vietnam and Laos and, like thousands of others, will never receive everything I earned. Veterans who didn't serve overseas don't earn the right to be in the VFW, but they can join the American Legion. Before I left for Vietnam, I walked the streets of Chicago with my cousins, not knowing if I would ever return; Alan Cukla never had to make that walk.

Douglas Womack

Grasonville, Maryland