American Legion Thanks Mt. Carmel Society, Other Groups, for Service to Military and Veterans

On behalf of myself and Post 274 of the American Legion we salute you and the members of the Mount Carmel Society for the great job on Armed Forces Day for our veterans. We are proud to have your organization along with the in Peekskill be the  leaders in making the and Comfort Wounded Warriors Program  a real successful start. 

Today was mostly the older generation veterans but the young veterans and their families will soon  realize that the Peekskill, Cortlandt communities and the Civic and Religious organizations are grateful for their sacrifices  and we will stand  ready to keep the Covenant with them. We thank you again and look forward to your  members total involvement in the Heroes to Hometown programs along with others in the community and the  well established veterans groups including the Purple Heart Association, The VFW, The Disabled American Veterans,Jewish War Veterans , et al.

We encourage everyone in the community to support  those who need our help through long standing Nationally chartered Veterans groups with Local Community presence and avoid the organizations who  are coming out of the woodwork to take advantage of  the veterans for their own profit.

Our Post has  more than forty percent members from The Town of Cortlandt and with the Verplanck Post growing  we are truly  members of the Peekskill / Cortlandt communities and should work together. Those new groups may be well advertised and have real classy adds but a check of their required 990  tax filings for 501C organizations will convince those who want the assistance to go to the veterans and their families and the active military to stick  with the real veterans organizations. and the Salvation Army for the Fisher House program at every Military Hospital where the family members can stay free and be fed free while caring for their wounded military people. 

The real wounded warrior program are  the transition teams for returning wounded warriors such as the one  at West Point Military Hospital where Captain Scotty Smiley ( the only blind active duty military officer ) is in charge of that transition team after surviving having his eyes blown out of his head in Iraq action and  the programs in effect since 1922 from the American Legion and some of the other Nationally chartered groups while the Attorney Generals in multiple states are seeking injunctions against hundreds of organizations claiming to assist veterans but lining their pockets instead.

God Bless all of your members and their tremendous success today and we look forward to joint activity in the future. I am attaching an agenda for our Memorial Day services  in Peekskill Monument Park and look forward to seeing  many of you there  where we will publicly acknowledge your  great step forward for all of our military and veterans today. 

Respectfully 

John Donohue a/k/a Pete