Groups host activities for veterans

Dozens of military veterans, along with their friends and family piled into the Veteran of Foreign Wars Post 3280 building in Clovis on Monday night, laughing and talking as they shared military memories and experiences with each other.

Cannon Connections photo: Alisa Boswell

This open house event held at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3280 in Clovis on Monday was one of several veteran events being held at various organizations in Clovis this week. More events are to be held Saturday and Sunday, including the Portales American Legion's 66th annual Veterans Day ceremony.

"It's not just old guys sitting at a bar, telling us how it was," said John Fonderick, chair of the Joint Veterans Council and an Air Force veteran, of the different veterans organizations. "We have that but we also have fundraising and events."

Fonderick said in the Joint Veterans Council, all the local Clovis veterans organizations, such as the American Legion, VFW and AMVETS, come together to plan events and fundraisers.

Open houses with free meals for veterans were held at several Clovis Veteran organizations this week for what the city of Clovis formally declared as Veterans Week.

"For the most part, we've done this our entire lives," Fonderick said. "We go to these military bases, away from our families, so we become each other's family and as veterans, we still are."

Fonderick said veteran organizations can not only put veterans in touch with the right resources for their benefits and other veteran services, but they also raise large amounts of money and other donations for non-profit organizations each year, such as nursing and children's homes and scholarship funds.

"I would say the elation you feel once you've helped a veteran is the reward, whether it be paying a car bill or something else," said Vernon Luce, a Navy veteran and the Veterans of Foreign Wars commander for the state. "I like that idea of doing what you can to serve veterans."

Luce said he would be attending all of the Clovis veteran open houses throughout the week.

Portales American Legion Post 31 will also be honoring the Veterans Day holiday on Sunday with its 66th annual Tribute to Veterans ceremony in which the guest speaker will be the highest ranking enlisted airman at Cannon Air Force Base, Command Chief Master Sgt. Paul Henderson II.

Joe Blair, a Navy veteran, legion member and coordinator for the event, said the tradition of the event has been important to the Portales post, because it is important to recognized all veterans for their services.

"We also pay tribute to the POWs and MIAs every year with a special ceremony devoted to them," he said, adding that the event normally includes Roosevelt County Bataan Death March survivors but the last remaining survivor, Alvin Fails, is not in the condition to come.

Eastern New Mexico University will also honor veterans Sunday with their own ceremony on the campus lawn.

"It's just a tribute to recognize all the veterans of all the wars for their service to their country," Blair said.