An Extended Family

BY MICHAEL KEATING

Greenville, South Carolina, Chapter 523 President Patrick Ramsey died January 23 at age 74. He had served for a long time; in fact, he was president in 2008 when VVA last held its National Leadership Conference in Greenville. In recent years he had also served as South Carolina State Council president.

The amiable but demanding Ramsey was laser-focused on helping veterans. Even in his last days, sick with COPD in the COVID ward, Board member Peter Flink said, Ramsey worked to help a veteran get his septic tank fixed. That’s the kind of guy he was, chapter members agreed.

Ramsey had run the chapter himself, Duane Kelly said, and he had hand-selected his Board members. With Ramsey’s death, it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to forecast the imminent demise of the chapter.

But that wasn’t going to happen, in good measure due to the way Ramsey had molded Chapter 523.

“We’re family,” said Mike White.

“Family,” Kelly agreed.

There’s no denying that they like each other. Their mission now is “recognition and reorganization while preserving the sense of the chapter,” Flink explained. The chapter was promptly renamed: No longer Foothills Chapter 523, it’s now the Patrick Ramsey Memorial Chapter 523.

Duane Kelly has become chapter president, but under his leadership the chapter will be Board-driven. The six-man Board—Kelly, Flink, James Chance, Ron Hall, Tom Tinsley, and Mike White—will work closely with their indispensable and indefatigable AVVA liaison, Hope Summers. They agree that they all bring strengths and will cover each other’s weaknesses. The chapter has more than 80 members, although fewer than 20 are regularly active. And there are more than 25 AVVA members.

In addition, the chapter has deep ties with the Vietnamese community. Hall’s wife Bang has been the conduit to the 15,000 local Vietnamese. The relationship was tentative at first, but with the recognition of common values, they made common cause. Now the Vietnamese march with Chapter 523 in parades; chapter members are routinely invited to Tet celebrations; and following Memorial Day ceremonies at the Greenville County Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Cleveland Park, the Vietnamese provide a picnic lunch.

“We get together; we work together,” Bang Hall said. “We share. We are one family.”

Recently chapter members performed a flag-folding ceremony as part of the funeral service for a South Vietnamese veteran. The president of the Vietnamese community (himself the son of a veteran) thanked the chapter for its outreach.

The chapter’s focus has always been—and remains—helping individual veterans in need. Often these are small but critical tasks. Duane Kelly, for example, learned about a veteran who was having trouble with a toilet. No problem. Kelly drove out to his house and fixed it. The chapter has donated money to veterans in a tight spot. They also accept donations of wheelchairs, then match them with disabled veterans.

“We bring the resources we have to help our fellow vets,” Tinsley said.

In addition, Chapter 523 sets up information booths at half a dozen gun shows a year. It’s a great opportunity to recruit while informing veterans about their benefits and the consequences of exposure to Agent Orange for veterans and their offspring. Many veterans they talk with are unaware of the causes of the mysterious diseases that afflict them, their children, and grandchildren.

The chapter is proud of the two scholarships they present every year, one in the spring and one in the fall. And it is a longtime supporter of Fellow Countrymen, a ministry for homeless veterans in which vets sign contracts to remain sober and seek employment in exchange for counseling and transitional housing.

For the past several years chapter members have donated $15,000 annually to VVA state councils for disaster relief. That includes money to Kentucky in the wake of its tornadoes, to Louisiana and Texas for hurricane relief, and to California after its especially horrific fires.

All these projects come at a price. The chapter’s biggest fundraiser is its annual golf tournament. In recent years, due to the pandemic, net revenue dropped to a still-impressive $6,000-8,000. However, with COVID fears receding, Treasurer James Chance is hoping to net $10,000 from this September’s eighth tournament. Kelly loves to grill, and with those skills he’ll make more money for the chapter at the tournament. This critical fundraising effort is coordinated by AVVA member Barry Strohl.

Before the chapter hosts VVA’s National Leadership & Education Conference in August, it will provide support for the 49th Vietnam Veteran POW Reunion, which will be held June 1-5. They anticipate about a hundred attendees.

One last story, this one about what Chapter 523 didn’t do. The chapter wanted to have a Memorial Day ceremony last year at the Greenville Vietnam Veterans Memorial, as they usually do. But the city turned down the permit request because of COVID. So the event was canceled. But surprisingly and entirely by happenstance, a large contingent of Chapter 523 members accidentally showed up at the memorial at the same time. And curiously enough, many Vietnamese showed up as well at just about the same time.

Driving by, the city police just shook their heads and waved.

Did I mention the chapter is like an extended family?

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