VETS TO HONOR INDEFATIGABLE FIGHTER.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
He was the Veterans Administration's worst nightmare, the guys over at the Disabled American Veterans The Disabled American Veterans, or DAV, is an organization for disabled veterans that helps them and their families through various means. It currently has over 1.2 million members. The DAV was controversial during the 2006 election cycle. hall in Woodland Hills said Friday. Hell on wheels The phrase "Hell on Wheels" was originally used to describe the itinerant collection of flimsily assembled gambling houses, dance halls, saloons, and brothels that followed the army of Union Pacific railroad workers westward as they constructed the American transcontinental , that Hank Veillette. Hell on wheels - with a heart of gold. ``He was always at the hospital giving the VA fits, rolling down rolling down The liquidation of an option position by an investor at the same time that he or she takes an essentially identical position with a lower strike price. the hallway in his wheelchair, ready to fight the bureaucracy if one of his vets wasn't getting the treatment he deserved,'' said Larry Polzin. One of his vets - the amputees. Guys like Hank. He died last June from cancer at 79, but his spirit still lives on in this DAV See WebDAV. hall. Some guys you just can't forget, and Hank was one of them. So, today, with Hank's widow, Evelyn, and their three sons on hand, his buddies in DAV Chapter 73, along with state and national DAV officers, are dedicating a lasting memorial to Hank - a tree they planted out back of the hall in his honor. There's a beautiful plaque at the base of it with three roses - one for World War II, one to honor all vets and one for peace. War, honor, peace. Pretty much sums up Hank Veillette's life. He was a World War II fighter pilot whose P-51 plane crashed on a mission over France. That's where he lost his legs - at 23. ``They amputated one of his legs in France, the other in England,'' said Evelyn, who was an Army nurse in a field hospital in Saipan during the war. As a nurse, most of the young men she knew who came home from the war missing a limb or two withdrew deep inside themselves, she said. Not Hank. He never looked back. ``I met him in 1945 when he was a patient at Walter Reed Noun 1. Walter Reed - United States physician who proved that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes (1851-1902) Reed Hospital in Washington,'' Evelyn said. ``Across the street from the U.S. Capitol at the time was a United Nations Service Center where a lot of the hospital patients went for some social life. ``I walked in one night, and there was Hank, sitting at the bar,'' she said, laughing. ``We started talking.'' You didn't need legs to dream, and her future husband was a big dreamer, she said. A big dreamer who made his dreams come true. ``After he left the service, he went to work for the Atomic Energy Commission Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), former U.S. government commission created by the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 and charged with the development and control of the U.S. atomic energy program following World War II. for a couple of years before we moved to California, where Hank was an air traffic controller in Oakland,'' she said. ``When we moved down here to the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. , he went to Woodbury University and got his degree in business administration, taking a job at Lockheed as a budget analyst,'' she said. But her husband's heart wasn't in budgets, it was with the DAV. Hank quit Lockheed after a few years, and took a job as a national service officer for the DAV. If he was going to fight for disabled vets all the time anyway, he might as well get paid for it. ``He used to bring home some of the amputee am·pu·tee n. A person who has had one or more limbs removed by amputation. patients from the VA hospitals for dinner, the ones he knew needed some morale building,'' Evelyn said. After dinner, Hank would take them over to his DAV hall, buy 'em a drink, and let them meet some other guys who had lost a part of themselves to war, and never looked back. ``He had a passion, a spirit, for helping others I've never seen in another person,'' said Les Nolte, commander of DAV Chapter 73 in Woodland Hills. Polzin agrees. ``You couldn't find a more caring person,'' he said. ``He was one hell of a veteran's advocate.'' The VA's worst nightmare. Hell on wheels with a heart of gold. CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- 2) WWII WWII abbr. World War II WWII World War Two veteran Hank Veillette, left, appears in an old photo held by his widow, Evelyn Veillette, right, with Les Nolte and son Dave Veillette near a tree planted in Hank's honor. Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer |
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