Veterans speak out against VFW closure

by Sebastian Moraga<br>Herald Staff Writer
| July 1, 2004 9:00 PM

Though post will remain open, club will close, leading to outcry among members

The doors closed Thursday, and the old hall officially became a memory, filled with laughter, endless evenings of playing pool, having a few drinks and more than a few smokes.

The men who defended our country will have one fewer option to pass their leisurely days now that the club at the post 5926 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars has ceased to operate.

Economic hardships have forced the club across the street from KBSN in Moses Lake to bid adieu. The move has not gone unnoticed by the veterans who frequent the place.

"They are unhappy, but they understand," said John Cerul, the post's quarter master. Most of the veterans spending their last moments before matters came to a close, were indeed upset by the news.

"It's terrible," said Jim Walster, who said veterans sometimes show up at the club several times in a week, and "enjoy it a lot."

World War II veteran Glenn Mitchell described another side of the rapport among old warriors and the club.

"I am handicapped, so I can't see (well enough) to drive," he said. "This is where I come. I watch the guys play pool and I listen to B.S. That's my entertainment."

Pearl Harbor survivor Jim Daniels had a more acerbic view of the current state of affairs forcing the closure.

"The reason it's closing it is because there is more money going out the back door than coming in the front," he said. "People in office have been stealing this place blind."

Club commander Larry Burton declined to comment on the closure, citing his official position, and limiting himself to say "let 'em talk."

Daniels insisted that the club could be saved if the people in charge of it operated it as a business, and not as a toy.

"It's a shame to have it close," he said, adding that if the post had people in office who cared about it, something could be done. However, he said, "all they care about is money."

Although the club will close, the post will remain open, Cerul said. Open as well will be the possibility of officially re-opening the club someday soon.

A tentative, yet not new plan, Cerul said, is to put all the veterans' organizations. in one same building. That is, however a long shot.

"The organizations themselves have been fighting (the idea)," he said. Conflicts as to who owns what and who pays for what have been the main contentious points.

Another problem facing this type of entity is the fact that younger veterans are not joining, and, as Mitchell put it, current members are dying off.

Those who are still around proudly tell outsiders of their decades of membership, and listen wryly to the sound of doors closing and locks clicking in the place that became their meeting point.

"This is a good club," Daniels said. "We got one of the best posts in the United States."