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VFW COMMANDER WHO BURNED DOWN HIS OWN POST

MAY NOT EVEN BE A VETERAN -- When he was removed

as VFW commander in 2006, his records were the

only ones that could not be found at the post.

For more about the VFW, use the VA Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.php?q=vfw&op=and

There's lots of chatter on the web about this incident.  If you'd like to learn more, use the following Google search parameters: 
     "Don Mudd" vfw

Story here... http://bgdailynews.com/articles/2008/03/15/news/news3.txt

Story below:

-------------------------

Former commander may not be veteran, according to his own past testimony

Post members have had suspicions for years

By BURTON SPEAKMAN, The Daily News, bspeakman@bgdailynews.com

To anyone outside the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post, revelations of a commander who burned down his own organization’s building were likely surprising. But members of Post 1298 in Bowling Green say they had concerns about former commander Don Mudd for years before he was convicted of running an illegal gambling operation out of the post and setting fire to the building.

Former Bowling Green VFW member W.G. Cannon of Scottsville said he attempted to get the state VFW leadership to look into Mudd’s military background for years, suspecting that Mudd might not have been a veteran at all. Cannon was part of the group appointed to review the post’s records after Mudd’s removal in 2006, and is a current member of the Franklin post.

“I have one state quartermaster tell me that he had checked and Mudd’s background was OK,” Cannon said.

But Mudd himself said he was not a military veteran, during testimony in a 1987 deposition in Edmonson County regarding a car accident in which he was injured, according to a transcript of the deposition.

Mudd was convicted March 6 in U.S. District Court in Bowling Green of operating an illegal gambling operation, two counts of mail fraud, one count of conspiracy to impair or impede the Internal Revenue Service, and arson for a 2003 fire that destroyed the post building on Ky. 185.

Several members of the post had asked state officials to investigate Mudd because of his handling of meetings and the post’s financial records, Cannon said.

“When there’s a problem, you take care of it, you don’t let it fester for years. In this case, the problem was allowed to fester for years,” Cannon said - but added that the state ignored a lot of pleas for help.

Only veterans who can provide documented military discharge papers are eligible to be VFW members, but whether Mudd ever did so is unclear; the national VFW did not respond to calls for comment about how or if Mudd’s veteran status had been verified.

When Mudd was removed as VFW commander in 2006, his records were the only ones that could not be found at the post, current Commander Mike Graf said.

“The national VFW rules clearly state that there needs to be a (military report of separation) on file at the post for all officers,” Graf said. The issue has led the current VFW leadership to take steps to ensure non-veterans are not allowed to join in the future.

Two former members of the post have been asked not to return because they could not provide the military separation form, Graf said, and the post now has an expert on the forms going over each record.

“There were a lot of other members who left on their own because they knew they had no business being here,” he said.

The post has also sent letters to each of its members, requesting that they resubmit their discharge records.

This weekend at a VFW convention in Owensboro, Bowling Green post officials said they are going to suggest making the measures they have taken mandatory throughout VFWs in Kentucky, Graf said.

On Friday, Mudd’s attorney, John Caudill of Louisville, said only that talking about his clients’ veteran status is irrelevant to any of the legal issues surrounding him.

-------------------------

posted by Larry Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org

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