Nevertheless, Sheridan joined several other veterans last week for an organizational meeting of the Military Order of the Purple Heart in Ironton.

Wednesday, February 09, 2000

Nevertheless, Sheridan joined several other veterans last week for an organizational meeting of the Military Order of the Purple Heart in Ironton.

"I like it for the camaraderie of it," he said. "I’ve always been active with veterans’ organizations. It’s an outlet for a special group of people."

Ron McFann began efforts last year to form a local chapter of the organization so that area Purple Heart veterans like himself – those soldiers who took a bullet in battle or a wound in war – can be honored for such sacrifice and service to their country.

The Military Order of the Purple Heart is a congressionally recognized group of veterans, with a headquarters in Springfield, Va. Chapters around the company provide camaraderie for Purple Heart recipients and organized lobbying power for veterans’ rights.

The order represents veterans before Congress, the Veterans Administration, the Department of Defense and elsewhere.

There is a chapter in Ashland, Ky., but there needs to be one based in Ironton, and last week’s meeting will lead to that, McFann said.

"We need groups who will work for us and this is one," he said.

David Brown, a retired sergeant who served with the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II, said a local chapter of the order will be successful.

"The thing of it is to be organized and stick together be a unit," Brown said.

Like a military unit, but one bent on work for the unit’s comrades, Purple Heart veteran David Leffingwell said.

"Being wounded changes your life," he said.

By banding together, those changes are easier to understand and deal with, even 50 years after it happened, Leffingwell said.

"And this brings a voice of experience to veterans’ issues," he said, adding that the group might even lobby congressmen and senators as part of its activities.

The Ironton chapter has its 12 members required for a charter, McFann said. Only a little paperwork, a special charter meeting and bolstering the ranks, remain to be done, he said.

Meetings will be held the first Tuesday each month at 7:30 p.m. at the Ironton City Center.

And Sheridan looks forward to those meetings.

"You get a group of fellas together like this, they communicate better with each other than their ministers, doctors, even family members."

For more information about the Military Order of the Purple Heart, call McFann at 532-0533.