Vietnam War Veterans Day Fellowship Gathering - Ammannsville Texas - March 29, 2022
[posted on: 3-30-2022]
[updated on: 4-10-2022 (VVA chapter 1069 member Dana Sternadel, writes Report/Article about event)]
[updated on: 4-12-2022 (El Campo Leader News Article & Pictures)]
[updated on: 2-11-2023 (Picture taken at this event gets into the VVA 2023 National Calendar)]

El Campo VVA Chapter 1069 and 4 other local area VVA Chapters (Hallettsville 854, Schulenburg 870, Victoria 898 & Columbus 1127) together, planned and attended a Fellowship Gathering to honor "National Vietnam War Veterans Day" on March 29, 2022. The event was held at the KJT hall located in Ammannsville, Texas. Over 100 VVA members (of the 5 VVA Chapters) and their spouses attended the event! Total attendance was approximately 200+. As far as we know, this was the first time a gathering like this has taken place in this part of Texas. Note that this event was open only to members & family of the 5 mentioned chapters.

WEBPAGE UPDATE: 2-11-2023
The VVA National 2023 Calendar, month of March, includes a picture taken at this event!

The photos below show the picture that is included in the 2023 VVA National Calendar, for the month of March. The photo was one of several submitted by chapter 1069 member Bob Supak, after the March 29 event.

Bob submitted the group picture seen up in the upper right corner of above photo.

In the photo above, from left to right are chapter 1069 members, Ronnie Miller, Leonard Sternadel, Joe McCreary, Rodney Spencer and John Steelman.

The caption under the picture reads...

"Members of Chapter 1069 in El Campo, TX, gathered to celebrate National Vietnam War Veterans Day. Over 100 Vietnam veterans attended the event including members from chapters 854, 870, 898, 1127 and 1069."

WEBPAGE UPDATE: 4-10-2022, 4-12-2022
Following Report & Newspaper Article Photos by chapter 1069 member, Dana Sternadel
"Vietnam Veterans Celebrate, Five VVA Chapters Unite"

March 29th was a special day for five groups of area-wide Vietnam Veterans. For the first time, members from five chapters of the Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) gathered in Ammannseville, Texas, to celebrate National Vietnam War Veteran's Day. (see above photo) The original idea began two years ago, but the celebration was delayed because of Covid. The event was hosted by VVA Chapter 870 of Schulenburg and organized by Ch 870 Vice-President Don Christen.

Five years ago, then-President Donald Trump signed into law the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017, designating every March 29 the day to honor the service and sacrifices of Vietnam War veterans. That particular day was chosen since March 29, 1973 was the day the last U.S. combat troops departed Vietnam. During the war, more than 2,700,000 service members were part of the U.S. effort, and over 58,000 lost their lives. Still today, there are more than 1,200 military service members missing in Vietnam.

In addition to Schulenburg, the other VVA chapters who attended were Chapter 854 Hallettsville, Chapter 898 Victoria, Chapter 1069 El Campo, and Chapter 1127 Columbus. Approximately 200 members and spouses attended the afternoon event, where guests enjoyed socializing, a catered meal, bucket raffle, and listened to an enlightening speech from Fayette County Judge Joe Weber, who is also a VVA Chapter 870 member and retired Marine Lieutenant General.

Hosting Chapter 870 President Andy Janda was thrilled with the attendance. "This was a fantastic event," he said. "More than 200 people attended; we'll do this again next year; I think even more people will come."

Former Chapter 1069 President Leonard Sternadel said the event was long overdue. "We started talking about some sort of event soon after Trump signed the day into law, but the planning was slow," he said. "Then when we had plans, Covid hit, so that held us up two years."

In the hall, a bulletin board was set up for members to add their name, date, military unit, and location of time spent in Vietnam, in an effort to reunite veterans who might have unknowingly served together, or served in the same location in different years. In one instance, members from four different chapters learned that they served in the same military unit, but at different times. "That idea came from our chapter member Bob Supak," Sternadel said, "and it was great. We Vietnam Veterans have a special camaraderie amongst ourselves, and this enabled some guys to meet complete strangers who shared something in common with each other."

As members and spouses were leaving, many made comments they would like to gather on March 29 of every year. Event organizers plan to make that happen. Raffle organizers would like to thank McCoy's Building Supply, Weikel's Bakery, and Whataburger for their support.

Following Report & Pictures by chapter 1069 member, Bob Supak

The above photo shows the early on gathering veterans and their spouses inside the KJT hall. The event was scheduled to start at 2:00 pm and would be over by 6:00 pm. The intent of the early ending time was that there be plenty of daylight for attendees to drive home. And this was a much appreciated planning by those attending.

In the above photo, please note the decorations and red, white & blue coverings on all the tables. We'd like to thank the Schulenburg 870 host chapter members & spouses who came early to the hall and did all the decorating. They did a great job!

Above photo shows the hall starting to fill up. It was really great to meet with Vietnam Veterans of other VVA chapters!

Above photo shows the gift raffle table just being setup by Dana Sternadel of the El Campo chapter. The purpose of the raffle was to help pay for the hall fee, the table decorations and other items needed for the event. Each chapter was asked to bring some items to put into the raffle. Now even though it may not seem like there are many items on the raffle table.....

....HOWEVER, once we opened up the raffle (see above photo), folks started purchasing tickets like crazy! In the end, not only did we have enough monies to pay for the hall, decorations and other costs, there was enough monies left over that we were able to run a second cash-gift raffle to 9 lucky winners!! The officers of the 5 participating chapters would like to thank all those who participated in the raffle and helped pay the event's costs. What a great show of generosity by all of you - Thank You! And a big thanks to Dana Sternadel for setting up the raffle and selling tickets! The raffle ticket sales ended at 3:00 pm and the raffle was held. Much thanks to Leonard Sternadel of Chapter 1069 for playing raffle MC.

The above photo shows 3 members of El Campo VVA Chapter 1069. That's Joe McCreary on the far left, the President of VVA Chapter 1069.

Above photo shows that the raffle ticket area is still busy!

The above photo shows someone adding his name and other Vietnam in-country information to the "Find-a-Buddy" bulletin board. The idea was for attending veterans to pin their Vietnam in-country information (name, when you were in Vietnam, Where, What Battalion, etc.) on the board. Veterans could then check the board to see if maybe someone else was in the same place and time as you were.

Above and below photos show more members of El Campo VVA Chapter 1069 that attended the event.

After the raffle was concluded, our special guest speaker took the floor. (above photo)

His name is Joe Weber (above photo) and he is the County Judge in La Grange. Joe is a retired 3 Star Marine Lt. General (Vietnam era). He gave a very good talk about the Vietnam Veteran. A big thanks to Joe Weber for speaking at our event.

At 4:00 pm, lunch was served (above photo). The meal was catered by Alley BBQ from Moulton, TX. The meal was BBQ Brisket, potato salad, pinto beans, salad, desert & tea. Some of the very best BBQ ever eaten!! And by the time everyone finished their meal, it was sadly time for the event to come to an end.

It was a great day at the KJT hall in Ammannsville! (see above photo). The officers and members of El Campo, VVA Chapter 1069 would like to thank the officers and members of Texas VVA Chapters; Hallettsville 854, Schulenburg 870, Victoria 898 and Columbus 1127, for their planning and organizing of this event. What a great bunch of Veterans!

We'd especially like to thank the officers, members & spouses of Schulenburg VVA chapter 870, for being the "host" chapter. What a great job they did with the catering service and the hall. It turned out to be a great venue for the event. Thank you all!

From our Chapter, we also want to thank our chapter officers and especially chapter member, past President and chapter co-founder, Leonard Sternadel, for his all his planning and working with the other chapters to make this event a success.

Make note that all of our members who attended the event had nothing but high praise for the event and feel the event was a great success. We'd also like to thank ALL those who attended and do hope they enjoyed the day. Perhaps this may be an annual event and will just get bigger and better over time.

For more information about each of the 5 chapters that participated in this event, use the link below to visit the VVA National website and search for them in the listing of all Texas VVA chapters.

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