We stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. We advocate for peace and an immediate withdrawal by Russian forces.
For The Record
About four years ago, in June 2022, an incoming Post Commander, seemingly motivated more by vindictiveness than camaraderie, called the police to request a trespass warning be issued against a Canteen Manager and an outgoing Post Commander who were doing nothing more than standing their ground expecting a proper turnover of an alcohol inventory. In the weeks that followed, the then District Commander failed to demonstrate the leadership associated with conducting a comprehensive all-source review to resolve the matter and instead attempted to issue an inappropriate gag order to the former Post Commander.
When the arguably unlawful gag order was not accepted, the District Commander took further retaliatory actions including orchestrating the removal of the former Post Commander from his elected District officer position and contributing to the initiation of provably false VFW charges against the former Post Commander. Instead of stepping back and rethinking the actions on this matter, the new Post Commander and the District Commander continued to make statements and place in writing readily proven false and arguably defamatory statements about the former Post Commander.
Throughout this period in several on-record messages to District and VFW Department of Florida leaders, the former Post Commander attempted to mitigate the impact of these false statements by requesting that all parties sit down, discuss the issues, and resolve the matter. These requests were ignored at both the District and Department level in favor of wagon circling which only shielded the root bad behavior. At some point it became apparent that VFW District and Department leaders were either incapable of resolving or unwilling to resolve the issue, so the former Post Commander and his spouse sought remedy through the civil court system charging the named defendants with defamation.
The defendants through their counsel requested a dismissal of the case but the Court disapproved. Later the District Commander pursued a summary judgement in the District Commander's favor but that too was unsuccessful. And though civil litigation moves at glacial speed, the ensuing months which became three years gave time for objective folks outside the VFW to realize that the preponderance of the evidence favored the former Post Commander's position that the defendants actions were defamatory.
From the onset of the civil action the Post Commander and his spouse stated on record that their civil action was not about monetary compensation but rather the desire to put the truth on record and to hold accountable those who chose not to be truthful. In the Bleak House world of civil litigation, accountability is, in the end, measured primarily by who pays whom for damages and how much. In an effort to keep the case from going before a jury, the defendants chose to settle out of court. As understood by the Post Commander and his spouse, the sizable settlement compensation was paid by the insurance company for the VFW Department of Florida whose attorneys had been representing the defendants. One of the defendant's attorney unduly protracted the settlement by trying to impose confidentiality on the former Post Commander and his spouse even though no confidentiality had been an agreed upon condition of the mediation. The truth need not hide behind confidentiality.
Regardless of how any Post, District, or Department member may try to spin the outcome of the civil action, all should realize that the defendants and their counsel would never have settled with the former Post Commander and his spouse if they had truly believed the evidence favored the defendants. When one weaves an elaborate web of deceit and mistruths, the only one eventually caught in the web is the weaver. The defendants arguably broke one of the top ten (the ninth) -- it was bound to catch up to them eventually.
In the end, perseverance matters and truth prevails.
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