I read an obituary of Facebook tonight, which had been written about one of my old friends from junior college. Among the many hats this guy had worn, the obit credits him with being a member of the VFW. But, to the best of my knowledge, he never sever in any branch of the Armed Services. He was born in 1955, though, and there’s a good possibility that one or both of his parents served in WWII or Korea.
Is a VFW membership something that can be passed down from generation to generation?
They have an auxillary as well:
I served in the Navy from 1975 to 1979. I do not qualify to be a member.
There are VFWs that are open to sons of veterans of foreign wars and many VFWs will take any veteran now. I think it depends on how hard it has been to maintain membership levels. Locally, the VFWs were already getting low on members 25 years ago. So it probably comes down to check your local VFW for the rules they use.
One of my friends is considering joining the local one to him and he is eligible. No service, but son of a WWII vet. I checked at one point at a different one, and my service in the Navy in the 80s was sufficient to join.
Official Eligibility
Here’s a link to the eligibility requirements. In general, a foreign war campaign ribbon or medal will allow a person to become a member.
(PDF, if we are still doing warnings for that)
And in case anyone’s unclear on the point, a “foreign war campaign medal” doesn’t require that you were particularly valorous or heroic. For every war or other major campaign, there’s some medal that’s awarded to everyone who took part without major screw-up (often, multiple such medals). There are, of course, various other medals that are awarded for noteworthy accomplishments or behaviors beyond that, but those aren’t necessary for joining VFW.
You can be a social member. Just need to be “sponsored” by someone else. Not sure if that someone else needs to be a relative or not, but I have a feeling they do need to be a relative. My dad’s an actual combat-veteran-on-foreign-soil VFW member and he bugs me to join as a social member all the time.
Only the actual veteran members get to attend and vote at their meetings. But if you’re a social member that spends a ton of time at the post I can definitely see putting it in your obituary. Or if you’re the person who’s writing the obituary and only knew that Uncle Larry spent all his time drinking at the post, not understanding the nuances of membership, I can see putting it in the obituary.
Eligibility Requirements for VFW Auxiliary Membership:
I’m sure the obituary was correct about which organization the deceased belonged to - but as far as “VFWs will take any veteran” or “open to sons of veterans” , those were most likely American Legion posts, which do accept anyone who served since December 1941 and has an affiliated organization called Sons of the American Legion. The VFW and the AL get mixed up all the time- the AL post on my corner is constantly referred to as the “VFW hall”