Local Vets Say Membership on Decline at Coraopolis VFW
An official with the Veterans of Foreign Wars Keith-Homes Post 402 says new members have been hard to come by in recent years.
Ken Ochman, quartermaster for the Veterans of Foreign War Post 402, knows the number by heart: 390. It's the number of members now enrolled in the Coraopolis-based VFW, and it's a number that Ochman said gets smaller by the year. "We loose probably 25 to 30 members a year," Ochman said. "And I think last year we signed up only four new members. Maybe five." Membership has declined steadily at VFW posts throughout the country since national membership peaked in the 1990s at 2.2 million. Today, 1.45 veterans are members of the organization—more than 30 percent of them are older than 70, according to VFW statistics. Ochman said deaths among the Post 402 ranks are the reason for its dwindling numbers. He said most of the veterans …
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