By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
“My greatest accomplishment was basic training. It set me up for life,” said Denise King, who is the first female Post Commander for VFW Post 6378 in Dickinson.
King signed up for the Army because she wanted to get out of Chicago. “It’s cold there and I knew I wanted to be someplace else. It was either college or the military and college wasn’t for me,” she explained.
Only 17 years old and barely holding her high school diploma in her hand, she enlisted in the Army.
“I loved my time in the army and I’d do it all over again, if I could,” King said. “I love all the traditions of the military, I love it that the military is precise and to the point,” she added.
The year was 1982, and King was on a bus for basic training at Fort McClellan in Alabama. Her advanced individual training was in heavy equipment operation (She did not learn how to operate a tank).
King did learn to operate 2.5 to 5-ton trucks and she spent her time in the Army driving people and equipment wherever the mission required.
At one point, she was stationed at Fort Hood. That was when she decided one day she would call Texas her home. “Texas has great climate and accessibility to everything I wanted, like the beach,” said King.
King was deployed once to Central America in the mid 80’s. Her last duty station was in Germany and in August 1989 she was flown to New Jersey, where she signed her final discharge papers.
“I asked for a plane ticket to Texas,” she said.
Her home for a couple months was in Killeen, but Mardi Gras drew her to Galveston, and she hasn’t left the coastal area of Texas since 1990.
She is very comfortable with her life in Galveston County and doesn’t venture too far away. “I traveled a lot when I was younger, now I stay close to home,” explained King, although her new position does require her to attend district meetings that are sometimes an hour’s drive away.
So, what do some of the male members of Post 6378 think of their new commander?
“We’re just happy to have Denise as our commander. She’s done a lot for our post,” said Benny Soto, who, like King, is an Army veteran and is a Trustee of the post.
“She’s been the highest recruiter in the area bringing in more members,” said Fred Reyna, who served in the Marines and is currently Senior Vice Commander of the post. “She’s tough but fair, it’s an honor to work with her,” he added.
“She acquired the furniture for our post,” added Jack Sonora. “When we couldn’t find blank ammunition to use in our Veterans’ funeral detail, she got them for us,” he added.
They tease her with “Ah you weren’t even born when Vietnam was happening.” She sets them straight, “I was, too.”
Her style as commander is one of engagement with her members. She is at the post every time the post is open, and although she doesn’t stay till closing, she is there to greet as many members and guests who walk through the door as is possible.
She knows her members. She knows their areas of need and will lend a quick hand if she can to keep them from falling into a hard spot.
