By Dorothy Meindok
The Post Newspaper Veterans Consultant
I took last week off to move and am so glad to be back. I hope everyone is well. I have an invite for everyone coming up this next Sunday, May 29, 2022, to VVA #685’s Texas City Watchfire at Jack Brooks Park beginning at 6:00pm. It’s free and is rooted in freedom, memorial and support. It’s a nationwide event that takes place over Memorial Day weekend hosted by Vietnam Veterans of America chapters across our great country.
What is Watchfire?
Watchfires are a military tradition following battles or long marches into combat to aid warriors in finding their way back upon separation from the whole.
Historically, in our United States, the Watchfire began in the times of The Revolutionary War. Beginning in New York’s Hudson River Valley Area by the colonists there, they used bonfires to alert residents that the British were approaching as well as to help lead American soldiers separated from their units back to safety and home fires among Allies. It is even rumored that this practice helped to establish the replications of quilt square patterns later painted on homes and barns to aide safe passage associated with slavery & the Underground Railroad.
Here in our area, Watchfire began in 1993 with our local Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) #685. Along with VVA chapters across our country, the fires are lit every Memorial Day weekend to provide a lighthouse of sorts to honor and guide lost warriors and veterans of war back HOME among the safety and care of those that love them and appreciate their sacrifices.
Local Vietnam Veteran and VVA’s Texas State Council President, Buddy Farina started the time-honored ceremony on the Texas City Dike in 1993 when VVA #685 Chapter was founded. The yearly fire has burned for over 29 years right here in Galveston County.
In 2013, the traffic getting onto and off the Texas City Dike proved problematic as attendance happily grew, causing hours of delay. To not put off anyone wishing to attend, the organization moved the location to a different location and the event has taken place since 2014 at Jack Brooks Park in Hitchcock off of Highway 6 and FM 2004.
A veteran, Farina mentions that over the years the event here became focused on helping our veterans exposed to the wars faced when they come home in medical and benefits conflicts due to Agent Orange, trauma, disinformation and bureaucracy associated with those battles. Our Vietnam Veterans suffered greatly, as history evidenced in social acceptance both inside and outside of our governmental, private & public agencies, not to mention the general public itself. They were simply treated poorly and have worked tirelessly to better that, so no other warrior faces the same, undeserved disgrace for protecting our nation’s interests and humanitarian efforts abroad as they execute the duty given them.
I thank them for that, personally, because they fought hard. They helped establish VA laws and rights that protect millions of today’s veterans regardless of any misapplication or distortions of those laws. Vietnam Veterans have paved a more secure road of wellness and honor for those that have returned home after them. In fact, all of today’s veterans owe them a “thank you.” They have shaped not only our laws but our medical care not only at VA, but within scientific research and development, social justice, corporate and nonprofit supports, academia and even the movies we love to watch, like “Forrest Gump.”
Our Vietnam Veterans are retiring and passing on as that population ages, but again, they are falling forward instead of backwards and ever vigilant for their brothers and sisters of tomorrow, have begun the hard work of “passing the baton” on to the new generation of freedom-loving veterans of America. VVA #685 is working alongside veterans group Operation Honor Our Local Veterans headed by USN veteran and Santa Fe Councilmember Fidencio Leija.
This year’s Watchfire will share focus of the battles veterans face in chemical exposures that have plagued all of our wars, giving reason for clandestine actions and reactions among our populations both domestically and internationally, yet leaving our warriors suffering in the dark looking for home while fighting against systems of disinformation further confused by the easy access of Google, TikTok and others. Our younger generations can become better informed by engaging in events and relationships with veterans through the voice of our chartered and Congressionally-recognized organizations such as VVA, the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Paralyzed Veterans of America & Disabled American Veterans.
The Watchfire is an important and moving event not to miss. It’s free and we’d love to have you attend.
Again, it’s on Sunday, May 29, 2022 beginning at 6:00pm at Jack Brooks Park. There will be food and drinks and of course a big, beautiful beacon of fire, calling out to all that seek acceptance, love, support and healing.
Hope to see you there (Bring a lawn chair and get there early for sausage on a stick, chopped beef sandwiches & open fire, roasted corn on the cob)!
Dorothy Meindok, USN Gulf War Veteran
Local event Contributors include but are not limited to:
Boy Scouts of America – Packs 224 & 628, Troop 554
Commercial Sound Services
Construction Common Sense
Crowder Funeral Homes
Del Papa Distribution Company
DW Florals & Gifts
Gringo’s Mexican Restaurant
Industrial Material Corporation
Fidencio Leija Farmers Insurance Agency
Operation Honor Our Local Veterans
Russo’s NY Pizzeria & Italian Kitchen
Law 4 Warriors
The Post Newspaper
Team Leija Cookers
With endorsed support from:
The American Legion #554, Tim Dohr
Vets 4 Vets, Damian Bennett of Beaumont
Congressman Randy Weber, TX-14
Texas State Representative, Mayes Middleton, District 23
SERVE, Jay Coppock, ACU Texas
Transitions Plus, League City, Texas
Renee Rodriguez, Fine Art Photography
& many others.
THANK YOU!
Dorothy Meindok is the Veterans Consultant for The Post Newspaper. She served in the United States Navy and is currently a lawyer advocating for the rights of our nation’s veterans.
