Military Order of the
Purple Heart
Of the U.S.A., Inc.
National Executive Committee Meeting
Branson, Missouri
08 July 2019
ARS REPORTING
Military Order of the Purple Heart 2 of the U.S.A., Inc. Page
1 INDEX
2 Call to Order 3
3 Pledge of Allegiance 3
4 Invocation 3
5 Roll Call 4
6 Credentials Committee 18
7 National Commander’s Opening Remarks 18
8 Questions/Comments from the NEC Floor 27
9 Credentionals Committee 52
10 National Chaplain’s Comments 52
11 Roll Call 54
12 Announcements 63
13 Additional Proposed Resolutions 130
14 Adjournment 139
15
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 3 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 Military Order of the Purple Heart
2 of the U.S.A., Inc.
3 NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
4 08 JULY 2019
5 (11:06 a.m.)
6 CALL TO ORDER
7 NC GREENLAW: I call this NEC meeting to
8 order.
9 PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
10 NC GREENLAW: Face the flag. Stand and face
11 the flag. Senior Vice?
12 SVC GARCIA: Present arms.
13 PATRIOTS: I pledge allegiance to the Flag
14 of the United States of America and to the Republic
15 for which it stands, one nation under God,
16 indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
17 NC GREENLAW: Ready, two.
18 OPENING PRAYER
19 NC GREENLAW: Take your seats -- excuse me,
20 Chaplain. Chaplain? Please stand for the Invocation.
21 CHAPLAIN MILLER: Again, I would ask each
22 individual here to pray in your own personal beliefs
23 as I pray in mine.
24 Your Holy, we do thank you for everything you’ve
25 done for us and for protecting, for giving us safety
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 4 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 coming here to this Convention. Lord, again, I ask
2 you to please watch over and protect each one of us
3 here. Help us to make the right decisions, help us to
4 get rid of our differences from each other and to work
5 together to make this Order what it should be. This,
6 I ask in your name. Amen.
7 PATRIOTS: Amen.
8 NC GREENLAW: Take your seats. Thank you,
9 gentlemen.
10 ROLL CALL
11 NC GREENLAW: I’d like to call -- have the
12 Roll Call. Mr. Adjutant?
13 NA HERNANDEZ: I’m going to do this a
14 little bit differently. I notice a lot of people
15 missing. I’m going to start at the top and go down.
16 For the Regions, I’m not going to -- I guess this
17 year Region IV has the lead. If we can get Region
18 IV to line up once I get down to the name of
19 Frederick Taylor -- I don’t think he’s here, but
20 when you hear Fred Taylor’s name, come up, please
21 start lining up and we’ll go IV, V, VI, III, II, I.
22 Please identify who you are for this first
23 one, what Department. Region Commanders, please
24 take the lead. If there’s a Department missing, not
25 here for the NEC, please identify that by state and
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 5 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 name.
2 I’m going to start first with Douglas
3 Greenlaw?
4 NC GREENLAW: Here.
5 NA HERNANDEZ: Felix Garcia?
6 SVC GARCIA: Here.
7 NA HERNANDEZ: Rick Cherone?
8 JVC CHERONE: Here.
9 NA HERNANDEZ: Phil Moore?
10 NFO MOORE: Here.
11 NA HERNANDEZ: Dennis Wallot?
12 NFC CHAIR WALLOT: Here, sir.
13 NA HERNANDEZ: Al Flyr?
14 PATRIOT FLYR: Here, sir.
15 NA HERNANDEZ: Paul Picard?
16 PATRIOT PICKART: Here, sir.
17 NA HERNANDEZ: David Price, excused. Gary
18 Witt, excused. Bill Suhre, excused.
19 Richard Hunt?
20 NI HUNT: Here, sir.
21 NA HERNANDEZ: Nicholas McIntosh?
22 NPC CHAIR McINTOSH: Here, sir.
23 NA HERNANDEZ: Matt Bridges?
24 (No response)
25 NA HERNANDEZ: Matt Bridges?
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 6 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 (No response)
2 NA HERNANDEZ: Matt Bridges?
3 (No response)
4 NA HERNANDEZ: Charles Eggleston?
5 REG I COM EGGLESTON: Here.
6 NA HERNANDEZ: Chris Vedvick?
7 PATRIOT VEDVICK: Here.
8 NA HERNANDEZ: John Dismer?
9 (No response)
10 NA HERNANDEZ: John D. Dismer?
11 (No response)
12 NA HERNANDEZ: Barry Gasdek?
13 REG III COM GASDEK: Here.
14 NA HERNANDEZ: Lenny Lazzara?
15 REG IV COM LAZZARA: Here.
16 NA HERNANDEZ: Charles Adkins?
17 REG V COM ADKINS: Here, sir.
18 NA HERNANDEZ: James Anderson?
19 REG VI COM ANDERSON: Here, sir.
20 NA HERNANDEZ: Frank Athanason?
21 (No response)
22 NA HERNANDEZ: Frank Athanason?
23 (No response)
24 NA HERNANDEZ: Boyd Barclay?
25 PNC BARCLAY: Here.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 7 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NA HERNANDEZ: James Blaylock?
2 (No response)
3 NA HERNANDEZ: James Blaylock?
4 (No response)
5 NA HERNANDEZ: Jim Durkin?
6 (No response)
7 NA HERNANDEZ: Jim Durkin?
8 (No response)
9 NA HERNANDEZ: Hershel Gober?
10 (No response)
11 NA HERNANDEZ: Hershel Gober?
12 (No response)
13 NA HERNANDEZ: Joseph Hems?
14 (No response)
15 NA HERNANDEZ: Joseph Hems?
16 (No response)
17 NA HERNANDEZ: Bill Hutton?
18 (No response)
19 NA HERNANDEZ: Bill Hutton?
20 (No response)
21 NA HERNANDEZ: Patrick Little, excused.
22 Bruce McKenty?
23 (No response)
24 NA HERNANDEZ: Bruce McKenty?
25 (No response)
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 8 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NA HERNANDEZ: Bob Puskar, excused. Jim
2 Randles?
3 (No response)
4 NA HERNANDEZ: Jim Randles?
5 (No response)
6 NA HERNANDEZ: Jeff Roy?
7 (No response)
8 NA HERNANDEZ: Jeff Roy?
9 (No response)
10 NA HERNANDEZ: Ron Siebels?
11 PNC SIEBELS: Here sir.
12 NA HERNANDEZ: Al Silvano?
13 (No response)
14 NA HERNANDEZ: Al Silvano?
15 (No response)
16 NA HERNANDEZ: Jim Sims?
17 PNC SIMS: Here.
18 NA HERNANDEZ: Region IV, please start
19 lining up. Region IV, please start lining up to the
20 mic, followed by Region V. Fred Taylor?
21 (No response)
22 NA HERNANDEZ: Fred Taylor?
23 (No response)
24 NA HERNANDEZ: Neil Van Ess?
25 (No response)
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 9 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NA HERNANDEZ: Neil Van Ess?
2 (No response)
3 NA HERNANDEZ: Bill Wroolie?
4 (No response)
5 NA HERNANDEZ: Bill Wroolie?
6 (No response)
7 NA HERNANDEZ: He’s no longer an NEC
8 member, he resigned, excuse me.
9 Region IV, Commander, identify yourself.
10 DEPT COM EBERSBACH: Department of North
11 Carolina, the first Purple Heart State, Bill
12 Ebersbach, Department Commander.
13 NA HERNANDEZ: North Carolina is present.
14 Next Commander? Region IV please, Region IV.
15 Region IV first. Here, I’m going to make it easy,
16 Region IV, Alabama?
17 DEPT COM DAUGHERTY: Daugherty, Department
18 Commander.
19 NA HERNANDEZ: Florida?
20 DEPT COM VEDVICK: Vedvick, Department
21 Commander.
22 NA HERNANDEZ: Georgia?
23 CRED CHAIR HUNT: Patriot Commander --
24 Patriot Adjutant?
25 NA HERNANDEZ: Sir?
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 10 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 CRED CHAIR HUNT: Each one of those
2 Patriots who are responding that they are voting
3 cannot leave until they have their paddle or they
4 will not have a vote. Would Alabama please approach
5 the mic and receive that paddle?
6 NA VAN HOY: Florida, come next and get
7 yours and let’s proceed. Georgia?
8 DEPT COM FLENER: Flener, Department
9 Commander.
10 NA HERNANDEZ: Mississippi?
11 DEPT COM SHAW: Excuse me, Adjutant, he’s
12 at the hospital. He was not feeling well this
13 morning. He is here, though.
14 NA HERNANDEZ: Identify yourself, who you
15 are please. We are being recorded.
16 DEPT COM SHAW: Todd Shaw, Department
17 Commander, Tennessee.
18 NA HERNANDEZ: Who is missing from
19 Mississippi, name?
20 DEPT COM SHAW: Mr. Truitt Breazeale
21 NA HERNANDEZ: Copy. North Carolina?
22 DEPT COM EBERSBACH: North Carolina, Bill
23 Ebersbach.
24 NA HERNANDEZ: Puerto Rico?
25 (No response)
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 11 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NA HERNANDEZ: Puerto Rico?
2 (No response)
3 NA HERNANDEZ: Region Commander, if they’re
4 not here, please identify the persons missing.
5 REG IV COM LAZZARA: They’re not here.
6 NA HERNANDEZ: Who’s the name? Puerto
7 Rico, who’s not here, name?
8 REG IV COM LAZZARA: (inaudible).
9 NA HERNANDEZ: South Carolina?
10 DEPT COM LOPEZ: Carl Lopez, Department
11 Commander.
12 NA HERNANDEZ: Tennessee?
13 DEPT COM SHAW: Todd Shaw, Department
14 Commander, Tennessee.
15 NA HERNANDEZ: Region V, start with
16 Arkansas?
17 DEPT COM FERGUSON: Cardner Ferguson,
18 Department Commander.
19 NA HERNANDEZ: Colorado?
20 DEPT COM ELIZALDE: Paco Elizalde,
21 Department Commander.
22 NA HERNANDEZ: Kansas?
23 REG V COM ADKINS: Charles Adkins,
24 Commander, Region V, Mike Callahan from Kansas is
25 excused.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 12 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NA HERNANDEZ: New Mexico?
2 DEPT COM COMSTOCK: Pete Comstock,
3 Department Commander.
4 NA HERNANDEZ: Region VI, please start
5 lining up. Oklahoma?
6 DEPT COM CASSON: Department Commander,
7 Frank Casson, Department of Oklahoma.
8 NA HERNANDEZ: Texas?
9 DEPT COM LUNKWICZ: John Lunkwicz,
10 Department Commander.
11 NA HERNANDEZ: Region VI, Arizona?
12 REG V COM ADKINS: Adjutant?
13 NA HERNANDEZ: Yes, sir?
14 REG V COM ADKINS: We have Louisiana, you
15 skipped Louisiana.
16 NA HERNANDEZ: Copy. Who’s Louisiana?
17 PATRIOT BROWN (Alt): Danny Brown, delegate
18 from Louisiana.
19 NA HERNANDEZ: I apologize, sir. Thank
20 you. All right, now to Region VI, Arizona?
21 DEPT COM McGLYNN: Ed McGlynn, Department
22 Commander.
23 NA HERNANDEZ: California?
24 DEPT COM EARTHMAN: Charles Earthman,
25 Department Commander.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 13 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NA HERNANDEZ: Guam?
2 REG VI COM ANDERSON: Region Commander Jim
3 Anderson, Guam, Nick Francisco, not present.
4 NA HERNANDEZ: Hawaii?
5 PATRIOT TANAKA (Alt): Tommy Tanaka, Past
6 Department Commander for Hawaii. I’ll vote as a
7 delegate.
8 NA HERNANDEZ: Roger, sir. Utah?
9 (No response)
10 (Applause)
11 NA HERNANDEZ: Region I, start lining up
12 please.
13 DEPT COM GIBSON: Dee Gibson, Department of
14 Utah Commander.
15 NA HERNANDEZ: We’ll go to Region I.
16 Region II, start lining up. Go ahead.
17 DEPT COM YELINEK: Wait a second here,
18 Nevada is reporting in, Len Yelinek, Department
19 Commander, Nevada.
20 NA HERNANDEZ: Copy. Got it. Region I,
21 Connecticut?
22 (No response)
23 NA HERNANDEZ: Region I, Connecticut?
24 (No response)
25 NA HERNANDEZ: Connecticut’s not here.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 14 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 Delaware?
2 DEPT COM MORRIS: Gary Morris, Department
3 Commander.
4 NA HERNANDEZ: Massachusetts?
5 (No response.)
6 NA HERNANDEZ: Massachusetts?
7 (No response)
8 NA HERNANDEZ: Massachusetts is not here.
9 Maryland?
10 REG I COM EGGLESTON: Charles Eggleston,
11 Region I Commander, Maryland is excused.
12 NA HERNANDEZ: New Jersey?
13 (No response)
14 NA HERNANDEZ: New Jersey?
15 (No response)
16 NA HERNANDEZ: Not here. Northern New
17 England?
18 (No response)
19 NA HERNANDEZ: I think that’s been closed,
20 hasn’t it? New York?
21 (No response)
22 NA HERNANDEZ: New York?
23 (No response)
24 NA HERNANDEZ: Pennsylvania?
25 DEPT COM BOKAN: Frank J. Bokan, Commander,
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 15 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 Pennsylvania.
2 NA HERNANDEZ: Virginia?
3 (No response)
4 NA HERNANDEZ: Virginia?
5 (No response)
6 NA HERNANDEZ: Not here. Region II, Iowa?
7 (No response)
8 NA HERNANDEZ: Iowa?
9 DEPT COM HEIN: Richard Hein, Iowa.
10 NA HERNANDEZ: Illinois?
11 (No response)
12 NA HERNANDEZ: Illinois?
13 (No response)
14 NA HERNANDEZ: Illinois, not here.
15 Indiana?
16 DEPT COM SHADOWEN: Mike Shadowen,
17 Department Commander, Indiana.
18 NA HERNANDEZ: Kentucky?
19 DEPT COM THOMPSON: Gerry Thompson,
20 Department Commander, Kentucky.
21 NA HERNANDEZ: Michigan?
22 (No response)
23 NA HERNANDEZ: Michigan?
24 DEPT COM EATON: Robert Eaton, Department
25 Commander, Michigan.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 16 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NA HERNANDEZ: Minnesota?
2 DEPT COM ANDERSON: Department Commander,
3 Anderson, Minnesota.
4 NA HERNANDEZ: Montana?
5 (No response)
6 NA HERNANDEZ: Montana?
7 (No response)
8 NA HERNANDEZ: I’m doing the best I can.
9 Missouri?
10 DEPT COM SCHLEY: Wal Schley, Commander,
11 Department of Missouri.
12 NA HERNANDEZ: Nebraska?
13 DEPT COM JENSEN: Wade Jensen, Department
14 Commander.
15 NA VAN HOY: Ohio?
16 DEPT COM CUNNINGHAM: Tom Cunningham, Ohio,
17 Department Commander.
18 NA HERNANDEZ: Wisconsin?
19 (No response)
20 NA HERNANDEZ: Wisconsin?
21 DEPT COM GREENDEER: George Greendeer,
22 Department Commander.
23 NA HERNANDEZ: West Virginia?
24 DEPT COM McCORMICK: James McCormick,
25 Department Commander, West Virginia.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 17 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NA HERNANDEZ: Region III now, Region III.
2 Alaska?
3 DEPT COM KNOTT: John Knott, Department
4 Commander.
5 NA HERNANDEZ: Dakotas?
6 (No response)
7 NA HERNANDEZ: Dakotas?
8 UNIDENTIFIED PATRIOT: Ken Teunissen, he
9 should be here but he’s absent right now.
10 NA HERNANDEZ: Indiana? Idaho? Excuse me.
11 Idaho?
12 UNIDENTIFIED PATRIOT: Idaho, Ned Barker,
13 absent.
14 NA HERNANDEZ: Montana?
15 DEPT COM GATLIN: Char Gatlin, Department
16 Commander.
17 NA HERNANDEZ: Oregon?
18 DEPT COM RUPP: Lawrence Rupp, Oregon,
19 Department Commander.
20 NA HERNANDEZ: Washington?
21 DEPT COM OLIVAREZ: Robert Olivarez,
22 Department Commander, Washington.
23 NA HERNANDEZ: Wyoming?
24 REG III COM GASDEK: Barry Gasdek, Senior
25 Vice, Wyoming.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 18 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NA HERNANDEZ: Thank you all, gentlemen,
2 ladies. Commander, you have a quorum.
3 CREDENTIALS COMMITTEE
4 NC GREENLAW: One quick announcement, we’re
5 forming our Credentials Committee. The Chairman of
6 that committee is Chris Smrt. He is actively pursuing
7 the additional two members to that committee. We’ll
8 have that this afternoon.
9 NATIONAL COMMANDER’S OPENING REMARKS
10 NC GREENLAW: I’ve got a few words to say
11 and I’d like to say that I have nothing negative to
12 say about any person in this room. We’re all brothers
13 and this is a real brotherhood. I hate to see us
14 having this in-fighting. I will say that -- yes, sir?
15 Brothers and sisters, of course. Pardon me. Brothers
16 and sisters.
17 I do have a few things to say. It should
18 take about five minutes, it’s not long. This is going
19 to be an interesting Convention, conference, whatever
20 we call it. I apologize upfront for any mistakes, any
21 inadequacies that we show here because you’re looking
22 at the staff right here. We’ve got no staff, got no
23 money. We’re unfunded, we’re struggling for survival.
24 It’s pretty nasty out there, so we’re in this fight
25 together.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 19 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 I think this is the most important meeting
2 we’ve had in 60 years since we, we, founded the
3 Foundation in 1958. Our Foundation working for us,
4 not us for them.
5 The Foundation has failed us. I will say
6 some tough things about the Foundation, no one in this
7 room. God bless each and every one of you. Whatever
8 is said, don’t take it personal. When I pound on the
9 Foundation a little bit, it’s not about the
10 individuals on the Foundation, I don’t hate any of
11 them. I don’t hate anybody, but I will say that they
12 made some big mistakes as a group.
13 The Foundation has failed us. They’re now
14 insolvent. They’ve clearly broken our 2016 agreement
15 by not funding the Order. It’s been a negotiated,
16 reasonable budget of $6.4 million they signed,
17 sealed, did not deliver.
18 Our budget submitted for this year is just
19 right at $7.2 million. The Foundation has agreed to
20 fund us at a level of $600,000 for the year. We
21 can’t cut ourselves that deep, period. The entire
22 year. The Foundation has failed us. They failed in
23 their most important mission, to fund the Order.
24 They’ve become dependent on two flat revenue
25 streams, car donations and thrift stores, not much
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 20 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 else than that. As a member of the Foundation Board
2 as National Commander and an experienced board
3 member myself, I’m witnessing this firsthand,
4 eyewitness.
5 They’re doing about $25 million in revenue.
6 It’s a lot of revenue. $25 million, that’s a lot of
7 money. They’re spending $24.2 million in expenses
8 to make that $25 million. In other words, they’re
9 doing about 3% net profit. In the nonprofit world,
10 we call it surplus. That’s a 3% margin. 97% of the
11 money that they bring in at the Foundation goes to
12 expenses. The average in the country for a military
13 nonprofit is about 25%, 20% to 25%, tops.
14 In 2014, which to me seems like a few days
15 ago. 2014, the Foundation had $21.8 million net
16 asset value. As of March of this year, as a sitting
17 Board member, I was a witness to this, their net
18 asset value now is negative $1.8 million.
19 NA HERNANDEZ: Can you stop for a second?
20 Sorry to interrupt you, sir, but there’s -- it’s
21 being brought out that the deputy sheriff here is
22 not actually a member, so they’re saying --
23 UNIDENTIFIED PATRIOT: And Dave Molinaro.
24 NA HERNANDEZ: No, Dave Molinaro is the
25 recorder. The recorder, it’s pretty much given that
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 21 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 you need to have him here to record the minutes.
2 But they’re saying you have to have a vote. The
3 deputy sheriff, I’ll say you don’t need a vote
4 because there’s nothing in the Bylaws to look in --
5 especially the emails that we receive with threats.
6 We’re going to teach you a lesson. It’s here for
7 the safety of you, me, and the organization so
8 nothing gets out --
9 UNIDENTIFIED PATRIOT: Take a vote.
10 NC GREENLAW: You want a vote?
11 NA HERNANDEZ: I don’t --
12 NC GREENLAW: I think we ask the deputy to
13 step out. Deputy, I’d like you to step out of the
14 room please. We’ll solve that real quick. But stay
15 close.
16 NA HERNANDEZ: Thank you, sir.
17 NC GREENLAW: Handle that. Okay. $21.8
18 million, that’s what the Foundation had in 2014.
19 Today they’re worth negative $1.8 million. In other
20 words, $1.8 million less than zero. That’s why
21 they’re rated F. That’s why they have zero stars
22 created by the corporations out there that analyze
23 this type of thing, the profit (sic) watch groups.
24 Not to mention the fact the Foundation is $2.1
25 million in arrears to the Order. They owe us $2.1
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 22 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 million, accounts payable.
2 On the other hand, the Order, in my
3 opinion, is rated A, A-plus. We have an A-plus
4 Order. The finest Service Officer Program in
5 America, not the largest, but the best. We handled
6 over 135,000 cases last year, produced over $140
7 million in benefits back to our vets that we helped
8 out. We have a 90% success rate in the cases that
9 we bring to the table. That’s the highest in the
10 country. The other organizations average around
11 60%.
12 We are the best of class. I want to
13 congratulate the people that we have out there doing
14 this. It’s a tragedy that we are not funded. We
15 wouldn’t be fighting amongst ourselves like this if
16 we were fully funded. We’d be cruising along with
17 that $6.4 million status quo, moving on to the next
18 year for $7.2 million, no problem. I hate to see us
19 turn on each other. That’s why I refuse to do it.
20 I don’t think we should.
21 So the Foundation wants to take over that
22 Service Program, take it away from us. I was told
23 to my face by a major leader in our Order, MOPH, to
24 give the Service Officer Program to the Foundation.
25 To my face. I said, no, they can’t even run a car
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 23 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 program. How can they run a big Foundation -- a big
2 officer program like we have, Service Officer
3 Program?
4 Well, then give it to the Wounded Warriors
5 Program (sic). I said, no way. So, it’s
6 imperative, in my opinion -- and I’m outgoing, you
7 can vote this down. It’s my opinion that we have
8 the best Service Officer Program in the country and
9 we should keep it and we’ll fund it. We have
10 corporate sponsors that’ll fund this. We have
11 government grants that will fund this. Right now, I
12 can say that everything that we had going -- and it
13 is a pipeline. It’s frozen because of this lawsuit.
14 The trial is September 23rd and it should
15 take three days. I don’t know where the six, nine
16 months comes from. We’ve got a judge and she’s a
17 good judge. I sat through a hearing with her. She
18 knows what she’s talking about, she’s done her
19 homework, she’s on time, and she’s smart. I really
20 enjoyed it when she locked the heels of our
21 competition’s lead lawyer. It made me feel pretty
22 good.
23 We will win this lawsuit. We will win this
24 lawsuit. I hear a rumor that there’s going to be a
25 vote today, tomorrow, Wednesday, I’m not sure when,
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 24 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 if it even happens. You know how these rumors are,
2 70% of them aren’t true, but the other 30%, maybe
3 they are. I hear that there’s going to be a vote to
4 drop the lawsuit. That would be a huge mistake.
5 You know why the Foundation wants us to drop this
6 lawsuit. You know why, because they’re going to
7 lose.
8 The reason why I’m going through all these
9 numbers with you, I know you’ve heard and you’ve
10 seen in emails, probably sick and tired of it. But
11 I want to get it on record here in the minutes of
12 this meeting that we are here in this situation that
13 we’re facing right now 100% because of this
14 Foundation.
15 Now, have we made some mistakes along the
16 way? Hell, yes. You know when the battle starts,
17 the strategy, the tactics, all that goes out the
18 door. It becomes sometimes even hand-to-hand.
19 We’re nearing a hand-to-hand situation here. I feel
20 really good about this lawsuit. I’ve been around
21 lawsuits my entire career. I’ve been on boards my
22 entire career -- not my entire, but later CEO parts
23 of my career. I’m telling you that we’re in good
24 shape and we have -- I’m going to clean this up. We
25 have a screwed up Foundation.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 25 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 So, what I’m asking is not to fight among
2 ourselves. The stress is palatable. We feel it in
3 every ounce of our PTSD bodies. Believe me, I’m a
4 firm believer that everybody in this room has PTSD
5 to one degree or another. If you’re in combat in
6 any form, you have PTSD.
7 So, let’s learn from our past, don’t forget
8 it, but let’s not look back. Let’s learn from our
9 past. Let’s go forward and be positive. Let’s
10 enjoy each other’s company the next couple of days
11 and make things positive happen for the MOPH. I’ve
12 got nothing to say about -- bad about anybody in
13 this room. I love everybody in this room. So let’s
14 not take it personal.
15 I can say that there was a -- what I
16 consider an improper raid on the Headquarters where
17 a group of people in this room came unannounced to
18 Headquarters and did some kind of an audit, found
19 some things they didn’t understand, called the
20 police. They turned this information to the Fairfax
21 County Police Department. I was shocked. I said,
22 what the hell? How come I didn’t know about this?
23 They didn’t notify me.
24 I would’ve joined them. I would’ve
25 encouraged the meeting. Hell, yes, you want to see?
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 26 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 Come on, let’s go, I want -- I’ll be on the next
2 airplane. Well, we were held on a very intense
3 inquiry by the Fairfax County Police Department.
4 They put their top detective on it. He did a
5 thorough investigation, a thorough inquiry and he
6 found nothing wrong. He found everybody innocent of
7 these charges. The books balanced to the penny.
8 Everything was -- of course, we were moving
9 fast. I approved it. I don’t regret approving it.
10 I think if any one of you were National Commander
11 with the same information that I had at that time of
12 distress and everything going upside down, you
13 would’ve done the same thing. I really believe
14 that.
15 So you can blame me all you want because I
16 approved that. They cleared our National Adjutant
17 of any misbehavior at all. I don’t even want to
18 tell you what the detective said to me further but
19 it wasn’t very nice about the people that conducted
20 this raid. I call it a raid.
21 This is my little comeback from sitting
22 down here earlier. We did the best we could do with
23 the information that we had to save the Order, for
24 the Good of the Order. We had the best intentions
25 and that became very clear to the detective that
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 27 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 headed up this inquiry. So, that’s my talk.
2 QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
3 NC GREENLAW: I’d like to take any
4 questions that anybody has. I’d be happy to answer
5 to the best of my ability, the best of my knowledge.
6 Please step up to the mic and I will recognize you.
7 If you have a question, you’ve got three minutes.
8 Yes, sir?
9 DEPT COM SHAW: Gentlemen, every one of us
10 had been on perimeter in a jungle, in a desert, and
11 clearing a room. We would --
12 NC GREENLAW: Talk into the mic.
13 DEPT COM SHAW: -- die for the men to our
14 right and our left. I know that. Even if you
15 didn’t like the guy, you still would’ve died for
16 him. That’s what we need to do here. We need to
17 get together and stop it and take care of each
18 other.
19 (Applause)
20 NC GREENLAW: Any other questions,
21 comments? Yes, sir?
22 PSVC MIDDLETON: What is the current status
23 of the Service Officer Program? How many do we have
24 actually on the rolls right now? How many are
25 furloughed? How many have been let go?
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 28 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NC GREENLAW: We’ve cut it down. I’d like
2 you to speak to this, our National Service Officer,
3 Arthur Coleman.
4 NSD COLEMAN: Greetings. Currently, we
5 have two NSOs working, one at the Board and Pat
6 Byers in Seattle, Washington, and myself. We are
7 adjudicating as much as we can with those three
8 people. As far as someone being laid off, no one
9 has been laid off, everyone is still furloughed
10 until pay has been remitted to those individuals.
11 NC GREENLAW: Any other questions?
12 NROTC OFF NEWALL: Going back to the
13 Service Officer Program, what is happening with
14 claims that were submitted in states that don’t have
15 Service Officers currently?
16 NSD COLEMAN: If it is initial claim, the
17 claim is in the system. I have access to the
18 system, as well as Pat Byers and Jamar Creech
19 (phonetic). There are a lot of claims out there and
20 the claims that’s about to be adjudicated, I’m doing
21 48-hour reviews now. I have maybe 700-800 pieces of
22 mail that comes to the Headquarters and I do check
23 them daily. So for the last two and a half months,
24 whether the individual’s paid or not, I’ve been
25 there every day and sometimes on the weekend because
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 29 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 we have hearings.
2 This is what I love to do. I love
3 advocating. I wish we can make it simpler. This is
4 a very complex program, and so I’m doing the best
5 that I can. So there will be some complaints out
6 there about communication. But as far as the
7 claims, we’re not letting them fall to the wayside.
8 Just right now, I’m just doing what I can to get
9 things done.
10 NROTC OFF NEWALL: Okay, I guess the answer
11 to my question you gave me is our claims are still
12 valid, they’re just not getting worked on as quickly
13 as possible -- as quickly as you can or as quickly
14 as we’d like. Thank you.
15 NC GREENLAW: Yes, in the back?
16 DEPT COM GREENDEER: Four weeks ago, we
17 closed up the Service Office in Milwaukee and we
18 took everything from paperclips to pens to copy
19 machines and cabinets, probably value of, I would
20 say, $5,000 or $6,000. I put it in storage for $75
21 a month and was hoping we could find the disposition
22 to do with that equipment because it’s worth -- I
23 think there’s about eight computers involved with
24 it.
25 I know you can’t answer it, but it’s
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 30 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 important to know what we’re to do with that
2 equipment.
3 NSD COLEMAN: I submitted a plan to the
4 National Commander as well as the Junior Vice
5 Commander to do a proper closeout. In order for our
6 organization to do proper closeout, I would need a
7 skeleton crew to come in and to hit these areas so
8 we can secure this PPI. Because there is some
9 privacy issues here by law that we have to get
10 fixed, the members are not allowed to take any of
11 those documents. Department Commanders, if you’re
12 having problems in your state -- I think Tennessee
13 called me as well as Nevada. They’ve been on it, so
14 all you have to do is contact me. We’ll figure out
15 a way securing those documents in those states.
16 DEPT COM GREENDEER: One other thing, we
17 are receiving all those documents and I did call
18 Milwaukee and they said they’re -- we’re not taking
19 care of, they have copies of them, they told us to
20 shred them. I probably have about ten pounds that I
21 shredded.
22 NSD COLEMAN: Did you shred them?
23 DEPT COM GREENDEER: Yes, I did.
24 NSD COLEMAN: Okay. I need to talk to you
25 offline about that and get with the director for the
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 31 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 RO.
2 NC GREENLAW: Yes, sir?
3 REG V COM ADKINS: Unfortunately, Lori
4 Wilka passed away during February. God rest her
5 soul. You partially answered the question, what’s
6 being done to secure the equipment that was in her
7 office in the North Little Rock Region Office. But
8 when we fully revive the NSO Program, three years
9 ago the Department of Arkansas submitted some
10 recommendations. Are those going to be considered
11 when we fully revived this? It does contain some
12 cost measures in here.
13 NSD COLEMAN: Yes, I will consider it. I
14 believe we spoke in December.
15 REG V COM ADKINS: Yes, sir.
16 NSD COLEMAN: We communicated in the winter
17 or the spring -- no, the --
18 REG V COM ADKINS: The spring.
19 NSD COLEMAN: The magazine, they put out a
20 plan. I did go to the U.S. Census Department of
21 Commerce to figure out where the veterans were
22 migrating to, the different states. I wanted to
23 make sure that when we do the downsize, it makes
24 sense.
25 REG V COM ADKINS: Right.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 32 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NSD COLEMAN: It makes sense. So, we’re
2 going to track our footprint in states where
3 veterans are at a minimum, whether it’s Purple Heart
4 or just veteran claims. The states where we have a
5 large number of veterans, we want to make sure we
6 bulk up and get those taken care of.
7 REG V COM ADKINS: Yes, sir. Just to
8 reiterate, Mr. Nate Todd, the director of the
9 Arkansas Department of Veteran Affairs, stands ready
10 to assist MOPH in any way our state can.
11 NSD COLEMAN: I appreciate that. Thank
12 you, Commander.
13 NC GREENLAW: Yes, sir?
14 NI HUNT: Several questions. We have
15 offices that have been maintained at the VA hospital
16 in South Florida that were basically volunteers.
17 There was one paid Service Officer that is not being
18 paid now, but that office is self-funding. Is there
19 any reason why it should not continue to practice?
20 NSD COLEMAN: Okay, so this is a very, very
21 complex question, I’m going to answer as fast as I
22 can. Number one, as far as the VA is concerned,
23 OGC, you are actually advocating legal documents for
24 veterans. One, they have to be insured by us; two,
25 they have to be compensated to be insured by us; and
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 33 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 three, whether or not the offices are free, 95% of
2 our offices where our employees lie are free. This
3 is the give back from the VA to be their watchdogs
4 and for us to advocate.
5 So, we can continue to have the office,
6 that’s fine. But having someone that’s certified by
7 OGC, by the VA, is a whole different ballgame.
8 Getting someone to do it for free, which really --
9 as far as insurance policies are concerned, it just
10 can’t happen in that sense. In order for us to have
11 access to the VA system, to get a PIP card, we have
12 to meet certain criteria.
13 Currently, we do because everyone is
14 furloughed. But as soon as I lay everyone off, I’m
15 not sure we’ll be able to handle our credentials.
16 NI HUNT: Would you please give me the
17 definition of furloughed?
18 NSD COLEMAN: Furlough is when an
19 individual does not come to work, does not get paid
20 but they maintain benefits. At the time when the
21 furlough was initiated, the benefits were active.
22 They were not going to be paid during that time
23 under that impression. If we laid off the
24 individuals during that time, we have to pay out
25 about $350,000 within two or three days, which we
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 34 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 did not have. That is how that worked out and that
2 decision was made.
3 NI HUNT: Thank you. One more question on
4 that.
5 NSD COLEMAN: Yes, sir?
6 NI HUNT: What is the status of our appeals
7 at the board level?
8 NSD COLEMAN: The status of the appeals
9 now, the appeals -- the new AMA that was brought
10 into law last year went into effect February 19th,
11 2019. So, they have two systems of appeals. One is
12 the legacy program. These are actually appeals that
13 extend beyond five, ten years.
14 Then you have the new program with AMA
15 where they can actually appeal not just with a Form
16 9, but from an NOD level. If you’re looking at the
17 totals that we have because we’ve been knocking them
18 out, we have about 461 in circulation. I will say
19 approximately two-thirds of those would be
20 considered legacy, so they fall under a different
21 docket.
22 We’re trying to get some AODs, which is an
23 advancement of docket, the way you file it at the
24 board because it is still a court. We don’t control
25 how that works because the board has claims for
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 35 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 every veteran in the United States. When the judge
2 puts it on his docket, then we get notified and we
3 adjudicate it appropriately.
4 NI HUNT: Thank you, sir. Last question
5 and I’m going to sit down. Commander, I agree
6 wholeheartedly that our National Service Officer
7 Program has been outstanding as far as their
8 results. My question, however, is how can you keep
9 employees on a limb when there’s no revenue coming
10 to pay them? Thank you, sir.
11 NC GREENLAW: The simple answer to that is
12 we raise the revenue. I’m telling you that I’ve
13 been out there. There’s a lot of money. The Purple
14 Heart veteran is very hard to turn down and we rise
15 to the top at every meeting that I’m --
16 NI HUNT: But so far, sir, we’ve not
17 received any money and it’s hard to eat on dramatis.
18 NC GREENLAW: The money is frozen by this
19 lawsuit. Let’s not forget where the blame lies.
20 The blame lies with the Foundation. The Foundation.
21 If we had this money, we’d be status quo. Yes, sir?
22 DEPT COM G. THOMPSON: Before I start to
23 address you, I’m going to address him about the
24 furlough. My name is Gerry Thompson, District
25 Commander of the state of Kentucky.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 36 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NC GREENLAW: Identify yourself please.
2 DEPT COM G. THOMPSON: I just did. The
3 definition of furlough is you go home and you don’t
4 get benefits. I’ve been a union member all my life.
5 I’ve been furloughed, I’ve been laid off, I’ve been
6 dogged off. I’ve never got anything. So that’s the
7 definition of a furlough and I know those people in
8 that office ain’t union, so don’t come up with no
9 furlough and you still get benefits.
10 NC GREENLAW: Do you want to address that?
11 NSD COLEMAN: That is not the legal
12 definition of a furlough.
13 DEPT COM G. THOMPSON: Oh, yeah, it is.
14 NSD COLEMAN: No, furlough --
15 DEPT COM G. THOMPSON: Yes, it is.
16 NSD COLEMAN: No, no.
17 DEPT COM G. THOMPSON: And get paid too,
18 you also put wages in there.
19 NSD COLEMAN: No, no, that’s not true.
20 Okay, we can just go back to the beginning of this
21 year when our federal government individuals --
22 employees were furloughed. They still had benefits
23 but they was not paid, okay?
24 We don’t have a measure where we have
25 crippled mass individuals here that work, like law
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 37 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 enforcement. So, if you look at your own federal
2 government, it’s defined by the federal government,
3 not by the states, right? The way it works is, when
4 you furlough individuals, you do not lay them off at
5 that time. The decision was made for this reason.
6 If you want to think about employment and
7 labor laws, you have, one, if you lay them off, you
8 have to pay them their last check, whatever benefits
9 they have, like a severance. Once you lay them off,
10 most states get you to the next pay period or up to
11 30 days. We have quite a bit of states where you
12 have to pay within 48 hours to three days.
13 We had a decision to make, a business
14 judgment ruled decision to either lay off everyone
15 or furlough everyone. To layoff at that time cost
16 us $350,000 and paid within seven to fifteen days.
17 By furloughing, we can push it down the line.
18 We was looking -- the decision was made
19 based on the court case that we was going to have
20 May 2nd, the injunction. The injunction was not
21 favorable and it changed the rules to the game.
22 Once that happened, the furlough was submitted by me
23 for 60 days to end June 29th. The reason why no
24 contact was made because no measure for economic
25 help was given out.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 38 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 I don’t have control of the purse strings.
2 I manage and I do what I can with what I have,
3 according to the Constitution and Bylaws and
4 according to federal law. See, when you have an
5 organization that’s in multiple states and other
6 U.S. territories, we are guided by federal law
7 because of the broad span of advocacy that we do in
8 this country.
9 So, as far as the furlough is concerned,
10 that is an administrative furlough that we actually
11 put out.
12 DEPT COM G. THOMPSON: Man, you just go on
13 and talk all you want to, but I know what a furlough
14 is. But now I want to talk to Mr. Greenlaw. We’ve
15 got a lot of problems here. When we leave here this
16 next three days, what I think we need to do is just
17 clean house, both sides. All these musical chairs
18 were -- everybody going to step up, they don’t need
19 to step up. We need to -- people here, if you
20 really want your organization to get back where it
21 needs to be, you need to get new people, period.
22 This thing ain’t just started this year, it
23 started several years ago. Every time that you get
24 a Commander, he always get -- who’s been the last
25 Commander and the Commander before and they suggest,
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 39 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 this is how I run it. This is how I run it and this
2 is how you need to run it, and it don’t work.
3 National Commander, when he’s on watch,
4 he’s the only asshole and that’s his decision. When
5 he steps off, he’s the daddy of it, not what
6 somebody else told him to do. That’s what’s
7 happened here just like with our Adjutant. They got
8 rid of him two years ago for problems and he comes
9 right around and he appoints him again, and then we
10 get all these problems.
11 Nobody like him. He’s arrogant, smart,
12 I’ll say ass because that’s exactly what he is. You
13 brought him on. I asked him, I said, “Why did you
14 do that?” He said, “Because the last two” --
15 NC GREENLAW: Your three minutes are up,
16 sir.
17 DEPT COM G. THOMPSON: “The last two
18 Commanders told me to,” but he done it anyway. They
19 can sit up there and lie all they want to about all
20 this money, but this is what’s happened.
21 But if you all love this organization like
22 I do, when we leave here today, we’re going to have
23 some new officers on both sides. We’re going to
24 bring this thing back --
25 NC GREENLAW: Sir --
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 40 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 DEPT COM G. THOMPSON: -- the way it should
2 be.
3 NC GREENLAW: Sir?
4 DEPT COM G. THOMPSON: We’re all brothers
5 and sisters here. We all shed blood.
6 (Gavel raps)
7 NC GREENLAW: Your three minutes are up,
8 sir. I’m sorry, and I appreciate your passion and
9 you’re 90% right.
10 DEPT COM G. THOMPSON: Well, you don’t want
11 to hear it, so that’s fine.
12 NC GREENLAW: I do care, I care a lot. I
13 care about this Order, I love this Order. Yes, sir?
14 DEPT COM CASSON: I have a couple of
15 questions. Somebody start the timer. Number one,
16 protected funds, why were they used? Number two --
17 write this down, you might need to. One is
18 protected funds, where are they and why?
19 Number two, this is going to sound trivial
20 but it’s not. Roger Newall was promised at last
21 year’s Convention in Spokane that he would get
22 funded at the ROTC for the things we give out.
23 Against my better judgment, I followed MOPH. At
24 that time, we were told we were going to get an
25 Adjutant who said, “I’m going to take a pay cut so
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 41 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 we could fund ROTC.” To date, Roger Newall, out of
2 his pocket, is somewhere around $1,320.
3 Now, you can write a check for $9,999.99.
4 Why don’t you just go ahead and cut that check for
5 Roger Newall for $1,320? Thank you.
6 NC GREENLAW: Yes, sir?
7 DEPT COM CUNNINGHAM: Is the gentleman
8 completed?
9 NA HERNANDEZ: Yeah.
10 DEPT COM CUNNINGHAM: Okay. There’s no
11 response? Okay. I have another question on
12 furlough and that question is directed towards Mr.
13 Coleman. In March of this year, you trained how
14 many MOPH NSOs down in Florida, sir? You can stand
15 at the mic because I’m going to ask a couple more
16 questions.
17 NSD COLEMAN: I trained 65.
18 DEPT COM CUNNINGHAM: Okay, you trained 65.
19 Okay.
20 NSD COLEMAN: That belongs to MOPH.
21 DEPT COM CUNNINGHAM: Shortly after that,
22 they were all furloughed. Is that correct?
23 NSD COLEMAN: They was furloughed on April
24 29th.
25 DEPT COM CUNNINGHAM: So a month later, a
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 42 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 month after that. Okay, now --
2 NSD COLEMAN: Approximately two months.
3 DEPT COM CUNNINGHAM: Not disagreeing with
4 the gentleman from Kentucky, but the definition of
5 furlough means that they’re on the rolls, they’re
6 not being paid. Is that correct?
7 NSD COLEMAN: Correct.
8 DEPT COM CUNNINGHAM: How many of those 65
9 that you trained are still on the rolls versus they
10 moved on to other jobs that were real jobs at the
11 time? How many of those 65 do you still have on
12 your rolls that you can bring back if the NSO
13 Program is financed at this Convention?
14 NSD COLEMAN: I can bring back 31.
15 DEPT COM CUNNINGHAM: Half?
16 NSD COLEMAN: Yes.
17 DEPT COM CUNNINGHAM: So we’ve got 4,000
18 NSOs or VSOs in this country and we’ve got 31 right
19 now that we can bring back?
20 NSD COLEMAN: Correct.
21 DEPT COM CUNNINGHAM: All right, that was
22 my question. Thank you.
23 DEPT COM BOKAN: My question is directed at
24 the National Service Director. I want to -- what I
25 was hearing, you had said about the insurance about
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 43 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 canceling the insurance, that we don’t have
2 insurance for our Service Directors. Well,
3 Pennsylvania, we have a fund that we put aside and
4 we kept it going. I just want to be clear on this,
5 so you’re telling me our insurance is no good for
6 them now, it’s finished? So we should actually get
7 another policy for them to protect ourselves?
8 NSD COLEMAN: Omission and errors policy,
9 we do have one for the Order, and this is to cover
10 our NSOs whether they’re in Michigan or Pennsylvania
11 or the other states. We have to pay that.
12 Now, as I said before, I don’t control the
13 purse strings. I can only relay a message to say
14 these debts have to be paid to cover us and our
15 organization.
16 DEPT COM BOKAN: Maybe you don’t understand
17 my question. My question is, as of right now, do we
18 have insurance or does the state of Pennsylvania and
19 anybody else that’s doing this have to pay that --
20 have to get another insurance policy or are we
21 covered?
22 NA HERNANDEZ: Sir, what do you mean by
23 insurance? There’s seven policies that we have.
24 DEPT COM BOKAN: He had said before about
25 insurance for our Service Officers should they make
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 44 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 a mistake and get sued.
2 NA HERNANDEZ: Here’s our insurance company
3 for all of it, here in the next couple of days, it
4 will expire. We’re hoping here at this Convention -
5 - I’ll go back to Region V Commander’s question, the
6 D&L policy. Let me just go real quick to that one.
7 That’s why it’s so important. I think Oklahoma --
8 and I’ll answer your question later, it’s very
9 important to everybody here because now you’re no
10 longer insured as an officer.
11 Unfortunately, this organization gets two
12 to three lawsuits a year amongst itself. We have
13 two, three active right now. Now what this means,
14 as of today unless we figure it out, you’re
15 personally responsible as an officer. The Service
16 Program, we’re under a different umbrella, different
17 policy, but the same organization.
18 Hopefully the question that will be
19 answered to you or the statement to you will be here
20 after lunch and I’ll have Clifton Agency that does
21 all our underwriting, are we insured? Right now,
22 it’s Chubbs, the largest insurance, they don’t want
23 to insure us, we’re too volatile and that word’s
24 being used so many times.
25 DEPT COM BOKAN: Okay, so my answer is that
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 45 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 as of lunchtime, we’re probably not?
2 NA HERNANDEZ: Correct.
3 DEPT COM BOKAN: And then we can take it
4 from there.
5 NSD COLEMAN: Roger that.
6 DEPT COM T. ANDERSON: Commander, I’ve
7 listened quietly to the questions, lots of valid
8 questions, good answers. The real problem is none
9 of this matters. None of this. We have to decide
10 where we’re going to get our funding from. If we
11 don’t have our funding, gentlemen, we have nothing.
12 We haven’t decided that. We talk around the issue.
13 The issue is and only issue is where’s the
14 money coming from? If we can say it’s going to come
15 because we’re going to work together with the
16 Foundation or we’re going to do this with a group --
17 we’ve heard comments about this grant money out
18 there. Minnesota, we’re becoming totally
19 independent for one reason, we don’t have stability
20 at National. We’re going to take care of ourselves
21 and we’re asking the same question, where is the
22 money? Where’s it coming from? We’re struggling
23 with this.
24 I think at this National level, we need to
25 find a way to make sure that this organization stays
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 46 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 viable. I’m neither left nor I’m right. I do the
2 follow the money thing, where’s the money? That’s
3 all I care about. If we can make it work with this
4 group or that group, I’m all for it. We’ve got to
5 find a way to bring the money in. Until we have an
6 honest discussion with all of us sitting there
7 bringing up ways. You throw it on the wall until it
8 hit and sticks. Then we’ve got something.
9 Right now, we can talk about this all we
10 want to, we’re just wasting time. We’re wasting
11 time. Thank you, sir.
12 (Applause)
13 NC GREENLAW: I can just answer that. I
14 agree with you. I agree with you 100%. I’ll tell
15 you who we’re not going to be funded by, the
16 Foundation. I’ll tell you who we will be funded by,
17 we’ll be funded by ourselves. We’ll split off our
18 own 501(c)(3). We’re going to win this lawsuit and
19 we’re going to go forward with corporate donations
20 and government grants.
21 All we need -- even Patriot Cherone brought
22 this budget up from $1.5 million. That’s feasible.
23 That’s feasible. That’s easy. That’s like one
24 sponsor. So what I’m telling you is, there is a lot
25 of money out there for the Military Order of the
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 47 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 Purple Heart, not the Foundation. We have a list
2 that we’re working on that when we win this lawsuit,
3 that money will be freed.
4 If asked, I will stick around and help on
5 the sidelines to close these deals. I can mention -
6 - which they don’t want me to do, I can’t mention it
7 publicly, but we have at least five corporations
8 right now that are very interested in helping us.
9 I was at a fundraiser, a third party
10 fundraiser, in May during Fleet Week. We raised
11 about $60,000. We haven’t received the money yet,
12 but it’s on the way. They’ve got the wiring
13 instructions, the money’s ready to come. It’s a
14 third party, so we can’t be accused of raising money
15 against the Foundation’s wishes.
16 At that meeting, when that was over, the
17 Fleet Week when the ships came in, we had a
18 breakfast meeting and I was approached by UBS. I
19 was approached by JP Morgan Chase. I was approached
20 by the Bank of New York Mellon that they want to
21 help us.
22 People -- the corporations are made up of
23 people. Without the people, they’re just pieces of
24 paper. These people have families and they all have
25 veterans in their families, at least an extended
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 48 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 range. If they don’t have them in their immediate
2 family, they have family members that are veterans,
3 cousins and uncles and so forth.
4 DEPT COM T. ANDERSON: I agree with that.
5 NC GREENLAW: They love us!
6 DEPT COM T. ANDERSON: We need --
7 NC GREENLAW: There’s government money --
8 DEPT COM T. ANDERSON: But we need --
9 NC GREENLAW: I’m confident --
10 DEPT COM T. ANDERSON: We need it in our
11 hand, the contract signed, we’re going to get this -
12 -
13 NC GREENLAW: The Foundation --
14 DEPT COM T. ANDERSON: -- much money.
15 Until we get that, it’s --
16 (Speaking over each other)
17 NC GREENLAW: -- if we were funded like
18 they promised. We have $6.4 million and we have our
19 $2.1 million and we’d be a status quo meeting.
20 DEPT COM T. ANDERSON: Sir, even if we win
21 the battle --
22 NC GREENLAW: What we --
23 DEPT COM T. ANDERSON: -- we won’t get any
24 money from them.
25 NC GREENLAW: What we do --
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 49 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 DEPT COM T. ANDERSON: Where’s the money
2 coming from?
3 NC GREENLAW: We’ll cut our expenses down
4 to a level that we can afford going forward. We
5 will raise the Service Officer Program up, which
6 I’ve been told by -- these are not my words. I’ve
7 been told by a corporate sponsor, “We will help you
8 rise from the ashes.” They’re out there.
9 DEPT COM T. ANDERSON: That’s good.
10 NC GREENLAW: Hey, I’m not -- why would I
11 stand here and lie about something like that? This
12 is the truth.
13 DEPT COM T. ANDERSON: I’m not saying that,
14 sir. I’m not saying you’re lying.
15 NC GREENLAW: Government funding is there
16 available. All we have to do is get it, but we
17 can’t get it during the middle of a lawsuit.
18 DEPT COM T. ANDERSON: Okay.
19 NC GREENLAW: These people have families,
20 they can’t afford to risk $500,000 or a million
21 dollars and have it go down in a lawsuit. They
22 could be fired. They’re protective of their own
23 space. Some of these companies are very political.
24 It is what it is.
25 So to answer your question, sir, and I’m
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 50 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 with you 100%, we spend what we’ve got. That’s what
2 we’ve been doing. We drove some debt up to save the
3 Order. It’s all been approved, it’s all been --
4 DEPT COM T. ANDERSON: Thank you.
5 NC GREENLAW: -- critically analyzed by the
6 police department, we’re fine. What we do is we go
7 forward and we’re going forward.
8 DEPT COM T. ANDERSON: Okay.
9 NC GREENLAW: I’ll give you my word that
10 this is going to happen. You watch. Watch. I get
11 kidded about my pipeline all the time. I try not to
12 use that word anymore, but we have people there that
13 are standing behind us.
14 DEPT COM T. ANDERSON: Okay, thank you,
15 sir.
16 NC GREENLAW: In the short run, we’ve got
17 problems.
18 NA HERNANDEZ: Commander, real quick, do
19 you want to continue with these last few Patriots
20 here and then go to lunch? We’re at the lunch
21 period.
22 NC GREENLAW: Yes, let’s -- we’ll do this -
23 - we’ll do these three and then we’ve got two or
24 three hours after lunch to go through more questions
25 if you have them.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 51 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 UNIDENTIFIED PATRIOT: I’d like to make a
2 motion that we recess for lunch and return at 1:30
3 to continue this discussion.
4 NC GREENLAW: Second? All in favor --
5 REG V COM ADKINS: I’ll second.
6 NC GREENLAW: -- Aye?
7 PATRIOTS: Aye.
8 NC GREENLAW: All opposed?
9 (No response)
10 (Gavel rap)
11 (Motion carried.)
12 UNIDENTIFIED PATRIOT: All right, I’ll keep
13 my question.
14 NA HERNANDEZ: Gentlemen, the lunch is --
15 yes, sir? It’s not a box lunch, it’s a deli style,
16 make your own sandwich. I don’t know exactly what’s
17 on the menu. It was the biggest bang for the buck,
18 so everybody can -- you don’t have to spend any
19 money. It’s part of the Convention cost.
20 Go outside, find out exactly what it is,
21 but it’s a deli style sandwich, make your own
22 sandwich thing. You know where it is.
23 NC GREENLAW: Be back here 1:30.
24 UNIDENTIFIED PATRIOT: All rise, face the
25 flag. Ready, two.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 52 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 (Lunch break.)
2 CREDENTIALS REPORT
3 NC GREENLAW: We have a Credentials
4 Committee. The Chairman is Chris Smrt, in addition
5 is Chuck Jackson, Region I; Billy Weldon, Region VI.
6 I’d like to go ahead and continue questions,
7 answers. Yes, sir?
8 PATRIOT SMRT: If I may add additional two
9 in order to be able to address, Bulldog Turner and
10 Patriot Sims. If you would add those two, that will
11 give us a four-person committee to be able to
12 account for everything and work any questions from
13 the floor. Would that be okay, Commander?
14 NC GREENLAW: What are the Regions please?
15 PATRIOT SMRT: Sims is III, Bulldog, Region
16 IV. So we have quite a complement in order.
17 NC GREENLAW: Okay, we’ve got Turner and
18 Sims added to that, yes.
19 PATRIOT SMRT: Thank you, sir.
20 NC GREENLAW: You’re welcome.
21 NATIONAL CHAPLAIN’S COMMENTS
22 NC GREENLAW: Yes, sir?
23 CHAPLAIN MILLER: Commander, as the
24 National Chaplain, growing up, I was given a lot of
25 inspiration and encouragement from people I really
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 53 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 respect. They told me to always do the right thing
2 at the right reason for the right time. I’ve always
3 practiced that and it works well.
4 I would like to see all of our Patriots in
5 here when they address other Patriots to address
6 them properly by calling them either Patriots or
7 Commander or Junior Vice or Senior Vice. Be
8 respectful for their office. You may not like the
9 individual, the individual may’ve done some bad
10 things.
11 The Commander and me have not always got
12 along together. I’ve called him on the carpet
13 numerous times when he was a Commander for me when I
14 was State Commander and Region Commander. I wasn’t
15 afraid to jump on him and he’ll vouch for that.
16 Ernesto is another one. I’ve had words
17 with him, but Ernesto is still my friend. Everybody
18 is my friend because, first of all, I’m a Christian.
19 Second of all, I’m a Purple Heart recipient and I
20 have the same thing in common with every Patriot in
21 here. I shed blood just like you did in a foreign
22 country for our country. I’m very proud that I was
23 able to do things like that.
24 So please, I would request all of us,
25 address them properly, respect the office that they
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 54 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 have. You may not like them but respect the office.
2 I didn’t like Jimmy Carter, the peanut man from
3 Georgia, but I respected him because he was
4 Commander In Chief and President of the United
5 States. I would encourage everybody to please do
6 that. Thank you, sir.
7 (Applause)
8 NC GREENLAW: Thank you. Thank you.
9 ROLL CALL
10 DEPT COM YELINEK: Commander --
11 NC GREENLAW: Hang on one second please.
12 We need to do a Roll Call. Is Jim Anderson here?
13 REG VI COM ANDERSON: Yes, sir.
14 NC GREENLAW: Should we do a Roll Call?
15 REG VI COM ANDERSON: Yes, sir.
16 NC GREENLAW: Yes?
17 REG VI COM ANDERSON: Roll Call needs to be
18 done anytime we go on recess other than going for
19 ten minutes.
20 NC GREENLAW: We’ll get to you in just a
21 minute. Thank you.
22 NA HERNANDEZ: Okay, we’re going to do Roll
23 Call like we did earlier, the same. The reason
24 being is we had some updates to the spreadsheet to
25 make sure that we account for everybody here. We’re
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 55 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 going to start with the National Officers. We’ll
2 start with Region I, and we’ll go II, III, IV, V, if
3 you just get ready here in a few minutes. Some of
4 this will go by quickly since I know who’s here.
5 Commander Greenlaw’s here, Commander
6 Garcia’s here, Rick Cherone’s here. Finance, NFO
7 Moore -- sorry, we’ll go by last names, Wallot’s
8 here, Flyr’s here, Pickart’s here, David Price,
9 excused; Gary Witt, excused; Bill Suhre, excused.
10 Richard Hunt is here. Nick McIntosh is
11 here. Matt Bridges, excused. Charles Eggleston is
12 here. Chris Vedvick is here. Commander Dismer’s
13 here. Commander Gasdek’s here. Commander Lazzaro’s
14 here. Commander Adkins, here; Commander Anderson is
15 here.
16 Frank Athanason is not here. Boyd Barclay
17 is here. James Blaylock is not here. James Durkin
18 is not here. Gober’s not here, Hems is not here,
19 Hudson’s not here, Little’s not here, McKenty’s not
20 here, Puskar not here, Randals not here, Roy’s not
21 here, Siebels is here, Silvano is not here, Sims is
22 here, Spinelli is not here, Fred Taylor is not here.
23 Van Ess is not here. Wroolie’s no longer an NEC
24 member.
25 Did I miss anybody from the National
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 56 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 Leadership except for Regions? Yes, sir?
2 UNIDENTIFIED PATRIOT: Past National
3 Commander Boyd Barclay is here.
4 NA HERNANDEZ: I did count him here, sir.
5 He’s here. So now I’ll start with Region I. Please
6 identify who you are. This will be the last Roll
7 Call -- or not the last count. For Region I,
8 Connecticut?
9 (No response)
10 NA HERNANDEZ: Connecticut, not here.
11 Delaware?
12 DEPT COM MORRIS: Gary Morris, Department
13 Commander.
14 NA HERNANDEZ: Massachusetts?
15 (No response.)
16 NA HERNANDEZ: Massachusetts?
17 (No response)
18 NA HERNANDEZ: Maryland?
19 (No response)
20 NA HERNANDEZ: Maryland? New Jersey?
21 (No response)
22 NA HERNANDEZ: New Jersey?
23 (No response)
24 NA HERNANDEZ: Northern New England doesn’t
25 exist. New York?
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 57 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 REG I COM EGGLESTON: New York is en route,
2 car broke down 15 minutes out.
3 NA HERNANDEZ: Roger, sir.
4 REG I COM EGGLESTON: So they’ll be there
5 shortly.
6 NA HERNANDEZ: Got it. En route.
7 Pennsylvania?
8 DEPT COM BOKAN: Frank J. Bokan, Commander.
9 NA HERNANDEZ: Virginia?
10 (No response)
11 NA HERNANDEZ: Virginia?
12 (No response)
13 NA HERNANDEZ: Virginia’s not here. Region
14 II? Region II, get up. Region III, if you can
15 start getting ready. We see a couple of people
16 left. Try to expedite this and utilize the time
17 wisely.
18 All right, Region II, Iowa?
19 (No response)
20 NA HERNANDEZ: Iowa?
21
22 DEPT COM HEIN: Iowa is present.
23 NA HERNANDEZ: Who are you, sir?
24 DEPT COM HEIN: Richard Hein, Iowa.
25 NA HERNANDEZ: Please identify who you are,
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 58 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 full name, for the recording. Illinois?
2 (No response)
3 NA HERNANDEZ: Illinois’s not here.
4 Indiana?
5 DEPT COM SHADOWEN: Commander Mike
6 Shadowen, Indiana.
7 NA HERNANDEZ: Kentucky?
8 DEPT COM THOMPSON: Gerry Thompson,
9 present.
10 NA HERNANDEZ: Michigan?
11 DEPT COM EATON: Robert Eaton, Department
12 Commander.
13 NA HERNANDEZ: Minnesota?
14 DEPT COM T. ANDERSON: Terry Anderson,
15 Department of Minnesota.
16 NA HERNANDEZ: Missouri?
17 DEPT COM SCHLEY: Walt Schley, Commander,
18 Department of Missouri.
19 NA HERNANDEZ: Nebraska?
20 DEPT COM JENSEN: Wade Jensen, Department
21 Commander.
22 NA HERNANDEZ: Ohio?
23 DEPT COM CUNNINGHAM: Tom Cunningham,
24 Department Commander, Ohio.
25 NA HERNANDEZ: Wisconsin?
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 59 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 DEPT COM GREENDEER: George Greendeer,
2 Department Commander, Wisconsin.
3 NA HERNANDEZ: West Virginia?
4 DEPT COM McCORMICK: James McCormick,
5 Department Commander, West Virginia.
6 NA HERNANDEZ: Region III, Alaska?
7 DEPT COM KNOTT: John Knott, Department
8 Commander.
9 NA HERNANDEZ: Dakotas?
10 UNIDENTIFIED PATRIOT: Ken Teunissen,
11 Department Commander, absent.
12 NA HERNANDEZ: Idaho?
13 UNIDENTIFIED PATRIOT: Idaho, Ned Barker,
14 Department Commander, absent.
15 NA HERNANDEZ: Montana?
16 DEPT COM GATLIN: Char Gatlin, Department
17 of Montana, title, chief space cadet.
18 NA HERNANDEZ: Oregon?
19 DEPT COM RUPP: Lawrence Rupp, Department
20 Commander, present.
21 NA HERNANDEZ: Washington?
22 DEPT COM OLIVAREZ: Robert Olivarez,
23 Department Commander.
24 NA HERNANDEZ: Wyoming?
25 REG III COM GASDEK: Barry Gasdek, Senior
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 60 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 Vice, Department of Wyoming.
2 NA HERNANDEZ: Sir, you’re here as a Region
3 Commander and a state?
4 REG III COM GASDEK: That is correct. I
5 will be voting with Wyoming.
6 NA HERNANDEZ: Roger, sir. You get that,
7 Credentials? Chris Smrt, did you get that?
8 Region IV, Alabama?
9 DEPT COM DAUGHERTY: Daugherty, Department
10 of Alabama.
11 NA HERNANDEZ: Florida?
12 DEPT COM VEDVICK: Vedvick, Department
13 Commander. I will be voting for Florida, not on
14 Publications.
15 NA HERNANDEZ: Georgia?
16 DEPT COM FLENER: Flener, Department of
17 Georgia, Commander.
18 NA HERNANDEZ: Mississippi?
19 DEPT COM BREAZEALE: Truitt Breazeale,
20 Mississippi, Department Commander.
21 NA HERNANDEZ: North Carolina?
22 DEPT COM EBERSBACH: Bill Ebersbach,
23 Department of North Carolina, the first Purple Heart
24 State.
25 NA HERNANDEZ: Puerto Rico?
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 61 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 (No response)
2 NA HERNANDEZ: Puerto Rico?
3 (No response)
4 NA HERNANDEZ: South Carolina?
5 DEPT COM LOPEZ: Carl Lopez, Department
6 Commander.
7 NA HERNANDEZ: Tennessee?
8 DEPT COM SHAW: Todd Shaw, Department
9 Commander of the Volunteer State that saved Texas’
10 butt.
11 NA HERNANDEZ: Region V, Arkansas?
12 DEPT COM FERGUSON: Cardner Ferguson,
13 Department Commander.
14 NA HERNANDEZ: Colorado?
15 DEPT COM ELIZALDE: Paco Elizalde,
16 Department Commander.
17 NA HERNANDEZ: Kansas?
18 REG V COM ADKINS: Department Commander,
19 Mike Callahan, absent/excused.
20 NA HERNANDEZ: Louisiana?
21 DEPT ADJ BROWN (Alt): Danny Brown,
22 Department Adjutant, delegate.
23 NA HERNANDEZ: New Mexico?
24 DEPT COM COMSTOCK: Pete Comstock,
25 Department Commander.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 62 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NA HERNANDEZ: Oklahoma?
2 DEPT COM CASSON: Oklahoma, Department
3 Commander, Frank J. Casson.
4 NA HERNANDEZ: Texas?
5 DEPT COM LUNKWICZ: John Lunkwicz,
6 Department Commander.
7 NA HERNANDEZ: Region VI, Arizona?
8 DEPT COM McGLYNN: Arizona, Ed McGlynn,
9 Department Commander.
10 NA HERNANDEZ: California?
11 DEPT COM EARTHMAN: Charles Earthman,
12 California, Department Commander.
13 NA HERNANDEZ: Guam?
14 (No response)
15 NA HERNANDEZ: Guam?
16 (No response)
17 NA HERNANDEZ: Not here. Hawaii?
18 PATRIOT TANAKA (Alt): Tommy Tanaka, Past
19 Department Commander and a delegate.
20 NA HERNANDEZ: Yes, sir. Great seeing you
21 again. Nevada?
22 DEPT COM YELINEK: Len Yelinek, National
23 Commander (sic).
24 NA HERNANDEZ: Utah.
25 DEPT COM YELINEK: State Commander.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 63 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NA HERNANDEZ:
2 DEPT COM GIBSON: Dee Gibson, Department
3 Commander.
4 NA HERNANDEZ: All right, that’s everyone.
5 ANNOUNCEMENTS
6 NA HERNANDEZ: Real quick, announcements,
7 you saw today the venue for the meals. Dinner will
8 be the same location. Every day it changes a little
9 bit. Tomorrow will be the same thing for lunch,
10 same thing for dinner. Wednesday, lunch and dinner.
11 Yes, sir?
12 NROTC OFF NEWALL: Point of Order.
13 National ROTC Officer, Roger Newall, was omitted
14 from the Roll Call this morning and this one this
15 afternoon, for the record.
16 NA HERNANDEZ: Sir, I think I omitted every
17 appointed Officer actually. Commander?
18 NC GREENLAW: Yes, sir?
19 PATRIOT SMRT: Point of Privilege,
20 Commander. If we could get representatives of
21 Louisiana, California, and Arizona to the
22 Credentials table? Louisiana, California, and
23 Arizona.
24 QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR (Continued)
25 NC GREENLAW: Yes, sir?
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 64 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 DEPT COM YELINEK: It seems to me part of
2 the lawsuit has to do with the ownership of the
3 trademarks. I’d kind of like a little history on
4 what the hell happened? Who authorized the
5 transfer? When was it done and what have you? Can
6 you give us a little breakdown? Thank you.
7 NC GREENLAW: Yes, sir, I’m glad you
8 brought that up. In my hands, I hold the licensing
9 agreement that was signed by the National Commander,
10 Commander Gober, and Mary Lou Keener. It’s dated
11 February 7th, 2017.
12 I have in this hand Exhibit D in the
13 lawsuit that has a very similar trademark service
14 license agreement, dated February 3rd, 2017. The
15 one that Patriot Gober signed earlier -- actually,
16 the date says later, but it’s very clear in my mind
17 -- and I have this blown up so you can take a look
18 at it if you’d like yourself. I was going to put it
19 up on there, but I don’t think it’s going to show.
20 The date in Commander Gober’s licensing
21 agreement was changed. In my opinion, looking at it
22 with a very powerful glass, it looks to me as if --
23 and I’ll put it out here if you’d like to take a
24 look at it yourself. It looks to me like the date
25 was changed from February 1st, 2017, to February
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 65 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 7th, ’17. It’s very clear that this date has been
2 changed. I’m not positive about moving it to the
3 7th. It looks like it to me.
4 It’s very clear when you look at it you can
5 see that something was erased and this date was put
6 in. Why Commander Gober’s signed agreement is
7 different than the final agreement that’s signed by
8 Mary Lou Keener and Chairman Wroolie.
9 PSVC MIDDLETON: Commander?
10 NC GREENLAW: Hang on a second. So I find
11 it very interesting and I’ve sent these two copies
12 to our lawyers for the lawsuit to find out exactly
13 why this date was changed. It’s positive that the
14 date was changed. Something was changed, you can
15 see the erasure. But I’m not sure about the date, I
16 can’t vouch for the date. It looks like it was
17 changed from the 1st, which would be before this
18 one, which makes sense because he and Commander
19 Gober and his wife, Mary Lou Keener, put this one
20 together. I would assume this one would be correct.
21 It’s different than Exhibit D.
22 I can’t go through it with you right now,
23 but in several ways, it’s completely different than
24 the actual exhibit they put in for the lawsuit. I
25 find this very curious and I’ll be real curious to
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 66 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 see if our lawyers can do a forensic look at this
2 date and explain to me why these two are different
3 in major, major ways.
4 If you’d like, I can give you an example.
5 Would like an example?
6 PATRIOTS: No.
7 PATRIOTS: Yes.
8 NC GREENLAW: Okay.
9 PSVC MIDDLETON: Commander, may I address
10 that?
11 NC GREENLAW: Example -- I’ve got the
12 floor, hang on a second. I’ll give you all the time
13 you need. In Article I, Paragraph 1.3 -- in the
14 original signed by Gober and Keener states, “The
15 license is limited to use of the license marks only
16 in connection with charitable fundraising for
17 specific projects.” The same paragraph in the
18 changed agreement, Article I, 1.3, it says here,
19 “The license is unrestricted in scope.” It was
20 restricted in the earlier one, but the one they
21 actually used for the court, it says, “The license
22 is unrestricted in scope.” That’s just one example.
23 I can’t go through the whole thing with
24 you, but there are changes in here and I’m curious
25 as to why this happened and why there’s a change of
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 67 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 date. Now, maybe you have an answer for that. I’d
2 like to hear it please. Go ahead.
3 PSVC MIDDLETON: Commander, the reason that
4 the dates are different is because at the Norfolk
5 Convention when that deal was hammered out and was
6 signed by Commander Gober at the time, days later
7 when we were able to view the document, when I was
8 reviewing it I found that there was a fatal flaw in
9 the document. It was unintentional and that is, in
10 the original documents they did not allow both the
11 National Commander, the Senior and the Junior Vice
12 Commander to have votes and a voice on the
13 Foundation Board.
14 That was an oversight that Jason Johns had
15 written in the agreement. That was not the intent
16 and it was agreed upon by Chairman Wroolie at the
17 time and Commander Gober at the time that that had
18 not been the intent of the agreement. They revised
19 the agreement, that paragraph, to reflect what had
20 been agreed on by both parties.
21 When it was resigned, it was several days
22 later. That’s the reason why the dates that you see
23 there have been changed because there was a fatal
24 flaw in the initial document that they signed. Both
25 parties agreed that that was not the intent and both
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 68 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 parties resigned the agreement at a later date.
2 NC GREENLAW: Hang on, I have a question.
3 Then why is Commander Gober’s signed on the 7th and
4 this one is signed on the 3rd?
5 PSVC MIDDLETON: The original one, I
6 believe, was signed on the 3rd and then the error
7 was found. It was resigned later.
8 NC GREENLAW: Yeah, but this is dated
9 earlier than this one. How can you find -- you have
10 to have ESP. That’s the question I’m asking. Why
11 is this one -- if this was signed -- this was signed
12 later, right? The --
13 PSVC MIDDLETON: The initial documents were
14 signed --
15 NC GREENLAW: The one signed by Wroolie was
16 done later, right?
17 PSVC MIDDLETON: Both of them resigned
18 later.
19 NC GREENLAW: No, this one was signed --
20 this one says on the 7th, this one’s on the 3rd.
21 PSVC MIDDLETON: Both of them signed both
22 documents at different dates.
23 NC GREENLAW: Not on my signature pages I
24 have here.
25 PSVC MIDDLETON: Well, the original is
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 69 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 signed by both of them.
2 NC GREENLAW: This is a copy of the
3 original, right?
4 PSVC MIDDLETON: I don’t know what you
5 have, sir.
6 NC GREENLAW: This is a copy of the
7 original.
8 PSVC MIDDLETON: I don’t know what you
9 have, but I know what happened.
10 NC GREENLAW: I have in my hands a copy of
11 the original. The one signed on the 7th -- excuse
12 me, on the 3rd was signed by Mary Lou Keener and
13 William Wroolie. The one signed on the 7th, a week
14 later damn near --
15 PSVC MIDDLETON: Of what year?
16 NC GREENLAW: -- was signed by --
17 PSVC MIDDLETON: Of what year? Mary Lou
18 Keener --
19 NC GREENLAW: Mary Lou Keener and --
20 PSVC MIDDLETON: Mary Lou Keener was simply
21 a member of the Board of the Foundation when the
22 initial Norfolk agreement was signed.
23 NC GREENLAW: I’m questioning the dates.
24 This date, February 7th, is obviously changed for
25 some reason.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 70 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 UNIDENTIFIED PATRIOT: What year,
2 Commander?
3 NA HERNANDEZ: Commander?
4 NC GREENLAW: Good question.
5 NA HERNANDEZ: May I make a statement, sir?
6 NC GREENLAW: Sure.
7 NA HERNANDEZ: Let’s go back to the
8 original question from the Patriot. Just hear me
9 out for a few -- I’ll be as brief as possible. The
10 medal that belongs to us, the members, who earned it
11 for the battles we scorn and wars, we own it. It
12 was given away 11 years ago, September 18th, 2008.
13 It was transferred from MOPH to the Foundation.
14 Look at the time, who’s the Commander, who’s the
15 Adjutant?
16 Go to the United States Patent and
17 Trademark Office, you’ll find the whole thing in
18 there, it’s in there. I tried to contest it.
19 Arthur and I missed it by a couple of days because
20 the day we were signed on contract at the
21 Headquarters of this year, we could contest it.
22 Every ten years, the patent needs to be renewed.
23 I’d ask the membership, how can 13 people
24 on the Foundation control 50,000, roughly, members
25 for the medal? That medal should belong to us, the
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 71 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 membership, and then we license it out to them. Do
2 you not agree, sir?
3 PSVC MIDDLETON: The agreement hammered out
4 at the Norfolk Convention --
5 NA HERNANDEZ: Sir, I’ll let you -- the
6 question --
7 PSVC MIDDLETON: No, the agreement said --
8 in the agreement, it states that another entity, an
9 LLC, will be formed, a holding company that will be
10 formed --
11 NA HERNANDEZ: Correct, sir --
12 PSVC MIDDLETON: -- to take care of the
13 medal.
14 NA HERNANDEZ: Mary Lou Keener’s on there.
15 She’s the one, the principle person in charge.
16 PSVC MIDDLETON: The initial agreement did
17 not specify who would be on that LLC. It simply
18 said there would be three members.
19 NA HERNANDEZ: All right, sir, I’ll tell
20 you who it is. We know it’s Mary Lou Keener, Jim
21 Blaylock, and Bill Hutton. Bill Hutton removed
22 himself.
23 PSVC MIDDLETON: Eventually, those are the
24 three that were selected to be on the LLC, that is
25 correct.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 72 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NA HERNANDEZ: And that goes -- all right,
2 sir.
3 PSVC MIDDLETON: But the initial agreement
4 merely stated that an LLC will be formed consisting
5 of three persons, without naming who those persons
6 would be or the exact date and when the LLC would be
7 formed.
8 NC GREENLAW: I have one last question.
9 These are important documents. Were these voted on
10 by the NEC?
11 PSVC MIDDLETON: They were voted on by the
12 Convention.
13 NC GREENLAW: And the NEC had no previous
14 knowledge of this until the Convention?
15 PSVC MIDDLETON: The Convention overrules
16 the NEC. Convention is the final authority.
17 NC GREENLAW: But the NEC had no idea this
18 existed until the Convention. Wouldn’t you need a
19 vote from the NEC to even go forward with this?
20 PATRIOTS: No.
21 PSVC MIDDLETON: No. It merely needs to be
22 brought to the floor of the Convention for a vote.
23 NC GREENLAW: So you’re okay with this?
24 PSVC MIDDLETON: I don’t really know what
25 you have, I’m just telling you what the history is.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 73 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NC GREENLAW: Are you okay with this?
2 PSVC MIDDLETON: I don’t know what “this”
3 is. I’m merely giving you a history of what
4 happened.
5 NC GREENLAW: This is a copy of the
6 original agreement and the changed agreement. Are
7 you in agreement with the change, Exhibit D?
8 PSVC MIDDLETON: I don’t know because I
9 don’t have it. I know I was not even a party to --
10 NC GREENLAW: This is a fake --
11 PSVC MIDDLETON: -- the negotiations at the
12 time.
13 NA HERNANDEZ: Sir?
14 PSVC MIDDLETON: Ernesto -- Patriot
15 Hernandez was a party to the --
16 NC GREENLAW: You’re for it?
17 PSVC MIDDLETON: I’m sorry, sir?
18 NC GREENLAW: I assume you’re for this
19 agreement. Our point is, it should be an illegal
20 agreement.
21 PSVC MIDDLETON: Sir, it doesn’t make any
22 difference whether I support it not, I was never a
23 party to it.
24 NC GREENLAW: You seem to be defending it.
25 PSVC MIDDLETON: I’m merely giving you a
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 74 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 history lesson.
2 NA HERNANDEZ: Commander Greenlaw --
3 NC GREENLAW: Thank you, I appreciate that.
4 PSVC MIDDLETON: You’re welcome, sir.
5 NA HERNANDEZ: Here is the history lesson,
6 there was three people from the Foundation in
7 Norfolk, three people from the Order. I was one of
8 them. Nobody else in this room was there. It was
9 Bob Puskar, myself, and Willie Nazzario. On the
10 other side, the Foundation, was John Agenbroad
11 sitting in the center, who is the Parliamentarian of
12 the Foundation, and it was Bill Wroolie, and it was
13 Bill Hutton.
14 When it was signed, who signed it? Bob
15 Puskar at the supreme body where we all clapped.
16 Remember? We on to the golf tournament except for a
17 few of us. That’s when it was signed and Bob Puskar
18 signed the initial contract. Whatever errors were
19 found, that should’ve been sent to the NEC, what
20 you’re saying, sir, then ratified at the following
21 Convention. That’s what happened.
22 NC GREENLAW: Any argument with that? Yes,
23 sir?
24 DEPT COM VEDVICK: I had a couple of
25 questions. One, I know the NSO Director stated that
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 75 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 the furlough ended on 29 June of 2019. It’s now
2 July. Are we now paying these individuals who were
3 furloughed their salaries and -- or have they been
4 laid off?
5 My next question is, talking about
6 trademarks, we’re over here talking about getting
7 our trademarks back, but we are perfectly happy,
8 complicit with giving our trademarks away to the
9 Purple Heart Store for nothing. We get zero dollars
10 from Phil, from that store to our Order. We’re over
11 here griping about money? We’re crying about money,
12 but you guys don’t want to get money from the one
13 guy who’s taking money from you.
14 (Applause)
15 DEPT COM VEDVICK: We must require that any
16 sale that has our trademark in it, any sale, there
17 has to be some sort of percentage that comes back to
18 the Order, period. These days of handshake deals
19 with vendors and allowing them free travel, free
20 rooms, free advertising in our magazine, that has to
21 end. That kind of business has no place here for
22 this Order. We’re scrounging for money. You’re
23 over here hitting us up for money, we’ve got to find
24 money. We’ve got money, get it from them.
25 All right, last thing. My only other
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 76 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 concern this entire year isn’t about fundraising.
2 Look, we’ve all tried to fundraise in our own ways.
3 Some of us are successful, some have failed. I can
4 stand before you and say that I have failed more
5 than I succeeded, but I continue to try.
6 Sir, I understand that you’ve tried to
7 raise funds and that has not been as successful as
8 you’d hoped it would be this year. I can take that
9 on face value. The problem that Florida has is the
10 continued expenditure above what you were receiving
11 each year. This past year has put us in such a deep
12 debt that we are tapping into the Life Membership
13 Fund.
14 When we start tapping into that fund, we
15 will be in the same spot that the Foundation
16 currently is with zero capital or principle to -- in
17 order to build upon for the next year. That’s all I
18 have, sir. Pending your answer from the NSO on the
19 staff.
20 NC GREENLAW: Thank you.
21 DEPT COM VEDVICK: Do you want me to
22 restate that question? The first question was, the
23 furlough ended on -- I ask the NSO Director, the
24 furlough ended on 29 June 2019.
25 NA HERNANDEZ: I got your second question
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 77 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 and I’ll turn it over to Arthur. Let me explain on
2 the funding. Rewind one year ago, take it to March.
3 Certain people in here were in the room, you found
4 out that your budget was reduced from $6.4 million
5 to roughly $2.8 million, right? There was a big
6 scare, this and that went on. The media took on,
7 you have a Service Officer going on TV and, guess
8 what? The Foundation came back and said, you’re
9 lying, we never said that, and there was no trail of
10 it. It was a scare.
11 So for us, we reduced -- the one thing
12 nobody’s talking about is the contracts that we got
13 rid of. The website that we have held their feet to
14 the fire that we paid $58,000 for, this wasn’t me,
15 this was prior. So we did our due diligence, sir.
16 So we never received anything in writing from the
17 Foundation to say, hey, your budget is going to be
18 reduced.
19 I even sent an email to the Finance
20 Committee. I never received an email saying it was
21 reduced. Our concern was, here we do a Chicken
22 Little threat and they come back and say, nope,
23 here’s your money. Guess what? We’re back in the
24 situation that we did a year ago.
25 We reduced a lot of funding, a lot of
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 78 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 spending. I mean, as much as rumors are out there,
2 I’ll be happy to talk to you at any point and show
3 you the numbers anytime. I’ll be happy to sit down
4 with you and the committee that came down and looked
5 at our books. Let’s go over them. Let’s do it
6 live.
7 DEPT COM VEDVICK: Sir, we agree with you.
8 The State of Florida agrees that the Foundation has
9 failed us in funding. That is a fact. Nobody’s
10 disputing that fact. We are all in agreement that
11 we are not being funded as per what our requirement
12 is. Nobody disputes that.
13 The only dispute is our budgeting after
14 that fact. Even after a couple of months in when we
15 were like, all right, look, we’re only going to get
16 X-number of dollars, something drastic has to
17 happen. When we start talking about -- people get
18 emotional about losing the NSO Program, that’s a
19 false narrative because currently several
20 Departments will be funding those NSO Programs
21 through grants through their states or self-funding
22 it.
23 That program will exist in a smaller
24 fashion, regardless of how we continue to fund it.
25 That’s just what I’m trying to get across. Thank
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 79 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 you.
2 NSD COLEMAN: I think I answered this
3 before. He is partly correct. We’re -- it will be
4 a diminished advocacy footprint here as far as our
5 organization is concerned. But this is the issue,
6 the states that we have contracts with, it’s a
7 reimbursement contract. It is not a contract they
8 pay prior to the services being performed.
9 In other words, we have to have the funds
10 first and then once we pay the individuals, then
11 they reimburse us with reports of things that we
12 have accomplished advocating for veterans. That is
13 the way it works.
14 So, regardless if we go out here and get
15 these grants, the first thing we need to do in this
16 situation is figure out if we’re going to have the
17 money just to deal with the contracted states and
18 the granted states. As I said before, I don’t
19 control the purse strings. From my understanding,
20 the Foundation has been controlling the purse
21 strings for about 60 years.
22 When you actually fund an organization and
23 you’re mandated to do that because they are supposed
24 to be subordinate to us. They are a subsidiary of
25 our organization who gained power over a number of
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 80 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 years. Saying that without any notice, we went from
2 receiving $533,000 a month to $25,000 a month. This
3 is crazy.
4 Even if we wanted to downsize, you don’t
5 have the personnel to downsize properly. I have
6 forwarded an email to the National Commander as well
7 as the Senior Vice and Junior Vice with a plan to
8 downsize our advocacy footprint across the nation.
9 It takes six to seven months to adjudicate not just
10 a claim but to deal with the claims that’s in the
11 circuit as well as picking up the PPI, which is the
12 personal information documents at these offices that
13 we’re going to shut down.
14 I get calls from Department Commanders and
15 Department Adjutants about this paperwork. The
16 membership does not have the authority to go and
17 take those documents. Now, I can task them to do
18 that but I will have to get with the RO. They would
19 still have to have someone there and has to be
20 shredded.
21 We are in a digital system. The VA is no
22 longer paper. It’s paperless now. Most of the
23 documents we have are scanned in. If we want to fix
24 this and to minimize our footprint, we’re going to
25 need funds for six or seven months just to either
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 81 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 downsize or close the program so none of the
2 veterans that we support will have any harm. Either
3 you do nothing and have harm or you do something to
4 mitigate this harm. That’s what I want to do.
5 I’m trying to mitigate potential litigation
6 that we can have for missed dates, for cases that
7 has to be adjudicated. That’s where we at now.
8 What this Patriot has said is very much correct, but
9 we still need funds just to do the minimum.
10 REG V COM ADKINS: Just to reiterate what
11 he said, our NSO passed away. If he were to task us
12 to come down to the office in North Little Rock to
13 recover some of that, the Department of Arkansas
14 bought the computer and a lot of the software and
15 equipment that was actually being used in that
16 office. So we would like to get it back.
17 The hard drive, because of HIPAA and the
18 Privacy Act of 1974, as amended to 2011, would
19 actually require the VA to take that hard drive out
20 and keep it because of the information that’s on it.
21 We would get the shell back. Personally don’t have
22 a problem with that.
23 Now to the other thing. Chris Vedvick
24 talked about getting out there and fundraising.
25 He’s been successful in some areas and unsuccessful
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 82 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 in others. Same way within the Department of
2 Arkansas and other Departments within Region V.
3 How many of you all know who Freddy Simon
4 is? Freddy Simon is a Purple Heart recipient and a
5 member of MOPH and is the founder of Freddy’s Frozen
6 Custard and Steak Burgers. Up until about two years
7 ago, his company donated a sizeable amount of money
8 every year to the Foundation. You know why he
9 stopped? Because we’re discussing it in this room.
10 When you hear Commander Greenlaw saying
11 that money’s been frozen in the pipeline, that’s
12 true. I went to Freddy’s and tried to see if we
13 could get them to donate, but they won’t. They
14 won’t come back and touch it.
15 There are things that you can try at the
16 local level to experiment with and see if you can
17 work up to the National level. Everybody knows what
18 7 August is, right? On 7 August, Slim Chickens, an
19 Arkansas based restaurant chain, all eight
20 restaurants in Northwest Arkansas are going to
21 donate 15% of their sales to Chapter 460, my
22 Chapter. My Commander’s sitting over there. We’ve
23 got to meet with them here in a couple of weeks to
24 finalize a couple of details for that day.
25 I want to experiment with that at the local
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 83 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 level and see if we can get it next year because
2 Slim Chickens has gone international. Maybe we can
3 get them to do a national fundraising thing on 7
4 August in the future to help raise funds for the
5 Order. Those are the things that you’ve got to
6 start looking at when we start talking about raising
7 funds. That’s all I’ve got. Thank you, sir.
8 NC GREENLAW: Thank you. Sir?
9 REG IV COM LAZZARA: Commander, you stated
10 before that we’re going to become a 501(c)(3). If
11 we do that -- we went through this before. If we do
12 that, then Aleks Morosky can’t do his thing up on
13 the Hill. How is that possibly going to work for
14 us? If we’re a 501(c)(19), the big companies that
15 you’re talking about, they’re not going to give us
16 anything because they can’t write it off.
17 I’m just curious how you’re going to change
18 to a 501(c)(3) or is it going to be both? Those are
19 your own words.
20 NC GREENLAW: Yeah.
21 REG IV COM LAZZARA: You can’t do that.
22 NC GREENLAW: From what I understand, you
23 can do that. You can have a 501(c)(3) and a (19).
24 That’s what I’m told. Yes, sir?
25 DEPT COM COMSTOCK: I’ve got two things I
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 84 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 want the body to think about because work we’re
2 doing today and what we’re doing the next few days I
3 think are important. The first is, what is our
4 short term goal? What are we supposed to be doing
5 between now and September -- the court date? What
6 are we supposed to be doing? What are we supposed
7 to be telling our membership?
8 The second one is a long term goal, how do
9 we get back the Service Program? How do we funds
10 ourselves? I haven’t heard anybody say what the
11 goals are. We’ve got, we might do this, we might do
12 that, the other. When I go back to the membership,
13 I want to tell them what we’re planning on doing. I
14 haven’t heard what the short term goal is, short
15 term between now and the court time, and the long
16 term goal, which is going to be the next officers.
17 They’re going to say what they’re going to say.
18 Unfortunately, we make a lot of decisions
19 before they ever take place and they have to live
20 with them. So I think we need to be talking about
21 those two goals. Thank you.
22 NC GREENLAW: Well, what I can say, as I
23 said earlier and I have right here as a Board Member
24 of the Foundation during my tour as National
25 Commander, I can tell you that the Foundation is not
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 85 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 planning on funding us. You can’t see this, I’ll
2 leave it down here. You can take a look at it
3 yourself. These are not my numbers, these are the
4 Foundation numbers.
5 When you look down, you can see all the
6 red. You can probably see the red from where you
7 are. That means that they’re negative. They have
8 revenue and expenses. In the expense line where it
9 says funding the Military Order of the Purple Heart,
10 as a Board Member, I receive these numbers for our
11 information before the May 9th -- last month’s --
12 May 9th -- two months ago, the May 9th Board Meeting
13 in Atlanta -- they held in Atlanta where they flew
14 everybody in from all over the country and had a
15 nice hotel, paid for all of that.
16 The Leadership did not go to that meeting.
17 We called in on the phone. The numbers that they
18 sent me in my board book, this is a copy, it has
19 zero funding all the way across the year. From
20 March to February 2020, zero.
21 Now, as an experienced board member myself,
22 having run three public companies, I can tell you
23 that when a CFO puts together the board book, these
24 numbers are honed and polished. They come out
25 exactly to the right numbers. This one does, it all
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 86 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 adds up, so I knew when I received this, this is
2 their real number, zero.
3 One hour before the Board meeting, I get
4 another one. In that, they have $25,000 across
5 instead of zeros. We all know the real intent, the
6 real desire, was to fund us for zero through
7 February 2020, at least, and probably forever on.
8 That was their real intent because this is an
9 obvious zero all the way across. It couldn’t be a
10 mistake, there’s no way it could be a mistake.
11 Someone got to the Foundation and said, my
12 god, you’ve got to put something in there. You
13 can’t just put zero, that’s un-funding. So they put
14 in $25,000. It may as well been one dollar with the
15 effect that it had on our overall existence.
16 I heard -- I think I can say this and if I
17 shouldn’t say it, I’m going to say it anyway. I
18 heard their lawyer, the Foundation’s lawyer, say,
19 “In the contract it doesn’t say that we have to fund
20 any particular dollar amount. We can fund any
21 dollar amount we want as long as we use the word,
22 fund.” I heard a very important person say, “That
23 means you’re telling me that if the Foundation
24 funded you one dollar that would be called funding.
25 Is that correct?” Dead silence. Shuffle, shuffle,
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 87 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 shuffle, “Well, I guess I have to say that, yes, one
2 dollar would be funding.”
3 This number, to me, the original number of
4 zero is where their true heart was and their intent
5 in taking care of their MOPH. I restate, all of
6 this back and forth that we’re having is terrible
7 and it hurts. I’ll tell you what, it’s all because
8 of this Foundation. This Foundation has failed.
9 I could go deeper about some of the calls I
10 get from their revenue sources. I forced my way in
11 with meetings. I got a meeting with Ruckman, the
12 CEO of the Foundation who’s not a Purple Heart
13 recipient, he’s not even a veteran. We’ll put that
14 aside. But I demanded to see the car program
15 contracts and the thrift store contracts, thick
16 contracts.
17 I sat in their conference room for three
18 hours and I read both of those contracts. Let me
19 tell you, I don’t care what you hear, you can hear
20 the truth from me, from my eyes, not a third party,
21 my eyes. I witnessed the fact that two of those
22 contracts are the worst contracts you could ever
23 imagine. I’m thinking, who in the hell negotiated
24 these contracts?
25 Let me give you an example. The thrift
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 88 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 store contract, there’s no reporting set up to
2 evaluate the money -- the reasoning behind the
3 checks we get from the thrift stores. All we get is
4 a check, period. No validation of what that money
5 was worth. Even worse than that, it’s done by
6 weight. The thrift store clothing and whatever they
7 have is done by weight. A mink coat is worth
8 exactly the same as a pile of rags. There’s no way
9 to evaluate how much that we’re getting, what the
10 true value is.
11 What’s even worse than that, the numbers,
12 the Foundation receives out of one -- every dollar,
13 the Foundation receives 15%. The thrift stores
14 receive 85%. Who negotiated that contract? It’s
15 ridiculous. Usually when these deals are done, you
16 give them a little more. The thrift stores should
17 be 55%, we get 45%. But 85% and 15% is ridiculous,
18 and that means millions of dollars.
19 I am so upset with the Foundation. I have
20 a hard time keeping my temper. All of this that
21 we’re going through right now is 100% the fault of
22 our Foundation. We’ve got to hold their feet to the
23 fire. We’ve got a lawsuit coming up and the other
24 side does not want this lawsuit. They tried to
25 settle and I’m willing to settle. What are we
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 89 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 settling? They wanted to mediate. What are we
2 mediating? Are you paying us or not? What do we
3 mediate? You pay us half, you pay us a little, you
4 pay us a dollar? So there’s really nothing to
5 mediate.
6 So we’re going to court on the 23rd of
7 September and we’re going to win that case. I just
8 have one simple answer to our problem. Is Dennis
9 here, Dennis Wallot?
10 NFC CHAIR WALLOT: Yes, sir.
11 NC GREENLAW: Dennis, when I first met you,
12 you said, “Here comes another National Commander.”
13 That’s true, come in and out in a year. You said
14 something to me that I never forgot and it’s
15 absolutely correct. You said, “There’s nothing
16 wrong with organization that $10 million wouldn’t
17 solve.” That’s correct. We don’t have the $10
18 million. We don’t have the $6.4 million. We don’t
19 have $1 million. We don’t have $500,000 from our
20 Foundation. Maybe we will this year, they’re
21 planning on giving us $600,000 for the whole year.
22 We have a $7.2 million budget submitted to them and
23 they’re trying to get us to cut our expenses down to
24 $600,000. That’s ridiculous.
25 I’m sounding like a broken record, but it’s
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 90 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 their fault. We’re surviving here the best we can
2 and we’re making decisions. Maybe in retrospect,
3 they’re the wrong decisions but at the time with the
4 information we had and the money we had on hand, we
5 decided to go into debt. I approved those deals.
6 By the way, those overdrafts with the bank,
7 with PNC Bank, those were approved by the bank. I
8 was on the phone, they approved those overdrafts.
9 It wasn’t like we just did it. We couldn’t do it
10 without the bank’s approval for that kind of money.
11 It is what it is. We did the best we could do at
12 the time under the circumstances we were in and the
13 information we had at hand. Yes, sir?
14 DEPT COM McCORMICK: In West Virginia and
15 pretty much all of us have followed this email
16 traffic. I’m looking at this from the position of,
17 okay, I know that the Foundation has failed us. I
18 don’t think there’s anybody in here that disagrees
19 with that, that there’s an issue with the
20 Foundation. But if we fail as an Order from this
21 day forward, it is on us because we do not adjust
22 fire, shift fire, move in the direction that you
23 need to move and go and engage and destroy the enemy
24 by the use of fire maneuver.
25 Now that is me coming out here saying, as a
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 91 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 business owner, if I ran my business like the
2 Foundation runs things or even like we run things
3 sometimes, folks, we would be bankrupt. We’re there
4 now. No disagreement on the Foundation. How do we
5 move forward?
6 I’ve sat, I’ve listened, I’ve looked at
7 this. There’s a lot of financial irresponsibility
8 and it’s not any one person’s fault. I don’t think
9 there’s a person in this Order that wants to see the
10 Order fail. I believe with all my heart that
11 everyone wants to see us succeed, no matter what our
12 differences are, no matter where we’re from. We
13 have to figure out a way to pick it up move forward.
14 How do we do that?
15 Here’s some things that I listened to,
16 sustainability. We have to come up and run the
17 order like a business, a sustainable business. This
18 whole thing -- when I heard the thing about the
19 thrift store, I just laughed because we run a
20 consignment shop that’s very similar. We run a
21 consignment shop, not a thrift store. I would’ve
22 loved to have had that. That was a sweet deal to
23 get 85%. We pay our consignees 60%, we keep 40% and
24 we still make it.
25 You know what? We go through all of these
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 92 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 things, like you’re talking about the weight. That
2 400 pounds might be 400 pounds of Tiffany lamps that
3 are antiques that are worth the $10 million that you
4 need to get to where we’re going. How do we get
5 there?
6 We are all smart enough and we are all
7 adult enough that we can come together and come up
8 with a plan of action. Sustainability, live within
9 our means if not under our means. I would love to
10 go to Hawaii every year and I’m sure my wife would
11 love that, but we’re only going to be able to do it
12 about once in our lifetime because we have eight
13 kids and three grandchildren.
14 Thinking about the sustainability and the
15 survivability of the Order after we’re gone, what
16 are we going to leave? What are we going to be
17 remembered for? The other thing is relevancy,
18 folks. We have to come up with some kind of a way
19 that says we are the Military Order of the Purple
20 Heart, we are relevant because.
21 Our NSO Program, we’ve got to have a
22 National Service Officer Program of some sort. It
23 may not be the same thing that we used to have, but
24 if we don’t have something, then we better have
25 something else that makes us relevant.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 93 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 When you’re talking about nonprofit status,
2 instead of being a lobbyist, be an advocate. I ran
3 a national advocacy program, 78,000 members. You’ve
4 seen me out here doing the vets for energy thing.
5 78,000 veterans and not one of them was a registered
6 lobbyist and we got every piece of legislation we
7 ever want to get passed. That’s how you do that
8 because of reality, being real.
9 Chapters make it happen. Ultimately, we
10 can have the strongest national organization, but if
11 our Chapters don’t have members, if our Chapters
12 aren’t active, if our Chapters aren’t funded, if our
13 focus is not on making the Chapters relevant, we
14 will fail. I’ve never seen a division command
15 section win the war without the platoons and the
16 squads moving forward to do what needed to be done.
17 (Applause)
18 DEPT COM McCORMICK: Last thing, what are
19 we going to be remembered for? Are we going to be
20 remembered for the people that lost the Order that’s
21 been around since 1932? We need to run this Order
22 like a business. We need to have relevancy.
23 Ladies and gentlemen, Patriots, I love each
24 and every one of you. If I didn’t, I would tell you
25 that. I’m not here to fight with you. The emails
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 94 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 that I sent out are not designed to slap people or
2 make people feel bad. They are sincere, legitimate
3 questions because I have two sons that are serving
4 right now. God forbid, if one of them ends up in
5 this Order and stand here ten years from now
6 listening to the same stuff that I’m listening to,
7 would break my heart. Thank you.
8 (Applause)
9 NC GREENLAW: Thank you. Hang on one
10 second. Go ahead.
11 NA HERNANDEZ: Ladies and gentlemen, I just
12 want to go over a few things from this morning and
13 then I think it’s a perfect segue because I had a
14 great conversation with the gentlemen wearing the
15 hat back there, the red hat, about going forward.
16 First, let me start with a few
17 clarifications and a little bit of what I’ve seen.
18 Let’s figure out the path of success or the path way
19 ahead to move forward. First one, it was brought up
20 earlier the finance -- I’m going to go back a little
21 bit. The Finance Committee that American Express,
22 these accounts, these accounts, the access. I don’t
23 have access to any of those accounts whatsoever as
24 well. I want to put that on the record.
25 Secondly, it was brought up about using the
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 95 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 building’s equity and the Finance Committee has a
2 $2,700 bill for the appraisal. If you know any kind
3 of contract you enter into, anything over $500,
4 anything over one year in duration must be in
5 writing. I would ask the Finance Committee to
6 please show us who signed off on that appraisal
7 because if that is the case they’re charging us,
8 that’s on them. We shouldn’t be paying that bill.
9 They’re a bank, they’re a financial institution.
10 A couple of things here, I’ll go as quick
11 as possible. The funds, why did some of the
12 restricted funds get comingled? Well, when I came
13 onboard, it was 19 different accounts to protect the
14 dollars. It was switched to three accounts. So you
15 need to go back to a different methodology so you
16 know everything is separated so it’s protected so
17 money doesn’t get expended when it shouldn’t get
18 expended.
19 We were in a situation of, hey, money has
20 to be paid out, especially for the payrolls. ROTC,
21 the reduction that Arthur took and I took, that paid
22 for all the medals for two years. It paid for John
23 Lloyd to come back and correct the system that
24 failed us. Remember you couldn’t log on to your
25 member logon? It’s called spaghetti coding. Anyone
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 96 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 in the room that knows -- a few of you that are
2 saying coding, either Fortran or Pascal, he had to
3 redo it from backwards. He was the only guy who had
4 the knowledge. So that paid for those portions.
5 Let’s go to Foundation. I’m going to stop
6 slamming the Foundation. True, we’re all tired, I’m
7 tired of saying it. The Foundation right now has an
8 agreement with us. They would fund themselves
9 first, then the Order, then the debts they owe. For
10 us to live in a beltway circle, we do this a lot, we
11 do this for a living. We go out there, a lot of
12 meetings, a lot of stuff that we hear. They are
13 paying their creditors.
14 Charles Eggleston, one of the greatest
15 Patriots, him and I had a little falling out, but it
16 is what it is, kind of like what McCormick
17 mentioned. But he knows the circuits we run around.
18 The Foundation does have money and they’re paying
19 bills.
20 Now, the one thing that I’ve noticed is
21 before -- and if you don’t mind, Chaplain, if we can
22 maybe get gentleman in the red hat here in a second
23 because I think it’s going to be a perfect segue.
24 But the thing that I’ve noticed is very few people
25 really read what’s in front of you. I’m going to
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 97 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 give you an example.
2 The agreement for the attorneys that
3 represent the Order, stay away from names, who
4 really, truly read every page of it? You don’t have
5 to raise your hand. I can say I did. Here’s why
6 that I know for a fact that many of you didn’t read
7 it. If you read on there, it is pro bono to $1,000
8 a month. $1,000 a month. Actually, I agree with
9 it, don’t get me wrong. This thing needs to go
10 forward especially with that in light.
11 You need to win, get the trademark back,
12 get the medal back within the Order. There’s stuff
13 out here the Commander not discussing, the
14 Department of Army is involved as well, and OFD is
15 involved. There’s more coming out to this.
16 With that, I think -- Patriot Flyr, you
17 came up before we started this meeting. I think you
18 said it best, “How do we get out of this mess? What
19 do we do going forward?”
20 I don’t know if you mind, Chaplain, if you
21 could just jump in front real quick so we can look
22 at that next, what do we do to move forward? How do
23 we -- you know we’re supposed to have civility,
24 excuse me with this one, how do we un-fuck this and
25 go forward? All right, sir.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 98 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NC GREENLAW: Swore with the Chaplain
2 standing right in front of him.
3 CHAPLAIN MILLER: Commander, I just have a
4 question to ask, not as the Chaplain but as the
5 Chief of Staff of Chapter 402, the largest Chapter
6 in South Carolina at Fort Jackson. Why was it that
7 the rumors have come out that the ladies were
8 totally funded but yet we were not funded by the
9 Order? Why is that? That’s my question.
10 NC GREENLAW: You have to ask the
11 Foundation. You have to ask the Foundation that.
12 First of all, their funding level is a lot lower and
13 they can probably afford to do it. Keep in mind,
14 when I said they spent $24.2 million to make $25
15 million, there’s $800,000 there they have to float,
16 not to mention what they can take out of the revenue
17 stream to rob Peter to pay Paul, which they’ve been
18 doing all the way back for years. It is what it is.
19 They have $800,000 to play with and what’s
20 that, you know? A couple hundred thousand, $150,000
21 a month, whatever it is. It’s not much but it’s a
22 little and they’re doling it out. They may be doing
23 more revenue now than I know about. I’m on the
24 Board and I don’t hear anything. I don’t hear
25 anything from anybody ever.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 99 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 It’s a sad situation, but this lawsuit is
2 coming and we’re going to win it, we’re going to get
3 all of our rights back into the Order. The
4 Foundation’s going to go off on their own and try to
5 raise money. Our long term solution is to raise our
6 own funds from friendly corporations, high net worth
7 individuals, and government grants and other grants
8 that we can find along the way.
9 I can tell you one thing, USAA Insurance
10 sent me an email with three grants that we can apply
11 for with them. They said usually it’s a couple
12 hundred thousand per grant. That’s $600,000 right
13 there. They’ve gone quiet on me because of this
14 lawsuit, but it’s there and we have others. We have
15 some big fundraisers in New York City that invite
16 very few veteran organizations in along with their
17 others. We’re on the top of the list.
18 There’s a lot of money out there. We can
19 raise our own money. I’ve seen it, and I know you
20 haven’t seen the dollars you wanted to see. Neither
21 have I, but this lawsuit has stopped us in our
22 tracks. We’re not going to get much. We can
23 trickle it in here and there like we got $60,000
24 coming from the Dolphin Fund for the Fleet Week
25 promotion we did. That’s not much, but it’s a help.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 100 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 We can trickle it in, but the big money is
2 out there waiting. If you don’t believe me, just
3 wait until after the lawsuit, you’ll see. Yes, sir?
4 DEPT COM GATLIN: I’m not as eloquent as
5 some of my colleagues and most of you that know me
6 know I’m pretty blunt and direct. First and
7 foremost, I’ve been looking at this picture behind
8 you the entire time and thinking how I would take
9 that objective, using like a combined arms, joint
10 service approach.
11 If you have documents, and you keep talking
12 about them -- and none of this requires a response,
13 by the way. Please make them available so we can
14 see them or put them up on the big screen.
15 Secondly, the Foundation doesn’t affect us
16 out in Montana. I’m tired of talking about them. I
17 get they screwed up, I get they failed, I get it.
18 I’m sure this gentleman’s going to say behind me and
19 I’m sure the Adjutant did. Kind of move forward.
20 We’re just sounding like a broken record.
21 I disagree to some extent with the
22 Chapters. I think that’s based on population the
23 amount of people, amount of funding. We run at CO,
24 XO, 1, 2, 3, 4 like we were all taught. It’s easier
25 for me to be able to maintain funds, cost efficiency
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 101 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 by having a centralized command and control, which
2 point I need to delegate authority, take somebody
3 out, I do. It’s much more efficient.
4 When you start thinking about warrant forms
5 and all this, that, and the other, it’s archaic. We
6 need to move forward and standardize, or at least
7 upgrade, our technology and our approach. Other
8 groups are doing it. Why we’re not, I have no clue.
9 Goals, I think the gentleman -- a couple
10 gentlemen hit on that earlier. What are they?
11 Short term, long term, I have no clue. I’m still
12 looking at the picture.
13 Incorporation, I keep hearing everybody
14 talk about it. Everybody’s going to form these
15 501(c)(3)’s and all this, that, and the other. We
16 in Montana aren’t going to do it. I don’t have the
17 people, we don’t have the time, we don’t have the
18 inclination. Quite frankly, it’s embarrassing. One
19 of the goals I hear mentioned about all the time is
20 membership, membership, membership. You guys are
21 crazy if you think I’m going to go out and try to
22 recruit people with all this stuff going on.
23 Some of us actually have professional
24 reputations. I’m not knocking anyone in this room,
25 but to go out, we are the laughing stock. There’s
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 102 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 no doubt about it. Personally, I will continue to
2 defend the Order because I believe in it to some
3 extent, but I’ll tell you, we’re starting to wane a
4 little bit.
5 I told the folks in Montana I would say
6 this and I’m going to say it. We need to get it
7 together and have a positive attitude because I, for
8 one -- and maybe I’m the only one willing to say
9 this. I’m having a hard time going out and bringing
10 people in. What do you get? $50 and a magazine?
11 We don’t even have the magazine anymore.
12 One last thing, while we talk about these
13 grandiose plans and these ideas for moving forward,
14 this philosophical pie in the sky, on the end of it
15 we’re on the line bearing the brunt in these rural
16 states, even these urban states when it comes to
17 recruiting, when it comes to fundraising, when it
18 comes to engagement. If we don’t have a centralized
19 plan -- and we’re going to centralize even more with
20 all these weird 501(c)(3)’s, potentially 50
21 different ones, there will be no centralized
22 command. We’ll be going 50 different directions in
23 50 different ways in 50 different speeds.
24 Folks, the only thing we’re going to have
25 in common is we’re going to go down the bowl right
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 103 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 down the drain. Thank you for your time.
2 PATRIOT FLYR: National Commander, we have
3 a lot of things to decide and we don’t have a lot of
4 time to do it. I just listed a couple of items. I
5 think we’re going to have to come to a decision
6 within the next hour or so. One, how are we going
7 to operate until September? Two, what are our plans
8 for our Headquarters employees? Are we going to try
9 to bring them all back, some of them, none of them?
10 The other, the status of the lawsuit, I’ve
11 had a lot of people ask me if the Order wins the
12 lawsuit, what exactly do we get? They don’t have
13 any money.
14 The other one, are we going to have a
15 National Service Organization? This is something
16 that needs to be discussed and some type of
17 consensus come on.
18 Finally, we need a realistic budget, not
19 based on “the check is in the mail,” but the revenue
20 sources that we have right now. I’d suggest have a
21 budget, operational budget, until September and then
22 have incremental. What happens if we do raise a
23 million dollars? What’s going to be our priorities?
24 Are we going to try to bring Headquarters staff
25 back? Are we going to start paying salaries? What
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 104 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 are we going to do with it? If we raise another
2 million, what will we do with that?
3 Now, if we raised the whole $7.2 million,
4 fine, we can accomplish all the goals we’d like to.
5 I could probably come up with a budget on all the
6 things I’d like the Order to accomplish. That’d be
7 $20 million. Until we got something more solid that
8 we can depend on, we can’t depend on people telling
9 us, “Oh, yeah, I’ll give you the money Monday.”
10 “No, I’m a little short this week, maybe next week.”
11 We need to get budgets based on our proven
12 revenue sources right now. Thank you.
13 (Applause)
14 NC GREENLAW: Thank you. I just would like
15 to respond quickly and then we’re going to take a
16 15-minute break. Steve Ruckman, the CEO of the
17 Foundation, said to a highly regarded PNC in the
18 Military Order of the Purple Heart last year, he
19 said, “All we have to do is stop funding the Order
20 and they will crash and burn.” That’s what he said.
21 I believe this person that told me that.
22 The Foundation is not on our side. To be
23 perfectly honest, I don’t the Foundation cares at
24 all, and I’m cleaning up my language here. I don’t
25 think the Foundation cares at all about us. They
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 105 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 want us to go away, they want to go off running with
2 all those intellectual and Purple Heart rights.
3 That’s not going to happen. They want us to drop
4 this lawsuit. They’re trying everything they can do
5 to get me to drop this lawsuit. We’re not dropping
6 this lawsuit.
7 (Applause)
8 NC GREENLAW: One of your questions --
9 UNIDENTIFIED PATRIOT: (inaudible)
10 NC GREENLAW: Yeah, it can be dropped. All
11 you have to do is vote it --
12 DEPT COM CASSON: If it’s brought on this
13 floor and it’s voted on and it’s passed to drop the
14 lawsuit, then we’ve saved $95,000 and we move
15 forward. It’s not your call! It is our call!
16 You’re dealing with our lives and our members’
17 lives.
18 NC GREENLAW: I’ll be very pleased to put
19 that vote up. I don’t disagree with you. Why are
20 you so angry? I don’t disagree with you.
21 DEPT COM CASSON: (inaudible)
22 NC GREENLAW: I’m trying to stay calm. I’m
23 trying to be civil.
24 REG VI COM ANDERSON: Commander?
25 NC GREENLAW: Yes, sir?
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 106 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 REG VI COM ANDERSON: Call for a recess
2 please, sir.
3 NC GREENLAW: We’ll call for a 15-minute
4 recess.
5 (Gavel rap)
6 (15-minute break.)
7 (Gavel raps)
8 NC GREENLAW: Please stand and face the
9 flag. Hand salute. Two. Thank you. Be seated.
10 I’m going to multitask here. We’re trying to get
11 something up on the board. We have one question.
12 This will be the last question, then we have some
13 business to take care of. Yes, sir?
14 PDC WILLIAMS: Two questions -- really,
15 it’s three. Number one, I want to know, do we have
16 buildings in D.C. -- I mean in Virginia that belongs
17 to the Foundation -- I mean that belongs to us, the
18 MOPH, that we need to take care of?
19 NC GREENLAW: Did you say, do we have a
20 building?
21 PDC WILLIAMS: A building.
22 NC GREENLAW: Yes, we do.
23 PDC WILLIAMS: Are they costing us money
24 now?
25 NC GREENLAW: We do have a building.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 107 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 PDC WILLIAMS: Is it costing us money?
2 NC GREENLAW: I’m sorry?
3 PDC WILLIAMS: Is it costing us money now?
4 NC GREENLAW: For maintenance, yes.
5 There’s no mortgage.
6 PDC WILLIAMS: Okay. Has anyone ever
7 thought about us moving our Headquarters out of the
8 high rent district?
9 NC GREENLAW: Yes. Yes, we have, and
10 that’s the reason I asked for that evaluation of the
11 building to find out exactly what it’s worth so we
12 could consider that in our negotiations with the
13 Foundation.
14 My recommendation was that we take over the
15 Foundation and bring it in. Get rid of the Board.
16 Get rid of the Board, take the Foundation in and run
17 it properly. Of course, that went over like a
18 pregnant pole vaulter. That didn’t happen.
19 On the other hand, I did know -- I had to
20 know what the value of our building is and they had
21 to know what the value of their building is because
22 the idea was to sell both buildings, we could come
23 up with probably $2 or $3 million, put it in an
24 account and go together forward and use their
25 501(c)(3). They decided not to do that. They
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 108 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 decided to go off on their own and that’s when we
2 got sued. They decided to sue us and take
3 everything and go forward.
4 PDC WILLIAMS: Okay.
5 NC GREENLAW: That’s something I want to
6 discuss here in a minute is the lawsuit. But we do
7 have a building and we know what it’s worth. It’s
8 sitting there as an asset.
9 PDC WILLIAMS: Okay. We talk about the
10 Foundation as if it’s some foreign thing. Aren’t
11 members of that Foundation Purple Heart members, or
12 Past National President (sic)?
13 NC GREENLAW: Yes. We have --
14 PDC WILLIAMS: So why do we have so much
15 trouble if they are our brothers and sisters? Am I
16 right or wrong?
17 NC GREENLAW: You’re right, and that’s a
18 good question.
19 PDC WILLIAMS: I just want an answer, okay
20 --
21 NC GREENLAW: Let me just say this, the
22 Chairwoman, Madam Chairwoman of the Board is a woman
23 by the name of Mary Lou Keener. She’s the wife of
24 PNC Hershel Gober. She’s Chairman of the
25 Foundation, Chairwoman of the Foundation. She’s a
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 109 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 Vietnam vet. She’s not a Purple Heart recipient.
2 She was a nurse in Vietnam, she’s not a Purple Heart
3 recipient.
4 The president (sic) and CEO, which is the
5 lead fundraising person, supposedly -- within any
6 organization, the CEO is your top salesman,
7 basically. If you’re a public company, you’re
8 making presentations to Wall Street. If you’re a
9 private company, you’re talking to your clients.
10 The CEO of the Foundation not only is not a Purple
11 Heart recipient, he’s not even a veteran. That’s
12 the big problem.
13 They’re out managing these two revenue
14 streams that they have, the car program and the
15 thrift stores and they’re slowly declining, and
16 they’re not replacing that revenue appropriately.
17 I’m on the Board because of being a National
18 Commander. I’ll be off the Board Thursday and the
19 next Commander will be on the Board. I’m their
20 worst enemy, I’m an eyewitness.
21 You’ve got an experienced eyewitness
22 watching this debacle that’s going on with the
23 Foundation. Believe me, it’s terrible. Their lack
24 of communication, their secrecy, the bad management,
25 malfeasance, another word called misfeasance, count
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 110 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 that too.
2 I’m not accusing them of being bad people,
3 human beings. We do have PNCs on the Board that are
4 combat wounded vets as well. How many do we have?
5 Three or four? Four? So, yeah, we do have
6 spokespeople on that Board but they’ve been voting
7 along with all of this. I’m the only one, and our
8 team are the only ones that are voting against
9 anything that comes up.
10 A good example is that meeting they just
11 had in Atlanta on May 9th. They flew everybody in
12 from all over the country to stay in that beautiful
13 hotel and have their Board Meeting. I suggested
14 they do it by teleconference or telephone conference
15 and save the money. What’d they do? They had the
16 meeting. So they’ve got money, they’re funding
17 themselves.
18 The CEO, I heard just today that the CEO
19 got a raise. I don’t know.
20 PDC WILLIAMS: You’re joking?
21 NC GREENLAW: I don’t know exactly, I think
22 it’s $250,000, $225,000. Something like that, it’s
23 over $200,000, I know that. He just got a raise.
24 They’re funding their entire staff. We have zero
25 staff. We need to talk about that a little bit
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 111 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 later. We’ve got zero staff.
2 We’re cutting it down to the bare minimum
3 so we can percolate along until the lawsuit, win
4 that lawsuit, and take over. We need to talk about
5 that lawsuit too and that’s coming up next.
6 PDC WILLIAMS: Okay.
7 NC GREENLAW: Yes, sir?
8 PDC WILLIAMS: That’s it.
9 NC GREENLAW: Okay, thank you. Speaking of
10 the lawsuit -- yes, sir?
11 DEPT COM YELINEK: Going back to my
12 previous question, earlier question on the
13 authorization for PNC Gober and Mary Lou to sign
14 that document, it was said it was never brought
15 before the NEC. It was voted upon by the
16 Convention. Are there minutes that reflect that?
17 I’ll direct this to the Adjutant. Are there verbal
18 recorded minutes or are there printed minutes that
19 reflect that this was legal action?
20 NC GREENLAW: Yes. I have a hard time
21 hearing -- even when you’re loud, I have a hard time
22 understanding exactly what you said.
23 DEPT COM YELINEK: I just want to know, are
24 there minutes from the Convention authorizing PNC
25 Gober, or at that time Commander Gober, to sign the
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 112 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 documentation?
2 NC GREENLAW: That’s a very good question.
3 I asked that question and they said -- I’ve had two
4 answers. One answer was yes, it was voted on by the
5 General Convention, to the supreme body. I think
6 we’re talking about two different documents.
7 DEPT COM YELINEK: There should be minutes,
8 there should be minutes. It was never voted upon by
9 the NEC. But if the general body voted, there
10 should be minutes.
11 NA HERNANDEZ: Commander Greenlaw --
12 NC GREENLAW: Yeah. I don’t believe these
13 documents were voted on, personally. We’re
14 searching the minutes to find out.
15 NA HERNANDEZ: Let me explain the best I
16 can. I ask Patriot Doug Middleton, Patriot Dennis
17 Wallot, Chairman Wallot, to help me out on this one.
18 For those of us who were in Norfolk, the
19 Convention, right before golfing that Thursday -- do
20 you remember Bob Puskar saying we finally reached an
21 agreement? Bob Puskar and Bill Wroolie signed those
22 documents. In front of everybody, they signed it,
23 made copies, we went on. That is digitized in the
24 minutes from Dave Molinaro. So, that, we have.
25 This had changed over. I don’t know what
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 113 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 happened. I’ll look at Patriot Middleton the most
2 here. What happened? Why were these -- this
3 contract redone? The one thing I just wanted to add
4 to this, if you remember the original LLC Holding,
5 the original one that was sent to the Convention
6 floor in Norfolk, there was three members from the
7 Foundation, three members from the Order. If you
8 look at the LLC Holding, it’s strictly three members
9 from the Foundation.
10 Something happened in between -- the
11 Commander from Nevada’s asking and what you have in
12 front you, exhibits the attorneys have. Thank you.
13 PSVC MIDDLETON: As I understand it, from
14 what I have been told, the initial deal, agreement,
15 that was trying to be hammered out between the Order
16 and the Foundation initially talked about -- or it
17 was the Order’s position that when the LLC was
18 formed there would, in fact, be six members, three
19 from the Order, three from the Foundation.
20 In talking with Matt Tully, who was on the
21 negotiating team at the time, for whatever reason --
22 and I certainly was not part of that conversation.
23 I wasn’t involved in it at all. What he has told me
24 is that that part of the deal could not be reached
25 and he basically had to acquiesce to just three
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 114 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 members. Somewhere in the negotiations and the
2 dealing between the two parties, the six-member
3 thing got reduced to three and apparently that was
4 suitable to Commander Puskar and the negotiating
5 team for the Order.
6 That’s basically what signed initially by
7 Commander Puskar and Commander (sic) Wroolie. As I
8 mentioned, there was a serious, fatal error in one
9 of the paragraphs inadvertently. Since Commander
10 Puskar was no longer the National Commander and
11 Commander Gober was then the Commander, he is the
12 one that ended up signing the agreement that we now
13 see today.
14 NA HERNANDEZ: Sir, that’s exactly my point
15 because you said there was a fatal error, your
16 words, right, sir?
17 PSVC MIDDLETON: Yes.
18 NA HERNANDEZ: All right. Why didn’t it go
19 to NEC when they discovered that error for them to
20 review and vote on to say, oh, yeah, we’re okay with
21 it, or --
22 PSVC MIDDLETON: It did not happen at the
23 Convention. It happened after we returned home.
24 NA HERNANDEZ: I understand, but that’s the
25 role of the NEC to vote in between conventions.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 115 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 PSVC MIDDLETON: Well, I can’t answer that
2 question.
3 NA HERNANDEZ: There’s your answer for
4 people in here. That’s where there’s a lot of
5 confusion in these documents. A lot of confusion.
6 NC GREENLAW: The document I’m concerned
7 about is the trademark and service mark license
8 agreement to the Order.
9 PSVC MIDDLETON: I know nothing about that.
10 NC GREENLAW: I don’t believe it’s ever
11 been voted on. I don’t believe it’s ever been
12 before the NEC. That’s my opinion.
13 REG I COM EGGLESTON: Believe me,
14 Commander, we never voted on anything like that as a
15 body or NEC. That document that I seen that was
16 laying on the table, that was an illegal formatted
17 document for purposes of whatever. We never voted
18 on that because I would’ve said hell no, and I
19 probably would’ve said let’s un-F this thing.
20 That’s all I have to say.
21 NC GREENLAW: Yes, sir?
22 DEPT SVC PRATTS: Senior Vice Commander,
23 State of New York reporting. Sorry I’m late.
24 NC GREENLAW: Thank you.
25 NA HERNANDEZ: For the Credentials
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 116 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 Committee, Ruban Pratts, Department of New York,
2 he’s here.
3 DEPT COM CUNNINGHAM: The question I has
4 is, that rather than say yes we did or no we didn’t,
5 wouldn’t the minutes of the NEC meeting reflect
6 that? Who was responsible to make those minutes up
7 and make them available to the body? I believe the
8 Bylaws say the Adjutant.
9 NC GREENLAW: I’m going to let the National
10 Adjutant answer that question.
11 DEPT COM CUNNINGHAM: I believe he is
12 accountable, sir. That’s what I just read in the
13 Bylaws. Am I correct?
14 NA HERNANDEZ: It depends. Accountable, it
15 says also in there that you will compensate me a
16 fair and reasonable wage, which you haven’t been
17 doing. Hold on, let me finish.
18 The best I could do, I cannot make the
19 material to print them. I don’t have Constant
20 Contact with you, a mass member blast. We did do it
21 before it went down. There’s a Patriot here that
22 asked, can you send it out? We sent it out with
23 Constant Contact to everybody then we resent it
24 again to the Region Commanders and said, can you
25 please disseminate?
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 117 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 DEPT COM CUNNINGHAM: This was 2016. We’re
2 not talking last year.
3 NA HERNANDEZ: You are correct, sir.
4 DEPT COM CUNNINGHAM: So there are no
5 minutes from the 2016 National Convention --
6 NA HERNANDEZ: You’re exactly right, I
7 retract that. But am I supposed to bring every
8 minutes with me from previous years? Normally, you
9 bring the last year’s minutes, right?
10 DEPT COM CUNNINGHAM: I guess my point is
11 that, I’m sure, Commander, that that’s confusing
12 you, those documents. That’s why we have these
13 other processes in place so we can do an audit trail
14 and see what really happened. What you’re telling
15 me is, we didn’t do that. Am I correct in what
16 you’re telling me?
17 NC GREENLAW: I’m telling you that we will
18 look into those minutes and find out. I’ll read
19 them personally myself.
20 DEPT COM CUNNINGHAM: All right, thank you,
21 sir.
22 NC GREENLAW: I will do that. I’m telling
23 you that this is a recent discovery.
24 DEPT COM CUNNINGHAM: We should have a
25 record of whether we did or did not vote on it.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 118 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NC GREENLAW: Exactly right.
2 DEPT COM CUNNINGHAM: I’m being told we do
3 not have that record. Am I correct?
4 NC GREENLAW: I’ll find out.
5 REG VI COM ANDERSON: The document, the LLC
6 agreement that was signed by Hershel Gober and Mary
7 Lou Keener was not presented to the NEC because that
8 document was signed, I believe, in February of 2017.
9 The NEC did not receive this document prior to
10 signature. There would not be any minutes on this
11 because we were out of Convention, had been out of
12 Convention for several months.
13 NC GREENLAW: I will still take a look at
14 those minutes to see if it was brought up in the
15 meeting. I don’t think it was, but I’d like to be
16 able to say that I at least reviewed the minutes or
17 the next National Commander reviewed the minutes. I
18 don’t feel these are legitimate documents.
19 First of all, I’m experienced at this. It
20 looks like somebody sat at home on their typewriter
21 and typed this up. It might be on a computer, but
22 it looks very amateurish. The signatures are even
23 more amateurish the way it’s laid out. I don’t
24 believe these two documents have ever been voted on
25 by the NEC. That’s my opinion. I’d like to leave
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 119 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 them out here and let you take a look at them if
2 you’d like to, especially the signature pages.
3 One signature page has a changed date on
4 it, and I’m not sure why. Yes, sir?
5 DEPT COM DAUGHERTY: Commander Greenlaw,
6 I’ve got two questions. Number one, the lawsuit
7 between the MOPH and the Foundation, it’s strictly a
8 trademark lawsuit, is it not?
9 NC GREENLAW: Yes.
10 DEPT COM DAUGHERTY: Hopefully, we win that
11 lawsuit. Even if we do, the Foundation’s not going
12 to fund us. We already know that, everybody’s aware
13 of that. My question is going to be for whichever
14 of these two guys are going to be our next
15 Commander, what are their plans for our future for
16 Purple Heart organization? If we don’t have the
17 funding and the only place that we can get funding
18 right now is from the Life Membership Fund.
19 Second thing, the first money that you
20 asked for from the Life Membership Fund was about
21 $2.4 million, correct? That included the $95,000
22 for the witnesses to travel to the court.
23 NC GREENLAW: And court costs.
24 DEPT COM DAUGHERTY: Is that correct?
25 NC GREENLAW: Yes.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 120 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 UNIDENTIFIED PATRIOT: No, sir, it’s not!
2 DEPT COM DAUGHERTY: Let me get to it. The
3 second one that you sent in, the revised copy that I
4 saw back there just a little while go, that $95,000
5 was not included in the one the NEC voted on. Am I
6 correct? So my question -- my third question is --
7 NC GREENLAW: I believe it was.
8 DEPT COM DAUGHERTY: No, sir, it was not.
9 NC GREENLAW: I believe it was.
10 DEPT COM DAUGHERTY: We can check, but I
11 don’t think it was.
12 NC GREENLAW: You can check on it, I
13 believe it was.
14 DEPT COM DAUGHERTY: So, if we, the NEC,
15 have to vote on that $95,000, you made a statement
16 to me that you would not ask for any more than what
17 you already had. Is that a true statement?
18 NC GREENLAW: I’m not sure what your
19 question is.
20 DEPT COM DAUGHERTY: Yes, sir. You --
21 NC GREENLAW: I don’t have anything. It’s
22 MOPH.
23 DEPT COM DAUGHERTY: So that is my
24 question.
25 NC GREENLAW: Be specific.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 121 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 DEPT COM DAUGHERTY: I was. Where are you
2 going to get the $95,000 that’s not in your second
3 revised statement on that $1.5 million? It’s not
4 there unless I’m totally wrong. I don’t believe I
5 am because I saw it.
6 NC GREENLAW: I think I have a copy of it.
7 DEPT COM DAUGHERTY: This question is for
8 the Senior Vice, Junior Vice, not Ernesto. Thank
9 you, sir.
10 (Applause)
11 NC GREENLAW: I think I have a copy of
12 that. I know I do in my computer. I know I have
13 one in my computer and I think it was the same,
14 $1.543 million. It’s in there. Yes, sir?
15 NPC CHAIR McINTOSH: I’m a packrat and I
16 happened to go searching through my computer and I
17 happened to find the document agreement that was
18 reached at the 2016 Convention that was instrumental
19 in changing the Bylaws. I have a copy of that
20 setting up that LLC. I have it on a disc if anybody
21 who’d be interested putting it up on the screen so
22 everybody could read it.
23 NC GREENLAW: Do you have both copies?
24 NPC CHAIR McINTOSH: No, I do not have the
25 February issue. What I have is the agreement that
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 122 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 was reached at the Convention because after the
2 Convention, as Patriot Doug Middleton said the
3 document was screwed up. It had to be corrected and
4 I have a copy of the corrected agreement that was
5 sent out to the NEC and it was dated -- saved or
6 modified on August 22nd, 2016. I have a copy of it
7 here and we can bring it up on the screen if you
8 want.
9 NC GREENLAW: Was that the trademark and
10 service mark license agreement?
11 NPC CHAIR McINTOSH: No, sir.
12 NC GREENLAW: Well, that’s what I’m talking
13 about.
14 NPC CHAIR McINTOSH: No, let’s put it like
15 this, what I have is the -- there was an extensive
16 discussion, there was an agreement reached. What I
17 have is a copy of what the agreement was that was
18 ratified by the Convention. It is not setting that
19 up. In there, it has a paragraph and subparagraph
20 talking about the LLC.
21 SVC GARCIA: Patriot McIntosh, the one you
22 guys -- it was the one that was signed by Commander
23 Puskar and --
24 NPC CHAIR McINTOSH: No, it was not signed
25 at the Convention. The one that was signed at the
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 123 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 Convention --
2 SVC GARCIA: The thing was signed by
3 Commander Puskar and Past National Commander Wroolie
4 at the front table in Norfolk in front of all of us.
5 Once it was signed, we all clapped because we were
6 all excited about the signatures that were done.
7 Past National Commander Gober, if I’m not
8 mistaken, Patriot Middleton -- at the time, it was
9 Jason Johns, Past National Commander Van Ess, and
10 Past National Commander Gober that were the
11 Commanders at the time when all that stuff happened.
12 Past National Senior Vice Commander Middleton came
13 in as the Junior Vice when all that stuff happened.
14 But that document was signed at the Convention.
15 NPC CHAIR McINTOSH: It was signed at
16 Convention, but there was problems in it because it
17 was mistyped.
18 SVC GARCIA: Correct.
19 NPC CHAIR McINTOSH: It was later after the
20 Convention it was discovered that the wording was
21 incorrect on one of the documents.
22 SVC GARCIA: Correct, sir.
23 NPC CHAIR McINTOSH: That document was
24 corrected as to what was agreed upon, and then it
25 was sent out to the NEC.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 124 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 SVC GARCIA: I’m not saying I don’t believe
2 you, sir, but I don’t remember voting on that.
3 NPC CHAIR McINTOSH: Let’s put it like
4 this, I have the --
5 (Speaking over each other)
6 SVC GARCIA: -- Patriot McIntosh, you did
7 say you were a packrat?
8 NPC CHAIR McINTOSH: Yeah.
9 SVC GARCIA: So maybe you have that vote
10 because I don’t remember it and I know --
11 NPC CHAIR McINTOSH: I don’t have the vote,
12 but I have the document.
13 SVC GARCIA: Thank you, sir. But --
14 NPC CHAIR McINTOSH: Let’s put it like this
15 --
16 NC GREENLAW: Patriot --
17 NPC CHAIR McINTOSH: -- I had suggested we
18 put it up on the screen so everybody could see what
19 it was.
20 SVC GARCIA: That’s not the document that’s
21 in question, sir. The question is, was that voted
22 on after the vote was done at the Convention? That
23 was the question. Unless we have that, and I will
24 check my stuff because I will find that vote. If it
25 was passed out, it will be on our emails.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 125 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 Patriot Daugherty, you asked the question,
2 sir, about how do we move forward right now. To be
3 honest with you, sir, myself and National Junior
4 Vice, Rick Cherone, we talked and we both believe
5 that right now is not the correct venue, sir. There
6 will be a caucus done. At that time, we will let
7 you guys know because, again, we are running against
8 each other and we can’t use that here to do that.
9 At the caucuses, we will pass that information, sir.
10 NA HERNANDEZ: Commander Greenlaw, can I
11 please make a statement? Dave Molinaro, can you
12 hear me? We can end this pretty quickly. Do you
13 happen to have access of the 2016 minutes on that
14 Thursday when the document was signed? Can you get
15 that this evening possibly? Right here is our
16 recorder, so we can end all this BS amongst
17 ourselves. Do you have access to it that you can
18 get it for us?
19 MR. MOLINARO: I don’t have access to it
20 right now, but I will see what I can do.
21 NA HERNANDEZ: Thank you, sir.
22 NC GREENLAW: I’d just like to say the
23 documents that I have here are not the one that you
24 voted on or that you’re speaking of. The documents
25 I’m talking about are the trademark and service mark
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 126 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 license agreement to the Order. I have one original
2 and one that they rewrote for the Exhibit D in our
3 lawsuit. The one that’s rewritten, signed by
4 Chairman Wroolie and Mary Lou Keener, has been
5 improved on the one that Gober and Mary Lou Keener
6 signed that was earlier.
7 I’m just saying this one has been changed.
8 This one is the original and I don’t know what --
9 it’s in the lawyer’s hands now. I know it’s going
10 to be a major document in the lawsuit. Yes, sir?
11 PATRIOT FLYR: Is this something that’s
12 going to be decided by the court in December, the
13 voracity of these documents? Then why are we
14 discussing them? The court is going to look at both
15 sides --
16 NC GREENLAW: Just trying to keep you
17 informed. Just trying to keep everybody informed.
18 I checked with the lawyers, they said have at it.
19 PATRIOT FLYR: Okay, the court’s going to
20 make the decision. I think we all know one says
21 this date and the other date. Let’s move on to some
22 essential business.
23 NC GREENLAW: Point well taken.
24 (Applause)
25 NC GREENLAW: Point well taken. I’ll go
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 127 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 along with that. So, we have some business to do.
2 Are there any questions specific to the lawsuit?
3 (No response)
4 NC GREENLAW: Any other questions specific
5 to the lawsuit?
6 (No response)
7 JVC CHERONE: I found the agreement that
8 was -- the document that was resigned because of the
9 missing wordage -- or verbiage for the three
10 officers not being in the document. That document
11 was signed in September by Hershel and Wroolie. I
12 don’t know if we ever voted on this one. This is
13 2016 in November. September -- Wroolie signed the
14 September 1st and Hershel signed it on September 2nd
15 in 2016, the revision.
16 Because there was a mistake made, the vote
17 was okay -- I don’t know, I don’t remember voting on
18 this one.
19 NC GREENLAW: The document I have is dated
20 3 February of ’17. This is 9/1/16. The document I
21 have is dated 3 February.
22 NFO MOORE: Commander, I handed you a
23 breakdown of what was voted on by the NEC. Would
24 you please address the issue of the $95,000 for
25 witnesses?
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 128 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NC GREENLAW: Okay, I put money for the
2 lawsuit in that $500,000 segment that includes
3 payment of outstanding bills to Headquarters. It’s
4 not listed on this, you’re right. So what’s your
5 point?
6 NFO MOORE: The question was left
7 unanswered.
8 NC GREENLAW: No point. Okay. Are you
9 saying that we should have no money for the lawsuit?
10 NFO MOORE: The question was asked of you
11 if there was $95,000 included in the funds that were
12 voted on by the NEC. I gave you the breakout simply
13 so that you can clarify the question that was asked
14 instead of leaving it in limbo.
15 NC GREENLAW: Okay, this is dated June
16 15th. I’ll have to check my latest one and see if
17 it’s different. First of all, there’s a lot of
18 confusion about our deal with Tully. If you read
19 the contract, he’s responsible for -- he’s pro bono
20 for lawyer time. That’s a lot of money. But he’s
21 not responsible for hard costs, like flying people
22 in to be witnesses in the trial, flying people in
23 for depositions. It adds up very quickly. We need
24 to send that money to Tully so he can spend it on
25 the travel. It comes through the law firm all
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 129 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 documented.
2 NA HERNANDEZ: Commander Greenlaw?
3 NC GREENLAW: Yes. Any other questions?
4 NA HERNANDEZ: Let me try to aid with this
5 question a little bit, if you don’t mind. This is
6 live, so it’s not perfect. I know that wedge we put
7 in the $95,000 was for everything. Originally, we
8 could have expanded witnesses and we reduced it to
9 X-amount of numbers.
10 If I understand correctly, the number has
11 been reduced to roughly $30,000 from Tully. Is that
12 what he’s asking for now? Roughly.
13 NC GREENLAW: He said $30,000 to $40,000.
14 NA HERNANDEZ: Okay, so my point, even if -
15 - let’s just say the number’s not there correctly,
16 the NEC’s voted, the money from Fleet Week will
17 cover the legal expenses. So it’s a non-factor for
18 the Order paying for additional funds.
19 NC GREENLAW: Thank you. By the way, that
20 Fleet Week fundraiser was done by a third party
21 called the Dolphin Fund. It’s a division of a
22 venture capital firm in New York City, so we can’t
23 be accused of raising that money as they’re charging
24 against us in the lawsuit. It’s done by a third
25 party. They raised about $100,000. We get $60,000,
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 130 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 they get $40,000. That money is on the way. To the
2 Adjutant’s point, we’ll use that money for the
3 lawsuit if we have to.
4 Any questions about the NSO Program?
5 (No response)
6 NC GREENLAW: We pretty much covered that.
7 I’d like to open it up again if you’d like to
8 discuss anything about the NSO Program.
9 (No response)
10 NC GREENLAW: Mr. Adjutant, is there
11 anything else we need to cover?
12 NA HERNANDEZ: Sir, you have the Chair of
13 the Bylaws Committee. He needs to go into some
14 Bylaws issues now.
15 NC GREENLAW: Okay.
16 ADDITIONAL PROPOSED RESOLUTIONS
17 NC GREENLAW: I’ll call Jim Anderson up.
18 REG VI COM ANDERSON: You received through
19 email Resolutions 1 through 5. There has been two
20 additional resolutions that I need to bring to the
21 floor. I will go over these resolutions. You
22 should have them up on the screen shortly. These
23 resolutions, both came from Rick Cherone, the
24 National Junior Vice Commander. He’s also a member
25 of the Bylaws Committee.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 131 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 To stay within our current Bylaws, we are
2 submitting these to the NEC and we’ll accept a
3 motion after we’ve submitted to the NEC for the
4 Bylaws to review and report back to the body their
5 recommendation.
6 (No response)
7 REG VI COM ANDERSON: I’m going to go ahead
8 and read these to you:
9 RESOLUTION NO: 6 - 2019
10 RE: NATIONAL INSPECTOR
11 WHEREAS: That ARTICLE XI SECTION 9(G) states that
12 the National Inspector will:
13 Do an inspection at the request of the National
14 Commander of any National Officer’s office
15 including the National Adjutant, Service
16 Director, and Legislative Officer, and
17 WHEREAS: That the bylaws do not provide for an
18 inspection of national headquarters to ensure
19 that procedures are followed according to the
20 bylaws, and
21 WHEREAS: That an annual inspection of national
22 headquarters finances should be a customary
23 practice for the protection of the Order,
24 therefore, be it
25 RESOLVED: Article XI, Section 9(G) be changed to
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 132 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 read:
2 G. To protect the finances of the Order:
3 1) The National Inspector will do an annual
4 inspection of National Headquarters to assure
5 that all procedures are being following according
6 to the bylaws and report the results of the
7 inspection to the National Commander.
8 2) The National Inspector will do an inspection
9 at the request of the National Commander of any
10 National Officer's office including the National
11 Adjutant, Service Director, and Legislative
12 Officer
13 Submitted by: National Junior Vice Commander
14 I’ll entertain a motion from the floor if
15 you want to have this passed along to the Bylaws
16 Committee for review.
17 NFC CHAIR WALLOT: I will make a motion to
18 pass it along.
19 REG VI COM ANDERSON: A motion has been
20 made by Dennis Wallot to pass the Bylaw along.
21 PATRIOT PICKART: Second.
22 REG VI COM ANDERSON: Seconded by Paul
23 Pickart, National Finance Committee. Any
24 discussion?
25 (No response)
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 133 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 REG VI COM ANDERSON: All in favor?
2 PATRIOTS: Aye.
3 REG VI COM ANDERSON: Opposed?
4 PATRIOTS: Nay.
5 REG VI COM ANDERSON: Two nays.
6 (Motion carried.)
7 REG VI COM ANDERSON: The second
8 resolution:
9 RESOLUTION NO: 7 - 2019
10 RE: NATIONAL Adjutant
11 WHEREAS: That ARTICLE XI SECTION 5 A1)2) states
12 that the National Adjutant will:
13 1) The National Adjutant’s normal duty
14 station is in the National Headquarters.
15 2) Occasionally, it may be necessary for the
16 National Adjutant to attend meetings and
17 functions outside the Headquarters’ building, and
18 WHEREAS: With the --
19 PSVC MIDDLETON: Patriot Chairman, Point of
20 Order. The Bylaws basically require that they be
21 placed on the screen for all of us to see.
22 REG VI COM ANDERSON: We are trying to get
23 them up on the screen. That’s why I’m reading them.
24 PSVC MIDDLETON: Can we delay it until we
25 can get them up on the screen?
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 134 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NPC CHAIR McINTOSH: Patriot Anderson, what
2 the Bylaws say, “The proposed amendments shall be
3 presented to the delegates. The presentation may be
4 accompanied by a projection of the proposed
5 amendments on a screen visible to all.” The keyword
6 was “may.” It doesn’t say shall or will.
7 PSVC MIDDLETON: Normally we have a book
8 that is given to us, a printed book, that we can
9 follow along in. We do not have --
10 REG VI COM ANDERSON: If you have something
11 you’d like to say, could you please approach the
12 mic?
13 PSVC MIDDLETON: Patriot Chairman, normally
14 at this Convention we receive a delegate package of
15 printed material that always includes the proposed
16 Bylaws. This year, for whatever reason, we do not
17 have that. Therefore, we don’t have a document to
18 follow along and it becomes almost required that we
19 be able to view it on a screen, visible to all.
20 Therefore, I ask that we delay this until --
21 NC GREENLAW: I’ll handle that.
22 PSVC MIDDLETON: -- we’re able to do it.
23 NC GREENLAW: Patriot Middleton, if your
24 Foundation funded us, we’d be able to have that
25 book. We’d be status quo.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 135 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 UNIDENTIFIED PATRIOT: Stop!
2 NC GREENLAW: So you can call your
3 Foundation this afternoon and fill them in on that.
4 UNIDENTIFIED PATRIOT: That’s enough!
5 UNIDENTIFIED PATRIOT: We’re done with
6 that!
7 (Long pause)
8 REG VI COM ANDERSON: Nick?
9 NPC CHAIR McINTOSH: Yes, sir?
10 REG VI COM ANDERSON: You use a Mac. Can
11 you come up and center that on the screen please,
12 sir?
13 NPC CHAIR McINTOSH: Yeah.
14 (Applause)
15 DEPT COM SHAW: Point of Order. How many
16 Patriots does it take to put in a lightbulb?
17 (Long pause)
18 REG VI COM ANDERSON: Thank you, Patriot
19 McIntosh.
20 (Applause)
21 NPC CHAIR McINTOSH: Patriot Anderson, I’ve
22 had a request back here to dim the lights so we can
23 read it from back here.
24 REG VI COM ANDERSON: Okay, we have the
25 Resolution 6-2019 presented on the screen. Would
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 136 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 you like me to read it to you again?
2 PATRIOTS: Yes.
3 REG VI COM ANDERSON:
4 RE: NATIONAL INSPECTOR
5 WHEREAS: That ARTICLE XI SECTION 9(G) states that
6 the National Inspector will:
7 Do an inspection at the request of the National
8 Commander of any National Officer’s office
9 including the National Adjutant, Service
10 Director, and Legislative Officer, and
11 WHEREAS: That the bylaws do not provide for an
12 inspection of national headquarters to ensure
13 that procedures are followed according to the
14 bylaws, and
15 WHEREAS: That an annual inspection of national
16 headquarters finances should be a customary
17 practice for the protection of the Order,
18 therefore, be it
19 RESOLVED: Article XI, Section 9(G) be changed to
20 read:
21 G. To protect the finances of the Order:
22 1) The National Inspector will do an annual
23 inspection of National Headquarters to assure
24 that all procedures are being following according
25 to the bylaws and report the results of the
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 137 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 inspection to the National Commander.
2 2) The National Inspector will do an inspection
3 at the request of the National Commander of any
4 National Officer's office including the National
5 Adjutant, Service Director, and Legislative
6 Officer
7 Submitted by: National Junior Vice Commander
8 There was a motion to accept as presented.
9 The motion was seconded. As for discussion --
10 UNIDENTIFIED PATRIOT: The motion already
11 passed.
12 REG VI COM ANDERSON: There was no
13 discussion and there was a vote and the motion was
14 passed.
15 Continuing on:
16 RESOLUTION NO: 7 - 2019
17 RE: NATIONAL Adjutant
18 WHEREAS: That ARTICLE XI SECTION 5 A1)2) states
19 that the National Adjutant will:
20 1) The National Adjutant’s normal duty
21 station is in the National Headquarters.
22 2) Occasionally, it may be necessary for the
23 National Adjutant to attend meetings and
24 functions outside the Headquarters’ building, and
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 138 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 WHEREAS: With the advent of electronic
2 communication the National Adjutant could access
3 any of the headquarters files from any location,
4 and
5 WHEREAS: The current budget crunch makes it
6 difficult to hire a Purple Heart recipient for
7 the Washington DC area.
8 WHEREAS: The Order needs to be flexible in where
9 the Adjutant resides, therefore, be it
10 RESOLVED: Article XI, 5 A 1) & 2) be removed
11 Submitted by: National Junior Vice Commander
12 PNC SIMS: Move to approve.
13 NFC CHAIR WALLOT: Second.
14 REG VI COM ANDERSON: The motion has been
15 moved to approve by Jim Sims and seconded by Dennis
16 Wallot. Any discussion?
17 (No response)
18 REG VI COM ANDERSON: All in favor?
19 PATRIOTS: Aye.
20 REG VI COM ANDERSON: Any nays?
21 NC GREENLAW: Nay.
22 NA HERNANDEZ: No.
23 REG VI COM ANDERSON: All right, motion
24 passes.
25 (Motion carried.)
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 139 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 REG VI COM ANDERSON: Thank you, gentlemen.
2 ADJOURNMENT
3 NC GREENLAW: All right, we’re going to
4 take a recess. Following the recess will be the
5 Publications -- wait. Yeah, following the recess
6 will be the Bylaw Committee meeting.
7 NPC CHAIR McINTOSH: In past years, we
8 found that it is a lot easier if the Publications go
9 before the Bylaws Committee because sometimes it
10 extends it way out. I’m Chairman of the
11 Publications Committee. Jim Anderson is Chairman of
12 the Bylaws Committee. Jim, are you in agreement
13 that we switch times?
14 REG VI COM ANDERSON: Yes, sir.
15 NPC CHAIR McINTOSH: I can promise you we
16 will be out of here in no more than 45 minutes from
17 the Publications Committee. That way, the
18 Publications Committee can go ahead and then the
19 Bylaws Committee.
20 The Commander is part of the Publications
21 Committee. He is not a member of the Bylaws
22 Committee, so that’s one of the reasons.
23 NC GREENLAW: Chairman of the Bylaws
24 Committee, are you okay with this?
25 REG VI COM ANDERSON: Yes, sir.
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019 Military Order of the Purple Heart 140 of the U.S.A., Inc. 1 NC GREENLAW: Okay, so done. We’ll take a
2 ten-minute recess.
3 (Gavel rap)
4 (4:05 p.m.)
5 (08 July 2019 National Executive Committee
6 Adjourned.)
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
ARS REPORTING 08 July 2019