BOARD MINUTES

BOARD MEMBERS

End of 2010
Patrick McCann
Nate Goldshlag
Darcella Craven
Sam Feldman

End of 2012
Michael Uhl
Cherie Eichholz
Mike Ferner
Joey King
Mike Hearington

Mike Ferner is the author of "Inside the Red Zone: A Veteran For Peace Reports from Iraq," (Praeger/Greenwood, 2006) based on his trips to that country just prior to, and a year after, the U.S. invasion. His news and commentary articles have appeared in daily newspapers and numerous internet sites. He has been arrested several times for nonviolently protesting the Iraq war, served on Toledo City Council and worked as a union organizer. A Navy Corpsman from '69-'73, he was discharged as a conscientious objector and has been a VFP member since 1985. www.mikeferner.org

Leah joined the Navy in March 1980, and retired in the summer of 2000 as a Commander.  She served all over the world, including tours in Iceland, Bermuda, Japan and Tunisia.

After moving to Corvallis, Oregon in 2004, she formed Chapter 132 and served as its president for three years.  As the chapter president, she has organized numerous marches, rallies, and memorials, has spoken before civic clubs, peace studies classes, presented workshops at peace conferences, has testified before the Oregon state legislature, and has lobbied both state and federal officials.

She has been arrested several times for acts of civil disobedience in protest of the Iraq War and the Military Commissions Act.

She is also a member of the National Steering Committee for the "Bring the Guard Home-It's the Law!" campaign. 

I became a radical political activist in college in 1968 and was kicked out in 1969 for accidentally getting my picture plastered on the front page of the New York Times, Life, etc. as we escorted a dean out of a building we occupied at Harvard while protesting ROTC and the Vietnam War.  I was drafted in late 1970.  I didn't do things to avoid the draft and went into the army to organize against the war.  The fact that I avoided the stockade probably meant I wasn't that effective, but we started a GI paper in Germany.  They had just stopped sending grunts like me to Vietnam a few months before, although I would not have gone.  I went back to school and had two kids who I helped raise as a half-time single parent.  I worked as an electronics engineer and retired a few years ago.  I do volunteer and VFP work now.

I was active in the Smedley Butler brigade in Boston in the 1980's around Central America issues, but then lapsed until 2005.  I'll never make that mistake again.  As Smedley coordinator, I helped plan the event that got 18 of us arrested on Veterans Day 2007 for being excluded from the American Legion event, and was one of those arrested.  I coordinated the effort that raised $70,000 nationally for Winter Soldier.  I hope to make a difference in VFP by serving on the Board.

Elliott Adams was a paratrooper in the infantry serving in Viet Nam, Japan, Korea, and Alaska.

Elliott has been active in Veterans For Peace, his local Chapter (#10, Albany, NY) as well as regionally and nationally. He’s worked with IVAW. Elliott has stepped forward bringing all of his experience and passion to the work of VFP, including attending the last three Board meetings, being one of the finalists for the Executive Director position and creating and filling the VFP Nonviolence Training Coordinator position.

Service:
U.S. Army, 1^st Lt., 1959-62, Germany (Very early opponent of the Vietnam War and, upon discharge, banned from the base for life.)

VFP-Related Activities:
Member of delegations to Colombia and El Salvador and marcher in various parades under VFP banner. Former chairman of Fairfield County Citizens for Peace, operated under VFP’s non-profit status. Protester at SOA. Bill served two terms in the Connecticut General Assembly and four terms as mayor of Norwalk. He is currently pressing the public relations initiative to gain more national publicity for VFP.

Darcella has over 15 years of experience in corporate, government, non profit and military organizations. She is currently the Executive Director of the Veterans Business Resource Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting Honorably Discharged Veterans, National Guard and Reservist and Active Duty personnel transitioning back into civilian life with starting and expanding businesses.   

Darcella has worked with several non-profit organizations specializing in program implementation, change management and creating group training programs. Her career has taken her to several corporations and positions including corporate communications and project management.  She is a requested speaker on business development, life management, human capital and nonprofit management.  

Darcella is featured in numerous articles for her transition from the welfare system to an accomplished business woman and is actively involved in many civic organizations.  She was recently named the 2009 YWCA Leader of Distinction in Nonprofits, 2009 Small Business Administration Veterans Business Champion for Eastern Missouri and Region 7 (MO, IA, NE, KS), recognized by the St. Louis Business Journal as one of the Most Influential Minority Business Leaders and Who's Who of Black St. Louis as a community leader to know.   

An Army veteran, she holds a diploma of Secretarial Sciences from Sanford Brown, Bachelors and Masters of Arts in Management from Webster University.  She is currently pursuing her Doctors of Management and is the proud mother of two daughters.

Board Member:  Sam Feldman

I served in the US Army from December 19, 1972 – January 19, 1976 as a Field Medic. I was stationed at the 33rd Field Hospital, Wurzburg Germany and at HHC 82nd Airborne Div, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina.

I have been active in VFP Chapter 32 since January 2005, serving as VP until Jan-uary 2009 and currently as President. I have organized annual participation in the Martin Luther King Jr. parades, Veterans Day Parades and Arlington Miami and Arlington South Beach, establishing a relationship with the local press and developing an extensive press contact list. I have represented VFP at numerous events, demonstrations and protests and I have lobbied local officials and Congressional Representatives as well as the Homeless Trust and the Regional VA Medical Center.

I would like to see a VFP grow to become a powerful force in support of our mission statement, which, significantly, includes veterans’ advocacy. I have worked very hard on anti war activities and recently focused on the advocacy for veterans at the local level. The diversity of chapter members has grown as result and I would like to work to ensure that VFP grows in these areas at the national level as well. 

My journey with Veterans For Peace began in August 2005. At that time I took a trip to Crawford, Texas to join Cindy Sheehan in her effort to ask George Bush for what noble cause her son Casey was killed in Iraq. I met VFP and IVAW members during this trip. As an Army Veteran (1970/1971) I decided to join VFP in efforts to end this war.

I returned to Memphis where a VFP chapter did not exist and began the formation of a chapter which became #149. I marched with VFP during the DC demonstration in March of 2006.

I participated in the VFP Gulf Coast march Mobile to New Orleans. The camaraderie and enthusiasm further ignited my desire to affiliate my activism with Veterans.

I've attended the VFP National convention in Seattle, St. Louis, Minneapolis and Baltimore. I currently reside in Atlanta, GA a member of Chapter 125 and Lifetime member of VFP national. I participate as the Veteran member of the Steering Committee for Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition as well as Steering Committee on United for Peace and Justice representing GPJC. I have participated in numerous regional and national VFP actions and am involved in the support of Iraq Veterans Against the War SE region.

Board Member: Cherie Eichholz

I joined the Army in 2003, wanting to serve my country. I was discharged in 2004 with a medical disability and 6 months later I joined the staff at the VFP National Office. Following 3 1/2 years working in VFP's national office, coupled with a fair amount of soul searching concerning my own military service, and genuine research regarding our culture and history, I believe I have a much clearer perception of the US and the pervasive militarism in our society; there exists a dire need for credible groups and individuals to address this condition and VFP should consistently be leading this work. Due to my years spent in VFP’s office, I have a solid understanding of how VFP works internally, some areas where it needs help, and why VFP’s mission and work is so critical to the peace movement. Working for VFP both in paid and un-paid fashions (currently as the Vice President of Chapter 92), I believe that in addition to the scores of projects and actions VFP chapters are working on across the country, we need to develop a stronger voice and more significant actions geared toward systematically addressing the militarism all around us and I am very much prepared to get to work on this issue. As veterans it is our responsibility to be leaders; as Veterans For Peace, it is incumbent upon us to move our mission with expectation that we will accomplish our goal.

Board Member:  Joey King

Joey King was Distinguished Military Graduate from Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville. He graduated from the following Army schools: Airborne, Ranger, Pathfinder, Air Assault, Infantry Officer's Basic Course, Jungle Expert, and the Infantry Officer's Mortar Platoon Officer's Course. He was served with the 82nd Airborne Division and the Airborne unit in Vicenza Italy. He was a platoon leader and company executive officer. He resigned from the active army in July 1987 and later resigned from the Reserves saying:

"I, 1LT (First Lieutenant) Joey B King SSN# -------, wish to resign my commission in the Individual Ready Reserve as soon as possible. My 6-year obligation ended 1 Dec 90, however, I was unable to resign at that time due to the Iraq War. I am resigning because of a personal conviction that war is an unacceptable means of resolving differences among nations."

Joey B. King, First Lieutenant Infantry

Since leaving the Army, Joey has been active in various causes including: Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Truth-in-recruiting, Gandhi-King Conference on Peacemaking, Veterans Day Parade, Stop the Bombs, School of the Americas Watch, Participated as an international election observer in El Salvador March 09. Joey is chair of Veterans For Peace Middle TN

Board Member:  Patrick McCann

Service: USAF 1970-1972.
Patrick McCann has been a member of VFP these past 7 years, and a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) for the last 35 years.
Patrick's VFP involvement includes:

• VFP Chapter 032 (Miami/South Florida) President 2004-5

• VFP Maryland-DC Contact, 2003-4

• Lead workshops at the 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009 conventions
• Executive member of the host committee for the 2009 convention

• Organized 4 tours of IVAW vets in S. Florida during 2005

• Board of Directors of Montgomery County (MD) Educators Association.
• Lifetime member of VFP

• Commanded combat intelligence team in Vietnam with 11th Infantry
• Joined VVAW in 1969
• Testified at International War Crimes Enquiry in Stockholm
• Co-founded Citizen Soldier in New York, Vet/GI advocacy
• Co-authored G.I. Guinea Pigs, an expose on health effects of Agent Orange and atomic testing
• Charter member Veterans For Peace
• Writer, articles appearing often in The Nation and Boston Globe
• University lecturer and carpenter
• Ph.D. American Studies; Volunteer editor of VFP's national newsletter
• Author of Vietnam Awakening: My Journey from Combat to the Citizen's Commission of Inquiry on U.S. War Crimes in Vietnam
• www.veteranscholar.com

Board Member:  Hart Viges

I joined the army because of 9/11, thinking that I was going to make the world a better place by killing the "bad guys". I was a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division 1-325 HHC Battalion Mortars. I deployed with my unit to Kuwait in February 2003. In March we went to Iraq and in January of 2004 we returned to the United States. In April I began my journey to become a Conscientious Objector; that December I was Honorably Discharged as a CO. Since then I became a member of Veterans For Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War. I have worked as a GI Rights Hotline Counselor, lobbied for the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Act H.R. 1921, gone into high schools with Non-Military Options for Youth, testifird at Winter Soldier, Bring Them Home Now Bus Tour from Crawford, TX and have spoken at rallies. I am a strong advocate of tactics that aim at the supply lines of war. If there is no one to pull a trigger or pay for the trigger, then the war stops. And our mission is accomplished.