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Life after service
Women veterans, Auxiliary members discuss dwindling membership in veterans organizations
McLeod-Skinner
2nd Dist.
challenger
saving
yard signs
McLeod-Skinner
mulls second run
for Congress or
state office
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
When
Jamie
McLeod-Skinner
made
a longshot bid to unseat
10-term incumbent Rep.
Greg Walden, she said she
always knew it could take
two election cycles to get it
done.
After holding Walden
to his lowest percentage of
votes in his congressional
career, McLeod-Skinner is
considering executing the
second half of that equation.
On her campaign’s Face-
book page, McLeod-Skin-
ner encouraged her support-
ers to save their yard signs
or banners for “future use.”
“I came to the mic for my
concession speech and peo-
ple were already chanting
‘2020,’” she said in an inter-
view with the East Orego-
nian on Friday.
The Terrebonne Dem-
ocrat said she spent the
day meeting with her cam-
paign team going over the
results and considering next
steps, which could include
a rematch with Walden or
a bid for one of Oregon’s
statewide seats.
If she tries to run against
the Hood River Republican
again, she’ll have some pos-
itive signs to work with.
Walden won the 2nd Dis-
trict 56.1-39.1 percent, a
spread that doesn’t look that
impressive until a look at
his electoral career reveals
that Walden frequently
took home 70 percent of
the vote in past re-election
campaigns.
As Gov. Kate Brown
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Jody Frost, who oversees child welfare for Umatilla and Morrow counties for the Department of Human Services, served in an
administrative capacity for a U.S. Marine Corps motor transport battalion at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
W
hen veterans come back from the
military, they have some options:
try to slip back into life as they
knew it before, or find groups for those with
common experiences that can help support
them through the transition.
The latter is becoming less common with
younger generations of service members.
Jody Frost, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran,
said the number of people seeking out those
organizations has decreased.
Frost, who served from 1981 to 1984,
never went overseas, and did not qualify for
the Veterans of Foreign Wars. But she did
serve as a member of the American Legion,
and was their secretary for a while.
“I was the only woman, and one of the
younger members,” she said.
The Hermiston Veterans of Foreign Wars
post has about 300 members, though not all
are active. Of those, only a few are women.
Though numbers are dwindling overall for
those organizations, the number of women
that seek out those organizations is even
lower.
According to a 2015 U.S. Department of
Defense report, women make up 16.8 percent
Contributed photo
Jody Frost in her U.S Marine Corps ba-
sic training photo taken in Parris Island,
S.C., in July 1991.
of the military, or about 357,276 members.
Amber Randall, an Air Force veteran who
served in the early 2000s, said she and some
of her peers keep in touch with other veter-
ans through social media, including several
Facebook groups, but it’s rare to find groups
where younger veterans meet in person.
“A reason why the younger service mem-
bers aren’t so close knit, I think, is because
the other groups seem to be inundated with
older vets that served in a totally different
military,” she wrote to the East Oregonian.
“As in, things were a lot different.”
Sonja Sallee is a member of the local
VFW Auxiliary (a group for veterans, their
spouses and immediate family members), as
well as on the board of the statewide orga-
nization. She said one of the reasons for
the decline in enrollment could be simple
numbers.
“I think part of it was that back then, 58
percent of the population were in the ser-
vice,” she said, referring to World War II and
Korean War veterans. “Now it’s about seven
percent of the population.”
She noted that some women veterans
would join the Auxiliary instead, because
there weren’t many other women in the posts.
But Frost said when she was a member
of the American Legion, she wanted to be
treated as a veteran — which she said was
difficult for some of the older members.
See VETS/10A
See SIGNS/10A
Connected over breakfast
Veterans find each other
through annual BMCC
meal
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Dave Bowman, left, and Dave Gawf pose with flags on Friday at
the BMCC Veterans Breakfast.
Two Vietnam-era veterans who
served in Guam in the 1970s con-
nected two years ago thanks to the
annual Blue Mountain Community
College Veterans Breakfast.
Dave Bowman and Dave Gawf
devoured pancakes, bacon and eggs
Friday morning at the BMCC com-
mons before they told their tale. Both
had worked as Navy corpsmen at the
U.S. Naval Hospital on Guam in the
early ’70s and even slept in the same
barracks, but don’t remember each
other from that time. In the early ’80s,
both moved to Pendleton. Bowman
worked as a veterinarian at the Pend-
leton Animal Hospital. Gawf eventu-
ally started a construction company.
Each remained oblivious to the oth-
er’s presence.
“In Guam, he was a surgery tech
and I was an orthopedic tech,” Bow-
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