Fitchburg MA VFW has 20 year old female commander!

National Guard Military Police, plus female, plus young, add in Iraq topped off with Blackfoot and you have a whole different VFW than your father went to. It is one reaching out for the younger veterans while avoiding a very common complaint many female veterans have, the feeling they are not welcome. This VFW is not only telling young veterans they are welcomed there but females are just as important as males.

Twenty-Year-Old Veteran Takes Command of Her Local VFW
By Donna Laurent Caruso
July 4, 2011

Courtesy Tasha DeBlois
Tasha DeBlois, a 20-year-old military veteran was recently named commander of the Fitchburg, Massachusetts Veterans of Foreign Wars Branch. She was recently in Monson, Massachusetts on active duty as a National Guard Military Police following the tornadoes that swept through the area.

At 20 years old, Tasha DeBlois to some would appear to be just starting her adult life. That is until they get to know the United States military veteran, a National Guard Military Police officer, pow wow vendor and participant, college student and recently named commander of her local Veterans of Foreign Wars Branch.

“I don’t look like what a lot of people expect a veteran to look like,” she said from her home in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The Blackfoot citizen, who’s Indian name means Beautiful Woman—tattooed across her abdomen—has her family tree tattooed on her back and served in Iraq (Ubaydi, Military Police, 2009 and 2010) where she sustained a permanent injury from a non-combat situation.

She remains in the Army National Guard Military Police, however, and was recently sent to the nearby towns of Monson and Springfield, Massachusetts to help in the recovery from the tornadoes that caused 300 injuries, four deaths, and millions in property damage.

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Twenty-Year-Old Veteran Takes Command of Her Local VFW