Tony Messenger | Post-Dispatch
Metro columnist
Shawn Lee was a skeptic.
When he first started reading the being told by family members of veterans who live in the 51黑料 Veterans Home, he wasn鈥檛 sure he believed them.
鈥淢any senior members of the s (MAVO) have friends or family in the 51黑料 home or have been involved there for years,鈥 Lee told me in an email last year. 鈥淭hey report seeing outstanding care. They can鈥檛 all be part of some conspiracy.鈥
The 32-year-old Kansas City attorney is a combat veteran of the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, having served in the Army鈥檚 101st Airborne Division. He hoped to be that bridge that connects a younger generation of veterans to the aging populations in the nation鈥檚 largest veterans鈥 organizations, such as The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans.
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As such, he started attending the Missouri Association of Veterans Organization meetings. It鈥檚 a conglomeration of the leaders of the state鈥檚 veterans service groups. Among its purposes is to be a watchdog keeping an eye on the Missouri Veterans Commission, and promoting legislation to help veterans.
SEEKING IMPROVEMENTS
Lee thought he could do better. He believed the veterans organizations could use social media to attract younger veterans, and get their message out. He wanted to see greater budget details from the veterans commission, and how it was spending its money.
His fellow veterans agreed. They elected him vice chairman of MAVO last year.
Last weekend, he resigned.
Why?
Frank Clark.
Clark is a 91-year-old, World War II veteran. A Marine radio operator who enlisted at 17 after graduating from Blewett High School in 51黑料, Clark was involved in the . He recalls being under fire not far away as fellow Marines raised the flag atop Mount Suribachi.
Clark was among several veterans, family members and advocates from the 51黑料 Veterans Home who hoped to address the MAVO meeting last Monday about their experiences at the state-run veterans home.
They were invited by Lee.
鈥淚 believe in hearing directly from people who are making allegations,鈥 Lee said.
Clark barely got one sentence out before he was cut off.
Tom Goodin, a member of the American Legion, raised a point of order, suggesting that hearing from veterans about their care at the 51黑料 Veterans Home was not an appropriate discussion for the umbrella organization of Missouri veterans organizations.
鈥淲e are not the platform to air those grievances,鈥 Goodin told me. 鈥淚t was not about shutting down the voice of the veteran.鈥
But that was the result. On a 9-3 vote, the MAVO board agreed with Goodin. Clark was not offered an opportunity to speak.
Lee was dumbfounded.
鈥淭hat, to me, was just morally bankrupt,鈥 Lee told me in an interview. 鈥淭his World War II veteran certainly deserves at least the same respect any head of any veterans service organization gets.鈥
It鈥檚 not that the board members of MAVO weren鈥檛 interested in the issue. In fact, they may be one reason it took so long for Gov. Eric Greitens to realize what a big deal it is. As various investigations into the home were underway last year, several veterans organizations worked behind the scenes to defend Gen. Larry Kay and the members of the Missouri Veterans Commission who were protecting him. They had a reason to be loyal to Kay, who was the commission鈥檚 executive director until he resigned under pressure from the governor in December.
The executive director of the commission hands out about $1.6 million in grants every year to the various veterans鈥 groups that make up MAVO. At the same meeting in which Clark wasn鈥檛 allowed to speak, veterans鈥 organization representatives criticized Greitens for working around their groups to replace five members of the commission.
NEW COMMISSIONERS
State law requires the governor to choose commissioners from a list of specific veterans鈥 organizations, and the veterans organizations , Goodin said, that Greitens got his new recommendations from the American Red Cross (which the law allows).
The veterans who live in 51黑料, like Clark, wanted to tell the organizations that make up MAVO that the new commissioners and their interim director, Col. Grace Link, are making progress in improving care of the elderly and disabled men who live there.
But MAVO would have none of it.
So Lee will have nothing to do with them.
鈥淚鈥檓 wondering if a few of these actors have known about what was going on in 51黑料 for years, and if what we saw on that vote to silence Frank has been going on in private,鈥 Lee said. 鈥淚 will not give face to an organization that coordinates silencing victims of elderly veteran abuse and neglect.鈥
Post-Dispatch columnist Bill McClellan wrote about Frank Clark and his brothers, Pat and Charles, who fought in World War II聽鈥 and a portrait of the three painted by a brother-in-law. The column was published on Jan. 16, 2008.
