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VFW Extorts $3,000 for Job

By VVAW

Vietnam Amputee Made To Pay

Robert E. Taylor was a member of the 101st Airborne Division after enlisting in the Army in April, 1966. He was a crew chief of a mortar team south of Hue, when an enemy mortar round struck him in the leg. The device failed to detonate, but Taylor's left leg was so badly damaged, it had to be amputated.

He returned home, and in 1970 was offered a job by the VFW as a hospital contact officer, counseling veterans who were recuperating from injuries or illness. The big hang-up was that this veteran had to pay the VFW $3,028 for the job!!!

Robert Taylor, then only 21 years old, and very anxious about returning to society as an amputee, reluctantly agreed to pay the money. During the life of a 21 month grant awarded by the VA, he sent the state VFW in Springfield, Illinois personal checks, usually in the amount of $151 per month.

Most of his checks went to the VFW account in Springfield; one monthly payment, however, went to the personal account of one of the two VFW officials who arranged the payments, Patrick De Mauro, the Illinois State Service Officer of the VFW!

This money that Robert received and then sent to the VFW, was from a federal program designed to supplement the incomes of those vets who were entering the job market at the "trainee" level.

After six months in that capacity, Taylor said, De Mauro offered him a chance to begin training for a different job—VFW National Service Officer, a position relatively comparable to a benefits counselor within the VA. De Mauro then encouraged Taylor to apply for the VA grant.

But, while De Mauro was telling the VA that the VFW would be paying Taylor at a "trainee" level, he was letting Taylor think he was being paid at a higher "journeyman" level. De Mauro told Taylor that, for "bookkeeping purposes" it was necessary for the VFW to pay him at the journeyman level. Consequently, De Mauro told Taylor, the VFW salary, combined with the $181 grant from the VA, would make his salary exceed that of the other VFW service officers. Taylor said De Mauro then "suggested" that he return part of the money to the VFW.

"He told me, "Why don't you keep $30 for gas and other expenses, and send the rest to us?" Taylor said. "I was upset about it, but I went along."

The payments began in December, 1970, and ended in June, 1972. "about six months after I began paying them", Taylor said, "I began to realize it was not right and said something to De Mauro that indicated I was unhappy about it. My wife was pregnant, and we really needed the money.

"He replied that they expected the payments to be made each month and left me with the impression that my job depended on it."

At first, De Mauro insisted that Taylor was paying the VFW the difference between the training salary he should have been getting and the journeyman's salary he actually was receiving.

"We were, in effect, reimbursing ourselves for the salary we paid him", he said. "What's the difference whether the VA pays him or we pay him? He's getting his money."

A week later, however, the VFW had to admit that Taylor wasn't getting his money!! The current Quartermaster of the state VFW, Helmut Frank, said, "We have found some errors. Taylor was being paid what was considered a training salary."

Defending the deceased Glassford, the accountant at the time that Taylor was ripped off, Frank said the reason for the errors was "known only by a dead man", who enjoyed relative autonomy during his 19 years as keeper of the VFW accounts.

A top official of the VA which began an investigation of the "arrangement" after learning about the case, said, "It appears Taylor was coerced into agreeing to this" and "it appears the VFW misrepresented to us what the terms of the agreement were."

"Basically, we were awarding money for a training program that, in fact, was not a training program", he said.

Commenting on the unusual payments, Donald Ramsey, Director of the Chicago Regional Office of the VA said, "It was something that should not have been done, and it doesn't look good for the VFW."

VVAW wonders how many more Robert E. Taylors the VFW has "helped"!