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Changes in VVAW's Military Counseling Project

By Joe Miller

It is with a heavy heart that I announce that longtime VVAW Military Counselor, Ray Parrish, has decided to leave his position. The VVAW Board accepted his letter of resignation effective July 31, 2012. We wish Ray the best in his future endeavors. I have known Ray since 1979, when he was a student at the University of Illinois organizing against Jimmy Carter's re-establishment of the Selective Service System. His work on that issue included organizing rallies and writing opinion pieces for the campus newspaper. We reconnected when I returned from teaching in Australia in the mid-1980s. By that time, Ray was deep in his work with the Midwest Center for Military Counseling (MCMC),which provided GI and veteran counseling services until after the first Gulf War. The void that Ray is leaving will be hard to fill. We need to make sure that VVAW's Mental Health/Trauma Counselor, Johanna (Hans) Buwalda, has all the resources she will need to continue this very important work.

Ray Parrish at Chicago Memorial Day event, 2012.

Joe Miller is a VVAW national coordinator.