Veterans of Foreign Wars announced Friday a change to its charter that makes it more inclusive of women’s growing role in the military.
Congress unanimously supporting replacing the word “men” with “veterans” and “widows” with “surviving spouses” throughout the charter, which was created 78 years ago when nearly all service members were men, a VFW release said.
“We didn’t change our congressional charter to be politically correct,” said John Stroud, VFW national commander. “We changed it because being an eligible service member or veteran is what’s important to our great organization, not one’s gender, and changing widows to surviving spouses is more representative of today’s military.”
Members of the VFW decided to ask Congress to approve the change during their convention in July.
• Jacqueline Klimas can be reached at jklimas@washingtontimes.com.
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