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VFW LIFE MEMBER
DONATES $1,000 TO
HELP LOCAL VETERANS
A Mon Valley resident and life member
of All State West Mifflin Veterans of
Foreign Wars Post 914 ‘Intrepid’ donated
$1,000 June 27 to help local disabled
servicemembers.
Lois Shirley, a Vietnam veteran who
served as a career Army Nurse Corps
officer from 1966 to 1988, was presented
with a certificate from VFW Post 914
Commander Jake Bradich thanking her
for the generous gift she made to the
post’s hospital visitation program. The
effort sparked a standing ovation during
the unit’s monthly 7 p.m. meeting at the
Thompson Run Athletic Association on
Ball Avenue, West Mifflin.
“This is what we as a veterans’
organization are all about,” said VFW Post
914 Commander Jake Bradich, an Army
Iraq War veteran. “You never really ever
put your uniform away once you make the
commitment to serve.”
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 914
‘Intrepid’ Post Surgeon Bernie Zurawski,
who served as a Marine in Beirut,
Lebanon, and organizes his unit’s hospital
visitation program, agreed.
“This is truly inspirational,” he said. “We
can’t thank Lt. Col. Shirley enough for
what she has done, except to help make a
few more veterans happier.”
Stationed with the 3rd Field Hospital
in Saigon, Vietnam, Shirley first worked
as a staff nurse in tropical medicine. She
was quickly promoted to head nurse - first
for internal medicine, then also for the
100-bed convalescent unit. In her duties,
she handled casualties directly from the
battlefield.
Including her combat tour, Shirley
completed 22 years with the Army Nurse
Corps before retiring. She later became an
instructor in the associate degree nursing
program, and also director of disabled
student services at the Community
College of Allegheny County.
The retired Army nurse keeps herself
active in veterans’ affairs. She serves on the
board of Soldiers and Sailors Memorial
8
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Hall and Museum in Pittsburgh, and is a
member of several other veterans service
organizations.
Shirley’s donation will be used to help
buy refreshments and snacks for patients
and residents, as well as to purchase
coupon books, and fund small cash prizes
during bingo games at Southwestern
Veterans Center. Patients use these
windfalls to purchase things such as
toiletry items and other sundry articles at
the hospital canteen.
The prize money from the bingos fills
a need. Many of the veterans and other
residents at Southwestern Veterans Center
are indigent, and what little financial
support they have by way of pension or
government benefits are utilized by the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to help
fund their care.
“My brother was a patient at
Southwestern Veterans Center, and I know
how much what the VFW does there is
appreciated,” Shirley said.
icmags.com
Located approximately six miles from
West Mifflin, Southwestern Veterans
Center is an assisted living facility run
by the Pennsylvania Department of
Military and Veterans Affairs. It serves
more than 200 veterans and spouses who
are disabled, chronically ill, or in need of
specialized care. Patients there have been
the focus of VFW Post 914’s hospital
visitation program for more than 25 years.
In the last five years, the West Mifflin
veterans’ group has earned the All
American post designation, and three
times been named an All State Post.
For 2019, it is the only All State Post in
Allegheny County. It also does not have
social members or an auxiliary. Also this
year, VFW Post 914 won the Department
of Pennsylvania Van Zandt Award for the
most new and reinstated post members as
a percentage of membership.