9 July 2025 Wall of Honor visit
Kye Laughter, Regional Director for Western North Carolina for U.S. Senator Ted Budd (R-NC), visited VFW Post 5206 on July 9, 2025. He met with Bob Johnson, post commander, Jim Gough, post quartermaster, and John Goheen, post surgeon to discuss Senator Budd’s support for veterans and the VFW. Laughter wanted our post to know about services and programs available to veterans and that if veterans had difficulties getting support, Senator Budd’s office can help cut through government red tape.
During the meeting, commander Bob Johnson mentioned a project Post 5206 was working on in conjunction with the Wall of Honor. In this project, Post 5206 is focusing on the 13 Henderson County veterans who are still missing in action (MIA) from WWII. Over the 2025 Memorial Day weekend, Post 5206 added shadow boxes to the Wall for the 13 MIAs in a ceremony that included a rifle salute, the playing of "Taps,” and talks about how each of the MIAs became missing.
Post 5206 is conducting research to see if anything else could be done to locate Henderson County MIAs, starting with U.S. Marine Luther L. Rhodes, who died on Guadalcanal on October 7, 1942. Commander Johnson showed Mr. Laughter a research packet on Rhodes during his visit. It turned out that Rhodes was related to Mr. Laughter and he wanted a photograph with Rhodes’ shadowbox.
Some of Henderson County’s MIAs are unrecoverable because they were lost at sea or in plane crashes. However, others, like Rhodes, might still be found. Mr. Laughter said that Senator Bunn could request the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) to redouble their effort to locate MIAs like Rhodes. Post 5206 is working on developing materials, through research, to provide the Senator’s office so they can make a formal request to DPAA.
26 May 2025 VFW Participation in Hendersonville Memorial Day Ceremony.
22 May 2025 WWII MIA Ceremony
5 May 2025 Bench Dedication
The back of the Renwick bench was made with discarded shovel handles and was meant to give solace to people who used shovels in their labor. Bob, a retired Army infantry officer, knew that soldiers and Marines are accustomed to using shovels to dig fox holes, and thought ACW could make a similar bench using the handles of military shovels. He found Robert Sebby, a craftsman with ACW and, in short order, a bench was made.
On Monday, May 5, at 10.a.m., Gary Mach, President of ACW presented the bench to Brett Embry, Veterans Service Officer for Henderson County and Ed Skrivanek, Commander of VFW Post 5206 at the Hedrick-Rhodes Veterans Center at 900 North Main Street, Hendersonville, NC.
