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Wood County DAV chapter suspended over vehicle dispute

A van parked outside of the DAV Chapter 32 building in Davisville on Monday is at the center of a suspension the local chapter is disputing. The vehicle was returned to the state DAV on Tuesday. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

DAVISVILLE — A dispute over a van provided to a local Disabled American Veterans chapter has led to the group’s suspension by the state organization, a move local members say is unwarranted.

A letter from State Commander Gary Ice, dated Sept. 24, states DAV Chapter 32 is being placed on a 90-day suspension for refusing to follow a direct order to return the vehicle. It states that once the vehicle is returned the suspension will be lifted.

Members of Chapter 32 say they were never given an order and are still under suspension after returning the van this week.

“I received no orders, no direct orders by email, by text or by letter or by phone (to return the vehicle),” said Paul DeBerry, former chapter commander. “And I’ll take a polygraph (test) on that, at any time.”

DeBerry said he had a conversation with then-State Commander Adam Greathouse in March about getting Chapter 32 a vehicle to use for services like transporting equipment and delivering supplies to their food pantry.

“He said that was a great idea,” DeBerry said. “And back in April, he said, ‘I think I’ve got a van for you.’ And he started to work on that. He said, ‘I’ll get all that with the paperwork and everything done for you and get it down there to you.'”

According to documents provided by Chapter 32, a combination requisition and shipping ticket was filled out on April 9 to permanently transfer the title of a van from the Huntington Veterans Affairs Medical Center to the DAV of West Virginia.

The document states Hospital Service Coordinator Larry Ronk, who is also listed as the DAV drivers coordinator, located a vehicle that “has not been used here at HWWVAMC for over a year and is idly sitting” and that it would be permanently transferred to Greathouse, who signed the document.

DeBerry said Greathouse visited the Davisville offices on April 29 with a document for him to sign that would allow the transfer of a 2019 Ford Transit Connect minivan to Chapter 32.

That document, provided by Chapter 32, said the vehicle would be provided “for the benefit of Veterans services through Chapter #32 CSO’s Veterans Claims Outreach events” to “accomplish their assigned task serving Veterans in the State of West Virginia.”

The document states that it would be the responsibility of Chapter 32 to provide the proper insurance and incur the cost of any maintenance and fuel or any other cost that may occur.

The document said the signatures would bond the agreement to transfer the vehicle to Chapter 32, with Greathouse, DeBerry and Ronk all signing it.

DeBerry said Greathouse delivered the vehicle on May 9 but failed to provide the proper documentation that would allow Chapter 32 to register the vehicle.

“It was supposed to have the title and all the paperwork that went with it but all it had was a copy of the title,” DeBerry said.

DeBerry said multiple people within the chapter reached out to Greathouse to try and get those documents but never received a response.

“And he just more or less cut off communication between us. He would not even talk to me,” DeBerry said.

Ronk, whose signature is on the transfer agreement and is listed as the initiate of the combination requisition and shipping ticket agreement, said on Monday he was never in possession of the title, never signed any documents and was told by Greathouse to “just put the documents together,” place them in an envelope and hand them over to Greathouse.

“I was just following orders,” Ronk said.

Ronk declined to answer follow-up questions on Thursday, saying he was ordered not to speak on the matter anymore. He referred all questions to Ice and Greathouse.

Multiple attempts to contact Greathouse and Ice were unsuccessful, and messages left had not been returned as of Thursday evening.

DeBerry said he stepped down as commander of Chapter 32 in late August because he couldn’t keep up with advancing technology and said the DAV wanted to move to more electronic communication.

“I was 80 years old last year, so I’m not up on everything,” DeBerry said. “You can’t fax anything anymore. You can’t phone anything anymore. It’s all got to go by email or some other sort.”

Gary Bradley was elected as the new commander and said he took over efforts to get the vehicle registered. He said he thought that it might have just been an administrative oversight to not include the original title.

“At the time, I decided to help Tom Saxton, the treasurer, figure out how we get the proper title so we can get the vehicle registered,” Bradley said. “We had good intent to put this vehicle into service for the veterans of Wood County and surrounding areas.”

He said those good intentions included securing insurance for the vehicle, changing the brakes and rotors and adding a new battery.

Bradley said he sent out multiple emails, made numerous phone calls and could not locate the original title. He said a representative from the VA hospital in Huntington advised him that if a vehicle is taken from the medical center property, and returned to the transportation network, the title goes with the vehicle when it leaves the station.

Bradley said he reached out to Greathouse, who is now the state adjutant, and Ice but never received an explanation for why the title was not included when the vehicle was delivered, or where it was.

Bradley said Chapter 32 received the suspension letter not long after and that he also was never ordered to return the vehicle until that point. He said he worked with Ice on returning the vehicle and it was picked up on Tuesday.

Bradley said despite assurance that the suspension would be lifted quickly, the organization remains without formal notification or paperwork that it has been.

“I feel like it’s being delayed. In my opinion, the suspension was never anything formal other than an email,” Bradley said Thursday. “We have not received anything regarding the lifting of our suspension. We were told on a phone call by a member from (the National DAV) that once the vehicle arrived back at the VA Medical Center, that our suspension would be lifted.”

He said the impacts of the suspension have been substantial to the Chapter.

“Right now, we’re at a stalemate. … We can’t do anything,” Bradley said. “We can’t hold meetings, we can’t operate food pantry operations. We can’t raise funds, donations, or pay bills.”

He said the uncertainty has also raised concerns about the future of Chapter 32 and the veterans it serves. He said it could be detrimental to the area.

“I feel like it would leave a huge vacuum in the support for the veterans community here,” Bradley said. “Just our food pantry alone, and our abilities to handle VA disability claims for our local veterans would suffer.”

He said as frustration grows, the Chapter has hopes for an amicable solution.

“We should not have to be dealing with this type of administrative politics. We just want to just help our veterans, period,” Bradley said.

Douglass Huxley can be reached at dhuxley@newsandsentinel.com.

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