National Commander Commentary
Chris Easley, Auxiliary National Commander
‘All it takes is one voice’
Thank you for electing me to serve as the DAV Auxiliary national commander! It’s my highest commitment to be your voice so that we can achieve our shared goals. When we work together as members of one community, with one voice, I know that we can accomplish great things.
Being a part of DAV and the Auxiliary is in my blood.
While my mother was pregnant with me, she experienced labor pains a couple of months before my due date and went to the hospital. At the same time, my grandfather, a World War II Army Air Corps veteran and DAV member, was sick in the same hospital. Tragically, he died while my mother was still having labor pains.
The local DAV commander arrived at the hospital and began helping my grandmother so she could focus on her grief and family. My grandmother always felt she owed DAV for the help and support she received. So, before I was even a month old, she bundled me up and took me to my first DAV meeting.
Although I couldn’t officially join the Auxiliary until 2005, I grew up with the DAV Auxiliary in Alamo Unit 5 in San Antonio. Besides taking care of us, the men and women of the DAV chapter and unit also taught me what it means to be an American. They became my family.
That sense of family is what I enjoy most about the Auxiliary. Everywhere I’ve been in life, the Auxiliary has been there for me, and now it’s my turn to give back to my family.
I’m a big fan of music, and since our last national convention, I’ve had an earworm in my head—a Barry Manilow song from 1979, “One Voice.” This 45-year-old tune is still relevant to the Auxiliary and helps explain how we serve our family of veterans best.
The first few lines of the song talk about hearing one voice, alone in the dark. And how that one voice speaks for others.
The way I see it, the Auxiliary is that one voice. When we welcome someone into our family, our voice grows louder. Our voice has clarity, consistency and constancy. We use our voice for those who can’t use their own.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.” This next year, I plan on using my voice loudly. I hope you will join me.
If you want to find out more about the Auxiliary National Commander, you can find his biography here.
