Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs : putting veterans first, 10/2014 v.1 no.8

              He was an avid fisherman, but
after his retirement from the
private sector Mr. McGee
gave up fishing so he could
serve his fellow Veterans full
time. He volunteered as a Red
Cross worker at the Fort Sill
Pharmacy before joining the
Veterans of Foreign Wars. He
eventually served the VFW
and its members as Post
Commander, District Com-mander,
and State Command-er.
He was even named as
“Mr. VFW” in Oklahoma in
2012. However, Mr. McGee
was most proud of his work as
a War Veterans Commission-er,
starting with his confirma-tion
to the Commission in May
of 2012 before being voted as
Chairman this past July.
Mr. McGee is survived by the
love of his life and wife of 61
years, Rothena, as well as two
children and their spouses, 9
grandchildren, and 8 great-grandchildren.
Mr. McGee will be missed by
everyone who knew him, as
well as the thousands of Okla-homa
Veterans he has
served.
Retired Army Lieutenant
Colonel and Chairman of
the War Veterans Commis-sion
Darrel R. McGee
passed away on October
1st. He was 81 years old.
Mr. McGee was drafted
into the U.S. Army in 1953.
He spent time at Fort Sill
and Fort Riley before he
was shipped off to serve in
the Korean War. After serv-ing
4 years as an enlisted
soldier, Mr. McGee decid-ed
to go to Officer Candi-date
School and was sent to
Fort Benning, Georgia. Mr.
McGee spent the next 17
years serving in several
locations, including time in
Vietnam, before retiring
with the rank of Lieutenant
Colonel. All 21 years of Mr.
McGee’s service were with
the Army Ordnance Corps.
Mr. McGee was highly dec-orated
during his service.
His medals include: the
Bronze Star, Meritorious
Service Medal, Joint Ser-vice
Commendation, Army
Commendation, Good Con-duct
Medal 2nd Award,
National Defense Medal
with Oak Leaf Cluster, Ko-rean
Service Medal, Vi-etnam
Service Medal with 5
Campaign Stars, Korean
Defense Service, and Re-public
of Vietnam Medal
with 60 Device among
many others.
JSOTS
The 25th Annual Joint
Service Officer Training
Seminar (JSOTS) will be
held November 14-15,
2014 in OKC. The semi-nar
will provide an oppor-tunity
for all those who
attend to receive the lat-est
information on a vari-ety
of subjects related to
Veterans’ benefits, at
both the state and nation-al
level. This year JSOTS
will be sponsored by the
ODVA and USDVA.
JSOTS will be held at the
Wyndham Garden, 2101
South Meridian, OKC,
OK. Trained profession-als
from the ODVA,
USDVA Regional Office
and Medical Centers will
provide all of the latest
information on benefits.
Darrell McGee: 1933-2014
October 2014 Vol. 1, Issue 8
O K L A H O M A D E P A R T M E N T O F V E T E R A N S A F F A I R S
House Study 2
Media Cart 2
New Laws 2
Fundraisers 3
Quilt Donation 3
ALA Donation 3
Center Spotlight 4
Inside this issue: