NEW HAVEN, CONN. (FEB.12, 2023)—The Veterans of Foreign Wars Department of Connecticut District 2 has endorsed a Post-9/11 veteran for a state-level leadership position.
VFW District 2 has endorsed VFW New Haven and District 2 Commander Charles M. Pickett to be the 2023 Department Junior Vice Commander. He was unanimously endorsed by the second-largest VFW district in Connecticut at the February 12, 2023 monthly meeting at VFW Post 7788 in Devon.
The New Haven public high school teacher, who served two combat deployments as a U.S. Army engineer, is campaigning to be third-highest-ranking position in the VFW in Connecticut with approximately 10,000 members and 86 posts state-wide. If elected, Pickett is expected to progress through department-level positions and eventually lead the more than century old institution as the first Iraq and Afghanistan veteran in 2025.
Pickett said, “It is an honor to receive to the endorsement of my home district by my fellow post commanders. They supported me for four years, especially during the pandemic, when we had our annual district convention outside in a parking lot and passed a total revision of our bylaws. With this endorsement, they continue to support not only me, but the next generation of veteran leadership.”
ABOUT THE CANDIDATE: Charles M. Pickett continued a family legacy of military service when he joined the United States Army at the age of 39. From 2007 to 2011 he served with the 814th Engineer Company (Multi-Role Bridge) at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and the Connecticut Army National Guard 250th Engineer Company (MRBC) in New London from 2011 to 2014. He deployed to Iraq in 2007 and Afghanistan in 2010 and ran route-clearance teams after Hurricane Sandy with the CTARNG in 2012.
Wanting to combat the veteran suicide crisis in America, and realizing there were no open veteran service organizations in Connecticut’s second-largest city, Pickett organized the chartering of both the Veterans of Foreign Wars New Haven Post 12150 in 2015 and the American Legion New Haven Post 210 in 2018. Since then, the New Haven veteran organizations have donated tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours to individual veterans, local groups, and VFW programs.
Pickett is an English teacher at the The Sound School Regional Vocational Aquaculture Center in New Haven and a member of the Knights of St. Patrick in New Haven.
ABOUT THE VFW: The VFW is a nonprofit veterans service organization of eligible veterans and military service members from the active, Guard and Reserve forces. Founded in 1899 and chartered by Congress in 1936, the VFW is the nation’s largest organization of war veterans and its oldest major veterans organization.
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