![]() ![]() "He helped the Honor Guard whenever he could and as often as he could," she said. Joy Riggers, the niece of King, said he joined the post's Honor Guard in 1990 and took part in over 2,400 funerals during his time with the Honor Guard, serving as Commander from 1994 to 2003. Even though I know dad would be humbled and honored if he were here today, he would - well, some of you know him well enough to know what he'd be saying, and I can't repeat the words." "He never truly came home from Vietnam, and he never stopped trying to save his comrades. "We have been a service family our whole lives because dad never stopped serving," she said. Smoot's daughter, Tina Donoho, said her mother was a "service wife" for the entirety of her parents' 51 years of marriage, "not just while he was in the Navy." He built many, many ramps for veterans who weren't able to go downstairs anymore." ![]() He worked hard for this post, and he worked hard for his veterans. "I just want to say thank you to everyone that has been here for him, working when he was Commander. "This is such a wonderful, wonderful day for him," she said. Tresa Smoot, Smoot's widow, said while the VFW kept the former Post Commander from his family at times, it was due to his love for fellow veterans and the United States. Everybody wanted both names, and we could not have come up with a better solution." that should have their name on this building, but we put it to a vote, and we narrowed it down to three names," Daniels said. ![]() ![]() Daniels said Caraway was a Jonesboro native with no connection to Hot Springs or Garland County.Ī committee was formed to find a new veteran whose name would be used to rededicate the post, and a list of 15 names was suggested before it was narrowed down to Smoot and King. This summer, Daniels and Post Quartermaster Mark Aho separately began researching Caraway, who died of a blood clot six days before the dedication of the post, and both men discovered Caraway did not meet the qualifications. Caraway, who had been the United States representative and the United States senator." "So, at that time (when the post was originally named), they came up with the name of Thaddeus H. "If you don't know anything about naming a post, the post has got to be named after someone who is deceased or a living active Congressional Medal of Honor winner," he said. The change was because the leadership at the post discovered that Caraway was neither a veteran nor a Congressional Medal of Honor awardee, Post Commander Terry Daniels said. King Hot Springs VFW Post 2278 Saturday in an outdoor ceremony at the post at 660 E. Caraway Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2278, the third-oldest VFW Post in the state of Arkansas was renamed Saturday after two men who were instrumental to the post. ![]()
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