Cody residents might have noticed there’s been less activity at Cody VFW Post 2673. There’s a simple but significant reason why: suspension.
According to the V.F.W.’s Post Suspension Guide, A Post suspension “is the Department Commander’s (State Commander Danielle Smith) tool for mandating corrective action to sustained Post deficiencies and provides a better opportunity to narrow education gaps of a Post’s officers and members only when all other efforts have failed. A suspension is used to identify Post deficiencies, assess additional shortcomings, and create a plan of action to address those deficiencies.”
As part of a suspension, nobody was allowed to enter the V.F.W. Post. and members were not allowed to participate in any ceremonies or V.F.W. activities.
Todd Beier, the Commander of V.F.W. 2673, confirmed the post was suspended but had no comment on the issue. He will more openly discuss the suspension once it’s lifted.
Cody V.F.W. 2673 has been suspended since Memorial Day at least. This is why the Cody Honor Guard was not present for the usual ceremony at Riverside Cemetery.
In fact, the reason for the suspension is the dynamic between the Cody V.F.W. and the Cody Honor Guard.
All the members of the Cody Honor Guard are members of V.F.W. Post 2673. But the Cody Honor Guard is its own non-profit organization and does not function or claim to be the Honor Guard of the Cody V.F.W. Post #2673. The Cody Honor Guard performs ceremonies and funerals, like many other Honor Guards.
The current suspension started because of a complaint about uniforms.
State Commander Danielle Smith said she received a complaint from the Cody community that Honor Guard members were not “within the regulations and rules for wearing military uniforms” at a ceremony. After getting more information, Smith felt the claims were legitimate enough to start an investigation.
But the investigation never truly started. The Honor Guard members who were allegedly not following military uniform regulations were members of the Cody Honor Guard, which has no affiliation with the V.F.W.
“At that point,” Smith said, “there were some issues with how (members) were interacting between the V.F.W. and another organization. So the post was suspended so those issues could be corrected, and things could be put in place so it doesn’t come up again.”
As for the allegations, Smith cannot verify or refute anything submitted to her. She has no control over another non-profit organization
“Once I was told they were acting as the Cody Honor Guard, I have no involvement in that because they are not part of the Cody V.F.W. There’s nothing I can do to or tell the Cody Honor Guard about their operation.”
Smith does not expect the suspension to last much longer.
“There are a couple of things that we need to find out about, and then we can start to make the corrections that need to be made. Once those are done, the suspension will be lifted. It really depends on how long it takes for (V.F.W. Post #2673) to do that.”
Cody Commander Beier is optimistic that if they can “speed things up,” the suspension could be lifted by August.
This is the second time VFW Post #2673 has been suspended in a five-year period – the last suspension was in 2018. Smith confirmed that the two suspensions had nothing to do with each other, but did involve the dynamic between the Cody V.F.W. and the Cody Honor Guard.
The Cody Honor Guard’s non-profit was incorporated the same year.
