By RICHARD F. BELISLE / Staff Writer, Waynesboro
photo: RICHARD T. MEAGHER / staff photographer
CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - When Thomas Pouliot flew off aircraft carriers in Vietnam he was a member of the crew of a plane. Today he is commander in chief of nearly 2 million veterans across the country.
Pouliot, national commander of more than 10,000 VFW posts, came to Chambersburg Monday to meet with local vets, hear complaints and tour historic sites. He moved around town with a police escort on stops between the Kittochinny Historic Society's museum on King street for a tour of the old jail building, a visit with veterans at a nursing home and a banquet at Local Post No. 1599.
He began his Franklin County tour at the Scotland School for Veterans Children in Scotland, Pa.
Pouliot, who is a city judge in Helena, Mont., his home town, said VFW commanders serve for three years in the veterans organization's top three posts, including junior and senior commander and commander-in-chief. He is in his third year. "We try to visit each of the 50 states in those three years," he said.