Burger

PENDLETON — Three years after joining Veterans of Foreign Wars Let ’er Buck Post 922, Judith Burger had risen through the ranks to take command of the Pendleton post as it reached for new ambitions.

Burger took command over the summer, just as Pendleton and the rest of the country was embroiled in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Still, Burger finds much to be optimistic about with her post, which is headquartered in the same building that was constructed shortly after the post was chartered in 1932.

Unlike other posts, Pendleton’s VFW doesn’t have a bar that it relies on for revenue and it owns its building, meaning it doesn’t have to continue paying rent during the pandemic.

That’s not to say it hasn’t lost money since the onset of the virus, but Burger has also been proactive in applying for grants, using revenue from Oregon Community Foundation and the Round-Up Let ’Er Buck Cares program to allow the VFW to make its usual community donations.

Burger is different from the usual veterans who lead the VFW. She’s a woman, and at 45 she’s younger than most members. But she arrived at Post 922 steeped in experience with the 121-year-old organization.

Burger is originally from Gilchrist in northern Klamath County, but when the local timber mill closed, her family moved to Bend. She joined the Army after high school, seeing it as the best option she had post-graduation.

She drove trucks for the army in South Korea before she was medically discharged in 1996. By 2011, she was struggling with the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder and was essentially housebound.

That’s when a counselor from the U.S Veterans Administration encouraged her to join the VFW post in Redmond.

She hesitated: She hadn’t fought in combat while in South Korea and the people she associated with VFW were people who were unlike her.

“I thought it was a good ol’ boys club,” she said. “A man’s club.”

But the Redmond post was very active in the community, and after joining, Burger felt like she had found a new sense of purpose in life.

Burger quickly rose through the ranks, securing a spot on the VFW’s national steering committee.

She also used the organization as a tool for advocacy, traveling to Washington, D.C., with the Service Women’s Action Network to speak on behalf of sexual assault survivors in the military. Burger said she’s spoken with U.S. Rep. Greg Walden and Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley about the topic, which she said isn’t just an issue for women. Burger said men are also sexually assaulted in the military, but their sense of embarrassment can make them even quieter than women about their experiences.

While Burger was very active in her post, she eventually tired of the internal politics and took a hiatus from the VFW. She soon found that she couldn’t live in the Bend area for too much longer either, its steepening cost of living spurring her and her husband to look for a more affordable place to live.

Burger moved to Pendleton knowing almost no one, but she decided it was a good time to revive her participation in the VFW. When she transferred to Post 922 in 2017, Burger felt like she was quickly embraced by her new compatriots.

As she assumed command over the summer, members tasked her with helping them achieve All-American status, a designation from the national organization that recognizes posts that have met certain membership and participation goals.

Burger said Post 922 is always recruiting, but like many other posts around the country, its membership is aging. Post 922 has lost several members this year, she said.

As commander, Burger said she’s often trying to balance the needs of older vets, like those from World War II, Vietnam and Korea, while trying to reach out to younger veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Burger said she’s trying to reorient the VFW to be more accommodating of younger families, and she’s supported by the older membership who remember the days when families played a greater role in the group.

“They want to pass down a legacy, because that’s what they have,” she said.

Burger said her job will be to determine whether younger vets want to be a part of that legacy, and how to make sense of it if they don’t.