Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 8, 1990 TAG: 9006080895
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: DOUGLAS PARDUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"He supports Mr. O'Dell and that matter is closed," Laura Dillard, Wilder's press secretary, said today.
Her comment came after four veterans' organizations issued a joint news release opposing O'Dell's appointment to the Roanoke-based office.
The organizations said they oppose O'Dell because he has criticized nearly every veterans' organization and because he went to Hanoi in 1984 and was photographed there "holding a wreath as if to lay on the memorial of Ho Chi Minh, one of the most infamous of America's enemies."
The veterans' groups said Wilder has embarrassed his administration with the appointment.
"It is inconceivable that Governor Wilder could have appointed an individual having such a lack of credibility and credentials as Mr. O'Dell," the groups said in a joint statement.
The statement was issued by the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Disabled American Veterans and Vietnam Veterans of America, of which O'Dell is a member and former national vice president.
The four groups represent 100,000 of the state's more than 660,000 veterans.
O'Dell, 42, denies that he was ever prepared to lay a wreath on any memorial to Ho Chi Minh. He challenged the veterans' groups to find any photograph of him preparing to lay such a wreath. There is no such photograph because it didn't happen, he said.
"To compare me with Jane Fonda is absurd . . . an outrage," O'Dell said. He said he is an honorably discharged veteran who fought in Vietnam as a tank commander from 1968 to 1969. Like most veterans, he was appalled by Fonda's trip to North Vietman and expressions of sympathy for communists, he said.
He went to Vietnam in 1984 with a delegation of Vietnam Veterans of America to research the effects of Agent Orange and to push for return of bodies of American soldiers and help in location of GIs missing in action, he said.
O'Dell conceded he has made harsh comments about some veterans' organizations. But he said that was as part of his effort as a veteran to push for more attention to veterans' needs.
At the time, he said, he especially was concerned with the special needs of Vietnam veterans, whose concerns weren't getting the attention in Washington or from other veterans' groups.
O'Dell said he's made a career trying to help fellow veterans, including serving several years as a claims agent with the the state Department of Veterans Affairs. He also served in Washington as national vice president of Vietnam Veterans of America. He ran for president of that organization last year, but lost and returned to Virginia to work with Wilder's campaign. He wrote Wilder's position paper on veterans' affairs.
O'Dell said he suspects that Vietnam Veterans of America in Virginia opposes his appointment because Michael Tarpley, head of the group's Virginia council, also worked against him when he ran for the organization's national presidency. "It's pure politics," he said.
Steve Goodwin, head of the Roanoke Valley Veterans Council, which represents 28 veterans groups with more than 12,000 members, said opposition to O'Dell's appointment is coming from virtually every group.
"My phone's been ringing off the hook for a week," he said.
Goodwin, a former president of Roanoke's chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America, said he also opposes O'Dell's appointment, reluctantly.
"I've known Rick a long time, and I consider Rick a friend . . . I'm aware of his shortcomings."
O'Dell has alienated many veterans' organizations, Goodwin said. That undercuts his qualifications to hold a position designed to work for veterans' rights and help them get benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Goodwin said he also sees no reason other than politics for Wilder to have replaced Sam Black, state director of veterans affairs since 1983.
Wilder might find he is going to lose support from veterans' groups, Goodwin said. "He's flirting with trouble."
Dillard accused Black of stirring up the controversy over O'Dell's appointment. She said Black even sent a letter to veterans' organizations on Thursday saying the law should be changed so that veterans' groups selected the director instead of the governor.
by CNB