Lee Dauster, a Louis Dechert supporter who is currently (2007) serving on the Executive Board of the Korean War Veterans Association, wrote on November 11, 2007 that the founder of KWVAFirstAmendment.Org, Lynnita Brown, is a "woman scorned" and "administration enemy" of the KWVA. Let's take a look at some background information before actually responding to Dauster's sexist remark.
Coon PresidencyThere is a history of unethical conduct at the national level of the KWVA that goes way back. Prior to the election of Louis Dechert as president of the KWVA, the president was an Ohio veteran by the name of Harley Coon. Reluctant to release control after he had served his two-term limit in office, Coon orchestrated an illegal bylaws change that allowed him to serve even more terms. He ultimately served three terms, all of which were marred by corruption in one form or another.
While he held office, Harley Coon used the organization's newsletter, financial resources, and special mailings to promote himself, blatantly lie to the members, and actually publish fraudulent photographs of the so-called national headquarters (located in his private business building). He succeeded in stopping major funding to the Korean War Educator website (
www.koreanwar-educator.org). He expelled the most vocal of those members who questioned his conduct and motives. He also harassed, threatened, and/or expelled those members who accused his council supporters of self-dealing and unethical conduct. Under Coon's watch, the entire KWVA quartermaster inventory (tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise) disappeared at the hands of one of Coon's staunchest supporters and fellow executive council members, Kenneth Cook of Illinois. Neither money nor merchandise was ever recovered. Coon made trips to Hawaii and promoted a ballteam in his hometown with KWVA money, and used other KWVA funds in a questionable manner. He lost his bid for yet another term of office as president when numerous members of the KWVA, fed up with the rampant misconduct found within the Coon Administration, rallied around a promising presidential candidate named Louis Dechert.
"Abraham Lin-Coon"Once Dechert was elected to lead the KWVA, an "Ethics and Grievance Committee" was formed to handle complaints about issues of concern to the members and leaders of the KWVA. A number of persons who had been harmed by Harley Coon submitted complaints to the E&G, including associate member Lynnita Brown. Mrs. Brown is the founder of the Korean War Educator website that lost its major funding source because of Harley Coon. She is also the founder of KWVAFirstAmendment.Org.
Brown was vocal and public (extremely so) about the unethical comings and goings of the Harley Coon Administration. As such, Coon considered her to be a major threat to his position within the KWVA--so much so that he declared the KWVA to be in a "state of emergency." The Coon-appointed KWVA judge advocate confirmed that, since the KWVA was in a "state of emergency, " Harley Coon was allowed powers similar to the powers given to United States President Abraham Lincoln when the nation broke out in civil war and a state of emergency was declared. With the blessings of Judge Advocate Sherman Pratt, Harley Coon (a/k/a Abraham Lin-Coon), his Coon-appointed council members, and other brown-nosers on the council then removed Lynnita Brown as an associate member of the KWVA. She was first expelled by an executive order issued by Coon, and then expelled a second time (apparently for good measure) by board vote.
Brown's complaint to the E&G Committee was thrown in with the other complaints about Coon. While Harley Coon was not immediately expelled from the organization for his wrongdoings, various aspects of all the complaints were considered by the Dechert Administration, and some likely helped form the basis of the proceedings several months later that resulted in the expulsion of Harley Coon and Ken Cook from the organization. Their expulsion centered around their failure to cooperate in the investigation of the missing quartermaster inventory.
A Woman ScornedThis brings us back to the "woman scorned" comment made by Lee Dauster. Dauster claims that the reason why Lynnita Brown is such a strong opponent of the Louis Dechert Administration is because she is mad at the board of directors for failing to act on her personal complaints about Harley Coon. Dauster said, "She turned on all directors and the President when she learned the board of directors had no intent, or jurisdiction, in the prosecution of Harley Coon (her greatest enemy) for the personal attacks he made against her." Dauster claims that Brown failed to exercise her right to take Coon to civil court. He refers to Brown as "the administration enemy....for years a woman scorned."
It should be noted that Lee Dauster knows very little about Lynnita Brown's personal life, and thus has no clue who her greatest enemy might be. Furthermore, as shown by his sexist "scorned woman" remark, KWVA Director Lee Dauster just doesn't seem to get it. What happened in 2003, 2004, 2005 simply doesn't matter to Lynnita Brown. There is no need for "vengeance" on her part. Coon is gone. Cook is gone. Krepps is gone. The harm that those three men in particular did to the Korean War Veterans Association is well-documented on the Korean War Veterans Association page of the Korean War Educator. A report of their dishonorable actions will always be there as a permanent reminder to the millions of visitors to the KWE that corruption can exist, corruption can be caught, corruption can be fought, and corruption can be punished in a veterans organization such as the KWVA.
Where's the Beef?
So if the past is past, why is Lynnita Brown such a vocal opponent of the Louis Dechert Administration? In March of 2005, Louis Dechert wrote to Lynnita Brown, "Dear woman, whom I have never met, but whom I have always defended, there is no future for our organization in hate and vengeance. It just makes more victims and more people hating." He further wrote, ""You are a fine woman, so far as I am concerned. You have a great future with us--don't burden yourself with baggage that you don't need." In just three short years, Lynnita went from a "dear, fine woman," to a "scorned woman" that Dauster calls "the administration enemy." What brought about Brown's change of status in the eyes of KWVA leaders?
The answer is simple. Lynnita Brown
opposes witch-hunt investigations and the expulsion of members who voice opinions contrary to those of the current administration. The Dechert Administration
promotes witch-hunt investigations and the expulsion of members who voice opinions contrary to those of the current administration. And never the twain shall meet.
Harley Coon and Ken Cook were expelled from the KWVA for reasons associated with missing KWVA assets, and Lynnita believes that these two men should rightly have lost their membership in the Korean War Veterans Association because of those missing assets. Lost assets can have a direct bearing on the ability of a non-profit organization to survive financially. The members were thus directly harmed by the actions of whoever took the KWVA's quartermaster inventory without paying fair market value for them. Without a doubt, both Coon and Cook know what happened to the inventory, and their lack of cooperation during the investigation cost them membership in the organization they once led.
Investigations and threats to expel 12 members of the KWVA, loosely and firmly based on charges stemming from demonstrations of freedom of speech, are beyond the pale and far different than the Coon/Cook expulsions stemming from lost KWVA assets. Lynnita believes that no member of the KWVA should be expelled for voicing his or her opinion--whether the voicing of those opinions takes place in an election campaign mailing, on an internet message board, or by any other media. Lynnita feels that it is just plain wrong that an organization composed of veterans who fought for freedom should deny its members the right of freedom of speech. She feels that the fact that opinions expressed by Dechert opponents might be unpopular and annoying to Dechert proponents should be irrelevant. A Dechert supporter's personal irritation with administration opponents should take the back burner to the members' right to speak out in protest of board actions and decisions they find objectionable. That's what millions of veterans fought for and died to protect: freedom and the privileges that are inherent to it.
Some Dechert followers believe that freedom of speech is not absolute in the United States, and thus it is okay for the leaders of the non-profit KWVA to punish members who speak negatively about them. KWVA Director Dauster considers those who speak out against the administration to be "ignorant of the intent of First Amendment." Still other Dechert supporters advise members to remain silent and only speak out when they cast a vote on election day--even though the results of past KWVA elections have been overturned "for the good of the order."
Lynnita Brown questions the sincerity of Louis Dechert's remark, "There is no future for our organization in hate and vengeance. It just makes more victims and more people hating." She feels that Dechert and his henchmen need to practice what they preach. The hate and vengeance pouring forth from certain members of the Dechert Administration is mind-boggling. More and more victims of their hate and vengeance find their heads on the bloody KWVA chopping block. As a result, there are more and more people hating the Korean War Veterans Association than ever witnessed before in the history of the KWVA.
Free-speakers are not destroying the KWVA. It is being destroyed by self-aggrandizing leaders who rule the organization in para-military fashion and who insist on commanding the members from a station somewhere above them rather than communicating with members as equals by their side--joining together as one cohesive unit to accomplish the goals set forth by the founding fathers of the Korean War Veterans Association.
