Aiken County’s veterans have a fresh accolade to their credit, largely through the work of Army vet Lowell Koppert, commander of Savannah River Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5877.
The Aiken resident, an honorably discharged Green Beret who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, learned this month of his appointment to be a national aide-de-camp, for a term that will run through June 2019. In his new, honorary position, he is to act as an adviser to the VFW's state and national commanders.
Koppert was enlisted from January 1999 until the end of 2007, finishing up as a staff sergeant. Referring to his peers in Special Forces, he said, “We were … as a group, the first ones to go into Afghanistan … very shortly after 9/11 occurred."
The work involved training Afghanistan’s indigenous forces and leading them into battle, so a battalion of Afghanis would do the work that might otherwise be done by a battalion of Americans, “so there’s less risk, obviously, to American service members, because we (in Special Forces) are the only ones in harm’s way.”
Koppert, in responding to the VFW appointment, acknowledged the honor and credited his post’s officers and members for bringing attention to the post, which he now serves in his third term as commander.
"We are working hard daily to improve our post, increase awareness of veterans' programs and activities, support our veterans and returning active duty service members as well as continuing to serve our local community through outreach and assistance,” he wrote.
He estimated that the organization has between 8,000 and 10,000 posts worldwide, and about 100 in South Carolina. The state, he said, is exemplary in terms of offering outstanding benefits for veterans.
VFW Post 5877, which has its headquarters at 116 Midway Circle, south of Aiken, has won top honors at the state and national levels in recent years. Koppert’s appointment as an aide-de-camp is the first such achievement in the post’s history.
The overall VFW mission, as stated on the organization's website, is "to foster camaraderie among United States veterans of overseas conflicts and to serve our veterans, the military and our communities and advocate on behalf of all veterans."
Details are at vfw.org.
