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For Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Chapter 38 Commander Kevin Dasing and other members of Chapter 38, based in Mesilla, helping veterans is a calling.
Help comes in a variety of ways, including providing transportation back and forth from Las Cruces and El Paso to medical appointments in Albuquerque (they also pick up and drop off veterans at stops in other communities along the way), help with applying for a disability and completing other paperwork and providing food, clothing, blankets and cash to veterans in need, including those struggling with homelessness.
Dasing, who retired in 1994 after 20 years with the United States Army and four years with the Texas State Guard, has been the Chapter 38 commander since 2013. He is past commander of DAV Chapter 10 of Las Cruces.
Dasing said he has worked with veterans with combat-related disabilities and a wide range of non-combat injuries incurred during military service, including one veteran who survived a plane crash.
Dasing also is DAV SEC District 4 commander, overseeing five chapters in the area. He visits every chapter at least once every three months and has helped get them all connected by computer.
Dasing is a past commander and district commander of the American Legion and a member of the VFW, the Southwest Native American Veterans Association and Blue Star Moms, and is an associate member of the Marine Corps League.
Dasing is also one of five members of the National DAV Legislative Committee, and has traveled to Washington, D.C. to speak before members of Congress about federal legislation important to veterans, he said. He also has lobbied the New Mexico Legislature on behalf of veterans’ issues, participated in honor flights and the local Veterans Day Parade and even helped get a New Mexico license plate honoring women veterans (www.mvd.newmexico.gov/military-and-veterans.aspx). Dasing has also been a member of the Las Cruces Mayor’s Veterans Advisory Board and former U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce’s veterans’ advisory group, he said. He has also helped create monuments at Las Cruces’ Veterans Memorial Park (https://las-cruces.org/1726/Veterans-Memorial-Park).
DAV Chapter 38 meets at 8 a.m. the third Saturday of the month at Rudy's Country Store and Bar-B-Q, 1020 N. Telshor Blvd. DAV 38 officers meet 10 a.m.-noon every Friday at Mesilla Town Hall, 2231 Avenida de Mesilla, where they are available to assist veterans. “Bring your records,” Dasing advised.
Contact Dasing at 575-640-7173 and laidbackkev@aol.com. Find DAV Chapter 38 on Facebook.
