Jim Barger's throne at Charleston, South Carolina's VFW Post 445 is the corner barstool, where the 91-year-old Army veteran sits back and sips from a foamy glass of Stella Artois.
It's “Wing Wednesday,” the one night each week where the cinder block building tucked onto a side street comes alive. Veterans trickle in for their routine of heavy-handed pours of Jameson or a cold bottle of Bud Light.
Barger, the commander of the post, watches over the scene from the far end of the bar, happy people are here. His organization has fallen on some tough times, especially during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. He stops to scan the wrinkled faces of the regulars, veterans who mostly served in Vietnam and Korea.
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Chuck Blankin, the chaplain at the VFW post, comes up to Barger and grips his hand and smiles. Blankin has been a member for 14 years, and openly talks about being shot in Vietnam and the physical and emotional pain he's had to work through since returning home.
To Blankin, the VFW post isn't just a bar: It's a hospital, it's therapy and, more than anything, it's a family.
“If you look up PTSD in the dictionary, my picture is there,” Blankin said as he pats Barger on the back, the in-house band taking a break from covers of Jimmy Buffett songs to yell out bingo numbers to the 30 or so graying veterans. “And this…
