WA State VFW honors local emergency responders

By Bill Tawater

On Wednesday, August 16, Commander Bill Tawater of Wahkiakum VFW Post 5297, presented two local emergency responders with awards from the Washington State VFW. Both responders are assigned to the Wahkiakum County Sheriff's Office.

At a ceremony attended by members of the sheriff's office, courthouse staff, friends and family, Sergeant John Mason was presented with a certificate and plaque recognizing him as the Law Enforcement Officer of the Year for 2022-2023 and Correction Officer/911 Dispatcher Asia Robbins was presented with a certificate and plaque recognizing her as the Corrections Officer 911 Telecommunicator of the Year for 2022-2023.

Each year, the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States selects an emergency medical technician, a law enforcement officer, a firefighter, and new for this year, a 911 dispatcher to receive Public Servant Awards. Local VFW posts submit a winner from each category to their state VFW department headquarters. The department then selects a single winner for each of the four awards and submits those to VFW National Headquarters.

Earlier this year in January, Wahkiakum Post 5297 awarded three local responders with Public Servant Awards and submitted them to the state. Washington State VFW has 104 posts located in the state, with most of them submitting their public servant candidates. It is not known yet how our candidates fared at the national level.