My name is Everett Kelly and I’m a dual service veteran. I served 6 years in the Marine Corps and then 16 years in the Army, for a total of 22 years active duty. I retired as a CWO-3. While in the Marine Corps I was an infantryman and served two tours in Vietnam, where I became the recipient of two Purple Hearts. My service in the Army was as a Special Agent in the Criminal Investigation Command (CID). I am currently the Texas Veterans Coalitions Director for the Convention of States Project.
When I entered the service in 1965 the Cold War was in full swing, and I figured I could help defend our liberties from foreign aggression. Little did I know I should have been just as worried about losing our liberties and state sovereignty from our own federal government. For decades, the three branches have been eating away at both. It is time to use the tool the framers of our constitution gave us in Article V—a convention of states—to restore our federal government to the way our founders intended when they wrote that amazing document.
If you are a veteran of our armed forces residing in Texas and you believe that: (1) the federal government oversteps the boundaries of power given to it in our Constitution; (2) the federal government overspends no matter what party is in power and has created an unsustainable national debt; and (3) being a member of Congress should not be a career; we invite you to join our coalition. As veterans, we took an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign or domestic. Even though we are no longer in the service, we have never been relieved from that oath.
Join your fellow veterans shown on this page and join the fight to restore our Constitution to what our Founders intended.
To join the Veterans for COS coalition:
- First, if you haven't already, sign the Convention of States petition.
- Then, send an email that includes the following:
- Your name
- Branch of service
- Rank
- Dates of service
- Your city of residence in Texas
- A photo
- A statement about why you support Convention of States (optional, but we would love to have it!)
Click the button below to send the email.
Members of the Texas Vets4COS Coalition
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State Senator Brian Birdwell, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, Retired Granbury For years, too many in our deeply-entrenched federal government have willfully ignored the citizens they represent, essentially dissolving the Founders’ originally-intended balance of power and the primary role played by the states as sovereign entities in our national structure. My fellow veterans and I know firsthand the critical importance of a command and authority structure, which is why Washington’s refusal to uphold the Constitution compels the individual states to exercise their collective power through Article V. |
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Todd Baker, USMC Retired Burleson As a veteran, I believe as strongly now in the ideals set forth in our founding documents as I did 25 years ago when I first joined the Marines. My family and I decided in favor of sacrifices in our personal lives in order to further the greater good. Now, we are beset by a federal legislature that has all but abdicated its power to the executive; a federal executive that has all but abdicated its power to the judiciary; and a judiciary that consists of unaccountable judges, who all too often exceed the authority given them under Article III. It is for these reasons that I stand shoulder to shoulder with you as you fight to use the constitution to save the constitution, to bring the federal leviathan to heel, and return power to true sovereigns -- We, the people. |
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Henry Bohnert, SP4, US Army, 1971-74 Brazoria I am convinced tht we need a Convention Of States; that is why I became a District Captain for Texas House District 25. |
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Sergeant Major Thomas Brooks, US Army, Retired Austin I support the CoS because it's unbelievable to me that we claim to be responsible adults while kicking the problem of overspending down to the next generation. Someday, someone will have to face this issue, and they will curse us for lacking the will to restrain our spending, and we will deserve that curse. |
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George Dawes, USAF Veteran Tomball I am comfortable as a COS volunteer and have helped my district Captain coordinate presentations to a few VFW chapters locally. It was a real honor to have attended five trips to the Capitol and join our fellow volunteers making a sincere showing of support for the Convention of States Project and seeing the Legislature vote the resolution into the record. I look forward to rooting for other states passing their resolutions. |
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Mike Deffendall, SFC, US Army Retired San Antonio I fully support the Convention of States and the goal of re-balancing the roles Federal government and the state governments. I believe the US Constitution is under attack from certain political factions who have and wish to continue to alter the original intent of US Constitution that I have repeatedly sworn to preserve and protect. A Convention of States called to provide specific topics to reduce the scope of Federal power is the Constitutional solution for this problem. |
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Gregg Eatmon, Sergeant, US Army 1980-1987 Bertran I support the Convention of States because I am a “Constitutionalist” believing that the framers of the Constitution understood the rights and privileges afforded to those who are free, while also understanding the perils inherent to liberty if you lose or subjugate those rights and privileges. Case in point, the recent weaponization of the FBI as a political machine—nothing in the Constitution gives the federal government authority over ordinary crimes, as crime fighting is the responsibility of state and local government. But despite the lack of constitutional authorization, the FBI was formed in 1908, and since then the federalization of crime has jeopardized our constitutional liberty in several ways, including Waco, Ruby Ridge, Move Movement, Montana Freeman, Cliven Bundy and now the 2016 Spygate, in attempts to pull off a silent coup and reverse the most sacred pillars of freedom, an election. |
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Greg Holton, US Army Admin Officer, 94th General Hospital US Army Reserve Sulphur Springs I believe I first discovered the COS Project on Facebook. I am 68 years old. Old enough to know our two-party system of selecting our elected representatives wasn't working. It became a rigged system that doesn't represent the “Consent of the Governed.” COS does exactly what I was looking for. It returns Power to the People! |
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Mike Howard, USMC Austin Too many do not know the Constitution and have acquiesced their rights and responsibilities. Too many politicians see public service as a career not a service. A Convention of states will help rectify these problems. |
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Sgt. Bob Odegaard, WWII Veteran, 1942-1945, US Army Air Corps, B-17 Turret Gunner and Line Chief Brownsville |
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Don Pollock, USAF Captain Houston Like all of us who wore the uniform, we pledged to "Preserve, protect and defend the Constitution from enemies, foreign and domestic.” For the past eighty years or so the Constitution has been under attack by the Social Elite who would replace our freedoms with some sort of European style socialist state, where they make the decisions on our behalf. I have recently become the Region 2 Captain with the Convention of States and have signed up for the long haul, because that sacred pledge had no expiration date and the Convention of States Project is the only peaceful means I see for the people to take back our Government. |
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John M. Raymond, Sr., SFC (Ret.) Navy 1985-1991; Army National Guard 1996-1998; Army National Guard Active (AGR) 1998-2012 Lakeside I support the Convention of States because I believe in and swore an oath to the Constitution of the United States and it is under attack today in America from within. I feel it is the recourse our Founders provided to us to use before using force to protect our great nation and reel in an out of control government body. We are no longer being represented by our Congress and our Judicial system steps way beyond its realm as it is intended in our Constitution. |
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Carl Scott, US Air Force, SSgt, 1966-72 Jacksonville I believe that there are moments in time, not only in one's personal life but in the life of a nation, that either make or break that person and quite often the nation. That one moment quite often becomes the defining moment in the history of the person or the nation and failure to act, at that very moment, can determine the future of our kids, our grand kids and the future generations to come.I believe that the Founding Fathers gave us not only the tools to keep our government in check but the right, responsibility and duty as well. Yes, I believe in Article V of the Constitution "The Convention of States". I believe that failure to act will cost us our Civil Liberties that we and our forefathers have fought too hard to lose. We must defend the Constitution from enemies Foreign and Domestic. |
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Allison Tangeman, USN, DT3, 1974-1978 Taylor As a veteran, I took my oath of enlistment “to uphold and defend the US Constitution from all enemies, both foreign and domestic” as ongoing! My oath did not expire upon my honorable discharge in 1978. The direction that Washington D.C. is leading our country has moved me from the sidelines to action. I volunteered with the Convention of States in June 2014. I am surely not a Constitutional expert, but I am proud to exclaim that “I am learning! |
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John Tweedell, TSGT, USAF, 1948-1952 Hideaway I believe in the Convention of States so strongly that I became a grassroots coordinator for my senatorial district in Texas. |
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Nils Wirstrom, US Navy, GMG2, 1968-72 Bryson The eight years I suffered under Obama depressed and frightened me greatly. Not for me, so much as my grand-children. The RINOs in Congress did nothing to alleviate my concern. Frankly, I was more agitated with the likes of McCain, Graham, McConnell and Cornyn than I was with Obama. Term limits became apparent but these yahoos were not about to kick themselves out of office. That's when I found COS. I was focused on doing anything to get Texas to pass the necessary legislation. |
