The American Military Combat Veterans' Congress is a newly founded veterans organization, headquartered in Kaysville.
The main purpose of the organization is to gather and publish viable research materials to benefit its constituency - the approximately 28 million American veterans and their 97 million family members.Robert Creel of Kaysville is the executive public relations director of the group.
`We're setting up a new executive body," Creel said. "We're a new organization and as people come in for membership, we're going to expand."
To meet that obligation, the group plans to install a 1,500-member congress of veterans and a 500-member alternate congressional delegation. The organization will also produce a quarterly news letter.
"As an ultimate goal, Combat Veterans' Congress has been founded to provide a practical way to halt the precipitous decline our Democratic republic has taken over the past 35-plus years," the group's initial press release states.
"Like the U.S. Marines, we are looking for a few good combat veterans," according to the release.
Creel said it might just be a coincidence the group is headquartered in Utah but it does seem like a proper place.
"Utah is conservative based," he said. "We felt it was a good place to start because our research points to a move toward a more conservative, fact-based government that responds to the needs of the people.
"If you take a look-see at the people of Utah, they're better informed and here we can draw a better, more knowledgable person that can serve on this board."
Creel also stressed he doesn't want to label all combat veterans as conservatives either. He said all types of people are needed for the congress.
"We became an entity, six years ago, gathering information with other concerned veterans," Creel said. "Now we've come to this point that we want to set up this type of organization."
Creel said the group will set up 10 different committees soon because the group has a timetable to urgently be in place before the November election.
"We'll not accept membership per se, only a congressional membership . . . to keep ourselves pure and protect our sources of information."
He said the group is already flooded with a list of 7,000 to 8,000 potential congressional names and is sifting through to find the most recommended individuals. He hinted the group may have to enlarge its congress since it could end with 50,000 to 60,000 prospective representatives. He also stressed the group wants mostly ordinary people.
Creel said while other veterans organizations are mainly social and simply do work for themselves, this new group will act for the country itself and will ultimately be serving half the nation when you count all the veterans and their families.
He said the group's research demonstrates there is a biased media in many areas of the country and an erosion of people's individual rights, especially the middle class.
- For more information, write the American Military Combat Veterans' Congress, 1051 E. Brook Haven Drive, Kaysville, UT 84037, or call 547-0635.