Gen. Leslie Beavers, recently retired commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Veteran’s Affairs, reflected on his decade in that post and spoke of the challenges Kentucky’s veterans face during a meeting Thursday of the Cumberland Trace Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America.

Beavers, a retired U.S. Army brigadier general, spoke of his advocacy for the inclusion of state funding for specialty care units in VA nursing homes and cemetery space for veterans, but added that veterans returning from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq risk being lost in the shuffle due to economic hardship.

“A price is really being paid for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Beavers said. “You can sense the impact this war has had on (veterans) and their families.”

Beavers praised the MOAA for its lobbying efforts at the state and federal levels to narrow the pay gap between soldiers and civilians for similar work and for ensuring that injured soldiers leaving the military receive adequate care through the Wounded Warrior Transition Brigade, a program that Beavers said MOAA should emphasize more this year.

The transition brigade was one of a host of priorities that Beavers identified for veterans in 2009.

“We’ve got to maintain the staffing in these VA nursing homes, we cannot close these (veterans’) cemeteries and we have to increase their benefits,” Beavers said.

The retired state VA commissioner, whose post is now occupied by former Congressman Ken Lucas, was the keynote speaker at the Cumberland Trace MOAA Chapter’s annual meeting to install a new slate of officers.

U.S. Army Maj. Robert Fulton became the chapter’s president, and said his goals for the year were to recruit 10 new members and to have at least 30 members attend each meeting.

Col. Sidney Carpenter, a World War II and Korean War veteran, was honored as the Cumberland Trace chapter’s member of the year.

“This is a great bunch of people and I’m glad to be one of them,” Carpenter said.

Other officers installed Thursday were first vice president U.S. Air Force Col. Billy Lytle; second vice president and historian U.S. Army Col. Danny Young; secretary U.S. Army Lt. Col. Thomas Stephens; treasurer U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Ward Coleman; chaplain U.S. Army Lt. Col. David House; sergeant-at-arms U.S. Marine Corps Maj. James Wright; legislative affairs U.S. Army Col. Bob Spiller; director U.S. Army Col. Mark Lowry; and ladies’ auxiliary Patty Greninger.