ALBANY, N.Y. -- A meeting on the stoop was all Brian Drost and Norman Pounds could have Tuesday night after the Department of New York's Veterans of Foreign Wars locked the doors for a meeting about shutting down the post.
"How are you going to let them do that to us?" Pounds asked when he heard the news. "We're veterans."
Pounds and Drost have been holding their meetings for Disabled American Veterans at this post for about a year. Pounds feels like this is another battle lost. The 72-year-old soldier still remembers what it was like to come home from Vietnam more than 40 years ago.
"I was looking to be accepted and even appreciated," Pounds said. "And to get back and to have people turn their back on you and then to have society take away from you, you feel helpless."
Part of the reason Drost and Pounds enjoy this VFW is because it doesn't allow smoking or drinking. It provides a safe place for veterans struggling from addiction.
The two DAV members watched members of the Oppenheim post discuss its fate through the window.
In a statement taped to the glass door, the VFW commander for the Department of New York said all operations of this post are "suspended due to violations of the laws and usage of the organization."
The commander of this post, Robert Porter, told us he wasn't allowed to speak on camera, but he showed us those violations. They include things like financial records unavailable and funds spent without membership approval.
These are things Pounds and Drost wouldn't be in charge of, but they do see a reason to keep the post going.
"We get together and have conversations and they are situations that only the veterans know," Pounds said.
At the conclusion of the private meeting, no one would answer questions about what was decided for the post.