For the 48th consecutive year, the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ national chaplain traveled to Kenosha this weekend.

And that was an order.

Kenosha VFW Post 1865 honored the Rev. Valentin Obregon during its annual National Chaplain Recognition dinner and program Saturday night, which included state and local dignitaries as well as members.

“We are the only VFW post in the U.S. out of 10,000 that has one of the top national officers — the national chaplain — on orders to come to our post each year,” said Harry Adamson, a Post 1865 member who has chaired the group’s National Chaplain Recognition Committee for a dozen years.

“Every Memorial Day weekend we honor the VFW national chaplain, who is always in attendance,” Adamson said. “That’s happened every year since 1962. I guess the people at the national level realize we’re serious about this event. We think it’s important.”

Awards, portraitpresented

During the program, service awards were presented to Obregon by Wisconsin and Kenosha VFW officers, and proclamations honoring him were given by city and county officials.

For decades, famed local portrait artist George Pollard was commissioned to do a portrait of the lauded chaplain, elected for a one-year term.

Pollard died two years ago, and the portrait is now done by his son, artist James Pollard, Adamson said.

Obregon’s portrait was presented to him during Saturday night’s program, and will be shipped to his Alabama home.

Spiritual support

“The purpose of a VFW chaplain is to provide spiritual support to people who are in the hospital or are going through some difficult times, “ said Obregon, a Baptist minister, prior to the program.

“We visit families and people in hospitals and offer our support,” he said. “We pray for them and minister to them as best we can.”

He’s grateful that the Kenosha VFW post honors the national chaplain each year.

“I think Kenosha is the only one that does it,” he said. “It’s a joy and a pleasure and a blessing to be here. I’ve seen so much of Kenosha and its history (visiting the city’s museums.) I’ve had a wonderful time here.”

Chaplains have come to Kenosha from across the nation, Adamson said.

“They love to come here,” he said. “We’ve had priests, rabbis and ministers of about every faith you can think of, including Mormons. We’ve had two Mormon ministers over the years.”

While in Kenosha Saturday, Obregon officiated at the wedding of a VFW member’s relative at Bong State Recreation Area.

The Saturday night program also honored VFW chaplains representing each military branch as well as state and local VFW chaplains.

Ceremony today

A public ceremony honoring VFW chaplains and members who are deceased will be held by VFW Post 1865 at 10:30 a.m. today at Sunset Ridge cemetery, on the southwest corner of highways 142 and 31.

Obregon served in the Air Force from 1964 to 1987 as an aerospace ground equipment technician, rising to the rank of master sergeant.

His tours of duty included Thailand, Germany, Spain, Korea, Japan and bases in the United States.

He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1999 and is a member of VFW Post 3658 in Bay Minette, Ala., where he serves as district chaplain as well as holding other positions.

After retiring from the Air Force, he worked for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as chief of ambulatory care before being appointed in 1994 as the department’s representative to Alabama’s William F. Greene State Veterans Home.

He held that position until he retired in 2005. He serves as associate pastor and minister of music and education at a church in Stapleton, Ala.