The Veterans Entrepreneurship Task Force (VET-Force) recently became the first veterans group to sign an agreement with the General Services Administration to bolster the federal agency’s efforts to spend 3 percent of its procurement dollars on companies owned by service-disabled veterans.

VET-Force will use its network of thousands of veterans to expand efforts to provide information about training and other efforts.

The GSA pledges to work with VET-Force and other organizations committed to helping service-disabled veterans who are entrepreneurs, according to its acting administrator, David Bibb.

The 3 percent allocation was committed by President Bush in a 2004 executive order. Preliminary third-quarter data for the current fiscal year show GSA spent 3.2 percent of total procurement dollars on businesses owned by service-disabled veterans, up from a total 2.2 percent in the previous fiscal year.

GSA has also developed the Veterans Technology Services Government-wide Acquisition Contract, the first one exclusively for small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans. This contract, which GSA awarded to 44 service-disabled-veteran-owned businesses in 2006, has a ceiling of $5 billion.

VET-Force was organized in 1998 to advocate for the Veterans Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development Act of 1999, which acknowledged that veterans, particularly service-disabled ones, need additional help to form and expand small businesses.

The GSA provides a centralized delivery system of products and services to the federal government, leveraging its enormous buying power to get the best value for taxpayers. Founded in 1949, it manages more than one-fourth of the government’s total procurement dollars and influences the management of $500 billion in federal assets, including 8,600 government-owned or leased buildings and 208,000 vehicles. For more information send e-mail to viki.reath@gsa.gov.

Grave site medallions

Family members of veterans who died on or after Nov. 1, 1990 will soon be able to request a medallion for headstones and grave markers to signify status as a veteran.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is designing the medallion and anticipates that it will be available in spring 2009. It will be offered as an alternative to the government-furnished headstone or marker.

For more information on this new program or to monitor the progress of the development of the new medallion, go online to www.cem.va.gov/cem/hm/hm_law.asp.

Seabees news

•A memorial to four Seabees killed in Vietnam 40 years ago was dedicated Sept. 7 on the grounds of the Seabee Museum and Memorial Park in Davisville. The four Construction Battalion members were attached to NMCB-58, known as The Great Fifty-Eight, which provided a full range of support services during two deployments to Vietnam, and several members of that unit attended the memorial service.

The four Seabees honored are CE3 Cres Salazar of Albuquerque, N.M., killed at Cat Lo, Vietnam, on July 7, 1968; BUL2 Gregory Helsley of Butte, Mont., who died at Danang on July 23, 1968; SW3 John Staff of Belle Vernon, Pa., who died on June 7, 1969 at Thuy Nhon; and, BUCN Robert O’Connor, of Chicago, who was killed at Camp Shields, Chu Lai, on Aug. 12, 1969.

•In September, donations to the North Kingstown Seabee museum building fund passed the $50,000 mark, and officials say the fundraising campaign is on target. With a matching grant from the New Boston Fund capped at $50,000, the campaign now has more than $100,000 to build the museum, which will essentially replace a Quonset hut that houses the growing collection of artifacts and memorabilia. It will also serve as a visitors center.

The fund’s goal is $250,000 and a donation form is available online at www.seabeesmuseum.com/BuildingFundform.pdf, or you can mail donations to The Seabee Museum Building Fund, 21 Iafrate Way, North Kingstown, RI 02852. Donors of $100 or more will receive a vintage Seabee pin, in mint condition, recently discovered in a storage closet in a closed Attleboro factory. Visit the Seabees online at www.seabeesmuseum.com.

Holiday gift packages

American Legion Post 18, in Portsmouth, plans mailings of holiday season care packages to service men and women from the Newport-South County area who are serving overseas. The post asks that their families submit names and mailing addresses. For more information or to sign up a deployed family member for a package, send e-mail to ripost18legion@aol.com. The post also maintains a Web site at www.americanlegionpost18ri.homestead.com.

•Veterans of Foreign Wars

Bingos will be held in at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center at 830 Chalkstone Avenue in Providence at 6 p.m. tomorrow by Euart Auxiliary 602, and at 6 p.m. Thursday by Gatchell Auxiliary 306. Bingo will also be held from 1 to 3 p.m. tomorrow at the Gilbert Auxiliary 4487 Post home, 52 Underwood Lane, Middletown. Gatchell Post 306 will host an Italian dinner fundraiser from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the post home, 171 Fountain St., Pawtucket; $7 tickets will sold at the door. Department president Rosemary Williams will attend the national presidents homecoming, in Omaha, Thursday through Sunday.

•Korean War Veterans Association

Chapter 1 will hold a dinner meeting and election of officers at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Woonsocket Elks Hall, on Social Street. For more information, call Joe LaFountaine at (401) 334-2985.

•American Legion

Balfour-Cole Post 64, at 170 Pleasant View Ave. in Smithfield will meet Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

•Italian American War Veterans

The Department’s monthly meeting will be held Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in conference room 1 of the VA Medical Center in Providence.

•Order of the Purple Heart

Oliver Hazard Perry Chapter 1812 will meet Thursday at 2 p.m. in VFW Post 4487, 52 Underwood Lane, Middletown. Note the new meeting place for the September, October and November meetings

•Disabled American Veterans

The Department executive committee will meet Thursday (Sept. 25), at 7 p.m., in fifth-floor classroom 3 of the VA Medical Center in Providence.

•43d Infantry Division Veterans Association

The Rhode Island Winged Victory Division will meet Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Arsenal, 176 Benefit St., Providence.

George W. Reilly can be reached at VeteransColumn@verizon.net or by writing to The Providence Journal, 75 Fountain St., Providence, R.I. 02902.