As a 20-year volunteer and two-time board member of Navy Federal Credit Union, I want to comment on Paul Seibert's letter, "Navy Federal Plays on Tilted Playing Field," (CU Times, July 16, page 16).
The letter was pretty accurate, especially the part about military bases now serving all services. But as I read, I kept smiling when he mentioned "military-focused" credit unions. Where are they? I don't think there are many left.
Twenty years ago our board would never have considered going outside Navy. There was a lot of military credit unions that had the same concern about those in uniform and their families that we have. Today your local on-base credit union has moved on or moved off, become community chartered, with many abandoning their military roots.
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I know there are exceptions, and some needed the move for survival. But the Navy family, which includes the Marines, has been our only family. The impetus for a charter change came from the fact that all services are as one in the war on terror; our bases have become joint, our families are together, our financial services and outlets are worldwide, and a sailor or marine in Iraq who is online looking for Navy Federal assistance doesn't understand why his Army messmate can't get the same help.
Navy Federal employees saw that and asked the same question. The fact that the era of the military-focused credit unions had past only made it easier for the board to say "yes."
And by the way, Navy Federal, as a single-employer credit union with no SEGs, may be the sole military defense-only credit union left.
Rear Admiral
Daniel W. McKinnon Jr.
USN, Retired,
Annandale, Va.
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