John Fales, 78, known as "Sgt. Shaft"

John Fales, known as "Sgt. Shaft," a vigorous advocate for veterans and a 25-year member of the National Press Club, died on Monday, Nov. 26, of congestive heart failure.

Ashish Vazirani said his stepfather "passed peacefully and quickly with my mother, Heea Vazirani-Fales, at his side."

Fales, who used his pen name for his nationally syndicated veterans' help column, was a founder and president of the Blinded American Veterans Foundation, which lobbied on behalf of veterans are blind or have other sensory disabilities. He retired in 2006 after 30 years with the Corporation for National and Community Service.

He spent years as a member of the Club's Speakers Committee and arranged several luncheons with top officials from the military and other uniformed services.

Fales lost his sight in 1966 during an ambush in Vietnam while serving as a Marine forward artillery spotter. "My head should have been down, but it was up," he said in a 2013 CBS News interview. "I've been very, very fortunate - it's unbelievable. Who would have believed it? I sure as heck wouldn't have."

He was credited with federal legislation restoring benefits to widowed veterans who remarry, and he personally intervened on behalf of veterans unable to navigate the federal Veterans Affairs bureaucracy.

"There was nowhere John could not go to help veterans," recalled Club member Jonathan Buth, a former commander of the Club's American Legion Post 20. Buth told of a wounded Vietnam veteran from his native Wisconsin who received a decade's worth of compensation he was owed and needed medical attention after Fales used a hospital wristband saved by the veteran's sister to prove the man's eligibility for benefits.

Club member Kevin Wensing was special assistant for public affairs to the Secretary of the Navy when he met Fales at a Marine Corps birthday reception in 2001. Fales immediately added Wensing to his contact list and called him regularly for information needed to help veterans.

"He was delightful guy," Wensing said. "He was tenacious in trying to help veterans and was, as they say in the Marines, your best friend or you worst enemy. He helped so many people."

Fales was born in New York City and joined the Marines after being expelled from a Catholic high school. He earned his GED even before his former classmates graduated.

After his medical discharge from the Armed Forces, Fales returned to New York to earn a bachelor's degree from St. John’s University and a master's degree in education from Hofstra University.

Among the numerous awards he received were the President’s Medal for Distinguished Service from The Freedom’s Foundation, Outstanding Handicapped Federal Employee, Blinded Veterans Association’s Irving Diener Award, United States President’s Community Service Commendation, and the Chairman’s Commendation from the President’s Committee on Employment of the Handicapped.

He was honored by the Vietnam Veterans Civics Counsels as one of Washington's outstanding Vietnam veterans and received the Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program’s President’s Award, the American Legion National Commander’s Public Relations Award, and the Four Chaplains Memorial Foundation’s Bronze Medallion of the Legion of Honor. The U.S. Marine Corps honored him at a sunset parade at the Iwo Jima Memorial in June 2005.

Fales started the Blinded American Veterans Foundation in 1985 with two other veterans who had lost their sight, and he served as president from its inception. The foundation supported research, rehabilitation and reemployment with advocacy and grants. It became a focal point and clearinghouse for research, information dissemination, and education.

He begin his "Sgt. Shaft” column in 1982 and it reflected his wry sense of humor, empathy for the underdog, and love of family, country and veterans. Major outlets for the column over the years included Stars & Stripes, The Washington Times and his foundation's web site.

He was a member of American Legion Post 20 and several years ago arranged for a Post luncheon address by a long-time friend, Everett Alvarez, a downed Navy pilot who was the longest-held American prisoner of the Vietnam War.

"I am really fortunate to have learned a lot over the years from my father," his daughter, Denise Preskitt, wrote in a Veterans Day tribute. "For one, that being disabled doesn't have to stop one from having a very full life and family. He raised six kids with my stepmother Heea, who has been his eyes for most of my life. He has more persistence, more generosity, is more outgoing and embodies volunteerism above and beyond almost anyone I know. To match him in any of those ways for me would be a very tall order. He's really one of a kind."

Visitation at Francis J. Collins Funeral Home, 500 University Blvd. West, Silver Spring, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 14,, and a funeral mass at St Andrew Apostle Catholic Church, 11600 Kemp Mill Road, Silver Spring, at 1 p.m. Saturday. Dec. 15. Following the service, a reception will be held at the Club from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Donations to the Blinded American Veterans Foundation or the charity of choice of the donor are requested in lieu of flowers.