This arrived in the mail today - a nice little parade drum. Best guess so far is that it's late 30's going by the Strainer and then by the Transparent Crown-Head calfhide resonant head.....which appears to probably be original to the drum. I haven't compared the t-rod claws to any photos yet. Anyone here know or want to guess roughly what year the drum is going by the t-rod claws. strainer and anything else you can see?
From what I can see online the VFWs organization has been around since the late 1800's and is still active today. I messaged them on FB - still waiting for a replay to my question about the logo. There are many slightly different logos out there and I have not been able to find one exactly like this one.....that has yellow paint inside the red boarder.
Even with the torn batter head the drum sounds not too bad. The strainer is perfectly functional the way it is. I'll clean the shell and hoops carefully and try to remove most of the rust. The drum came with a matching (blue painted stripes) pair of drum sticks.