Newsletter Archive
Volume 4 • Issue 4 • April 1, 2010
Volume 4, Issue 4
April 1, 2010 |
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Calendar 2010 |
Apr 6
9:15 am |
Board Meeting—Traner's conference room |
Apr 9
12:30 pm |
VFW Meeting—Senior Center (Lunch at 11:30 am) |
Apr 28
7-9 pm |
Vet Center Fundraiser—Shoreline Community College |
May 1
Noon |
District 1 Convention—Alderwood Boys & Girls
Club
Loyalty Day |
Jun
24-25 |
State Convention—Vancouver, WA |
Buddy Poppy Reminder
I will continue to bore you with this topic. Bob Crawford is still looking for volunteers to help out on Buddy Poppies. Please see him for the signup sheet or contact our Quartermaster at quartermaster@vfwpost8870.org for additional information. Remember, this is where we get the dollars to help out our fellow veterans, students, scouts, etc. Board Meetings
On the calendar above, I have indicated the next board meeting which is held in my conference room at 110 James Street in Edmonds. The officers and the various committee chairs typically bring everyone up to date on their particular activities as well as addressing topics pertinent to the Post. These are open meetings so feel free to attend. Just give the Quartermaster a heads up so I can get enough chairs for visitors. Also, the Quartermaster is taking minutes of these meetings. They are “unofficial” but if you would like to see them, Liz Mather will make you a copy. As far as an agenda goes, I typically wait until the last minute to formally put one together. However, we will be reviewing the Post operating budget for the current year and analyzing where we stand year to date in actual receipts and expenditures.
Speaker Bureau
Rock Roth will be sending around a sign-up sheet at the next meeting. This will be for members who wish to participate as speakers at local schools to indicate if they would like to participate and, if so, at what type of function or group size. Particularly around Veterans Day we get a number of requests to participate in various assemblies or class room discussions. Now and then we also get the occasional request from an individual teacher. Rock would like to have a master list that he will maintain so we can meet these requests in a timely manner. If you are interested, sign up or email our Quartermaster. |
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Erv Schmidt—Pearl Harbor Survivor-Guest Speaker at March’s Meeting
As most of you know, Erv is a long-time member of our Post. Over the last couple of months and continuing into the future, we are attempting to get more members tell their stories. I came to the conclusion in listening to Erv, he leads a charmed life on one hand, and attracts lightening strikes on the other hand. We only had time to go through the early part of the war from Pearl Harbor to Midway and Guadalcanal, but Erv’s ships were torpedoed, strafed, or bombed with some regularity. The plus side of the story is Erv seemed to manage to avoid getting hurt in all the mayhem. After the second ship had been sunk from under him, Erv went into the submarine service where he finished the war. We will invite Erv back for the conclusion of his speech in the July meeting I suggest you really try to make it to that meeting.
District 1 Needs Volunteers
District 1 has a fundraiser on May 7th through the 10th at the Smokey Point rest area. Most of you are familiar with the drill, so I won’t go into details. Phil Sacks and Duane Pounds have volunteered, but I’m sure the District can use additional help. If you have some spare time, and would like to assist, contact Bill Morse
at 425-232-8453.
Membership
At the last meeting, all members present were given a membership application, VFW membership brochure, and a self-addressed return envelope to give to any potential members they may meet. If you didn’t attend the last meeting and can’t make the next meeting, let us know and we would be happy to get the information to you. I have found that a number of veterans are interesting in joining the VFW, they are just waiting to be asked. So don’t be bashful in inviting them to one of our meetings. By the way, the best place to keep the application is your car.
Upcoming Programs
| April |
Frank Sheara—Nisei Veteran and internee during WWII |
| May |
Induction and longevity awards |
| June |
Joe Crecca—Pilot and POW—Vietnam |
| July |
Erv Schmidt—The submarine duty during WWII |
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Post Welcomes New Members at March Meeting |
Tricia McCrory is a Navy veteran and the first member to be inducted (as far as I know) holding her 6 month old son. Even though he isn’t a member of VFW, we did allow her son to attend our meeting. Her husband is currently serving in the Navy and will be joining our Post in the near future.
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Mel Mullins, an Air Force veteran, served in Vietnam. As al-ways, it is good to have vets of any era join VFW, but I am particularly glad when vets from earlier wars decide to join
our Post. It is a bit of a welcoming home for them and for me.
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Officer Nominations
| Commander |
Jim Traner |
| Senior Vice Commander |
Rock Roth |
| Junior Vice Commander |
Fred Apgar |
| Quartermaster |
Elizabeth Mather |
| Chaplin |
Ed Gray |
| Judge Advocate |
Leroy Middleton |
| Surgeon |
Al Boyett |
| 1st Year Trustee |
Phil Sacks |
Buck Weaver headed up the nominating committee and proposed the above slate of officers. Nominations are still open and the election of officers will be held at the next meeting. In addition to these positions, the incoming commander will select appointed officers for Adjutant, Officer of the Day, Service Officer, and Guard. In addition, key committee chairs will be selected by the incoming commander.
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Odds & Ends
It looks like Buck is putting together a visit with the Nisei Veterans club in the Fall. We will keep you posted and it should be an interesting outing.
On April 28th from 7-9PM Medal of Honor winner Bruce Crandall, USA Ret., and NASA space shuttle commander Capt. John Creighton, USN Ret., will be speaking at the Shoreline Community College Theatre at 16101 Greenwood Ave. North, Shoreline, WA in support of the new Shoreline Community Veterans Resource Center. Admission is $10 for the general public and $5 for Veterans, Students, and Seniors. Quite a few of us qualify on 2 out of the 3 criteria. All the proceeds will benefit the Veterans Resource Center. Hopefully, a bunch of us can make it. Put your Cross of Malta lapel pin on and wear it proudly.
A recent meeting at the College Vets Club made me realize how little the general population (those less than 60 in particular) understand the poppy in relation to Veterans Day and Memorial Day. I am going to see if we can make sure we get an article in the college paper and the local paper about the significance of the poppy for those two events.
Make sure you become a card carrying member of other veterans organizations. Whether it is the American Legion, the Vietnam Veterans of America, etc., all these organizations fight for veterans rights. So make your vote counts 2 or 3 times.
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J & J PHARMACY
STEPHEN C. JOHNSON, R. Rh
Phone 425-670-8912
LOCATED AT
EDMONDS PROFESSIONAL CENTER
7315 - 212TH S.W., EDMONDS, WA 98026
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TRANER SMITH & COMPANY P.S.
James M. Traner CPA, Partner
110 James Street, Suite 106
Edmonds, WA 98020-8430
Telephone 425-640-8650
Fax 425-640-8655
JTraner@tranersmith.com
Certified Public Accountants
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AMERIPRISE FINANCIAL
Robert J. Smith, CFP®, ChFC®
Senior Financial Advisor • Business Financial Advisor
RJ Smith & Associates
A private wealth advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services,
Inc.
110 James St., Suite 105
Edmonds, WA 98020
Tel: 425-640-8650
Toll Free 1-800-444-9115
robert.j.smith@ampf.com
www.rjsmithandassociates.com
CA Insurance #0835016
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The
Last Word |
I had put some slides together for my kids from my Vietnam photo album. I wanted to make sure these got passed on to the next generation. Before I went over seas, my Dad (a WWII vet) told me I’d remember the big stuff and forget the day to day stuff. So my letters home became a hodgepodge of everything about how to make a chocolate frosted birthday cake from C rations to the correct method of washing clothes in a empty powder tube. Like my letters, I tried to take photos of stuff I figured no one would think about—the dust covering everything in my hooch at base camp to having the Lt. (a barber in a former life) give haircuts in a remote FSB. Pretty tame stuff for the most part. Last month I was in charge of getting speakers at my local Rotary club and had one of them cancel on me. Desperate, I mentioned to a couple of the guys what they would think if I did a program talking about day to day life in the field in Nam using the slides I had put together for my daughters. Without mentioning names, one told me he didn’t want to see any “stuff” (I guess he meant blood and guts—not that I would do that anyway), to a bored look, to a response “if it will help you” - like I needed to show pictures to get over PTSD. It was a small random sampling, but I quickly got on the horn to a buddy of mine to bail me out and do a program for me which, by the way, was much better than what I had planned. The long and the short of it, it finally dawned on me that the civilians haven’t even earned the right to see how we lived. Guess I’ll stick with the vets and listen to guys like Erv Schmidt and Buck Weaver relay their stories. When I’m in my 90’s, I’ll pass along day to day life in the boonies of Nam to the younger vets. That gives me about 30 years to put together an interesting program.
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