ATTENTION!!
The Annual Summer Picnic's location has been moved to Al & Heidi Garcia's
home at 1200 Basin Road, Farmington. Festivities will begin at 5:30 P.M. (1700
hrs). See you there!
Newport News Daily Press June 16,
2000 Pg. C1 'Combat' Outside The Front Line Merits New Medal By Jim Spencer,
Daily Press
Think of it as the armed forces
version of social promotion. Recent news reports reveal that the Air Force has
issued America's fourth-highest combat medal, the Bronze Star, to hundreds of
people who never got close to a battlefield. The service made the awards for
participation in the Kosovo campaign. Thing is, a dozen of the warriors
decorated for their courage in stopping ethnic cleansing in the former
Yugoslavia never left Missouri. One "fought" from Dayton, Ohio. Four
others gutted it out at the Pentagon. And another 212 received recognition for
fighting in Kosovo while in Italy, England, Germany and Spain.
Talk about profiles in courage.
Here's an official statement the Air
Force offered to explain its actions: "As the USAF developed a global reach
during the Cold War, an ever increasing number of USAF personnel were called
upon to support military operations involving combat, even though they were
located thousands of miles from the shooting."
Seems like the Air Force hopes to
redefine combat the way Bill Clinton hoped to redefine sex. Seems like the
service's word games are as nakedly self-serving as the president's.
If recognition had gone to
lower-ranked personnel who busted their butts to make the bombing in Eastern
Europe a success, this wouldn't be such a big deal. Instead, 192 of the 246
Bronze Stars the Air Force passed out went to people with ranks of major or
higher.
Many of these awards went to those
who oversaw such dangerous missions as the building of tent cities in Kosovo or
managing supply lines in Western Europe and the continental United States. Then
there were those warriors who laid their lives on the line giving briefings.
Apparently, the brass feels
short-changed by the peace dividend. In that vein, here are a few suggestions
that will enhance the modern Air Force's future ability to pad resumes.
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As retired military folk, the 4th of
July, Independence Day, has special meaning to us as we represent that segment
of our American society that has fortressed the preservation of our national
freedoms. It is an important day in which we remember why we served and enjoy
relishing our contribution to the cause of freedom. We all have memories of how
our respective service communities celebrated the 4th of July. Every post, base,
and naval facility conducts traditional activities for its members and
surrounding communities to enjoy. Most of us remember marching in parades, flag
raising/retreat ceremonies, barbecues, lots of food, games, and drinks,
concluding with fireworks. We think "those were the days" and they
were. However, our communities in the Four Corners offer a civilian approach of
activities to commemorate Independence Day, Freedom Day activities in Farmington
is one example. I hope each of you had a chance to participate and that you had
a meaningful 4th of July. Thank you for displaying the U.S. FLAG in your homes.
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Summer Humor
submitted by Bruce Black
Here's a good one to get you through
the rest of the week. Perhaps this is why male drivers are so expensive to
insure...
This is from a radio program, a TRUE
report of a happening in Michigan: A guy buys a brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee
for $30,000 and has $400+ monthly payments. He and a friend go duck hunting and,
of course, all the lakes are frozen.. These two guys go to the lake with the
guns, the dog, the beer and the new vehicle. They drive out onto the lake ice
and get ready. Now, they want to make some kind of a natural landing area for
the ducks, something for the decoys to float on.
In order to make a hole large enough
to look like something a wandering duck would fly down and land on, it is going
to take a little more effort than an ice hole drill. So, out of the back of the
new Grand Cherokee comes a stick of dynamite with a short, 40-second fuse. Now
these two Rocket Scientists do take into consideration that they should place
the dynamite at a location far from where they are standing (and the new Grand
Cherokee), mainly because they don't want to take the risk of slipping on the
ice when they run from the burning fuse and possibly go up in smoke with the
resulting blast. They decide to light this 40-second fuse and throw the
dynamite.
Remember a couple of paragraphs back
when I mentioned the vehicle, the beer, the guns and the dog? Yes, the dog, a
highly trained Black Lab used for retrieving---especially things thrown by the
owner. You guessed it, the dog takes off at a high rate of doggy speed on the
ice and captures the stick of dynamite with the burning 40-second fuse about the
time it hits the ice. The two men yell, scream, wave arms and wonder what to do
now. The dog, cheered on, keeps coming. One of the guys grabs the shotgun and
shoots the dog. The shotgun is loaded with # 8 duck shot, hardly big enough to
stop a Black Lab. The dog stops for a moment, slightly confused, but continues
coming. Another shot and this time the dog, still standing, becomes really
confused and of course terrified, thinking these two Nobel Prize winners have
gone insane. The dog takes off to find cover, (with the now really short fuse
burning on the stick of dynamite) and gets under the brand new Cherokee. ----
BOOM! Dog and Cherokee are blown to bits and sink to the bottom of the lake in a
very large hole, leaving the two idiots standing there with this "I can't
believe this happened" look on their faces. The insurance company says that
sinking a vehicle in a lake is illegal by use of explosives and is not covered.
AND he still had to make those $400+ a month payments!!
And you thought your day was not
going well!
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Here's a brief report on the TROA
Chapter/Council President's Symposium held in Las Vegas, NE, on June 8-10. It
started with a reception for all participants and spouses on Thursday (June 8)
evening. Next morning, beginning at 0700 hours, continental breakfast and by
0800 hours the day begin, welcoming addresses, rules of engagement and a string
of workshops until 1630 hours. That evening beginning at 1800 hours a great
banquet and speeches. Saturday morning began at 0700 hours with breakfast and
four hours of wrap up presentations and conclusion at 1200 hours.
The purpose of the Symposium was to
provide training for new chapter/state council presidents. The focus of the
workshops centered around six major areas of concern to chapter/council leaders:
revitalization, retention, legislative affairs, recruiting, and
leadership/success. These topics were discussed in small group workshops using a
discussion, brainstorming format, then summarized and presented to the entire
assembly composed of some 140 TROA Chapter/Council leaders on Saturday morning.
I will be sharing detailed information to our Chapter leadership and put some of
these ideas to work for us.
I wished that all the officers and
committee chairs could have attended. I am finding out that other members of our
Chapter need to attend such meetings. The TROA National Conference will be help
in San Diego on October 5-10. All members are invited to attend. Let us know if
you would like to attend and represent our Chapter.
Hope to see all of you at the summer
picnic on July 15.
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