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The Next Chapter Business Meeting:
The next meeting is at the
Glockenspiel Restaurant
Tues, Feb 3rd, 2015.
The
Glockenspiel is near downtown St. Paul, (605 7th St W) and the meeting starts at 7:00 pm. http://www.glockenspielrestaurant.com/
Some folks show up early for dinner, about
6:15. Some folks show up early and
socialize until the meeting. Some folks
just come to the meeting. Come on down.
Upcoming Activities:
The Corrigedor/Junction City/Mosul Dinner will be in late Feb or Early March at the Fort Snelling Officer’s
Club; social hour at 6 pm, Dinner at 7pm.
Dinner Selections are Prime
Rib, Stuffed Chicken, or Walleye, at $35.00 ($32.00 for WWII or Korean
Veterans) and you can pay at the door. When the Dinner date is set, we will also publish an RSVP date and
phone number.
After
Action Report:
Meeting
Minutes: The January Business Meeting
was on January 6th and started at 7:02 pm. Present were:
Jeff Arnold Bob Pike
Doug Bekke John Roy
Col. Khao Bouachan
Sinouthasy
Ed Komac Trudell Guerue
Ron Lachelt Jack
Running
We
received a note from the Pennebaker family thanking us for attending the
memorial ceremony and making it very special.
Christmas
Dinner AAR: There was a unanimous consensus to avoid Teal Blue cake
frosting. In the Silent Auction, Trudell bid on the Cast Iron Dutch
Ovens. He was surprised to find nine
pocket-knives in the Dutch oven. Trudell
distributed the knives to the Honor guard and wives.
Courtesy
of the Midwest All Airborne Alliance, Jack distributed 4 Viking tickets to the
Color Guard.
We
talked about why the numbers of guests may be down. Solutions included actively recruiting
Airborne and SF guys and possibly sending flyers out to VFW's and Legion.
The
173rd’s Corregidor Party, at Fort Snelling Officer Club, honoring the 503rd
will be on Feb 28th.
Col. Khao
discussed the dedication of the Lao/Hmong monument is scheduled for summer of
2015. It will have 4 faces on the stone honoring the Hmong, Royal Lao,
Lao citizens, and SF advisers. Pretty neat!
Col.
Khao also passed out invitations to the 65th Royal Lao Army Celebration on
March 28th, I will forward it to Doug Brown for our
website.
Bob
Pike gave out information about and invitations to the Vietnamese Tet
celebration on Jan. 31st.
On
the Fort Snelling National Cemetery Special Ops Plaque, Trudell will contact
Twin City Monument to see when it will be ready. He suggested that we have the
dedication in the spring or early summer when the weather is nice. The next two plaques will honor the 172nd Abn
and Abn Artillery.
Doug
Brown updated us about the Vietnam exhibit at Camp Ripley. It is
scheduled to open on July 18th.
From SFA National Headquarters: The First Special Service
Force will be presented the Congressional Gold Medal on Feb. 3rd 2015 at 3pm in
Washington D.C. The presentation can be seen on the website http://www.speaker.gov/live
The CD of a return trip to Italy by six
veterans, accompanied by FSSF Association members can be seen at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54tZDWt43OE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54tZDWt43OE.
You can also Google
firstspecialserviceforce to see pages of websites.
Other Information:
WWII History Roundtable:
The Minnesota Historical Society and Historic Fort Snelling are holding the Dr.
Harold C. Deutsch World War II History Round Tables at the Historic Fort
Snelling Visitor Center, 7pm on the nights noted below. If you want a chair then you should be there
by 6:15. The Roundtables are normally
well attended.
You
can get more information at their website www.mn-ww2roundtable.org
The Roundtable Schedule is:
Feb.
12, 2015 Italian
Struggle - Not the Soft Underbelly Tim
Brady, author of A Death in San Pietro, and Veterans of the Italian Campaign will discuss the brutal fighting of the U.S. Operations moving from
Salerno towards Rome.
March
12, 2015 The Logistics
of War - Beans and Bullets to the Soldiers Dr Jerry Brown, Professor of History at US Army CGSC, and
Veterans of Supply Operations will show the importance of Logistical Operations
in winning Wars.
March
26, 2015 Return to the
Philippines - The Road to Japan Dr
Nathan Prefer, author of Leyte, and Veterans of the Leyte Campaign will
discuss the Command controversy and tactical operations of General MacArthur's
Return.
April
9, 2015 Air War in
the Mediterranean - British and American Operations Col Robert Ehlers, author of upcoming book The Mediterranean
Air War, and Veterans of Air Units in the Southern Theater will show the
importance of the Southern Front of Operations.
May
14, 2015 Retrospective
Look at Goals of 8 WWII Leaders Dr
Gerhard Weinberg, author of A World at Arms and Visions of Victory,
will review the territorial and other aims of eight World War II Leaders on
this 70th Anniversary of V-E Day.
Forwarded
email from Bob: [Validity unknown] With the box office premiere of American
Sniper, a movie about the life of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, shattering all box
office records progressive filmmaker Michael Moore used the moment to attack
snipers with his tweet calling them cowards.
This was seen as not only an insult to the legacy of Navy SEAL
Chris Kyle, credited with being the deadliest sniper in U.S. military history,
but also an insult to all American military snipers and all who put on the
uniform in service to our country.
Green Beret sniper Bryan Sikes took some time to pen a letter to
Moore that absolutely destroyed him in an incredibly hilarious and fabulous
way.
Mr. Moore-
Good afternoon there sweetheart, I hope this finds you alive and
well. You can thank our men and women of the armed forces for that, by the way,
and that also includes us cowardly snipers. It seems you’ve found time between
licking the jelly off your fingers and releasing your grasp of a bear claw to
tweet some junk about snipers being cowards.
My buddies and I got a good laugh over the tweet, so I thank you.
For a guy worth $50 million dollars, you sure have quite a bit to bitch and cry
about. I guess like a moth to flame, you too gravitate towards things that are
popular and in the moment — in this case it’s snipers. Too bad for you that
your attempt at being relevant via your 70+ year old family experience has
failed. It has only made you look dumber than a bag of hammers. Next time you
should try something more original than going after snipers for one reason or
another…that was so last month.
It’s typical of “men” like you to criticize the intestinal
fortitude, focus, discipline and patriotism of a sniper. It must stem from an
inferiority complex or something. But hey, it’s okay cupcake. We snipers are
thick skinned and the efforts of world class turds such as yourself to portray
us in a negative light only makes us laugh. If you and I were in the same room,
I’d throw you a smile and gently pat you on the head knowing you’re nothing
more than a mouth breathing, Crisco sweating waste of space not even worthy of
being in the presence of a sniper. It’s almost funny how people like you preach
things like ‘acceptance’ and ‘not passing judgement’ or ‘labeling people’, but
then are the first to do so when a person is in some way dissimilar from you.
So tenderfoot, I leave you with this final thought: what if you
found yourself in some sort of hostage situation where you were held at
knife-point by some crazed person and they were dead set on making an example
of you by bleeding you out on Hollywood Blvd in front of the world, and the
only way out was with the precision aimed fire of a sniper? Would you want that
coward to take the shot? Because knowing how you feel about snipers such as
myself and your hatred of firearms, I’d probably drop the mag, roll the bolt
and go get a Jack & Coke before helping you out.
Very Respectfully,
Sikes
(Sikes is currently a
Pro-Am shooter for GA precision Team Bushnell.)
And, after Bryant Gumbel’s
recent rant against the NRA, I feel inclined to include the website sent to me,
from Mike, discussing gun deaths around the world.
To predict the behavior of ordinary
people in advance, you only have to assume that they will always try to escape
a disagreeable situation with the smallest possible expenditure of
intelligence.
Friedrich
Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)
After two years in Washington, I often
long for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood.
Fred
Thompson, Speech before the Commonwealth
Club of California
God give me strength to face a fact
though it slay me.
Thomas
H. Huxley (1825 - 1895)
As always: on the next DROP Input: If you have pictures or news for Chapter section of The
Drop, please email the info and/or pictures to Ron Lachelt at Lachelts@gmail.com. You can also drop off your pictures or news at the
next Chapter meeting. Thanks! Ron
Troopers:
The 75th Anniversary Celebration of
the United States Army Airborne and Special Operations will be held during
National Airborne Week on Wednesday, 12 August 2015 in Orlando, Florida at The
Rosen Center. We have a splendid
cross-section of Airborne and Special Operations Veterans on our Executive
Committee and Board of Directors.
We are working to secure the same
hotel rate for all Airborne Units for this event as the 82nd Airborne Division
Association has for its National Convention that begins on Thursday, 13 August
2015, following the 75th Anniversary of the United States Army Airborne and
Special Operations. There will be a fee
to use the 82nd Association's hospitality services if you do not register for
the convention. There will be more
information forthcoming concerning fees.
We are also raffling off a very
nice rifle, Ruger SR 762, 308 caliber along with a caliber matching Trijicon
ACOG scope and a separate item being a Leupold 3x9x40 rifle scope. For tickets to these items contact Allen
Schoppe, our treasurer at 281-814-2377, CSM (retired) Ron Rath at 919-803-4554
or me at 361-575-8492. Allen's address is:
Allen Schoppe, 5427 Weston Drive, Fulshear, Texas, 77441-4127.
On the evening of 12 August 2015,
we will have heavy hors d'oeuvres, as well as a complimentary bar with adult
beverages and soft drinks. We will also
have live music if donations allow, and the US Flag and the POW Banner will be
jumped in.
We are seeking donations to fund
the evening of 12 August 2015 so that all Airborne and Special Operations
personnel, active or veterans, of these elite organizations may attend. To make your tax deductible contribution
please make checks payable to the 82nd Airborne Division Association Wounded
Warrior Project. In the left bottom memo
space put "75" so that we may segregate the funds. This nonprofit project is under the umbrella
of the 82nd Airborne Division Association Wounded Warrior Project's
501(c)3. We bring in 82nd wounded and we
hope that your organization does also.
The treasurer, Allen Schoppe, will send you a written receipt reflecting
your donation to this nonprofit.
We want all of your elite
warriors to attend.
Carl H. Bludau
Executive Chairman
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