Post Elects New Officers

If the US elections were as smooth as our recent Post election, we would never be disturbed at dinner by some politician calling.  All our Post’s positions were filled through nominations which were unopposed.

Brad Pieratt—National Military Services

Brad is the Department of Washington’s National Military Services Chairman and a member of Post 3617 in Wenatchee.  Brad was kind enough to come over the pass and speak to us in the April meeting about the various services that VFW provides to our active duty and recently discharged service personnel.  The NMS unites three successful, longstanding programs:  VFW Operation Uplink, VFW Unmet Needs, and the VFW Military Assistance Program (MAP).

Operation Uplink initially began by providing free phone cards to deployed service members.  It has since evolved into providing “Free Call Days”.  To date, it has provided 6.4 million free connections for service members and their families.

Unmet Needs was formed to assist service members and their families who run into unexpected financial difficulties as a result of deployment or other hardships directly related to military service.  Grants of up to $2,500 can be applied for under this program.

MAP is the link between VFW and the active military.  Under this program, Adopt-a-Unit has been a huge success.  The goal of this program is to support units before, during, and after deployment.  Literally hundreds of units around the world have been supported by the VFW.

Buddy Poppies

We will be at several locations handing out Poppies on Friday and Saturday, May 25th and 26th.  This and Veterans Day are the four days out of the year we ask for help  in raising funds for our Relief Fund.  If you have time and would like to help the Post, please call Bob Crawford at 206-909-4893 or email him at bnbcrawf3333@aol.com.

Memorial Day Ceremony

The Post will again be participating in Memorial Day ceremonies at the Edmonds Cemetery on 100th Ave. W and 15th St. SW (behind the Westgate Shopping Center).  In addition to raising the flag to open the ceremony, we will have a White Table Ceremony for our MIA’s and POW’s, and Katarina Nguyen will give her award winning Voice of Democracy speech.  Plan on being there around 9:30 to 9:45 AM and please wear your VFW covers.  We will also need help in putting up and taking down flags.  If you would like to help, contact our Quartermaster.

President’s Corner—Valerie Ehlers

Thank you for allowing me to serve you as President for the last year.  You have made a wise choice in electing Arlene Endresen as your new Auxiliary President. I’ll still be around as Senior Vice President.

Remember to ask all the women in your life if they qualify as members of the Ladies Auxiliary VFW and if they would like to join us. With more members  there will be more active people. Then we can do more activities, have more fun, raise more money, and help more veterans and their families!

If you haven’t signed up yet to work the Buddy Poppy weekend, give Arlene a call at 360-779-4667. It will be the weekend after our May meeting. Thanks for all your help.

New Members

Gordon Heintzman

Heintzman is a Life Member transferring from Post 9334 in Germany. He is a native of Yakima, WA, where he enlisted in The Army. He served from 2004 to October, 2011 with a Joint Base Lewis McChord Stryker brigade. He had three tours in Iraq (39 months) and one in Germany. Remarkably, he was in the same platoon his first five years of service. Gordon was a recon scout and team leader and holds the Combat Action Badge and five awards of the Army Commendation Medal. He lives in Everett, has three sons and is a full-time student at Shoreline Community College.

Mike Bunney

Mike Bunney’s hometown is San Lorenzo, California. He served with the Army from November, 1965 to November, 1967. Initially he was at Ft. Riley, Kansas but then served with the 9th Infantry Division at Camp Bear Cat, Vietnam. Vietnam service was from December, 1966 until  his discharge in November, 1967. Michael was awarded the Army Commendation and Good Conduct medals. He is retired from the University of Washington as a Database Manager. Michael and Mary have been married for 35 years and reside in Edmonds. They spend half the year at their Leavenworth cabin. They have 1 daughter and 3 grandchildren.

Preston Hall

Preston Hall is a Life Member transferring from Post 2100 in Everett. His hometown is Fayetteville, NC. He enlisted in the Air Force in 1955 at age 17 and retired in 1978. His first ten years he was in the Strategic Air Command and served at numerous bases in the United States as an aircraft and missile mechanic and a First Sergeant. He was an air traffic controller at Pleiku, Vietnam 1967-68. He was also stationed in Incerlie, Turkey. Preston had a second career in the Washington Corrections Department where he retired as a counselor after 25 years. He lives in Sultan and he and wife Betty have two daughters and five grandchildren.

Malcolm VanHoesen

Malcolm VanHoesen transferred to Edmonds from Post 6142 Greenport, New York. He moved here from Catskill, NY in November after loss of his home and business to a flood. Malcolm is originally from Catskill and enlisted in the US Navy in 1954 at age 17. He completed recruit training at Bainbridge, Maryland. He served as a machinists mate onboard both a destroyer and destroyer escort. Working in the boiler room with responsibility for the evaporators, his rate of saltwater conversion was consistently higher for his shift. Malcolm saw duty in Korea. He would have mustered out at age 20, but a technicality caused that to slip a few days to the ripe old age of 21.  He attended business school and received a degree from Florida Community College in architectural design. He retired from the VA hospital system after 7 years in Florida. His last business was in woodworking and furniture restoration. Malcolm is a stock car racing fan. He resides in Edmonds and has 4 children, 3 of whom served in the military.

District Convention—May 5th

District 1 will be having their Convention on May 5th at the Lynnwood Boys and Girls Club.  Lunch is at noon and the Convention begins at 1:00PM.  District officers will be elected for the 2012-13 year.  All members are invited to attend the meeting.  #8870 usually has a good representation at these meetings and it is a good opportunity to meet folks from other Posts in the District.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with the structure of VFW, the state (called Department) has 16 Districts.  Our District encompasses the 8 Posts located in Snohomish County.  The District is charged with several tasks including providing at least one meeting devoted to the School of Instruction for Post officers and inspecting the books and records of each Post within the District in accordance with the Department By-Laws.  The District isn’t in the business of running a Post’s operations, but to insure that each Post is complying with the laws and usages of the VFW.  Our District, under Ron Haley’s command this year, has achieved 100% membership.  This is, in large part, due to three very active Posts; our Post, 1040 in Lynnwood, and 1561 in Arlington.

Speakers Needed

A quick note to everyone.  Rock Roth (rock.roth@frontier.com) maintains a list of those folks who are available to speak to schools.  If you are interested, please let him know.

Chaplain’s Corner—Rock Roth

For some of us, 30 April marks a ‘memorable’ day in history.  It marks the ‘official’ end of the Vietnam War – 30 April 1975.  We who served during that conflict lost many friends.  We also had friends who were held captive in the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ and other such places in Vietnam.  Our lives were forever changed by that conflict.  So was the United States.  (Of course, that statement could be made by those who served in any war.)  As we stress during our frequent presentations to students, “War is not fun.  We who served and are serving our Country in the military hate war.  However, freedom is not free! Therefore, when our Country calls, we serve.”   On 30 April please say a special prayer for our Country and for those who made the supreme sacrifice during the Vietnam War.

The following is quoted from an email I received a long time ago.  I don’t know the author but I’m certain he or she would not mind my sharing it with you.

“While watching a little TV on Sunday instead of going to church, I watched a Church in Atlanta honoring one of its senior pastors who had been retired many years.He was 92 at that time and I wondered why the Church even bothered to ask the old gentleman to preach at that age. After a warm welcome, introduction of this speaker, and as the applause quieted down, the old man rose from his high back chair and walked slowly, with great effort and a sliding gate to the podium.Without a note or written paper of any kind he placed both hands on the pulpit to steady himself and then quietly and slowly he began to speak. ‘When I was asked to come here today and talk to you, your pastor asked me to tell you what was the greatest lesson ever learned in my 50 odd years of preaching. I thought about it for a few days and boiled it down to just one thing that made the most difference in my life and sustained me through all my trials. The one thing that I could always rely on when tears and heartbreak and pain and fear and sorrow paralyzed me… the only thing that would comfort was this verse………

‘Jesus loves me this I know.
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong,
We are weak but He is strong…..
Yes, Jesus loves me…
The Bible tells me so.’

When he finished, the church was quiet. You actually could hear his footsteps as he shuffled back to his chair.”

Please be assured that Our Lord loves each and every one of us.  “No”- we don’t deserve nor have we earned that love.  “So God loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, to the end that all that believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  (John 3:16)

God Bless you and God Bless our Troops.

The Last Word

I am constantly amazed by hearing about other Posts who can’t get folks to their meetings and have open officer positions due to lack of interest.  There are other fine Posts in VFW, but we are at the top with them.  The reason is we have great members, and I will mention just a few.  You always get in trouble by not naming everyone, so I will preface this piece by saying if I forgot to mention your name it was entirely unintentional or due to lack of space.  First, we have new members who have stepped up like Pete Farmer who is our membership chair and did the “New Members” column in this issue.  Also, there is Dick Simmons who is our new adjutant and Chris Edwards who will be our Senior Vice for the next couple of years.  Then there are the older members who have stepped up to the plate like Bob Crawford who has done a fantastic job in organizing our Buddy Poppy drives.  Rock Roth has been there as Senior Vice Commander and now Chaplain but also a driving force along with Fred Apgar in the Patriot’s Pen and Voice of Democracy contests.  Jim Collins has grabbed the Safety Officer position like a dog with a bone.  Of course, not enough can be said of Elizabeth Mather’s contributions to this Post as Quartermaster before having to retire from the job.   Fred Apgar, our incoming Commander, has done more behind the scenes then can described here, including selecting the Teacher of the Year.  I want to thank Carl Kurfess for being everywhere when we needed volunteers and Don Whedon for being an excellent Service Officer.  Post 8870’s biggest problem is having too many good candidates for the positions available.   I have one more meeting in May before turning the gavel over to Fred in June.  I look forward to watching Fred take the Post to the next level and remaining the best Post in District and, for that matter, in the Department of Washington. And if didn’t mention your name , it was for lack of room, not because you didn’t deserve the recognition.