Newsletter Articles

508th Parachute Regiment Honored in England

Post member Mark Williams was traveling in England and came across (on purpose or accident, I’m not sure which), the building which I can only describe as a castle, that housed the 508th Parachute Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division. In the vicinity of that building is a monument to the 508th that reads:

Dedicated to our brave friends both past & present of the
American 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division,
who set up camp in this
Park in preparation for D-Day.
They parachuted into Normandy on June 6th, 1944 and
returned here during that summer
Before parachuting into Holland on 17th September
In the battle to liberate Europe
With pride and everlasting friendship.

Mark took several pictures of the monument and building and presented them to Fred Dietrich who was a member of the 508th. Needless to say, Fred was delighted his old Regiment was being honored by the Eng-lish.

Slang from Nam

I was talking to a fellow Nam vet the other day and he said “Beaucoup” meaning a lot or many. I hadn’t heard that term for a long time, but it’s a French word we used widely in Nam. It got me to thinking about the other slang we used. How about a few terms that I pulled out of my foggy memory:

  • Cherry or FNG—your replacement, or worse, a replacement for one of your experienced troopers.
  • Chieu Hoi Pass—a safe pass leaflet for VC or NVA surrendering (only saw it used once).
  • Smoke—any color of smoke grenade or artillery round used to mark an LZ or location
  • Di Di Mau—Move quickly or more typically “Lets get the Hell out of here”.
  • Dinky Dau—crazy i.e. Is the Col. dinky dau sending us on this mission.
  • White Mice—Vietnamese traffic cops (they dressed in totally white uniforms to direct traffic—being in an armored cavalry unit we didn’t pay much attention to their signals but they were very spiffy).
  • Zippo—flame thrower mounted on APC
  • In Country—Anywhere in Vietnam
  • The World—Anywhere other than Vietnam, preferably America.
  • P38—C Ration can opener worn on your dog tag chain.
  • Mad Minute—Concentrated fire of all weapons at a predetermined time, generally around 0230 when you were nodding off on radio watch.
  • “No Sweat”—GI’s response to every order received meaning “can do or easily done” whether it was true or not.
  • Prick 25—PRC-25 radio
  • PSP—Perforated Steel Plate—used for temporary runways but made for great bunker roofs after a couple of layers of sandbags were stacked on top. Also, used to provide some extra protection against RPG’s when hung from the side of vehicles or A Cavs.
  • S&D—Search and Destroy—became politically incorrect so we were told not to use the term.

    And of course our favorite,

  • Freedom Bird—any aircraft leaving Vietnam heading home.

Those are the socially correct ones I can recall. If you have some you used let me know.

The Last Word — from your Editor

The American Legion has welcomed VFW in their Hall. They ask VFW for no rent and provide us with the Hall where our meetings are much more comfortable and conducive to running a meeting than our old surroundings. So how do we thank them. By joining the American Legion. The cost to join is $35/year. That works out to less than 10 cents a day. Since every VFW member is eligible for membership, I want each of you to seriously consider joining. I really don’t want to hear the following excuses:

“I already belong to too many organizations” or “If I join I want to be active and I don’t have the time.”

My response is “bullsh_t”. American Legion Post 66 supports us and we need to support them. You can’t go wrong belonging to too many veterans’ organizations. So consider when you are at the next meeting picking up a membership application. Can’t make the meeting? Go on line and get an application. If you can’t afford it, let the American Legion Post know it and they will accommodate your budget. In any event, support your fellow veterans.

Legion Hall Gets a New Floor

For those of you who attended the January meeting, you saw the new floor that was recently installed at the Legion Hall. Thanks to American Legion Post 66, the facelift is startingly nice. Also, a big thank you to their Post for allowing us to meet in their facility. The Senior Center was gracious in letting us use their facility without charge for a number of years, but we were often competing with other folks whose conversations, music, etc. interfered with our speakers and our business meeting. The Legion Hall gives us the ability to conduct our meetings with the dignity deserved for our protocol.

Post Recognizes Teachers of the Year

Sue Idso, a 5th grade teacher at Mukilteo Elementary School was named Elementary Teacher of the Year. Sue is a gifted master teacher who has a passion for her profession and makes long lasting connections with her students. Veterans are frequent visitors to her classroom whose presentations provide students with topics for writing essays. Sue also readily assumes a leadership role in the planning of Veterans Day assemblies. She is co-leader of the school’s student government, which provides students with an authentic experience in responsible citizenship and democracy. Sue graduated from UCLA.

The Post’s Middle School Teacher of the Year is Marilyn Roberts who teaches at Cedarcrest Middle School in Marysville. One of her goals in her teaching is to bring to life the extraordinary sacrifices made by ordinary people in the defense of their country. Marilyn also volunteers to coordinate the Veterans’ Day assemblies at her school and prepares extensive bulletin board displays. For the past two years, Marilyn has had her students distribute poppies during the week before Veterans Day, the proceeds of which are donated to VFW. Marilyn is a graduate of Seattle Pacific College.

Becky Heckinger was named the Post’s High School Teacher of the Year. She is a science teacher and Activities Coordinator at Edmonds-Woodway High School and assumes several other leadership positions. Becky serves on the school and district curriculum teams, coordinates the school’s dropout prevention program, chairs the school’s steering committee, and conducts leadership workshops for students. It is Becky’s involvement in the planning process that makes the Veterans and Memorial Day assemblies at Edmonds-Woodway so inspiring and meaningful. Becky serves as a wonderful role model for the students at Edmonds-Woodway. She graduated from the University of Washington, and she her husband, Phil, are the proud parents of a five month old daughter, Alice.

City Council Approves Veterans Plaza Design

Edmonds WA VFW 8870 City Council Approves Veterans Plaza Design

On January 20th, the Edmonds City Council approved our design concept for Veterans Plaza. Above is the Memorial Wall with waterfalls segmenting a granite wall. Each segment will feature a branch of the service. Below is an aerial view of the Plaza, the wall separating the parking lot from the Plaza. The large green area in the lower left will be the Memorial Garden with a circular seating area. In the plaza itself, the round objects are existing trees with seating provided on granite cubes interspersed through the Plaza. The committee recommending this design included Jim Blossey, Post Commander, and Ron Clyborne and Jim Traner of Post 8870. Ron and Jim are also members of American Legion Post 66. The design was selected from a number of submissions of ideas from around the country and even one from Mexico. SiteWorkshop of Seattle was chosen unanimously by the committee who has been meeting since last summer. Other committee members were from the community and included a wide representation of various interests.

Edmonds WA VFW 8870 City Council Approves Veterans Plaza Design

Student Essay, Patriots Pen, & Voice of Democracy Winners Announced By Fred Apgar

VFW 8870 Student Essay, Patriots Pen, & Voice of Democracy Winners Announced

At its January 9, 2015 meeting, VFW Post #8870 recognized several area students who participated in the Annual National VFW Essay contest. The Post’s student essay competition is coordinated by Fred Apgar who also serves as our Post Chaplain.

The theme for this year’s Youth Essay contest was “What I Can Do to Make Our Country Better” The contest is open to elementary school students in grades 3, 4, and 5, and participation in the contest is open to all public, private, and home schooled children. This year’s winning essay for 4th grade was submitted by Makayla Tourtellot, who is home schooled. Mohuwa Wahid, a student at Picnic Point Elementary School, was runner-up. Makayla was presented with a $100 scholarship from the Post, and Mohuwa received a $25 scholarship.

The 5th grade students who were recognized were all students at Mukilteo Elementary School, and they were accompanied by their teachers, Ms. Sue Idso and Ms. Aina Green. Grace Hettinger placed first ($100) in the competition, and three students, Allessanda Valmonte, Ella Rohrbouth, and Beckett Talmadge were runners-up ($25 each).

The Patriot’s Pen essay contest is open for Middle school students in grades 6, 7, and 8, and the theme for this year’s contest was “Why I Appreciate America’s Veterans”. The winning entry was submitted by Lara Wahid, a student at Harbour Point Middle School, and she also received a $100 scholarship. Two runners-up were named, Lindsey Lundberg (Meadowdale Middle School) and Ian Crunkilton (Terrace Park Elementary School), each of whom received a $25 scholarship.

Olivia Olsen garnered 1st place honors and a $100 scholarship in the Voice of Democracy contest, which is open to high school students in grades 9-12. While the Youth Essay and Patriot’s Pen competition requires a written essay, the Voice of Democracy competition requires the submission of an audio essay. This year’s topic was, “Why Veterans are Important to Our Nation’s History and Future”. Olivia, who had won the two previous Patriot Pen competitions, is a 9th grade student at Edmonds-Woodway High School.

Raffle

Our Raffle was another success. We grossed $2,140 and netted $1,550. While this was a couple of hundred short of our last raffle, these funds should give us a sufficient cushion through the 2016 year end. The winner of the 55 inch Samsung HDTV was Otis Wolfe, Commander of Post 921.