Jax Younger, A Picnic Point Elementary 3rd grade student was our Post Winner in the Youth Essay category and also placed third in the District 1 competition. We will try to have his essay for you at a later date. This category includes grades 3, 4 & 5.
This terrific group does an exemplory job of providing burial honors to our deceased comrades from all over the South County area as well as representing VFW at Memorial Day, Veterans Day and other events in the area. In this recent photo, VFW Post 8870 Chaplain Dan Doyle is present. In addition, to Doyle, other 8870 members include our Post Surgeon, Bryan Rowe, Post Trustee Kerry Watkins, Gerald Burton and Calvin Barnard
The Honor Guard is led by its Captain, Frank Martinez of VFW Post 1040, Lynnwood.
Every now and then, we run across some interesting photos and narratives of our members’ service history. If you have some pics and narrative of your service you would like to share with our comrades, send it to your editor. We would like to start doing more of this if the membership agrees.
Destroyer sailors currently in the Post, include World War II Veteran and the late Amos Chapman, Past Commanders Jim Blossey & Mike Denton. We expect there are others and would like to hear from you.
Blossey served aboard USS Walton, DD362 in the Korean War and Denton as a reservist aboard USS Whitehurst, DE 634, following active duty on USS Castor AKS, a supply ship supporting carriers off Vietnam. Others of our “Tin Can” shipmates (such as Amos Chapman) are no longer with us. Photos of both ships reflect their Vietnam era configuration, though both date to WWII.
On the following page, we have reproduced a new brochure that our Department of Washington leadership has recently published, intended as a quick reference guide to our new members. It might also serve to remind the rest of us of the proper order of our business meeting and how they are to be conducted, as well as our duties as members of our VFW Post. (Some sections do not appear in the same order as in the printed brochure, having been repositioned for space considerations.)
We don’t usually have space in our newsletter for all the awards that the Post receives recognizing our many activities, but this particular one has a title that we always get a kick out of and once again we have received it, thanks to the ongoing efforts of our Post officers who submit Surgeon, Chaplain etc. reports monthly to Department. It is the Departmental J.A.S.O.N Award. It simply acknowledges that we have submitted all of those required reports in a timely manner for the first four months of the VFW Year: July, August, September, October, & November. Enjoy.
Department of Washington Commander Chad Hassebroek is holding morning and evening “Coffee with the Commander” over Zoom between now and mid June. All VFW members are invited. (Bring your own coffee. Maybe decaf in the evening?)
Meeting ID: 830 9932 2478
Pass Code: 123456
3rd Wednesday each month
Jan 19, 2022 10:00 AM
Feb 16, 2022 10:00 AM
Mar 16, 2022 10:00 AM
Apr 20, 2022 10:00 AM
May 18, 2022 10:00 AM
Jun 15, 2022 10:00 AM
Jan 19, 2022 7:00 PM
Feb 16, 2022 7:00 PM
Mar 16, 2022 7:00 PM
Apr 20, 2022 7:00 PM
May 18, 2022 7:00 PM
Jun 15, 2022 7:00 PM
Our annual Christmas/New Year party with American Legion Post 66 was revived this week, (after being cancelled in 2020 due to COVID) without our usual turkey dinner, but with plenty of “pot luck” food provided by the members. We used the occasion to present checks from both Posts to Mike Reagan’s Fallen Heroes Foundation and to Gary Walderman for Heroes Cafe, our favorite local organizations benefitting veterans. Thirty some members and guests attended.
The Post held its annual toy collection to support our local Food Bank’s toy distribution program for families in need. Once again, we placed our collection box at Teri’s Toys in downton Edmonds, for Which Chaplain Dan Doyle collected donations and delivered them to the food bank. (With some help from other members and spouses) Members of both posts brought toys to the party on Dec. 15 as well, adding significantly to the totals.
Each December on National Wreaths Across America Day, the mission to Remember, Honor and Teach of the Veterans Memorial Wreath Foundation, is carried out by coordinating wreathlaying ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, as well as at more than 2,500 additional locations in all 50 U.S. states (locally including, among others Evergreen Washelli in north Seattle) at sea and abroad.
Wreaths Across America is a project of American Gold Star Mothers. In the photo above left, 8870 members Mike Reagan and Bob Little are shown among those braving the downpour on Saturday December 18, to lay wreaths on some 3,000 veterans’ graves.
(From the newsletter of Jim Traner’s Vietnam unit)
When I travel to my local VA hospital for treatment, I see mostly aging Vietnam Veterans in the hallways, but increasingly, I see more recent veterans (male and female) that look almost out of place among the the overwhelming number of veterans of our war.
Our war puts us in a unique position. What we have been and continue going through, puts us in a position to better understand what our recent brothers and sisters (and sons and daughters, ed.) in arms have given and lost in the war on terrorism. We know what they face in trying to gain recognition and compensation for what what they have given. We are all part of an unbroken chain of service to our country that extends back more than 250 years. The challenges of recent veterans are essentially the same challenges we faced.
So, the next time you encounter a more recent veteran, take the time to thank them for their service. (That’s more than we got!). Let them know they are our brothers and sisters and engage them in conversation. Let them know that we understand better than most what they have been through and what they face now that they have come “back to the world”. Tell them and show them that there is life and love after war.
K.H. Elliott. (11 ACR, 541st MI-)
by Fred Apgar
Eighty years ago, on December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan declared war on the United States attacking the US Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. Ervin Schmidt, a highly decorated Naval veteran and member of the Post #8870 for over 70 years, enlisted in the Navy in August of 1940. Assigned to the battleship USS California, found himself in what was known as “battleship row” at Pearl Harbor, on that fateful day. When the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, Erv was asleep in his bunk several levels below the main deck. When the first of two torpedoes struck the California, one of Erv’s bunk mates was killed instantly. Dazed by the attack, Erv and several of his shipmates tried to make their way to their battle stations but were overcome by smoke and fumes on the second deck. They survived only because others carried them to the main deck. After a second torpedo struck, the ship began to list and the Captain issued the order to abandon ship.
Erv chose to remain on the ship with three others, since they could not swim. They manned a 50 cal. anti-aircraft gun to fire at the attacking Japanese planes. Of the 1500 USS California crew, over 200 were killed in the attack.
Three days after the attack, Erv was reassigned to a heavy cruiser, the USS Chicago. For the next year, the Chicago engaged the enemy in the Battles of Coral Sea and Solomon Islands. On January 29, 1943, the Chicago sustained severe battle damage and once again, Erv heard the command to abandon ship. Erv then volunteered for submarine duty, first serving as a radio and sonar operator on the USS Saury and later on the USS Torsk.
During his numerous patrols on the Saury and Torsk, more than 20 Japanese ships were sunk, and Erv and his crewmates survived numerous d epth charge attacks and a ramming by a Japanese light cruiser. On August 11 and then on August 13, 1945, while operating the Sea of Japan, the Torsk sank two Japanese Naval ships, which were the last two ships sunk by the US Navy in World War II. Erv held the distinction of serving in combat at the outset of WW II in the Pacific and during the last naval action of WW II; the only person to claim that distinction. He passed away one month after celebrating his 98th birthday, on February 10, 2014.
