News

New Member Profiles—Pete Farmer, Membership Chairman

John Westfall

John is a Brier, WA native and now resides there with wife Deborah. They have two sons and one grandson. John is the Fire Marshall for Snohomish County Fire District 1. John served with the United States Navy 1983-2010 and was a Combat Swimmer/SEAL. He’s a retired Senior Chief Petty Officer. Overseas duty included the Philippines 2008 and Iraq 2009. Decorations include Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal (3), Navy Achievement Medal (3) and Good Conduct Medal.

Charles Saint Jr

Charles served in the Air Force 1977-1988 as a Signals Intelligence Officer and was last a Captain. He graduated from the Air Command Staff College. He served overseas in Korea, as well as Goodfellow, Kelly and Mountain Home AFB’s stateside. Awards include the Air Force Commendation Medal with 2 OLC. Charles has degrees from Arizona State and Sul Ross University. He is a retired law enforcement officer. Originally from Phoenix, Charles resides in Mill Creek with wife Jill. They have two sons and a daughter. Charles Saint III, one of the sons, is a current member of Post 8870.

Michael Andrews

Michael, a VFW Member At Large, is joining Post 8870. He served with the US Navy in Bosnia/Kosovo, Operations Resolute Response and Silver Knight. He served on the USS Austin. Michael resides in Snohomish, WA.

Chaplain’s Corner—Rock Roth

Little mention was made in our mainstream news media of the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Midway. The Battle opened on 4 June 1942 approximately 6 months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Battle of Midway was fought between US and Japanese Naval Forces approximately 150 miles north of Midway Is-land. For your information, Midway is located approximately 1,128 nautical miles northwest of Hawaii. I flew out for Midway from mid1959 until late1962 as part of the Pacific Distant Early Warning or DEW Line. Even at that late date, almost 20 years after that historic battle, evidence was still visible in the waters surrounding both Sand and Eastern Islands, the two islands that make up Midway.

To appreciate just how important the Battle of Midway was to our victory in the Pacific, it might prove useful to answer the following question, “What are the 10 most important facts about the Battle of Midway?”

  • A lessor naval force defeated a superior naval force.
  • The US ability to crack Japan’s radio code led to Japan’s defeat.
  • Main ships were not battleships…they were aircraft carriers.
  • The result stopped Japan’s Pacific expansion.
  • The result increased the morale of the U.S. Navy as well as the American people
  • Having the Carrier Yorktown available showed that the Pearl Harbor raid six-months earlier missed a main target – the dry repair docks.
  • The loss of four front-line carriers by Japan was due to not having adequate “CAP” or “Combat Air Patrol” (a/k/a an umbrella) over the carriers – the Japanese fighters were ‘pulled down’ by Torpedo 8 who were the first to arrive on scene; flying relatively slow and obsolete aircraft, they commenced their torpedo attack with-out bombers and fighters; Torpedo 8 lost all its aircraft and all but one of its aircrew.
  • The victory by the U.S. at Midway became the turning point of the Pacific Theater in WWII.
  • By defeating Japan at Midway, the U.S. was able to begin the “island hopping” campaign to bring the war to Japan’s home islands.
  • It was only the second time that a naval battle was fought by ships who never sighted each other (both sets of ships were over each other’s horizon). The first was the Battle of Coral Sea a month earlier.

Why is the aforementioned important and why is it mentioned in the “Chaplain’s Corner”? The Battle of Mid-way changed the course of history. Japan certainly was far from defeated and the world faced another 3 years of war in the Pacific. However, Japan was never again able to effectively take the offensive. It is significant that she lost 4 aircraft carriers and embarked aircraft; however, it is even more significant that she lost irreplaceable skilled personnel including skilled and experienced carrier pilots. She was never able to recover from that loss. Many of the historians who have studied the Battle of Midway attribute the US victory to luck, ‘the draw of the cards’, fate, et al. To others historians, your Chaplain included, we attribute America’s victory to the Hand of God. I am one who strongly believes that God controls America’s destiny. As we celebrate Independence Day, it is important that we remember that in our Declaration of Independence, God is referred to under 4 different names: (1) Nature’s God, (2) Creator, (3) Supreme Judge of the World, and (4) Divine Providence. We are “One nation under God.”

Let us pray
We bow before Thee, our Heavenly Father, in humble prayer thanking Thee for the manifold blessings Thou hast bestowed upon us, in this our beloved land. Our hearts are filled with gratitude for the sacred institutions of America. Preserve these inspired concepts. Let not the adversity of Light and Truth destroy freedom, worship, and divine faith. Bless those who direct our nation. Remember, O God, those who bear arms. Bless the homes from which they come. Forgive our errors and weakness turning from the wrong and unprofitable ways. We pray for the early triumph of righteousness, truth, and peace founded in the brotherhood of man. This we ask in Thy Precious Name. Amen

The Last Word

As I begin my tour of duty as your Commander, I want to recognize the outstanding record of accomplishments that have been achieved by this Post over the past three years with Jim Traner as our Commander. His leadership has been extraordinary, and Jim has worked tirelessly on behalf of the membership to make Post # 8870 a highly visible and positive influence within the Edmonds and Mukilteo communities. The Post has been restored to fiscal stability, and thanks to his inspiration, our Poppy collections have far exceeded past efforts. It was Jim’s vision that expanded Relief Fund efforts to provide assistance to veterans and active duty personnel at the local level and to support our youth by establishing the Freedom Scholarship. It was Jim’s recommendation that provided financial assistance to Boy/Girl Scouts and Little League as well as sup-porting a local Cadet Civil Air Patrol squadron. Commander Traner reached out to the Nisei Veterans Committee and established a relationship that has been rewarding for both organizations. Jim prepares the Post’s award winning monthly newsletter and maintains our web site. Perhaps, the greatest single accomplishment during his three year tenure as Post Commander has been the dramatic increase in our member-ship, and many of those new members were personally recruited by Jim. For each of Jim’s three years as Commander our membership has exceeded 100%.

Jim will continue to serve VFW as the newly elected District 1 Commander. It is my hope that the members of Post #8870 will continue to enthusiastically support Jim in this new role by attending District 1 meetings and volunteering to serve whenever help is needed. On behalf of the members of Post #8870, I want to thank Jim for his dedicated service to VFW and congratulate him for the significant contributions he has made. Jim, we salute you!

June Meeting

At the June 8th meeting the officers for the 2012-2013 year will be installed.  Ron Haley, District One Commander will be the installing officer.  We will also recognize a number of members with longevity pins ranging from 5 years of VFW membership to 70 years (Erv Schmidt).  We have sent letters to all of those who we believe qualify.  However, if you became a life member after being a continuous member, we have no way of telling your total time in VFW (membership records begin with the new Life Membership).  If you believe you qualify and did not receive a letter, please let us know.  We will also present service certificates to those newer members who haven’t received them in the past.  These certificates recognize the member for their participation in a combat theatre from WWII to Afghanistan.

8870 Selected as Post of the Year

Our Post was selected the Post of the Year for District 1.  While membership is key, our support of our veterans and active military, our involvement in our community and schools, supporting National projects such as the National Military Services and USO, and having all of our various reports completed such as Community Service and Hospital Reports (thanks to Al Boyett) and passing our inspection with flying colors (thanks to Liz Mather) went a long way in helping us achieve this honor.  This is definitely a Post award as there were a lot of individuals who performed their duties diligently throughout the year.  You may see the award on our Award Wall at our website.

Memorial Day—2012

Memorial Day 2012

Erv Schmidt was the guest of honor at this year’s Memorial Day ceremony at the Edmonds Cemetery.  His story about his WWII experiences were told in the “first person” by a young and very talented student from Edmonds-Woodway high school.  Fred Apgar explained the White Table honoring our MIA and POW brothers and sisters still missing or held to the large crowd attending the ceremony.  Of course, Katarina Nguyen is almost a standard fixture now reading her award winning Voice of Democracy essay.  In addition, a number of us attended Naval Station Everett’s service held on the “real” Memorial day, May 31st.

Ladies Auxiliary President’s Corner

Here we are in June already. Can you believe it! I’m sure you all are making beautiful plans for how you’ll be spending your summer. Hopefully, you will still be adding attending your auxillary meetings throughout the summer.

June is the transition month. The month between one Auxiliary President ending her term of office and another just starting hers. Why not come and say ” goodbye” to your outgoing President, and say “HI!” to the incoming President?  You might want to come and hear how we did with the Buddy Poppy drive in May too.  God bless you for the support you give to your auxiliary, our veterans and their families. Looking forward to seeing you at the meeting on June 8th!

Buddy Poppies—Dennis & Phil

While the weather wasn’t exactly balmy for our fund raiser, it beat a cold November day.  Bob Crawford, as always, did a great job in getting the right number of people to the correct locations while Tom Hallums worked as courier.   While we had perhaps the best participation in recent memory, it was a bit disappointing we didn’t have a few more turn out and help us with handing out Buddy Poppies and telling folks what the VFW does and particularly what Post 8870 does to assist veterans, their families, and promote patriotism in our schools and community.  As I say every 6 months following Memorial Day and Veterans Day, those of us who participate get more out of it than you would have Buddy Poppies. Dennis and Philthe right to expect.  From the “thanks for your service” to hearing about grandfathers, fathers, uncles, wives, mothers, and children serving or having served in virtually every theatre of war is rewarding beyond measure.  We raised just over $10,000 for our Relief Fund and all of it will be put to good use in assisting our fellow veterans, widows, and our community as a whole.

White Hats and Other Cover Oddities

We have a ton of new members.  I know when I first started attending meetings, I had a lot of questions (well, perhaps 3 or 4) but didn’t want to show my ignorance to the crusty old vets in my first Post.  One of my questions was the significance of the White Hat that a few of the members wore.  The answer is that every year Department selects Commanders and Quartermasters that have met certain criteria and gives them a White Hat as an award.  Only a handful are given each year so it is a significant achievement.  However, as far as the Commander goes, it is a Post award as much as an individual award.  Without a lot of people doing their jobs correctly the Commander would never get a White Hat.  The Quartermaster, on the other hand, really earns their hat based on their individual performance.  The Quartermaster is the bookkeeper of the Post and is audited by the Trustees every month.  In addition, there are a variety of reports they must submit throughout the year, and the VFW keeps the QM very busy.  Elizabeth Mather has more White Hats then anyone in our Post for her excellent work and we hope Tom Hallums gets his this year.  Along with different colored covers, there are different colored braids on those covers.  Silver means the wearer holds a National position, Red is for Department officers i.e. Washington state, Green for District Officers, and Gold is for the general membership where the real work of VFW is done.

American Legion Sells Legion Hall

It is now official, Post 66’s home for the past 80 years has been sold.  It is a sad day for the veterans of Edmonds but deferred maintenance finally caught up with the structure.  The estimated cost of fixing the building far exceeded the resources of the Legion.  In the near future, the Legion will seek a facility that they can rent or lease.  As a great majority of our members are also members of the Legion, we will keep you apprised of the new meeting  location.