At the July Post meeting, former City of Edmonds Parks,
Recreation and Cultural Services Director Carrie Hite was honored for her
enormous contribution to the development and completion of our
Edmonds Veterans Plaza.
Plaza Committee Chair Ron Clyborne spoke of Hite’s
contributions to the project, recognizing the essential nature of her part
in its completion. While Hite recently resigned from the Edmonds position
to assume a similar role in the City of Redmond, the Edmonds Veterans
Plaza will surely stand as a highly visible symbol of her legacy to the
city. She had served the City of Edmonds since 2012.
As a symbol of our gratitude, Mike Reagan, Post member and famed sketch artist of fallen heroes, presented Hite with a her recently completed portrait, shown here, along with a photo of the presentation itself.
The Post and all Edmonds veterans and their families are
indeed grateful.
At the Independence Day picnic/barbecue,
Post member Don Stapleton had a special guest in the person of his
grandson Caleb Stapleton. Caleb spent most of the afternoon visiting with
veterans and listening to their stories and, in particular managed
to draw John Shelton out on his Vietnam experience.
John, as most of you know was a sniper with
a Marine Corps Force Recon unit and did a considerable amount of
damage to the enemy, right up to the day he forgot to duck and landed in
that wheel chair you now see as a part of him. One can well imagine
that a young man of Caleb’s age would be fascinated by the history of a man
like John, as you can easily see from the rapt attention demonstrated in
the accompanying photo. It is important that we give our young people an
opportunity to gain some insight into the veteran experience.
At the Department of Washington School of Instruction,
held at Post 2100’s facility in Everett on Saturday, August 11,
Past Commander Linda Fairbank presented District 1 Commander
Doug White with the Red & White cover and National Certificate recognizing
District 1 as an All-American District for the 2018 -19 VFW year.
Individual District 1 posts were also presented with
All- American awards. Details on those awards will be found in the
inaugural issue of the District 1 newsletter, which will be published in
the near future, along with other news from the District.
Congratulations are in order to all of the District 1
membership, including All-State Post 8870. These awards don’t happen
without the participation of everyone involved.
The US Armed Forces and the Red Army only once met in
battle. It was during the Russian Civil War that the Soviets and Americans
fought each other directly.
Soviet Russia signed a separate peace treaty with the
Central Powers, ending participation in WWI. Immediately, the Allies
organized an expedition intended to regroup the Imperial Russian Army
and subdue the Bolshevik revolution. Several contingents of Allied troops
deployed to Russia.
The British regiment landed in Arkhangelsk, on the far
northern tip of the Russian coast on August 2nd, 1918. The city held many
supplies sent by the Allies to support the last Russian offensive against
the Germans in 1917. Unfortunately, the supplies had already been seized by
the Bolsheviks, who engaged the Allies in combat almost immediately upon
their arrival.
Polar Bear Monument, White Chapel, MI
The American contingent stationed in Arkhangelsk was
dubbed the Polar Bear Expedition due to the position of the city near
the Arctic circle. The freezing weather (as cold as 20 below
zero) produced the nickname. Elements of the 85th division were
sent by General Pershing to aid the British in Arkhangelsk.
The principle U.S. combat unit so deployed was the 339th
Infantry, comprised mostly of the Michigan National Guard, since dubbed The
Polar Bears.
A report dated October 1919 stated that there were 210
American casualties; 110 KIA, 30 MIA, and 70 deaths from disease, mostly
Spanish Flu. 305 were wounded.
The August issue of VFW Magazine contains an
excellent, more complete account of this action by Earl Rickard, a Brown
Water Navy veteran of Vietnam and freelance writer.
Post 8870 commander Rose Gilliland has announced her
intention to prepare a Post photo directory of the membership and has
arranged with a photographer, Kurt Nickle, to attend our meetings and take
photos of the members. If the following candid shots from the July meeting are
any indication, it would appear the we will have some high quality
portrait work.
We will have our photographer on hand at future meetings
to shoot individual portraits for our Post Directory. If you are not a
regular attendee, we urge you to make an appearance to have your
photo taken, so that you can be included in the directory.
At the monthly staff meeting, Quartermaster Dennis
Peterson reported that the Post’s general fund, the money we use for
operational expenses such as postage, web site maintenance, new member
expenses over and above dues received, etc, etc. has become severely
depleted going into the new 2019-20 VFW year.
No doubt you are all aware that most of the money in our
bank accounts is that generated by donations received at our twice yearly
poppy drives, dedicated funds that are and must be committed to the
Veteran and Community Service functions the post performs and cannot be
used for operating expenses.
If you can kick in a few dollars to help get the fund
back to a healthy condition please give your cash or check to
Quartermaster Peterson, or drop it in the mail to VFW Post 8870, PO Box 701,
Edmonds, 98020. Our QM is also happy to process your credit card.
If you are employed by an organization with a charitable
match program, don’t forget to ask for the match, to double your donation.
Our in house CPA, Past Commander Traner, asks us to remind you that all
donations to the post are tax deductible.
Members of Post 8870 can now join
live meetings via video conferencing.
Our July Post meeting was our first
trial using Zoom, a video conferencing app. We had two members join the
meeting using Zoom. Fred Agpar from St. Louis, Missouri and Jay Hansen from
Mukilteo. These members were able to participate fully in the Post meeting. At
the end of the meeting Fred said that even though he was in Missouri he
felt like he was home.
Members who can’t physically be
with us on meeting nights, can now still be part of the team by
joining with the Zoom app. If you would like to join the meetings this way
please contact the Commander or Jim Traner for further information.
Information is also in the monthly meeting reminder emails.
Last year, Steve Swanson of the Reboot Military Family
Program came to one of our monthly meetings to speak to the
membership of VFW Post 8870 about this program that is helping
veterans dealing with the effects of combat and multiple deployments. We decided
at that time to support two of the veterans who were enrolled in the
program.
I attended the last year’s graduation ceremonies and
was impressed by the graduates and their families. The classes are small,
maybe 12 veterans and their families, and are structured in the manner of
a 12 step program with a strong faith component. What I saw in these
veterans, all of whom were from the post 9/11 era, was humility and a recovered
sense of self-confidence. They were very appreciative of the program and
the tools it gave them to deal with their PTS issues and how it was very
positive for their family relationships.
We have been asked again to support a couple of students for this year’s class. The tuition is $250 per student for the course. We are going to support 2 students again this year with a $500 contribution from Post 8870. This is a direct and positive way for us to support fellow veterans. For more information check the REBOOT website at https://rebootrecovery.com/.
You can also touch base with Post 8870 Chaplain Dan Doyle.
As about 3 million more people will soon be
eligible to shop at military stores, officials are working to make sure
these new customers will have access to bases, and that the shelves
will be stocked.
Starting Jan. 1, all service-connected disabled
veterans, Purple Heart recipients, former prisoners of war and
primary veteran caregivers will be eligible to shop at commissaries
and exchanges, and officials from three federal agencies are preparing
the way.
The newly eligible customers will also be able to use
certain morale, welfare and recreation activities. You will find further
details at the link to Military Times below.
Vietnam vet Terry Crabtree drives WWII vet Norm Goldstein as Norm hands a flag to a young patriot.
Ready to go! Photo by Jim Traner
For many years, it has been the honor and
privilege of our local veterans organizations, VFW Post 8870 and American
Legion Post 66 to provide the opening color guard and lead the annual “Edmonds
Kind of 4th” parade.
Below we see VFW members (left to right) Dick Simmons, with the National Ensign, a well hidden Jim Murdock with the American Legion Flag, Post 8870 Sr. Vice Commander Carl Kurfess carrying the VFW colors and John Shelton holding the POW/MIA flag. Somehow it seems appropriate for John, a combat wounded Marine sniper to be aided by Fleet Marine Corps corpsman Dan Doyle. We had a good turnout from both posts and a wonderfully responsive crowd lining the street of Edmonds to cheer on the 90 parade entries. The parade announcers were also veterans and members of both posts, in the persons of VFW Post 8870 Past Commanders Jim Blossey and Mike Denton.
100 year old WWII vet Buck Weaver waves to the crowd from an antique jeep.
American Gold Star Mothers honor their fallen sons and daughters with a large group of volunteers, each carrying a banner with the photo of an individual fallen service member.
Don Stapleton, handing out some of the more than 2000 flags distributed along the parade route.
Grill Masters Sr. Vice Commander Carl Kurfess, left and on the right, Alden Gilliland wield their spatulas.
Following the parade on July 4, another of our
traditions has been to hold a picnic/barbecue at the Legion Hall. This year,
close to 100 Veterans of Post 66 and Post 8870 including family and friends,
gathered to enjoy great food and comradeship. A few of us who arrived
a bit late had to hunt for a place to sit among all the early arrivals.
Forming the chow line. Are we back in the service?
Among those in attendance, was an honored
guest, District 1 Commander Doug White. It is always good to have
Commander Doug with us.
The menu included grilled hamburgers and
hot dogs and pulled pork sandwiches. To accompany all of that
delicious barbecued meat, members brought a variety of salads and
side dishes and for dessert lots of cookies and a variety of cakes.
It would be difficult to individually
thank all of the folks who brought and cooked food and who stayed after
the event to clean up, but we certainly thank everyone who
participated in whatever manner. It only works if everyone pitches
in.
Now all that was needed was fireworks to
end a perfecr Independence Day celebration on a perfect July day.
