Happy Valentine's
Day
This is the 3rd month that we will
profile famous military leaders from our history.
The first one was an Army General, the second was an Air Force General
and in fairness we are now going to profile a famous Admiral.
In talking with some of our Navy men, two names kept popping up from
WWII, Chester Nimitz and “Bull” Halsey.
Since Halsey was the more of the “line” tactical commander, I chose
him. Here is the profile on
William F. Halsey.
William
F. "Bull" Halsey, Jr. was born on October 30, 1882 in Elizabeth New
Jersey, the son of Captain William F. Halsey, Sr. He was appointed to the
Naval Academy by President McKinley in 1900 and graduated in 1904.
"Bull" Halsey is best known for victories against the Japanese in
the Second World War.
During the First World War, he commanded destroyers that escorted convoys
across the Atlantic, which was regularly patrolled by German U-Boats.
In 1934, at the advanced age of 52, he became a naval aviator, and became an
important advocate of carrier warfare. He was quickly assigned successive
commands of carrier divisions during the late 1930s and early 1940s. His
success in each subsequent assignment earned him promotions. He was promoted
to vice admiral in 1940.
Halsey was assigned to the USS Enterprise, which was at sea when the Japanese
attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. After the Japanese attack, Halsey's
task force was virtually the only operational battle group left in the
Pacific.
Halsey bought time, while the United States rebuilt its fleet. He directed
surprise raids on Japanese-held islands in the Marshalls and Gilberts as well
as on Wake Island. He also aided in the first major U.S. retaliation, the
famous April 18, 1942 "Doolittle Raid" on Tokyo.
The following October, Admiral Chester Nimitz appointed Halsey Commander,
South Pacific forces and South Pacific area. His command of the forces that
captured Guadalcanal, Bougainville, and other key islands in the Solomon
Island Chain made Halsey famous. During the next two months, he played a key
role in the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands and the naval Battle of Guadalcanal
(November 12–15, 1943) and was promoted to admiral.
In October 1944, Halsey was Nimitz's tactical commander for the Battle of
Leyte Gulf. That action helped destroy the Japanese Navy. As the war in the
Pacific drew to a close, Halsey's fleet participated in the final naval
operations around Okinawa in the Ryukyu Islands from May 28, 1945 until the
Japanese surrender on August 14th. He loaned his flagship, the USS Missouri,
as the platform for Japan's formal surrender on September 2nd.
Halsey was appointed fleet admiral on December 11, 1945. He was the fourth and
last officer to hold that rank. He retired from the navy on March 1, 1947, and
held the position of President of International Telecommunications Labs, Inc.
until 1957.
He died at Fishers Island Country Club, Connecticut, on August 16, 1959 and is
buried in Arlington National Cemetery, next to his father.
Two famous quotes from Admiral
Halsey. "I never trust a
fighting man who doesn't smoke or drink." and "Hit
hard, hit fast, hit often."
General Douglas McArthur said that
Halsey was “the greatest fighting admiral in WWII”.
From
the Commander
I'm
kinda lost for words this month, we had a great turn out for the New Years Eve
party and the band was great, breakfast was superb, thanks to all my little
elves. Several improvements were
made in the bar and kitchen areas and more are planed for your comfort and
enjoyment.
The Key Card for the door was
changed, come by and trade your Red one for the new Grey one.
See JC or the bartender on duty.
February
is “Sweetheart Month” and we have a dance planed for the 12th, bring yours
and enjoy the dance with us. If you can't come make sure you don’t forget
HER.
Phil Richardson
Post Judge
Advocate
Last
month we were discussing the responsibilities of the various committees, their
responsibilities, and the committee chairmen. Although I said we would
continue this month I would like to take a break from that topic and discuss
another issue, which I am involved with.
As Chairmen of the Entertainment committee I would like to make a plea to all
members to come out and help us plan some major events the post intends to
sponsor this spring and summer.
First, in May, we will be putting together our Post Birthday Party. As
you remember last year we had our Founders Day Celebration and decided to make
it an annual event. This takes a lot of hard, and dedicated work by
those involved, yet the reward is well worth it. For our first effort at
such an undertaking we were very successful and hope to improve on our effort
this year. So if you have the time and energy please volunteer your
services to the Commander and look for info at the
Post on coming meeting dates. Another item I would like to discuss is the
entertainment at the post. We have been making a very sincere effort to
provide Saturday Night music. The entertainment has been good, but
attendance terrible. This effort is being made to provide financial
support for the post, but is
useless if we do not have membership support. We desire to have at the
post quality entertainment for all to enjoy so please consider coming out once
in awhile and help us out...you might even have a good time.
For Valentines Day we have a band called Tripwire here and they are really
good and put on a fantastic show. The event is Feb. 12th. Terry Armes will
play on the 5th and the 19th. Next month I will continue with my column as
usual, but I wanted to use my space in the newsletter to remind you. THIS IS
YOUR POST...HELP
SUPPORT IT.
Rick Stephens
Ladies
Auxiliary
Hello 2005, it’s going to be a good
year for us all. Let this year
grow into a great year. Lots of
good things are going to happen if we all work together and put 2004 behind
us. Learn new things work with each other.
It started off with a good breakfast from our Commander, Phil
Richardson. All our family had a
lot of good things together at our post.
This is what it’s all about, doing things together.
To our troops, God Bless and thanks for being there for us, hurry up
and “get-r-done” and come on home.
We will be having our Valentines Day
party from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM on February 12th.
Hope to see a lot of you. There
will be crafts and lots of fun. We
will raffle a Valentine’s Basket off, lots of goodies.
Give a rose to someone special. Just
a little note, let’s make 2005 a good year and let’s work together to
start making things work. Kind
words and a smile and something good to say will take us a long way.
I hope Greg is feeling much better, after his accident.
Beverly Miller VP
Building
and Grounds
There
are several minor projects that have been or are nearing completion in and
around the post. I use the term minor because completion can be accomplished
with minimum expenditures and there are no changes to existing structures
(generally maintenance issues and the rearranging of furniture, fixtures and
items with-inn the post). In
other words we’re not moving any walls or changing the floor plan. The
following are projects that have been completed.
Our new bar stools arrived prior to the first of the year.
They appear to be high quality furniture that should last us for
several years to come. I have
received very good feedback as to their comfort and looks.
We did have a minor problem with one stool seat, which was replaced by
the manufacturer. We now have a spare seat if needed. The pool table has been
recovered and leveled. Kinney amusement replaced the existing felt with a felt
that is reportedly much faster and durable.
It looks good and plays well. We
have purchased and installed new Plexiglas over the license plates thanks to a
very generous donation by George and Peggy Baker.
Some of the plates were slightly damaged, however, they were
salvageable and are now protected.
The
Veterans Voice
Page
3
A
27” TV and entertainment center was donated by Rick Stephens and has been
placed at the west end where darts are played and bands perform. This will
allow viewing by the dart players and provide a semi-secluded area for members
to access the web.
The
wallboard behind the grill in the kitchen has been replaced thanks to Doyle
Gardner. The new board is much easier to clean and enhances the appearance of
the kitchen area.
The entire remaining ceiling tile has
been replaced and the electrical outlets concealed above giving a fresh new
appearance to the interior. Several
new pictures were donated to the post. J.C. built new frames for the pictures, which were mounted on
the back wall across from the Ladies Auxiliary office. The last project being worked on for the time being, but not
yet completed, is the refurbishing and activation of the shuffleboard table.
It will not be difficult to get the table in good working condition. The
troughs around the table need to be recovered, which is a relatively minor
undertaking, but the electronic scoring system appears to be beyond repair.
Kinney Amusement looked at the table and advised it would not be cost
effective to repair the electronic scoring system due to each light being on
an individual relay. Therefore, we have decided to mount a grease board
similar to that used for the pool table on the wall.
A board has been donated and mounted.
We will not charge for play, however, Once activated we plan to mount
an ammo box near the table for donations in exchange for play.
I would like to express my
appreciation to the building and grounds committee members, Doyle Gardner,
Rick Stephens, Burman Walker, Mark Reed and Bill Erwin for their diligence and
dedication. Each has worked hard
and long to accomplish the completion of our projects. Also J.C. Ponder who has helped on so many projects.
They’re numerous others I have not mentioned that have made a
difference.
We are continuing to make
improvements and move toward the future.
Please come out, enjoy and support your post.
Harvey Williams
Adjutant’s
Report
We’re
at 90% plus paid and counting. Please
send in your 2005 dues so you continue to get the newsletter and all the other
benefits of your post membership.
J.C. Ponder
From your
Chaplain
We
need to thank our true Commander-in-Chief for another good month.
No major problems were reported to me, just a few aches and pains and
some colds.
Josephine is still going through
physical therapy, Scotty is looking better and Pat is going to have wrist
surgery sometime soon. Luanne is
going to St. John’s for some implants, doing one side at a time.
This will be interesting. We
pray that everything goes well.
Remember February – which brings
Valentine’s Day. Men like to
get chocolate, cards, jewelry too! Some
of the men in our post need new necklaces, bracelets and earrings.
What kind of post do we have? I’m
getting Ruth a new “weed-eater” and a self propelled lawn mower – a new
Lawn Boy. I think she deserves
it.
Please remember our National leaders
and our men and women in the military and our POW’s and MIA’s in your
prayers. May God bless everyone
in our post.
Bob Carroll
From
the Web
The
web site has now been in existence for over a year (it seems like yesterday
that I was looking up the first links to military sites).
I hope many of our members have enjoyed the content of our little
attempt at getting information to all our members wherever they may be. For some of our members it can be a little touch of home when
they are traveling across our great nation and some that are in other
countries throughout the world. I
just looked at the “hit” counter and we are approaching 3,000 visits to
our little site. Speaking of time
flying, this addition will mark a full year that I have been doing the
newsletter. Burman asked me to do
the newsletter for 2-3 months until he could get someone else to do it (the
best laid plans of “mice and men”). I’m
actually pretty proud of how the newsletter has turned out for the past year,
even with some “heat” over my election editorial.
I think most of the members have enjoyed the articles and we have kept
the mistakes to a minimum. If any
member has comments about the web site or the newsletter or would like to make
positive or critical statements, I would be more than happy to consider those
requests. Just email me at forum@post639.com
or put it in the “editor’s” mailbox at the post. Well as I always
say, check out our web site, you may just find something interesting.
From the web, keep clicking.
Bill Roark
Together
Then,
Together Now!!!