THE VETERAN’S VOICE

Volume 24 Issue 6                  www.post639.com                                                June 2004      

Remembrance Day 2004 was a huge success.  It officially started at 10:00 AM with the Sea Cadets presenting the colors, the singing of “The National Anthem” and an opening prayer.  It ended at 10:00 PM with a bonfire still glowing and a rock band still going on our makeshift stage (flatbed trailer).  In the middle were a lot of ceremony, lots of good food and 4 great bands playing.  We had a dedication ceremony officially proclaiming the tree-shaded hill behind the post as “Founder’s Hill” with a number of our Charter Members attending.  Dr. Bob from KKLH was on hand to take dedications from family members with overseas troops, to be played on his Sunday morning show, and then sent to the troops not able to be with us.  We had a live remote radio show and a TV interview for later broadcast.  We had lots of representation from the local military establishment and booths set-up including a couple of military vehicles. 

The kids liked looking at the “Hum-Vee” and participating in the “obstacle course” set up by the Young Marines and the “water war” that ensued.  The kids had a great time running around the 24 park-like acres that is part of our post property. 

The Ladies Auxiliary had a tent set up selling Post 639 t-shirts, hats and raffle tickets for the big drawings.  They gave away a ton of prizes including mirrors, clothing and of course the grand drawing for a “peace quilt”.  Everyone that participated in these events came away a winner in some way, shape or form. 

Food service included hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs and barbequed chicken dinners including all the fixin’s that was provided for a nominal amount by our friendly catering service.  In addition to the food, we had plenty of tap beer (a whole semi trailer load) available in the parking lot provided by Budweiser.   Inside the post we also had a full service bar, pool and lots of music (four hours of Karaoke) to keep everyone entertained.  Saturday was pretty windy, but our friends at the Air National Guard flew a Huey and landed it on the hill in front of the post.  It was left on display for a couple of hours and the pilot and co-pilot spent most of that time answering questions from children of all ages.  They especially took a good deal of time talking with our most honored guests from the Mount Vernon Veterans Home.  The excitement reached a peak when the helicopter took off and then did a low level fly-by.  There is something really special about the noise made by a Huey flying low, and you should have seen the grins on the veterans’ faces when it happened. 

We would like to report that at the end of the day everyone had a great time and there were absolutely no negative incidents that had occurred.  Post members and their families and people that had never been to the post before all commented about how much fun they had and wanted to know if we were going to do it again next year.  OK, they talked us into it and we are now planning on making this an annual event the weekend before Memorial Day.  It was decided to wait until the next newsletter to officially thank all the people that worked so hard on this event, so we wouldn’t leave anyone out and give all that participated proper credit. 

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From the Commander

First I want to express my sincere thanks to all those individuals that worked so hard to put our party on May 22^nd together and to those people that worked and assisted that day.  There are many of you and I am not going to attempt to list all of you in this letter, because I know I would surely miss someone.  I am going to put a sheet in next months Newsletter with the names on it.

The Post birthday party was a great success.  There were a lot of people here and they had a lot of fun.  The Charter Members that were able to attend were very much appreciative of what we had done.  They were also impressed with the Post  and hopefully as some of them said, “they are going to start coming out again”. 

We received a lot of exposure from radio and television coverage on Saturday, which can only be a very positive thing.  So all in all it tuned out very good. 

One of the real positive outcomes of the party was that the post and the grounds got cleaned up.  In the process of cleaning the grounds up, we found a lot of stuff that shouldn’t have been there, doors, window frames, brush and some trash.  I hope this stuff wasn’t dumped by one our members, we should take pride in our post and help keep it clean.  If anyone sees people dumping, they should stop them.  Bringing some firewood is all right but it should be split or small enough to burn, and please stack it by the barbecue pit.  We are working on a party for the 4^th of July, but there will not be a fireworks show.  The cost of the insurance for that is “cost prohibitive”. 

Burman Walker

 From your Chaplain

June is here – this month brings us Flag Day, Father’s Day and the first day of summer.

Fly you flag and be proud!

Here is something I received as an email that I wanted to share with you, some good fatherly advice:

NAIL IN THE FENCE (make sure you read all the way down to the last sentence)

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper.  His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.  The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence.  Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down.  He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.  Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.  The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.  The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence.  He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence.  The fence will never be the same.  When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one.  You can put a knife in a man and draw it out.  It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there.  A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.  Friends are rare jewels, indeed.  They make you smile and encourage you to succeed.  They lend an ear, they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us.”

YOU ARE MY FRIENDS AND I AM HONORED!  PLEASE FORGIVE ME IF I HAVE EVER LEFT A HOLE!

This has been an excellent month.  We still have all our members and no illness.

In the words of our brother Walter Swope who passed away last month, “God Bless American Forever and Ever.”

Bob Carroll

From the Web

Well, it doesn’t seem possible that our web site is 6 months old and what started out as a way to provide information to our members has turned out to include over 60 pages, over 200 pictures and over 250 links to other web sites.  If you’re looking for post events taking place, the latest Bingo information, links to other interesting sites, our rules and by-laws, an article in a Veterans Voice back in January, the history of our post, to remembering our brothers in Post Everlasting, to check on a Willard baseball game or just to listen to some pretty cool patriotic music

The Veterans Voice                                                                                        Page 3

or look at some snapshots, all you need to do is go to www.post639.com and start clicking.  The site map is up and going and is located in red at the bottom left of the main page.  It makes navigation through our site much easier and quicker. We need more memorial information for members of Post Everlasting, so please send a write up and pictures to everlasting@post639.com.  We also need more opinions for our forum page.  I know the post members have opinions on President Bush, since we heard 10-15 while the News-Leader’s reporter was doing his research at the post.  Please write up your opinion on any subject, sign it and we’ll put it on the web site.  Send those opinions to forum@post639.com.  I took about 140 pictures during the post Remembrance Day celebration and will get them edited and on the web site ASAP.  If anyone has digital pictures (especially of the Huey landing and taking off) that were taken during the event, please email them to us at pictures@post639.com so we can get them posted.  By the way, we’ll only post the better pictures, not the entire 140 and then maybe we can rotate.  I’ll also try and put together a photo CD with maybe 40-50 pictures and make them available at the bar.  We’re still in the process of getting Web TV hooked up in the bar area; unfortunately, it got put on the back burner until after our Remembrance Day Celebration was over.  Well, JC said if I didn’t keep this short, he wouldn’t make the copies and do the folding and mail it out, so I’ll keep it short since that’s more work than I want to do.  Thanks JC for all your help in getting the newsletter out to our members, we really appreciate it.  So, from the web, keep clicking.

Bill Roark

Adjutant’s Report

Well May is almost over and we still have about 100 Members that have not renewed yet. If you haven’t renewed by June 1^St you will be dropped from the Roster and will no longer receive the newsletter. 2005 Cards will be in the middle of June so get your 2004 dues paid! And don’t forget Elections are in June make sure you show up and vote for your E-Board if you do not like who is running for a particular office put your name on the list. Good luck to all that are running

Mark Reed

Bingo Report

Bingo is doing well, of coarse we could as always use more help. I will be changing some games within the next 30 days to keep the players happy. And a big “thank you” to all that help every Friday night

Mark Reed

 Editorial Brief

From the mouths of Babes:

Poppy distribution by the VFW and the American Legion goes back to the end of World War I and is the reference to a line in Flanders’s Field a poem by John McRae: “In Flanders’s Fields the poppies blow, Between the crosses row on row”.  Poppies are hand made usually by disabled veterans and distributed in shopping centers and grocery stores all over the country.  Here is a quick story submitted by Beverly Miller:  It seems some ladies were distributing poppies here in Springfield at one of the local grocery stores, when a little girl wanted one of the poppies.  The mother, somewhat embarrassed, told them that she didn’t have any cash and couldn’t give a donation (poppies are always given, not sold and donations are usually a couple of bucks), but the little girl when she heard it was to benefit our veterans really wanted a poppy, so she was given one.  One hour later the mother and the little girl returned with a bag of change and said she wanted to give the money to our veterans.  The mother told them the little girl went home and broke her “piggy bank”  because she wanted the money to go to the veterans.  When the little girl and her mother had gone, the ladies counted the change and discovered it was $20.03. 

That little girl’s heart was pure and she understood the sacrifices that our disabled veterans made for this country and she felt her sacrifice (her money) was small in comparison, but it was all she had to give.  When we have the same opportunity to give something back, will we have the same vision as that little girl?  We should love, support and honor our disabled veterans, because they paid the price and we all know, “Freedom is not free”.

Together Then,

        Together Now!!

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The Veteran’s Voice

Vietnam War Memorial

American Legion Post 639

2660 South Scenic

Springfield, MO 65807

417-882-8639