Saint Patrick's Day

March 17, 2004
The person who was to become St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was born in Wales about AD 385. His given name was Maewyn, and he almost didn't get the job of bishop of Ireland because he lacked the required scholarship.
Far from being a saint, until he was 16, he considered himself a pagan. At that age, he was sold into slavery by a group of Irish marauders that raided his village.
His wishes were to return to Ireland, to convert the native pagans to Christianity.
Patrick was quite successful at winning converts, and this fact upset the Celtic Druids. Patrick was arrested several times, but escaped each time. His mission in Ireland lasted for thirty years. After that time, Patrick retired to County Down. He died on March 17 in AD 461. That day has been commemorated as St. Patrick's Day ever since.
Much Irish folklore surrounds St. Patrick's Day. Not much of it is actually substantiated.
Some of this lore includes the belief that Patrick raised people from the dead. He also is said to have given a sermon from a hilltop that drove all the snakes from Ireland. Of course, no snakes were ever native to Ireland.

Brief History of the Helicopter

Since one of the most recognizable features of Post 639 is the 2 helicopters flying in our entrance, here is a quick outline of helicopters in the military. Helicopters are not new, they actually were conceived in the 1500s and Da Vinci’s designs were very good proof of concepts except for materials and power. The first practical military applications came at the end of WWII and during the Korean War. They were used almost exclusively for evacuating wounded soldiers to MASH units as portrayed in the movie and TV show of the same name.
Cavalry was always the name the military used for “rapid strike” which meant horses until modern times when it meant mechanized vehicles and in the Vietnam War it became helicopters. In Vietnam there was a lot of hostile natural barriers from dense jungles to mountains to swampy delta regions. This type of terrain made warfare difficult to wage, and it was the helicopter that was decided by JFK on advice of the military that would turn the tide for our allies in Vietnam. The original idea was for rapid deployment of troops and the continued use of the “chopper” for Medical evacuations. The legendary “Huey” was born. To protect the troops that were being loaded and unloaded into the “Huey” the military stationed a machine gun to be used for cover fire during loading and unloading of the soldiers. Before long the “door gunners” were flying strafing runs to soften the enemy forces before landing to secure the LZ, and after landing to assist our guys in deployment. What a great idea it would be if there was a stable gun platform to use not only against the enemy soldiers, but also against convoys, and armored vehicles. Shazam, the gunship was born.
One of the nastiest things an enemy could imagine was a fully armed “Cobra” ready to unleash everything from machine gun fire, 20 mm cannon fire and laser guided rockets. Remember the scene from “Apocalypse Now” when Robert Duvall as LTC Bill Kilgore with the choppers flying all around him states, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning”. The chopper’s reputation was made in Vietnam and it is a noble symbol for our post along with our motto:

Together Then,

Together Now!!

From the Commander

American Legion Vietnam Memorial Post 639 will be celebrating the 23^rd anniversary of the signing of our charter on Saturday May 22, 2004. We are going to pay tribute to fifteen veterans that had a vision. I don’t think they thought that the idea they planted would grow so quickly and become what it is today. I will be giving more information on this Post Benefit over the next couple of months. We are still in the early planning stages, but we already have tentative commitments from two bands, karaoke and someone to roast the pigs. We are also trying to get a radio station here that day to do a remote broadcast.

We will be set up to do it outside, preferably, or inside, so come rain or shine we are going to have a reunion. It will be open to the public, but we would like to see the remaining charter members here that day and every past and present member. I think when other veterans see what we have they will want to join our organization that day. We have the best American Legion Post and we are constantly looking for ways to improve it and doing so. As I said I’ll be giving out more information later, but the E-board, our members, the Sons of The American Legion and The Ladies Auxiliary are in the full speed ahead mode on this. So mark your calendar for May 22^nd because it is going to be a lot of fun and there will be a lot of camaraderie that day because “Together Then, Together Now”.

On April 2^nd there will be a reunion at Post 639 for the “USS Nathaniel Greene” SSBN 639. We will be hosting it the evening before the USS Ozark – Runner Base a member of the United States Submarine, Inc donates a monument to the Nathaniel Green Park next to the flag pole area. So “hit the beach” that evening and join us at 1900 hours for a fun “Liberty Call”.

We have several functions at the post in March. On Saturday March 13^th the Ladies Auxiliary will be having a corned beef and cabbage dinner from 3:00 – 7:00 PM. The food will be good, so come out and have a good dinner and maybe even a “wee bit” of whiskey or favorite drink and don’t forget to wear something green. After dinner at 8:00 PM the birthday party for March will start. Sounds like a good time for that day. On Saturday March 20^th we will have the Hog Chapter BBQ at the post and on Saturday March 27^th the Masons from the Billings Lodge will have a fish fry at the post.

Sometime it is hard to remember to thank all of the people that volunteer their time to keep our post going. The Auxiliary, the Sons, the members, and the E-Board do a great job keeping our post strong and active and we all need to thank those that do our post’s work. Thanks to Rick for doing a great job on the CD player, thanks to Tom Mabre (spelled it right, didn’t I) and his wife for the job they do, thanks to Connie and her partners in crime for planning our parties, thanks to Greg for keeping the place clean, thanks to JC for the things he does, thanks to Harvey for working on the tickets to the Royals/Cardinals baseball game, and especially thanks to Mark and all the Bingo workers for the job they do with our Bingo games.

I could go on and on, but I’ll end it by thanking all the people that have volunteered to work the bar in Angel’s absence and I hope I don’t miss anyone. Speaking of Angel, we all wish her the best and a “speedy recovery”. I would like to give a big thanks to Phil Richardson, Tennessee, Lenny and Scotty. If I missed you let me know (I know you will). Thanks to all that help us with the work of the post. It wouldn’t work without you.

Burman Walker

Ladies Auxiliary News

Our post Birthday/Valentine’s day party was a really big success. The Valentines Day basket went to a lady that came in the day and is currently taking about joining, now she says she’ll be back to join. Congratulations!! Mary McCammon!

Saint Patrick Day we will be having a St. Paddies day lunch! So come on out! Katie’s making her stew, plus corn beef and cabbage on March 13, come out between 3 & 7 PM.

The Veterans Voice Page 3

Our Easter party for the kids will be April 10^th between 1:00 and 3:00 PM.

Our regular meeting is the 1^st Tuesday of each month. Ladies come on out we’d love to see new faces on just some of our members that don’t always make it.

Thanks again,

Kim Boler

From your Chaplain

Our L.Z. is not the same without our Angel. We hope to see her back real soon.

I received a note that Bear’s mother passed away, so join me in remembering her in our prayers.

Keep your thoughts and prayers on our country and our military men and women in this time of conflict. Also, let’s not forget our POW’s and MIA’s.

Bob Carroll

From the Web

ww.vietnammemorialpost.us is our website address, so find it, then click the favorites and save it there. It will show on your favorites as “Post 639” since that is the name of the main or index page. If you go to www.google.com or www.yahoo.com and search on “post 639”, it will come up first. If you search on “bingo Springfield Missouri” it will now come up about 20^th on both lists and remember it will be listed as “Post 639”. The best search engines are Google and Yahoo and the more you use them to find “Post 639” the higher we will be ranked on their hit list.

Speaking of hits we are now over 500 and counting, so the word is getting out. Visit the web site often and just explore it by clicking away, you might be surprised at what’s there.

In the what’s new department, the history of our post is pretty much complete now. I had to enter the entire text of the history to make it legible, so there were many hours of typing to get it completed. Every member of Post 639 should read what Gary Harlan wrote about the founding of our post. We now have the Bingo page updated with a copy of the Program for the Bingo games with the rules and regulation and payouts. We also have the game patterns listed so everyone can see what it takes to win.

On the Veterans Voice page you can now find December ’03, January ‘04, February ’04 and by the time you are reading this March ’04 listed. Just click on the month and year and you can read the Voice on-line. They will now accumulate on that page so all the back issues will be available from now into the future.

Please check the “Events and Activities” area often as it is updated regularly. The calendar icon will take you to our post calendar that now is getting posted sometimes 2 or 3 months in advance, but it may be updated on events taking place in just a few days, so check it often. We try to list some of the major events with some fun graphics and as much information as we can to keep you informed about our events and activities.

Our future projects for the web include a “Post Everlasting” page, thanks to Bill Blevins for the idea and Mark Reed for getting me the information in electronic format so I can set up that page on the web site. If anyone would like to get me biographical information in electronic format (any word processing document) on a member that has passed away including pictures and/or documents, I’ll put it on a “special” page as a memorial to them. Well if I don’t stop now, I’ll be longer winded than Burman and we wouldn’t want that to happen.

So from the web, keep clicking.

Bill Roark

Adjutant’s Report

We are getting closer to our goal of 100% membership renewal. We still need everyone that hasn’t done it yet, to get the renewal to me ASAP.

Bingo is really good since we have been building a big jackpot. We are averaging about 300 players and would like to get it to 350 players in the near future.

Mark Reed

March 13 …. Ladies Auxiliary corn beef and cabbage dinner from 3:00 to 7:00 PM followed by our March Birthday Party.

March 27 …. Billings Masonic Lodge 379 is having an “all you can eat” fish fry at Post 639. Adults $7.00 and children under 12 $4.00. The fish start sizzling at Noon and it will last until 7:00 PM. There will be live music and a chance to go home with a brand new .22 cal rifle. Come out bring your family, fill up on fish, enjoy the company around you and listen to some real good music.

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