Marine Corps League

Melvin M. Smith Detachment #586

Editors: Dennis and Sam Dressler

(509) 953-6266 (Dennis) or (509) 953-6267 (Sam)

sam.djd@comcast.net

COMMANDANTS CORNER

This will be my last “First things first…” The votes have been counted.   Marine Jim Bennett won the popular vote for Commandant.  Marine Hank Melanson won for Senior Vice.  Marine Pat Rowand was a shoe-in for Junior Vice.  This leaves our Judge Advocate position open.  Please consider giving your time to the Detachment. Installation of officers will take place at June’s meeting.  Jim has promised to have a great meeting to kick it off right.

Second item up for bid...Our Memorial Day Ceremony was a success!  I didn’t count our turnout, but everyone that I saw there really enjoyed our time.  The Gold Star Mothers touched every heart in the crowd with their banners and stories.  This is what Memorial Day is about.  Remembrance.  I will gladly be your chairman for next year’s Ceremony.  I greatly appreciate input for next year’s theme.  I’d really like to invite the Governor to speak to get more publicity for our fine Detachment, but I will go with your ideas.        

Third item up for bid…We had trials and tribulations at the Ride the West Horse Show.  Tim made it look easy all these years that he organized the event and he was sadly missed as always.  It was a lot of hard work, but it paid off for Toys for Tots.  We raised over $1900 and made a lot of new friends.  We even met some people that want to donate to our cause in the way of cooking supplies.  How great does that sound?  “Gus” went to a friend of Manny Esparza’s as he talked her into the raffle.  Way to go Manny. 

On that note, I want to thank the following hard working Marines and Corpsman for their superb effort: Dave “Doc” Kaltenbaugh, Pat Rowand, Doug Shurtleff, Jim Bennett, George Barnett, Manny Esparza and Kay Morse. 

The I & I Staff had fun at Friday night’s event and were extremely good sports in donating their cammie covers to the auction. 

Last item up for bid...the Department Convention is around the corner.  The dates are June 25^th through 28th.   La Quinta Inn, Tacoma is holding 75 rooms for us.  The rate is $89.00 plus tax. Breakfast is included and everyone that is registered will receive a 20% discount card for use in the hotel restaurant.  The deadline for registrations is 4 June 2009.  The hotel telephone number is 1-253-383-0146 and please mention Marine Corps League to obtain the agreed upon rate.  

With a respectful Semper Fi!

Your new Junior Past Commandant,

Randy

New Commandant’s Corner

First I want to thank the Marines of Melvin M. Smith for their confidence that I can fill the mighty big shoes left by Randy Ott. He has done a wonderful job and given me a blueprint to be a better commandant than otherwise I would have done. We have a great collection of Marines that complement each other well. If each of us finds that activity that we feel confident doing, there is no doubt we will have a very successful year.

Randy has listed the activities for the summer. Take a look at them and pitch in like the Marines you are and as a team we will fill the roster for the coffee stops, raise the money for Toys for Tots, The Wheelchair games, et cetera, and have a great time of camaraderie at the same time.

My non-Marine friends ask me, “What is it about you Marines? What bonds you so tightly?” I tell them “if you have to ask, you wouldn’t understand.” It’s called Semper Fidelis, always faithful. We are an anachronism in society. In WWII we adopted the Chinese “Gung Ho” for working together. That’s how we get things done, we share, we cooperate.

Once last thing, I was a very successful Recruiting NCOIC largely because of my leadership philosophy and here it is: I will do what I say I will do when I say I will do it. If I cannot honor this commitment, I will let you know in advance so you will not be harmed by my shortcomings. I am looking forward to a great year.

Semper Fi!

Jim Bennett

From the desk of the Senior Junior Past (soon to not even be that) - unless I can be the Super Senior Junior Past, the possibilities in this direction could be endless.

It's great to be back and I actually will be attending the June meeting. Your incoming Commandant informed me to be there or else, must be something really important happening.  Really did go over to Billings for the Department of Montana Convention and rifle shoot.  Arrived on the firing line on Friday morning and two of my former team members were running the match.  They immediately DQ'ed me prior to firing the first shot.  Got to shoot "off the record" and assist those on the following relays.  First relay (mine) had great weather sunny with no wind, by the third relay the rain was falling and wind was blowing.  Winner fired a 131 out of 150, second/third was a tie at 129.  My "off the record" score was 149, first shot standing was low, just have to concentrate on the front sight a little harder.

Spent a few days working the Ride the West horse show, a good turnout of League members were in attendance to assist with the breakfast and silent auction. Weather was great and the company was terrific, the conversations, sometimes referred to as BS sessions never ended.  Your Commandant put in a lot of time and effort to pull this off, and it showed in the results and favorable comments that were received from the horse lovers.

I have had a request to update the Melvin M. Smith member history book.  I did a large update of this book in July 2003, and have since received back two personal history forms.  These personal history forms are available at meetings that I attend or by snail mail if you can't attend meetings.  Your personal history is limited to two pages, making it one page in the book front and back, any more than that I get to edit it down. If you want to write a novel, you have to publish it yourself.  The book at the last update was divided into three categories, current members, deceased members, and former members/guests. 

Guests are former Marines/Corpsman who are friends or League members who are not members of the M. M. Smith Detachment.  If you have a friend who would be classified as a guest, convince them to join our ranks, I will take their history even if they don't join.  The next update will not be a complete book, just inserts that you can add to the book you currently possess. I still have copies of the original book (3rd edition) and they will be available for purchase at the meetings.  The price is what it cost to have it printed and assembled, $7.00 for the bound edition and $6.00 for the pinned (take apart) edition.  Updates will be priced at the cost of the paper/printing and rounded up to the nearest dollar.

Your thought for the month:  "Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy."  (Steven Wright)

Semper Fi, Doug

JUNE MARINE HISTORY

 

Calendar of Coming Events

Also to plan for this summer—the annual Patient BBQ at the VA Hospital--Will be a Saturday in July or August

Installation of Officers

for both League & Auxiliary will take place at the June meeting

Art Stelting has a picture of the detatchment from sometime in the early 90’s or even late 80’s at the USMC Reserve Center. 

Randy has scanned the original and is attempting to identify everyone.  He would appreciate any help you can give. 

“Once A Marine, Always A Marine”  Semper Fi.

UNDER THE WEATHER (Sick Report)

Our Chaplin, Bill Town, informs us that Ben Taylor is doing well and is now able to come to the meetings.  Val Ritter is doing well, as well; although his platelet count is still low it is better than it ever has been.  Ray Moon is still experiencing a lot of pain, and is on oxygen “24/7”; although his doctors are not sure what is wrong he is staying with the VA for treatment.  Otis Dennis is doing fine and enjoying the warmer weather.  Dora Fish in the hospital for her Parkinson’s disease and something else; Dave and Carol Hamm report that Carol has been assigned to a new program through the VA were doctors and nurses come to her at their home.  Bill Town was in the hospital at that time that he gave this report for a kink in his colon; he was to remain on a liquid diet through Tuesday or Wednesday of the following week to see if the problem would resolve itself.  On the Wednesday before Memorial Day Bill had skin lesions removed.  I can say for everyone that we were all relieved to see Bill at the Memorial Day services ably performing his role as our chaplain.

To my Brothers in Arms….

My participation in recent events is nothing less than pathetic. I wish I had a grand excuse for not being a part of our detachment and the wonderful work you all do. I am a little bitter and not as grown up as the rest of you. I also miss my friend as you all do…again I am not as willing to let go of the past and the present is a constant reminder of change. I miss you all and will make a better effort in the coming year.

I have been beaten to death on the work side of things….Retail is the wrong business to be in right now…. will be out of the state for the better part of June. I am trying to squeeze the department convention in…..

Until the next time…. Jim Stailey

P.S.  Morning Star is planning a memorial for Tim in the near future. They purchased a flag pole and plaque in Tim’s name and are organizing a flag raising ceremony. Once dates become available I will let you all know.

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE

I watched the flag pass by one day; It fluttered in the breeze

A young marine saluted it; And then, he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform; So young, so tall, so proud;

With hair cut square and eyes alert, he’d stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him had fallen through the years?

How many died on foreign soil?  How many mothers’ tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down? How many died at sea?

How many foxholes were soldiers’ graves? No, freedom is not free.

I heard the sound of taps one night, when everything was still. 

I listened to the bugler play and felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times, that taps had meant “amen”

When a flag had covered a coffin, of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children, of the mothers and the wives,

Of fathers, sons and husbands with interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard, at the bottom of the sea,

Of unmarked graves in Arlington, no, freedom is not free.

Written August 26, 1981 by Cadet Major Kelly Strong, Air Force Junior ROTC, Homestead Senior High School, Homestead, Florida

Editor’s Note—I had first seen this poem in the VFW newsletter back in 1997 and was struck by the ability of a  high school student to say so much in so few words.  I wondered what he had been doing since high school, so we did a Google search and located him.  This is what he had to say:

In a nutshell:

Went to four years at the Coast Guard Academy graduating in 1985.  Spent 2 years on the Cutter Boutwell in Seattle.  Attended Navy Flight School.  Flew Falcons for the Coast Guard for the remainder of my career until my retirement in 2005.  Flew for an un-named airline for two and a half years (hint: they fly "blue" jets).  Took a military of leave of absence from that company in 2007 and returned to active duty as a flight instructor at the Coast Guard aviation training center in Mobile, Alabama.  Just received another two year extension to stay in the Coast Guard thru 2011.

Married in 1994 to Najwa, a physical therapist who was born and raised in Lebanon, coming to the US in 1987.  Three kids Ben (13), Skyler (11), and Claire (9).

Thanks for asking.

Who are these Men and Women we call Marines?

He is a police officer on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another-or didn't come back at ALL.

He is the Paris Island Drill Instructor who has never seen combat-but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no account rednecks and city boys into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.

He is the carrier pilot landing on a rolling, pitching, heaving flight deck during a rain squall in the pitch black night of the Tonkin Gulf.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the oceans deep.

He is a Marine who has fought battles in places most people have never heard of: Tripoli, Montezuma, Meuse-Argonne, Belleau Woods, Corregidor, Turk Island, Midway, Saipan, Iwo Jima, In- chon, Khan Shan, Hill 55, Somali, Beirut Lebanon, Iran, Afghanistan and countless others.

But the most outstanding custom in the Marine Corps is simply "being a Marine" and all that it implies. Call it morale, call it esprit de corps, call it what you will-it is that pride which sets a United States Marine apart from the other armed services. It is not taught in manuals, yet it is the most impressive lesson a recruit learns in boot camp. It is not tangible, yet it has won fights against material odds. Perhaps Senator Paul H. Douglas has best defined it:

"Those of us who have had the privilege of serving in the Marine Corps value our experience as among the most precious of our lives. The fellowship of shared hardships and dangers in worthy cause creates a close bond of comradeship. It is the basic reason for the cohesiveness of Marines and for the pride we have in our corps and our loyalty to each other".

DETACHMENT OFFICERS 2008 – 2009

UNIT OFFICERS 2008 - 2009

Return Home