ARLINGTON VFW POST 981. Your Award-Winning Newsletter SENIOR VICE- COMMANDER

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1 ARLINGTON VFW POST 981 Meetings: 7:00 PM 1 st Weds. Of Each Month Wheeling AMVETS Post #66 Website vfwpost981.org Your Award-Winning Newsletter On June 15 at the State of Illinois Convention in Springfield I was honored to receive an award for 2 nd place in the state for those newsletters published quarterly. Considering the 1 st place newsletter from Taylorville Post 4495 won 1 st place in the nation, I like to think you are reading a pretty good piece of writing, and I will continue to keep standards high. Your Newsletter Editor Mike Kolbuk COMMANDER I am honored and privileged to be your Commander for another year. Thank you for having the faith in me to command the post for another year. The second quarter of the year was very busy. Our very successful Poppy weekend will help us to continue to help those veterans in need. Please read our newsletter about honoring Vietnamera Veterans; Help USA Troops participation; Blood Drive; and the Boomers Outing. If you go to our Facebook there are great pictures and videos about these events.. We are planning another Blood Drive for Veterans Week in November The Memorial Day Parade was again a very moving and positive experience. As a post we had over 20 members attending the event... I had the honor to do the welcoming again and I want to thank my comrades for letting me be an active participant. While I was on the dais, I met Al Macrae, the Grand Marshall of the parade. He is a WWII veteran and was also a member of Easy Company. We provided SUMMER 2018 NEWSLETTER Al with a baseball cap of his unit/division. He was very moved. We volunteered at the Fox Lake American Legion 703 Auxiliary outing for 75 vets from Lovell Hospital. It was an honor to serve these brothers and sisters. Again if you haven t participated in this event I encourage you to consider the next one in mid-august.. The 97th State Convention was a huge success. I and 4 other Post members attended. In addition to the Newsletter award (Congrats Mike), we also participated in the Silver March where each Post who donates to the National Home walks up to the podium and says how much they are giving to this great cause. We donated $1, It was my honor to be the representative for the post. We are now getting ready to ramp up for summer. See the Upcoming Post Activities section of the newsletter.. Smokey (Mike Smogor our Senior Vice) sends out a post calendar as well as requests for help for all these events. Please we need your help even if it is only two hours of your time it will be greatly appreciated. Again thank you for a great year so far and electing me your Commander Yours in service, Steve MacInnes SENIOR VICE- COMMANDER I m honored to be your Senior Vice Commander for another term in We have a great Officer core that works well together and I look forward to another fulfilling year. We have had a successful year recruiting new members. We ve added, since our Spring

2 newsletter, Jim Benso, Bill Smogor, Steve Ross, Bob Wickman, and Larry Bielski all as Life Members. Rich Morbidoni and Alan Sterling have also joined us as Life Member transfers from the Lincolnwood VFW Post. Please join me in welcoming our newest Comrades! We have also lost seven Life Members since last year, and our current membership percentage is about 96. I can t stress enough the importance of recruiting new members to keep our post strong and viable, and to continue to support the VFW in lobbying for increased veteran s benefits. Mike Roggi, our outgoing Service Officer, has gathered much new recruiting material that we will be using at our recruiting efforts throughout the year. Thanks, Mike! Check out our Post Events Calendar for upcoming recruitment events. As always, we can use your help staffing these events. Remember that we offer a 50% discount on Life Memberships, and, due to a generous anonymous donor, we are offering FREE annual memberships in to the next six veterans we enlist. Mike (Smokey) Smogor JUNIOR VICE- COMMANDER The Post will be doing its fall outing at Arlington Race Track on Thursday September 13. For $5 each a Post member and a guest can enjoy a box seat, racing form, and lunch in the 3 rd floor dining room. Of course, any wagering will be on your dime. Any other adults can come for $25. See you there. Mike Kolbuk UPCOMING POST EVENTS Palatine Farmer Market Recruiting Saturday (7/28) Buffalo Grove Farmer Market Recruiting Sunday (7/29) August Post Meeting - Wednesday (8/1) Taste of Arlington Heights Recruiting Saturday (8/4) Arlington Heights Farmer Market Recruiting Saturday (8/25) Buffalo Grove Farmer Market Recruiting Sunday (8/26) Buffalo Grove Days Recruiting Thursday through Monday (8/30-9/3) Buffalo Grove Days Parade Sunday (9/2) September Post Meeting Wednesday (9/5) Arlington Race Track Post Outing Thursday (9/13) October Post Meeting Wednesday (10/3) VOD/PP Entry Deadline Thursday (11/1) TAPS The members of Arlington Post 981, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States of America, pay their last tribute of respect to our departed comrades. The following comrades passed away, or we have been notified of their passing, since the last newsletter came out: Former Commander ( ) Walter Begley Robert Bentz Frank H. Caruk

3 As brave men and women they marched away with abiding faith in their God, their country, and their flag. As soon as is possible we request that family members notify the Post via telephone (listed on our website) if a comrade has passed away. Too many times we must rely on seeing an obituary in the newspaper which leaves little or no time for members to pay their final respects. If a family in the Arlington Heights area wishes a 21-gun salute, they should contact American Legion Post 208 in Arlington Heights ( ). NEW POST OFFICERS At our June 2018 Post meeting the officers for the fiscal year were sworn in by Tom Davidson from the 4 th District. The officers were unchanged from last year with the exception of Service Officer Matt Voss and each Trustee moving up a year and Pat Hickey becoming the Three Year Trustee. Here is your list of officers: Commander Steve MacInnes Sr. Vice-Commander Mike Smogor Jr. Vice-Commander Mike Kolbuk Quartermaster Roger Santagato Chaplin Dale Berg One Year Trustee Adolf Stransky Two Year Trustee Bob Wisniewski Three Year Trustee Pat Hickey Judge Advocate Henry Mueller Adjutant Vince Cipolla Officer of the Day Adolf Stransky Service Officer Matt Voss Thanks to Mike Roggi for his service to the Post. Another Record Poppy Day Thanks to the leadership and organizational skill of Henry Mueller, our Post Poppy sales efforts in May proved to the highest yet. A total of $5,452 was collected to help veterans and active duty troops. The collecting was done at the train station platforms at Arlington Heights, Arlington Race Track and Buffalo Grove as well as locations in both Arlington Heights and Buffalo Grove. The Post does not work in Wheeling or Palatine so that we do not compete with AMVETS or the Palatine Legion.. Here is a list of all the programs that our Post supported with Poppy Day Money last year: American Legion for VA hospital patient outings Help USA Troops postage for active duty armed forces Postage to send jerky to active duty armed forces Houston storm victims Toiletries for VA hospital patients Canteen books for VA hospital patients Aid to help Post member National Home re-building project Post member Honor Flight expenses Ideas for spending the Poppy fund are always welcome, with the emphasis on helping veterans in the local area along with active duty troops. As always, all money collected is kept in a separate fund and proposals for spending will be reported to the Post as part of the budget process. Vietnam-Era Veterans Honored On Tuesday, March 27, 2018 local area Vietnamera veterans (served ) were honored at AMVETS Post 66 by Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi from Illinois 8 th Congressional District. The activities started at 7:30 AM with signing in and eating breakfast provided by the Congressman

4 coffee and orange juice, doughnuts, bagels, muffins, pastries and fruit. At 9:15 Post 981 Color Guard presented the colors and Commander Steve MacInnes led the room in the Pledge of Allegiance. After a prayer, Wheeling Village President Pat Horcher thanked all veterans for their service. Congressman Krishnamoorthi then talked, describing the design of the pin that was to be given to veterans. Buffalo Grove Village President Beverly Sussman was also in attendance. Veterans were led in pairs to the front and the Congressman and President Horcher placed the pin on each veteran s shirt. The ceremony ended with a picture being taken of all the veterans with the dignitaries. Five Post members were in attendance to put up advertising signage, greet arrivals, and talk about the VFW to any interested parties. Arboria personnel brought their resident veterans to our table so we could meet them and honor them with pins from their service branches. We took a picture with them for their keepsake. Voice of Democracy/ Patriot s Pen The VOD and PP season will begin in earnest in July. If you know of any junior high students (grades Patriot's Pen) or high school students (grades Voice of Democracy), let them know about this program or have them contact Mike Smogor. This year s themes are Why My Vote Matters (VOD) and Why I Honor the American Flag (PP). HelpUSATroops Assisted by VFW Post 981 On the last weekend of April, Post members Steve MacInnes, Mike Smogor, Mike Roggi, Dale Berg, Jim Bensoe, and A J Stransky helped pack boxes for shipping by Help USA Troops. The Post had earlier donated $1,500 to help pay for the shipping postage. A record 950 boxes were packed and shipped to active duty troops around the world. Arboria Blood Drive On May Post 981, in conjunction with LIFESOURCE, had a blood drive at Arboria of Long Grove.

5 Boomers Game Outing June 24 On perfect June 24 a record number of Post members and their guests (42) met at the Schaumburg Boomers ballpark for an all-you-caneat picnic lunch and a lively minor league baseball game. Lunch consisted of pulled pork, hamburgers and bratwurst along with hot dogs, all the fixings, pasta salad, and potato chips. Dessert was hard frozen ice cream sandwiches. There was more than enough ice-cold soft drinks and water to refresh our thirst. We were able to indulge ourselves for 1 ½ hours, even taking food and drink to our seats in the stands. Our seating section was in the sun, with a nice, cool breeze keeping us cool, but about ½ of our party opted for shady areas. The game itself was most enjoyable, with great fielding plays and lots of hitting, but not by the Boomers. At the end of the game the Boomers lost 6-2. Jim Benso joined at our April meeting. Jim was in the Army and served in Vietnam in Jim is a retired painter, is married with 4 children and 4 grandchildren, and still plays a mean lick on the guitar. Richard Morbidoni and Alan Sterling transferred in May into our Post from the dissolved Post 3854 of Lincolnwood. Richard was a Navy Corpsman from stationed in Japan and Korea. Alan was a Commander and Quartermaster at Lincolnwood, and was in the Army from and , stationed in Korea also. New Post Members Bill Smogor (Smokey s brother) joined at our April meeting. Bill was in the Army stationed at the DMZ in Korea in1966. Bill is married with children and grandchildren. Before retiring he was Director of Data Processing for American National Can.

6 Bob Wickman and Steve Ross joined in June. Bob was in the Air Force and served in Korea. He is currently divorced, has a daughter, and retired after a career working for the U.S. Government. Steve is an avid golfer who was in the Army and also served in Korea. Memorial Day Parade and closing ceremony. Pictures of this are available on the link below. Please see the photos at: ms/ You can also see photos on our Facebook website and our Website For the summer parades, the Color Guard will be wearing their summer uniforms which includes the black mesh baseball caps with our VFW Post 981 Logo on the cap. On a more somber note the Color Guard is now performing Final Salute Ceremonies for our departed comrades in the post. We are now fully prepared to do this. We will leave no brother or sister behind and we will make sure they get the proper goodbye they deserve. This in my mind is one of the most important duties and privilege of the Guard. If you are interested in joining the Color Guard or want to learn more about it please contact Steve Macinnes Stevemac1027@gmail.com Memorial Day Parade Beautiful day, supportive residents, and a Channel 5 film crew. Post 981Color Guard Comrades, The Color Guard has been very busy this quarter. We presented the colors at the Help USA Troops Packing Day. We marched as a combined unit with American Legion Post 208 in

7 VFW POST 981 ARLINGTON PARK TRIP Arlington International Racecourse A Day at the Races JOIN US ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 FOR 1:20 PM POST TIME. BOX SEAT, PROGRAM AND LUNCH INCLUDED. ENTER AT EUCLID AVENUE STARTING AT NOON, MENTION VFW POST 981 FOR ADMISSION. LUNCH SERVED NEAR BOX SEAT. Post Members and 1 Guest - $5 a piece; Added Guests $25 ***************************************************************************************************************************** ************************** Send your reservations and checks (made out to VFW Post 981) to: Mike Kolbuk, 654 Briarwood Drive; Wheeling, IL Deadline for reservations will be the night of the September Post meeting September 5, Name $5 Guest Number of $25 Guest Amount enclosed $ Lunch Sandwich Choices BBQ Chicken Bratwurst Black Bean Burger

8 ARLINGTON VFW POST 981 C/O Mike Kolbuk P.O. Box 825 Arlington Heights, IL TO: