FIRST DIVISION JUNE/ JULY 2016 ISSUE WELCOME TO THE AMERICAN LEGION. Please visit the First Division online at: vision.

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1 WELCOME TO THE AMERICAN LEGION FIRST DIVISION JUNE/ JULY 2016 ISSUE Please visit the First Division online at: vision.org FRO M THE DESK O F THE C O MMAN DER Members of the First Division, this edition of the newsletter will be for June and July. With the months being very busy for us all, the publication of a single newsletter would be a chore. Memorial Day has gone past and I was very busy with events in the 2nd, 7th, and 9th Districts and a journey to Abraham Lincoln. To be with my fellow Legionnaires during this time was great for the spirit. Now, this year the Division has accomplished a lot, we have given strong support to the Four Pillars of The American Legion with our participation in the programs. At this writing the Division membership is firmly in second place in the Department and that has been unheard of in the past. We have the top 3 districts in the Department and I feel that we can have 5 districts in the top ten. We have, as of Memorial Day, 4 weeks to finish our task (June 24, 2016) for 100%. This can be done. Leaders of the 100% Districts, have you offered to help your fellow districts to reach their goals? Remember we are a team. At the Department Convention when I come to you in the caucus room I will ask each Commander the following question pertaining to your 1

2 membership. Did You Do Your Best? Hopefully you can answer honestly. I will also elaborate as to my statement. What IS Your Mission Statement? Soon, we will have our Division Convention. You will have elected a new corps of Division Officers, District Commanders, and you will turn over your District to your Senior Vice. Though our term of command has ended I hope that each of you will in turn use your experience to help your District grow. I will, in turn, support the new officers in the Division to help them and the Division grow. I will be around to help you if needed. Everyone should come to the Department Convention July It is a time to see how the Legion works, meet other Legionnaires and come to the Division Hospitality Room, which I have been told will be 5 Star. Drive on Junior Vice. There will be training sessions for Chaplains and The 100 year celebration. You can also visit the Lincoln Library for $7.00 with your ID in hand. Let's have a big turnout. Remember, ask any of the Division Officers and we will give you all the help you need for your membership drives. It has been an honor to serve with you for the past year. We have been through good times and bad times and we have pulled together. I could not be prouder of a group of leaders. Hang Tough Mike Carder JUNE: FRO M THE DESK O F THE JUN IO R VIC E COMMANDER My Brothers and Sisters of the Fighting First Division, thank you so much. Our 1 st First Division Family Luncheon (Past Presidents/Past Commanders) was on April 3rd. Only One Word SUCCESS. Congratulations to every District and every Post. It is because of your hard work, your drive, your ability to push forward, and NOT taking NO for an answer that we are in the number TWO position 2

3 in the State standings. This is exactly why we are the FIGHTING FIRST DIVISION. By the Time this Newsletter arrives to your mailbox, we will have had our Mini Convention. That said, our State Convention is only weeks away and I know The Fighting First Division will be well represented!! I'm requesting bartenders to help on Wednesday evening July 13, 14, and at the Luncheon on Friday the 15th. If you wish, to sign on please call me at or me at asiciliano974@yahoo.com. The mornings of July 14th and 15 th, the Hospitality Room will open at 6:00 AM for a Continental Style Breakfast for you early risers. Again, thank you so much, God bless you and God bless America. Anthony J. Siciliano J.V.C JULY: My Brothers and Sisters of the Fighting First Division, I thank you for your support. The time is now as we move forward into the Year to formulate our Membership Strategy. Recruitment, Retention and Referrals! The Fighting First Division's Year was and is outstanding. The race is far from over. We have until June 27 th to be at 100+ %!! Together we can make this happen!! Have Department send you a 2910 list of qualified members within your District. Most of these Legionaries are looking for a Post they can call Home! Contact Dee Dalton at At the moment the Fighting First Division remains in 2 nd Place in Department. Next, Department Convention is literally days away. As J.V.C. my responsibility is the First Division's Hospitality Room at the Wyndham Springfield's Rondaveux Room. A little different twist this year: the Hospitality Room will open at 6:00 AM for the early risers to enjoy a Continental Style Breakfast before attending the Convention and it's various programs. Convention Dates July 12-17, For those of you who would like to help Bar Tend You can me at asiciliano974@yahoo.com or call 3

4 me at Looking forward to seeing you at the Convention and looking forward to working with you during this Membership Year #1 for the Fighting First Division. WE CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN!! All it takes is one existing member to sign up one new member. If we do this, we will double our membership. IMAGINE!!! Again Thank You So Much For Your Support. God Bless You! God Bless America. Anthony J. Siciliano Sr.V.C. Elect FRO M THE DESK O F THE SERVICE O FFICER Both our Division miniconvention and Department conventions will soon be here. Before we take a short hiatus for the summer I want to share with you what I have accomplished as your Division service officer. To start off it has been a pleasure and honor to serve the First Division as your representative on the VA&R Commission for the year as well as one of the two Division service officers. I attended two VA&R meetings, which were held at our Bloomington headquarters and also the Washington D.C. conference. VA benefit law changes continue and every effort was made to get this info to the Division level. This was done by way of my monthly articles in the Department and Division newsletters, oral presentations before the Division meetings and having handouts available. I also hosted 11 Power Point presentations at local posts, senior centers, Job Fairs, VA hospitals and other locales. These events covered the entire spectrum of VA benefits from headstones to home loans and pensions to hospital care. I hope to do more of these in the fall if appointed to this position again The 1 st. Division will have 33 resolutions submitted to our Department convention and will be by far the most from any Division in the state. We hope most of them will go on to our National convention for adoption at that level. I have been the editor of a monthly article in the Department newsletter entitled Did You Know and have received many favorable comments. You can view these 4

5 articles (back three years) on the Department web site Look for the tab marked VA&R. Feel free to copy and paste these articles into your district or post newsletters. Just give credit to Department if you do. I have also cohosted a monthly BINGO game at VA Jesse Brown hospital. Post 183 and the 1 st. Division are cosponsors. These games are held at 2:00 on the first Monday of the month. Veteran patients come down from the wards and outpatient clinics to play. We average veterans per game and $200+ is given out in prizes and raffle gifts each month. Donations for this are welcome. The VA&R Director of the Chicago office, Wayne Macejak, was able to get funding from Department and that office is now fully staffed. We now have a full-time female service officer, Carolina Contreras, who also is fluent in Spanish. She served in the Navy as a corpsman and will specialize in female veteran claims. Terry James is our other full-time service officer and he is a service-connected disabled veteran who served with the Marines in Iraq. We again have walk-in hours as follows: Monday through Thursday 9:00 to 12:00 and 1:00 to 3:00. Appointments can be made for Fridays. Telephone hours are Monday through Friday from 8:00 to 4:00 with 24/7 voic after that. Our 1 st Division website is a good place to find current information affecting veterans benefits and programs. Check it out at We have finally added a tab entitled Post to Rent. You can get a drop down menu listing all the Posts and point-of-contacts for those who rent their halls. Our Division hosted 3 District revitalization projects. They were in the 3 rd, 7 th and 9 th Districts and were very successful. I was at each one and as veterans had questions on their Veterans Administration benefits I assisted them. Several new claims were filed. On January 9 th 2016 we held our annual Service Officer Training class. We had over 150 attend and lots of valuable information was given out. We will continue this next year and we are tentatively set for May 2017 at the Franklin Park Post. Details will follow. 5

6 The biggest law change this year was for service-connected disabled veterans on the state level. There was a property tax reduction/exemption passed as follows: Vets rated 30-40%: $2,500 reduction in assessed value Vets rated 50-60%: $5,000 reduction in assessed value Vets rate 70% or more:no PROPERTY TAXES! If you were not aware of this you can contact your property tax office and ask for an amendment to your tax bill. This benefit in most respects passes on to the surviving spouse. I continue to push our comrades to take advantage of ebenefits and My healthevet websites. There are very useful tools and one can check their claims and appeals or questions to their doctor. The veterans scratch off lotto tickets are still being sold by the State of Illinois and your Department benefits in part from their sales. I attended several town hall meetings at the VA Regional Office and Jesse Brown hospital. I made our presence known by wearing my cover and asked several pointed questions from the floor. I will continue to attend these events and ask others to come out and wear your blue hats. The Cook County Recorder of Deeds has come out with a veterans discount card. This can be obtained at the downtown office of the Recorder or one of four suburban locations. This card entitles veterans to special discounts in participating businesses in Cook Co. The Veterans Administration will be issuing a universal veteran ID card early next year. Details will follow as they are made available. In closing, I wish to thank outgoing Commander Carder for letting me serve on this committee and as one of the Division Service Officers. If you should have any comments or concerns regarding this report or a question on any VA benefit program please call me at I have 24/7 voice mail. Or me: Raymond.Toczek@va.gov 6

7 On June 4th at the First Division Convention Officers for Legion year were Elected. The new officers will take their post after the Department Convention in July. Congratulations to: Gary Whyte, Commander Tony Siciliano, Sr. Vice Commander Joe Lampert, Jr. Vice Commander Bernard Bartmetko, Finance Officer The installation of officers is scheduled for August 7, 2016 at Franklin Park Post 974, 9757 Pacific Ave., Franklin Park, IL from 2:00PM - 6:00PM. More info to follow. 7

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9 You no longer have to wait for a copy of your DD It's official; DD-214s are NOW Online. Please pass on to other vets. The National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) has provided the following website for veterans to gain access to their DD-214s online: or tryhttp:// This may be particularly helpful when a veteran needs a copy of his DD-214 for employment purposes. NPRC is working to make it easier for veterans with computers and Internet access to obtain copies of documents from their military files. Military veterans and the next of kin of deceased former military members may now use a new online military personnel records system to request documents. Other individuals with a need for documents must still complete the Standard Form 180, which can be downloaded from the online web site. Because the requester will be asked to supply all information essential for NPRC to process the request, delays that normally occur when NPRC has to ask veterans for additional information will be minimized. The new web-based application was designed to provide better service on these requests by eliminating the records centers mailroom and processing time. Please pass this information on to former military personnel you may know and their dependents. 9

10 CALENDAR OF EVENTS July 10 th, 2016 SAL Presents Baseball with Chicago White Sox vs. Braves Donation is $55 Contact Sergio Sanese at (773) or Flyer enclosed July 12-17, th Annual Department Convention Springfield, IL July 22 nd, :00 AM- 12:00 PM Veterans Fair Robert E. Coulter. Jr post # S. LaGrange Rd. La Grange, IL Sponsored by Robert E Coulter Post 1941 and Congressman Dan Lipinski Call with questions August 7 th, 2016 First Division Installation of Officers Franklin Park Post Pacific Ave Franklin Park, IL August 28 th, th Annual Fort 2 Base Run/Walk Race Visit for registration information and registration Contact Beth Salinger at (312) or beth@fort2base.com Discount code CHIVET to save 10% off registration fee September 7 th, 2016 First Division Meeting Calumet Memorial Post Legion Dr., Calumet City, IL 10

11 OFFICER & OTHER CONTACT INFORMATION COMMANDER: MIKE CARDER (847) VICE COMMANDER: GARY WHYTE (773) JUNIOR VICE COMMANDER: ANTHONY SICILIANO (312) FINANCE OFFICER: BERNARD DARMETKO (708) SERVICE OFFICER/ VA&R CHAIRMAN: RAYMOND TOCZEK (312) ASSISTANT SERVICE OFFICER: CHARLES BOSKO (312)

12 First Division, Cook County Council The American Legion, Department of Illinois Dearlove Rd. Apt. 2A. Glenview, Il Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Bloomington, IL Permit No. 18 If you would like to be added to the First Division Newsletter, or for any other issues, concerns, or address changes, please feel free to contact: Natalie F. C. Durec Monthly Publication Editor Mike Carder, Commander 12