Carrollton, Georgia Post #143 Post Office Box 647 Carrollton, Georgia 30112- Post Commander Ronnie Pate: 404-406-4721. sronniepate1@att.net Adjutant Frank Joswick: 770-832-7294 Winter Newsletter February 2015 Post 143 Officers & Committee Chairs: Commander: Ronnie Pate: 404-406-4721 SR Vice/Membership- Wayne Driver: 770-830-7146 Auxiliary - Jeanette Henson: 770-834-7470 Judge Adv. Richard Guynn: 770-834-3963 Adjutant - Frank Joswick: 770-832-7294 Service Off - Ted Merriss: 770-548-0038 Chaplain Larry Boswell: 770-301-2809 Finance Off- Chuck Feaselman: 770-459-6345 Sgt At Arms Joe Morgan: 404-312-4091 Jr. Vice/Americanism John Bassett: 770-830-8808 Historian Jim Leak: 770-832-8811 Children & Youth- Chuck Bass: 770-832-3003 Honor Guard Sam Pyle: 770-537-5438 Jr. Vice/Pub Relations - Dale Robinson: 770-854-4150 Finance Herman Ayres: 770-258-3733 Legislative Joe Harrod: 770-854-8126 Welcoming - Joe Morgan: 404-312-4091 Service Committee- Horace Geter: 770-832-8939 Cyber Committee Randy Purser: 770-836-0125 Commander s Comments: Greetings American Legion Post 143 Family. We re experiencing another successful year thanks to the dedication of the Members, Committee Chairs, and Officers. The 2015 Membership goals have been achieved by the Sons of The American Legion and Post Legionaries with the Auxiliary Unit rapidly closing in on 100%. We will apply for an American Legion National Ribbon in recognition of the Post Family reaching 100% of Membership Goal upon the Auxiliary Unit reaching this milestone. We miss those Family Members that have not taken the time to renew their respective Membership. One main requirement in being successful is having an adequate number of Members supporting and practicing the principles as laid out by the Four Pillars of the American Legion. Therefore, I m asking non-renewed members to come back to this great organization, please. Today is 19 February 2015 and counting down to spring s arrival on 20 March 2015. I see Jonquils blooming and Eastern Blue Birds checking out available nesting boxes in my back yard. However, when I observed an outside temperature of 15 deg. F. this morning, spring is a ways off. Weather conditions should never get in the way of serving others. A bit of history that I want to share with you is related to the most famous battle in the Pacific Theatre during WW II. Seventy years ago today, 19 February 1945, the battle to take the Island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire started. 70,000 U.S. Marines, U.S. Navy Corpsman, U.S. Army Air Forces, and others participated in this five-week fierce & bloody battle. We are fortunate to have three of these Iwo Jima heroes amongst us in Post 143; Carlos Fuller (Navy FMC Corpsman), Frank Scott (USMC), & William (Bill) Head (USMC). A loud Ooh Rah goes out to these Comrades. Please forgive me if I have inadvertently missed an Iwo Jima Veteran that belongs to Post 143. Of course, we honor all the WW II Service Heroes that made up the Greatest Generation. Please add the next Post General Membership Meeting date of March 19 th @ 6:00 PM to your calendar. Of course, the meeting will be held at the Carroll County Veterans Building located at 1790 Stripling Chapel Road, Carrollton, GA. We have invited Dr. John Henry Burson, III to make an informative talk related to his Military Service in Iraq, Afghanistan and Military Medicine. Dr. Burson is a retired Army LTC with four tours of duty; Operation Iraqi Freedom 2005-2006, 2007 and Operation Enduring Freedom Afghanistan 2009, 2012. In addition, he provided medical assistance to Sadam Hussein. Therefore, do not miss this first hand War Zone report from a local boots on the ground Physician. 1
In closing, I very impressed with the achievements of the Post Family, hence, we are applying to be considered for the National American Legion Post Excellence Award. Thank You for your continued dedicated service! FOLLOWING ARE REPORTS OF RECENT ACTIVITIES OF THE POST ---- JOIN A COMMITTEE Adjutant: Frank Joswick: I want to thank the Post members that have already renewed their 2015 membership. Your continued support of the Post and the Legion is greatly appreciated, however, members that have not paid are now considered delinquent for 2015. It is not too late though to pay your dues and once again become a member in good standing. Therefore, I urge you to take the time to mail your $25.00 membership check to the Post or if you prefer, pay me at any of the regular membership meetings. Another area I need your help with is everyone signing the post sign-in sheet. This sheet actually becomes a permanent record of the Post and should accurately reflect all members in attendance. Furthermore, it is also used as a tally sheet to determine how many meals the Post will have to order for the next meeting. So please remember to sign in. Finally I would like to ask members that have had a change of address, phone number or email address to annotate such changes by using the corrections sheet placed on the sign-in table or email the information to me at: www.adjutantpost143@outlook.com Finance Officer: Chuck Feaselman: The Finance Committee must approve the transferring of funds from one budget category to another or any transfer of funds from the General Fund into the budget. Final approval must be voted on by the Executive committee. Chaplain: Larry Boswell: Our Chaplain continues to work with the Georgia National Guard and our local funeral homes to coordinate the Post Honor Guard Teams who provide the military honors for our veterans funerals. This is a very important part of the funeral service for the families and is done in remembrance of their loved one s part in keeping our flag flying over a free nation. Membership: Wayne Driver, Chairman: Post is at a goal achievement of 143.6% with a membership of 214. Our Department is leading the nation in growth compared to 2014. Legislative: Joe Harrod, Chairman: Congress was busy with re-election campaigns and since elections there has been posturing for committees etc. They are now getting down to business and are discussing coming legislation. Really there has been nothing to report for the last quarter. Honor Guard: Sam Pyle, Chairman: American Legion Post 143 Honor Guard continues to serve the community on a weekly basis with honors provided for veterans funerals. We have been honored to provide our services recently for several of our own deceased post members. One we will always remember is sixteen year Honor Guard Veteran, Isidro Rivera. We will always remember his greetings of "Hey Buddy", His love of the M1 Rifle, his attempts to play the guitar and his stage whispered instructions of how to fold the flag during an actual funeral, no less. This past month, we had a successful AP3 Training class with the Ga. National Guard. Thanks go to SSGT Gore and his team for their support. A hardy welcome to new Honor Guard members Ron Price, Robert Wessinger, Tim Bass, Steve McEwen and Gene Yearley. As soon as these members can get their uniforms squared away, we will most certainly put them to work. Historian Jim Leak has requested pictures of the Honor Guard for a scrapbook. We will make every effort to have everyone s photo included in this project. Children and Youth: Chuck Bass, Chairman: Carrollton ROTC donated $100 to pay for T-shirts 1 st qtr Heritage Days Sept 25 & 26th Post donated $250 as a sponsor and 13 member worked 65 hours as tour guides and parking attendants. SAL Squadron 143 also donated $150 to Heritage Days. Over 1200 students from Carroll County schools attended. Marine Corp League Toys For Tots Post 143 contributed 92 hours to this worthy cause. Service Committee: Horace Geter: I have been working with Ted on getting the names of homeless vets who need help and together we have been able to locate and distribute blankets, personal items, feed several needy vets in our area. We are also getting them helped into the Trinka Davis Clinic for physicals and some amount of health 2
care that they are in need of. We continue to look for more of these veterans who need our help, and are working with other organizations in the area who can contribute items or services for them. Public Relations: Dale Robinson, Chairman: Post 143 continues to gain support from the community through the visible efforts of our members who are seen participating in the many projects we have going on. We continue to receive support from the Times Georgian and the local radio stations. Our Post is blessed to have a very good reputation for community service around the county which opens many doors for us. Each of our members becomes a part of the Public Relations Team every time they put on the blue cap, kinda like Superman s cape. Cyber Committee: Randy Purser: On November 10, 2014 a Post 143 Facebook Page was established. To access the site, go to your personal Facebook Page and type in the search box: American Legion Georgia Post 143. If you are a member of the Post 143 family, you are eligible to be a member/friend of the site. Just click on like and request to be a friend of the site. Take care to avoid posting any off-color remarks. The posts will be monitored by the Cyber Committee. Auxiliary President: Jeanette Henson: We celebrated Veteran s Day at the Carroll County Veterans Park on Saturday prior to Veteran s Day by passing out poppies to Carroll County s WWII Veterans that had been invited to the celebration in addition to friends and family members. On December 10, 2014 we held our Christmas Shop for the residents along with Auxiliaries 264 and 145. This being our first time at Trinka Davis for a Christmas Shop we fell that it was successful (we had some gifts left that we can use for next year). We used our poppy proceeds to buy supplies. We are currently working on Girl s State delegates. We have visited several Schools meeting with girls interested in going this summer. We are sad to say we lost of one of our Legion Family members, Mr. Farris Berry, 94 years old, World War II Veteran. He was a resident of the Trinka Davis Living Center. He was one of bingo players on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month. Three of our Auxiliary members (Jeanette A. Henson, Melba Simpson and Patsy West) had the pleasure of attending his Going Home service in Montgomery, AL. Melba Simpson and I attended the 5 th District meeting in Dallas on February 8, 2015. We continue to volunteer at the Trinka Davis Medical Center as Greeters, Phone callers and assisting in the Department of Veterans Services and also with The Trinka Davis Living Center providing Bingo twice a month and a Monthly Birthday Party for the residents. There are now 26 residents in The Living Center. November, December and January volunteer work are as follows: (1) Trinka Davis Veterans Village and Clinic 328 ¼ hrs. (2.) Community Service 175 hours. Money donated for Veterans $ 773.00; Community Donations $ 2663. Veterans Memorial Park: President Don Levans: Six new walls are being added to our wonderful park. The new walls essentially surround the Bell Tower and provide a permanent placement for the Fire Pit. This addition also adds a third entrance to the park. In order to make the new walls completely compatible with the original walls, it will be necessary to remove the Bell Tower and the walkway to it, then bring in fill dirt to make the elevation correct. As construction proceeds the Fundraising Committee will be busy canvassing the community seeking grants/donations/gifts as we go about raising the $50,000 needed to complete the expansion. A part of the expansion program is the introduction of two NEW Memorial Plaques: A new 10X16 plaque pried ar $200.00 will be placed on the ends of existing walls. A new Memorial Brick (8X8) will be added that will be placed along the new walkways being constructed in the park priced at $175.00 If you don t have a plaque in the park, please consider one of these new offerings. A SUPER fundraising event (an old time USO Show) will be held at the Amvets Post 99 on Saturday April 25 from 1800 to 2100 hours. Tickets are $25.00 Call Don at 678-246-8446 SAL: Paul Aust, Commander: The SAL membership has reached 100%, but we need growth in the ranks. Any of our regular Legion members who have fathers or grandfathers who were veterans can become dual members and are urged to do so. Cost is only $10. 3
Americanism: John Bassett: Boys State: Steve Fuller stated that six county high schools were visited and 79 students expressed an interest in the Boys/Girls State program. 30 students accepted applications and Bowdon HS just requested additional applications. Temple HS is the last school we will visit. Steve also said that the Post would like to sponsor 7 boys and 7 girls to State. Commander Pate said the current budget only allows the Post to fund 6 boys and 6 girls. However, the Department said not to turn anyone down because they may be able to make up any fund short falls. He also said that local outside organizations may be able to help as well. Steve went on to thank Commander Pate and his wife Sandy, and Jeanette Henson for helping out with the school visits. Commander thanked Steve for showing him the process that makes the Boys/Girls State program such an awarding one. The Commander also stated that we need to double our efforts in getting students interested in the Oratorical program as well. Historian: Jim Leak: Carroll Post 143 Historian Jim Leak is, not only, working on our 2014-2015 history, but he is also working on our 80 year history. Formed in 1935, this year is our 80th anniversary. At the post we only have historical info and pictures/newspaper clippings that go back to the 1980s or so. We don't have any info except the names of the commanders, names of the adjutants and the membership total in each of the 80 year. And that is all Department of Georgia has, too. We are fortunate, however, that the Nema Lomason Library in Carrollton has the Carroll County newspapers back that are (and further) on microfilm. So Jim is going through those newspapers and finding a lot of news articles about our post in the yearly years. When completed he hopes to have our 80 year history professionally bound and a copy placed in each of the five Carroll county libraries. If you have old info about Carroll Post 143 or have an interest in helping with this work, contact Jim Leak at jgleak@gmail.com. Service Officer: Ted Merriss: The Veterans Service Officer will be leaving and a replacement is scheduled in by March 16th. He went on to say that between 30 and 35 veterans visit the clinic daily seeking information regarding veterans benefits or medical care. Those seeking medical treatment must have a copy of their DD214. If, they don t have one, Ted will help in getting one. PICTURES OF SOME POST HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PAST QUARTER Alvin Chambers with Grandson Caleb New Wall Construction and Expansion Begins at CCVMP Veterans Day Awards Program 2014 January, 2015 4
TAPS ROBERT MCBRIDE...OCT 19, 2014 ALVIN CHAMBERS...DEC 6, 2014 RAYMOND HUGHES..DEC 12, 2014 DONALD VANCE...DEC 14, 2014 ISIDRO RIVERA...DEC 28, 2014 DORRIS CAREL...JAN 8, 2015 FERRIS BERRY...JAN 18, 2015 Coming events: Mark March 19 th @ 6:00 PM to your calendar. We have invited Dr. John Henry Burson, III to make an informative talk related to his Military experiences during four deployments through the Gulf War Post EC Meeting Mar 5, 2015@ 1700hrs Post Gen. Membership Meeting Mar 19, 2015 @ 1800hrs The Department Spring Conference & Georgia League Conference is scheduled for March 27-29 in Marietta, GA. Fishing For Freedom Saturday, May 2 at Plant Wansley Park, 7:00 am 5:00 pm If you have email and are not receiving the Newsletter or other releases by email, please send an email to donlevans@msn.com ---- This will allow you to receive more information AND save postage. 5
Carrollton Post 143 Post Office Box 647 Carrollton, Georgia 30112-0647 6