the vet connection · started and bill morse has done a herculean ef-fort in getting this mis-sion...
TRANSCRIPT
T he dog days of Summer have been with us
for a bit now and usually that means smaller groups at our club meet-ings. Not this Summer! The June meeting had nearly 50 veterans attend and I that is very much appreciated.
This month, the club meeting will be jam-packed! Chuck Ashby from the Veterans Out-reach Center will be with us; Teresa Herrera
from Operation Home-front will be with us;
Tom Asmussen and Dale Huffman from Corte Bella Vets will be with us; and maybe even Chaplain VanderMolen from Luke AFB will be with us. Finally, Mike Welsh from the VA will be there. I really hope you can make it as it will be a special time for the club and our visitors.
We are in full-swing with our support of the “Back-to-School” Bri-gade. Pick-ups at local Dollar Tree stores has started and Bill Morse has done a herculean ef-fort in getting this mis-
sion off the ground. Thanks to him, Jack Todd, Bob Prow, Chris Salzer, Ralph Esola, Bob Meizinger, and Roger Francis for their efforts. They have hit the road, and so far have col-lecting around 4,000 school supplies for the military children at Luke AFB and MCAS Yuma.
The support of “The Moving Wall” was
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“The Vet Connection” is
a monthly newsletter for
the members of the Trilo-
gy Veteran’s Club. If you
have an article that you
would like published,
please send to Scott Duke
Dates for monthly meetings (Meetings start at 4:00 pm)
From the President Page 1
Pies to Veterans Page 2
Meet a Vet Page 3
Adopt-A-Street Page 4
Membership Up-date
Page 5
Veterans Outreach Center Update
Page 5
S.O.S. Page 6
Who am I? Page 7
Moving Wall pic-tures
Page 10
Gift Shop Page 11
Agenda Page 12
In this Issue...
The Vet Connection
July 2018 Volume 2 Issue 7
From the President
Scott Duke
January 30, 2018 June 26, 2018
February 27, 2018 July 31, 2018
March 27, 2018 August 28, 2018
April 24, 2018 September 25, 2018
May 29, 2018 October 30, 2018
amazing by club members. It was emotional, hot, but well received by those that visited the Wall earlier this month. My thanks to Paul Bernard, Richard Brown, Clyde Hansen, Nancy Duke, Jack Dreyfus, Steve Winer, Ian Gale, Marv Shadman, Pat Ian-none, Les Kessler, John Na-wrocki, Bob Swete, Bob Meiz-inger, Denise Carty, Larry Smith, Mary Smith, and Rus-sell Brown. Take a look at page 10 for pictures of the event.
We are moving right along obtaining our 501(c)(3) non-profit status. Our project lead, Joe Ingalls has done a terrific job in getting the forms complet-ed, filing the paperwork, and we already have our Federal ID number. The IRS tells us about 90 days, but it could be much sooner than that. We are hoping to have the non-profit status be-fore the Variety Show in October and the Golf Tournament in No-vember. Thanks to those club members that voted (vote was 76-0), we were able to pay the $275 filing fee. Being a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization is going to take our club to a whole new lev-el. Thanks to everyone!
I know it is too early to be thinking about Veterans Day (Nov 11), but I am excited to pass on to you that during our ceremony at the Flagpole, Kiva Club, we will be entertained by Bugles Across America! Roger Ellis (organization's State Direc-tor) and his wife will be perform-ing a variety of patriotic tunes for us. He is even trying to get a sec-ond bugler, so they can perform
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“Echo Taps.” If you have not seen that performed, it is as impressive as it is remarkable. This will take place after we all “suit-up” and walk the Vietnam Memorial Trail that morning. More information as it becomes available.
And speaking of Veterans Days, we are once again teaming up with Zona Communications to host our “Totes for Troops” program on November 9th. Like we did last year with the Veterans Furniture Cen-ter, residents of Vistancia will be able to stop by the courtyard at Zona and donate cleaning supplies for MANA House. Let’s fill those totes!
Finally, your Board of Directors are in the middle of revising the club’s By-Laws. We are in the final stages of individual reviews, then will meet together and go over the changes. Once we agree, we will present to you, the members for approval. Not much will change, but we will need to include the 501(c)(3) information, and there is much talk about revising the term limits of your officers. More soon on this.
Pies to Veterans
W hen club member, Chris Salzer (Army) read in the paper about Fry’s
Food offering to help donate pies to Vet-erans organizations (over the 4th of July holiday), he jumped into action. He con-tacted the club president, who thought it was a great idea, as well. Postings went up on MTL and e-mails to friends and neighbors were next on the list to get accomplished. When the pie crust settled, Chris had collected 25 pies at a cost of nearly $150 do-nated by club members and residents of Trilogy at Vistancia.
The next day, after the 4th, Chris loaded up his truck and headed down to two Veterans organizations (MANA House and Veterans Outreach Center) to deliver the pies to military veterans in need. It was a wonderful short-notice mission for the club and Chris Salzer represented the Veterans Club in fine-fashion!
O ur “Meet a Vet” this month is Bob Swete.
Bob was born in Woodland, California. He retired as a Lt. Colonel from the United States Marine Corps in
1984 after 20 years of service. He served as an aviator, flying both fixed wing aircraft and helicopters, eventually logging in a total of 2600 flight hours. Following two tours in Vietnam, he was awarded numerous personal decorations and has the distinction of being the first Marine Corps aviator in Vietnam to be awarded three Purple Hearts.
During his deployments, Bob was shot down twice. On March 13, 1967, he was co-piloting an emergency recon team extraction, flying a UH-34D out of Dong Ha to the DMZ. The aircraft took heavy fire when touching down in the landing zone, and after an attempt to take off, it took more hits and crashed into the trees. Bob managed to pull the pilot to safety but was unable to retrieve the two crewmen before the aircraft exploded. He carried the pilot and evaded enemy forces until a rescue CH-46 landed later that day. They came under heavy fire as the aircraft was hovering, and Bob manned a .50 caliber machine gun while the crew attempted to pull the pilot on board. Unfortunately, the aircraft was shot down before they could move off. That night, Bob and the uninjured members of the CH-46 crew defended their position with the aircraft’s .50 calibers retrieved from the wreck. They evaded the enemy for two days and were eventually rescued by an Air Force “Jolly Green.” His pilot died of complications from extensive burns a week later, and Bob, the sole survivor of the first crash, spent six weeks recovering from shrapnel and burns on the hospital ship USS Repose.
After retirement, Bob began a successful career as a financial advisor, moving up into a managerial posi-tion and serving as Regional Vice President in the western United States, Europe and Asia. He is married to Elaine, a former Army nurse who served during the Vietnam War. He has a daughter who is also a nurse, a son-in-law who served in Iraq in the U. S. Army, and two granddaughters.
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D efense Department officials have told Congress they conditionally support opening on-base shopping to disabled veterans, Purple Heart recipients and care-
givers of severely injured veterans -- changes to current law that would add at least a few hundred thousand weekly shoppers to commissaries and exchanges nationwide.
The initiative to allow more veterans access to military stores, which is gaining political stream, is found in the House-passed version of the fiscal 2019 defense author-ization. Proponents argue it would reward with shopper discounts deserving veterans who live near military bases and also strengthen a belea-guered military resale system.
For veterans in the Phoenix area, this would allow access to shop at the Base Exchange (BX) and the Commissary.
L ast month’s turnout to clean-up the streets of Vistancia might have been
the biggest turnout of volunteers this year. Helping with clean-up was Bruce Murray, Paul Bernard, Scott and Denise Carty, Bob Swete, John Nawrocki, and Mike Wertheimer.
Clean-up area expanded from Cir-cle K going down El Mirage to Jo-
max, Vistancia Blvd up to the main gate of Trilogy, and down Vistancia Blvd towards 303 to the Power Lines.
Great job!
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A nother great mission was completed this month at the Veterans Outreach Center (VOC). Mission Leader Chris Salzer, Ron and his wife, Shari Gabaldon,
Richard Brown, Seth Easley, and Luke AFB volunteer Myriah Blazicek-Dills, fed over 30 homeless military veterans.
While our volunteers were serving, the founder of MANA House, Terry Araman stopped by! It was a wonderful visit and the Chile Rellenos Casserole was amazing! Thanks to all that donated a food/beverage item, and to the team that made the trip to Phoenix to the VOC.
I n the last 6 months, our mem-bership has grown by 30! We are averaging 5 new members a month and that is incredible
news for our club!
As a reminder, all new members will receive an e-mail from the Secre-tary, Mark Grindle, with forms to purchase hats, shirts, bricks, and coins, plus important contact infor-mation and a link to the club’s web-site. If you are a new member and have not gotten this e-mail from Mark, please let him [email protected].
A B-52 BUFF was lumbering along at 550 knots at 38000 feet when an F-16 fighter jet flashed by at Mach1.5. The cocky1st Lt. F-16 pilot decided to show
off. On his state of the art radio, that’s part of his state of the art 3-D, million-dollar flight helmet, the F-16 youngster told the BUFF aircraft commander, “Hey Colonel, watch this!”
He promptly went into a barrel roll followed by a steep unimaginable vertical climb. He then finished with a
sonic boom as he broke the sound barrier as the F-16 screamed down at impossible G’s before levelling off at almost sea level. The F-16 pilot climbed back up to altitude and asked the BUFF pilot “What did you think of that Colonel?”
The BUFF pilot said, “That was truly impressive, but watch this!”
The BUFF chugged along for about 5 minutes at the steady 550 knots and then the pilot came back on and said, “What did you think of that?”
Puzzled, the cocky F-16 pilot asked, “What the heck did you do?” The BUFF pilot chuckled and said, “I stood up, stretched my legs for a while, stepped back and used the toi-
let, then got a cup of coffee and ate a cinnamon roll.” Lesson of life:
When you are young and foolish – speed and flash may seem like a good thing!
When you get older and smarter – comfort and dullness isn’t such a bad thing! It’s called S.O.S. – Slower, Older, and Smarter!
Submitted by: Joe Petter
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Don’t forget to check out the Trilogy My Trilogy Life Magazine for a wonderful arti-cle about the Trilogy Veterans Club. The interview took place on July 2nd at the Kiva Club and the intent of the article is to show the charity work of our community under the umbrella of “Trilogy Wings at Work.”
Do you know who I am?
I am a member of the Trilogy Veterans Club and served in the United States Air Force.
Answer can be found on page 12
N ot a bad turnout for a Thursday in July, especially after the Monsoon
blew in a couple days earlier! Thanks to the 21 Vets that made
the hike to V’s!
Thanks for continuing to support.
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PRESIDENT
Scott Duke
SECRETARY Mark Grindle
VICE-PRESIDENT
Bob Meizinger
Member-at-Large Richard Brown
TREASURER Les Kessler
Member-at-Large
Bruce Murray
Member-at-Large
Joe Ingalls
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C ongratulations to Clyde Hansen! Thanks to your gen-erosity,
For this month, we will return to the raffle format and the gift card ($25) will be Freddy’s Burger and Cus-tard.
Who will be the this month’s winner? Dunno, so show up at
winner? Dunno, so show up at 4:00 on July 31st to find out. Heck, donate and dollar or two and it might be you!!
All proceeds from the Raffle goes to paying to offset costs of operating the club and funding various events and causes.
They say “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” In the you can make that horse wish the Hell in had.
H ere are some pictures from the 4 days the club sent volun-teers to Surprise, AZ in support of “The Moving Wall.”
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Be sure to watch a video of the entire event (will show at club meeting this month), including pictures from each day the club vol-unteered. Special thanks to all the club’s photographers who took pictures each day.
T rilogy Veterans Club (TVC) shirts, hats, bricks, and coins are for sale. Prices are below. Please fill out the form (website) and send or hand to Mark Grindle
(Secretary) during our monthly meeting.
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Item Cost
Club Polo Shirt (red) with Veterans Club or Branch of Service Logo $45
Club Tee-Shirt (red) with Veterans Club or Branch of Service Logo $30
Club Hat $30
Club Memorial Brick $40
Club Coin $10
H ere is a look at the agenda for this month’s meeting of the Veterans Club. We hope to see you there!
Meeting comes to order at 1600
Pledge of Allegiance
Presentation of Checks to Operation Homefront
Guest speaker: Chuck Ashby (Veterans Outreach Center)
President’s Comments
Membership Update
Old business
New business
Good of the Club
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If you thought it was Joe Petter, you would be correct!