This will be my last contribution to the Post newsletter in my soon to end capacity as Post Commander. After the changeover officially takes effect after the VFW state convention in June, you can look forward to the dynamic prose of new Commander Nestor Tamayao. In the interim, I want to provide you with a few updates and special recognitions.
Our Honor Guard has now received three surplus M1 Garand rifles, thanks to the effort of our colleague Bill Hoeller. Bill has devoted considerable time getting our Honor Guard off the ground and researching proper drill and ceremony and Honor/Color Guard etiquette. Thanks Bill, for your hard work. In addition, among the many of you that assisted with our District 2 fundraiser on May 1, I want to offer particular appreciation to Russ and Kay Seelig, who contributed a significant amount of the food preparation, ticket sales and auction items. I’m pretty sure they were the first to arrive for set up and the last to leave. My thanks also to the many of you that did your part to make our fundraiser successful.
On May 18, I represented the post at the military honors service for recently passed 1st Lt. David Bauders, who died in Iraq on May 6 while serving as a platoon leader in the 176 Engineer Company of the Washington National Guard. The service at Tahoma National Cemetery was heavily attended and featured an impressive turnout of Washington State Patrol Troopers (the late Lt. Bauders’ day job) and a contingent of Seattle police officers, one of whom is the brother of the deceased. The death of Lt. Bauders reminds us that the conflict in Iraq continues to absorb American resources, and sometimes lives, even as our media seems to have lost interest in the story the second former President George W. Bush left the White House for the ranch in Crawford, Texas. I offer my thanks to citizen soldier Lt. David Bauders for his efforts to keep us all safe from the ISIS animals spawned by what has become a largely underreported war. I urge all of you to keep Lt. Bauders and his surviving family in your hearts and prayers.
By Aaron Stoltz