Ballard Eagleson Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3063
"No One Does More for Veterans"
Boy Scout Troop 80 scouts from Magnolia attended the November Thanksgiving social Nov. 18, 2021. The post recognized the scouts for their accomplishments and the scouts mingled with the social attendees and joined in the camaraderie over a tasty dinner prepared by Chef Kay and her crew.
By Harold Rodenberger
We are nearing the end of another year. Thanksgiving has come and gone and Christmas and other year-end holidays are on the near horizon.
Our Thanksgiving social was a successful merging of in-person and take-away dining. The reservation system that is now necessary, worked well and Chef Kay’s dinner was superb, as usual. As long-ago social editors used to write, “A good time was had by all.”
Our traditional Christmas social will be held on the third Thursday, 12/16/21. Menu will be Beef Tenderloin with other dishes, similar to last year. Santa will be there along with some musical entertainers. Please remember that reservations will be required for this and all future dinners, whether dining in or to go. To make those reservations email ([email protected]) or call or text me at 206-972-2135. Deadline for reservations is Monday (12/13) evening at 6 pm.
Our December business meeting is the first Thursday, as usual. Please see our Commander’s message elsewhere in this paper for an urgent invitation to attend in person. If you can’t or aren’t able to attend in person, please join us on Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5057012075?pwd=K1ppc3RCNHRaYkhyNjFhb0w2dkdlQT09 (Password: Ballard306). Meetings start at 7 pm and usually last an hour or so.
As a special treat this meeting, we will hear our Voice of Democracy winner, Nina Kieserman, give her speech. Nina also won the competition at District 2, so will advance to our Washington State level competition. Good luck, Nina!
Our Patriot’s Pen winner, Rylan Calica, and Youth Essay winner, Leela Baker, will read their essays at our Christmas Social. Rylan and Leela also won at District 2 level. Rylan won the eighth grade level but came in second for the overall 6, 7 & 8 grade title. Leela won in the 3-5 grade level and will advance to state competition. Good luck Leela! Please plan to attend and support these young people. Oh, and have a great dinner in the bargain.
Our dark rainy weather makes outside activity more hazardous. Please watch out for others, especially the little ones this time of year.
While in the U.S. Army Comrade Bill Griffith served in South Korea for the entire year of 1964 as a Crew Chief on a De Havilland U6A Beaver (pictured below).
He said he did that most days, except for one day a week when he had to drive to Seoul and pick up steaks for officers from the only butcher who was inspected by the USDA.
He goes on:
The route was complicated and had to be memorized because the street signs were in Korean and their was no GPS. After a couple of training runs with the current driver who was rotating back to the states I was qualified and on my own. Each Tuesday morning I would have breakfast and then check out a jeep or if none was available I would use a Dodge Power wagon.
The picture of the Dodge Power wagon below was taken during my lunch break on this drive. I would wire cans of C rations to the exhaust manifold and when I got hungry I would pull over and eat a warm lunch. I would spend the entire day exploring Korea, my only concern was getting the steaks back to the Officers Club on time.
After Korea I was retrained as a Flight Operations Specialist and served at the Presidio of California Crissy Army Airfield in 1965-66. The arrow on the attached picture shows my office. I don’t think that any window in the US Army had a better view than mine. In August of 1966 after three years in the Army I headed my red Fiat sports car north to Seattle.
We’d love to see your photos too! Submit them to Aly or drop a copy off at the office.
Happy holidays…and a Christmas wish!
As we are about to close out yet another Covid year and become immersed in the Christmas holiday season that heralds in the New Year, I would personally like to extend a very “MERRY CHRISTMAS” wish to each and everyone of you!
As you know, next week will be our last business meeting of the year, and with that I do have a special Christmas wish of my own for that day and beyond. It’s a very simple wish.
That our post membership attendance at the business meetings increase to levels that are more in line with what our actual membership is.
I understand the crippling effect that Covid has had on attendance and that there are some who just won’t be able to attend yet. But as vaccinations increase and Covid levels decrease, the time has come for us to be getting back to post business. It’s time to start getting back to the post!
For some, it may be coming to your first business meeting. We have gained dozens of new members since this Covid stuff started a couple years ago, not to mention however many others we gained before that! Whatever those numbers end up being, we have only had one or two new members showing up at any given meeting.
The few other members that also attend are the old standbys: the staff and other regulars who are always there so we can actually conduct a meeting. We need more than that. We need both the old and the new membership in attendance. We need you to come to the meeting and see what we do. We need your input to help us as we move forward with the many endeavors that the post undertakes. That can only happen if you are in attendance. So please do your best to join us. It starts with next week’s business meeting! We look forward to seeing you.
One of the casualties of all this has been that our membership oath and induction ceremony has not taken place in a very long time. (Note: This is where you typically receive your Membership Pin.) In an effort to finally correct this, we will be conducting the induction ceremony at the onset of our January 6, 2022 business meeting. That’s in one month!
If you have not taken the VFW membership oath, please show up at the January business meeting. There will be others to join you. It is painless, and only takes a short amount of time. You need to do this. If you have already been through this ceremony please come and join us as we meet and welcome new members. Thank You.
Commander Joe Fitzgerald