History – Page 10 – Ballard Eagleson Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3063

Officer Profile: Commander Nestor Tamayao

This is the first profile in a series of profiles of the 2016-2017 Post 3063 officers.

Tell us about your new position and what you hope to accomplish during your term.

The position of Post Commander encompasses numerous duties and responsibilities in addition to its leadership role. A primary responsibility is to preside at all monthly meetings of the post and ensure that they are conducted in accordance with regulations, by-laws and applicable parliamentary rules. The commander appoints officer positions that are not elected positions, and appoints committee chairmen and committees as necessary. The commander approves all disbursements of funds properly authorized by the post, ensures all reports are processed and forwarded to the department and certifies that post trustees audit the post’s books and records.

A goal I have is to encourage many members who have not been or no longer attending meetings and socials, to participate when possible. With the help of the membership committee, I think we can reach out to those members and inspire them to be an active member of our Post. I also want to make sure our membership remains at 100 percent or better and concentrate on recruiting new members to help mitigate membership losses in the future.

How long have you belonged to Post 3063 and did you previously serve in an officer position?

I joined Ballard Eagleson Post 3063 in 1999 at the urging of a post member who I knew at work. Since that time, I’ve held the positions of trustee, surgeon, judge advocate, adjutant, quartermaster, junior vice-commander and senior vice-commander. I was going to continue with progression to commander the first time I was senior-vice, but had to relinquish that position when I took over as quartermaster when the quartermaster at the time unexpectedly passed away.

I have also been a District 2 Trustee and Junior Vice-Commander. In 2012, I was appointed as the WA State Inspector by the WA State Commander. That position involved a lot of traveling throughout the state’s 17 Districts which I had to inspect.

What is your military background?

I was drafted on March 23, 1971 and was directed into the Army. After basic training in Ft. Lewis, WA and then Advanced Individual Training at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO, I became a combat engineer with the 5^th Engineer Battalion at Ft. Leonard Wood. In December, 1971 I was given orders to report to a Replacement Company in Korea for duty in Vietnam. For some reason, those orders were flagged and I was reassigned to report to the 16^th Engineer Battalion in Furth, Germany. Towards the end of my two-year enlistment, I asked for an early release from active duty to return to college. Although out of active duty, I still had six years remaining of inactive Reserve duty. Two summers in a row I was called to Reserve duty and in 1976 decided to enter the Army Reserve.

In the Reserve, I began as a photojournalist with the 124^th Army Reserve Command 304^th Public Information Office at Fort Lawton, WA which was later re-designated as the 304^th Public Affairs Detachment. Besides a military journalist, other positions within the Reserve included administration specialist, editor of the Command’s Three Star Final newspaper, detachment sergeant, and first sergeant, combat medic and 70^th Regional Support Command Public Affairs Chief for the Command with units located in Washington, Oregon, Northern California and Utah.

I traveled extensively while in the Reserve and besides being deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina, had duty in Korea, Germany, Panama, Hungary, Croatia as well as numerous military installations in the Continental U.S. and Alaska. My final active duty was at the Pentagon in 2002 as an NCOIC at the Army Operations Center. In November 2003, I retired from the Army Reserve with 32 years of active and Reserve duty.

What do you enjoy most about belonging to the VFW?

Although it was not by design that I would be in the Army, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would not trade it for anything. Belonging to the VFW gives me a chance to still be a part of the military experience through the camaraderie I enjoy with the members of our Post as well as other Posts. The VFW is a large fraternal organization and its members have a common bond which members relate to. The “war stories” never get old.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell Post 3063 members?

I admire how our post has evolved into, once again, active participation by members. I recall when I was initiated, there were many in attendance and thought that was the norm. However, over time, the attendance at meetings began to dwindle to a point where we could not even have enough to constitute a quorum. Today we have many active participants in several committees, various activities and events, and members with new ideas and perspectives.

University of Washington hosts World War I Exhibit

By Lisa Oberg, University of Washington

As we approach the centennial of the United States’ entry in the first World War (April 6, 2017), staff in Special Collections in the University of Washington Libraries are planning an exhibit of Seattle’s WWI involvement. The exhibit will be installed on campus in late August and will run from September through January, 2017. There are many stories to be told about the war and Seattle’s contributions from the Red Cross hospital, Base Hospital 50, organized by the University of Washington to the Spruce Production Division logging Douglas Fir for the first military aircraft. And, on the home front, there was labor unrest, food rationing, victory gardens, bandage folding, knitting drives and more. Special Collections has some wonderful scrapbooks, personal papers and manuscripts relating to World War I, but we would welcome the loan of the following types of artifacts you might have in your personal collection or family memorabilia to supplement the exhibit.

WWI gas mask, helmet or uniform
Service Flags
Photos and memorabilia related to the UW’s Base Hospital 50 and U.S. Army Ambulance Corps
Overseas Hospital Service photos and memorabilia
WWI medals, unit patches, etc.
WWI women’s service photos and memorabilia
YMCA flyers, posters, post cards
Red Cross posters, flyers and other relevant WWI ephemera

If you have questions related to the exhibit or material you would be willing to loan contact the exhibit curator, Lisa Oberg, Head of Public Service, Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries. Lisa can be reached at 206-543-7492 or [email protected].

Mark your calendar and plan to visit the exhibit between Sep 1, 2016, and January 30, 2017. Contact Lisa, as well, if you’re interested in information about any programs offered in conjunction with the exhibit.

Military Songs: A Brief History

By Charles R. Anderson

Army symbol The Army Goes Rolling Along.” Originally “The Caisson Song” and official anthem of the U.S. Field Artillery Corps, it was composed by Lt. Edmund L. “Snitz” Gruber during a long march in the Philippines. Gruber heard an officer roar, “Come on! Keep ‘em Rolling.” Gruber’s relative Franz had composed “Silent Night” and was inspired to write the melody for a new song. Serving soldiers in the artillery helped compose the lyrics and the song became very popular during WWI. In 1948, when the Army wanted its own song, they held a nationwide contest. Despite hundreds of entries over the next four years none was acceptable, so the Adjutant General’s office recycled “The Caisson Song” and renamed it “The Army Goes Rolling Along.”

USMC symbol “The Marines’ Hymn.” The melody for this came from an aria in Jacques Offenbach’s Genevieve de Brabant. “According to tradition, an officer wrote the first verse of the Hymn on duty in the Mexican War (1846-1848). Meant to highlight the various campaigns of the Marines, the unknown author edited the words from the Marines’ colors and added them to Offenbach’s melody.” New, unofficial verses are added with each Marine campaign.

Navy symbol “Anchors Aweigh.” This one was written to rally the U.S. Naval Academy’s football team. The Navy bandmaster from 1887 to 1916, Lt. Charles A. Zimmerman, had been composing a march for each graduating class. A Midshipman named Alfred Hart Miles asked Zimmerman in 1906 to write an inspiring tune with some swing to it for a football marching song. The two men wrote the melody and lyrics and dedicated it to the class of 1907 (Navy did win that year over Army).

USAF symbol “The U.S. Air Force,” originally the “Army Air Corps” tune was the result of a contest sponsored by Liberty Magazine in 1938. Out of 757 pieces submitted, this one written by Robert Crawford was selected.

USCG symbol “Semper Paratus,” (U.S. Coast Guard). Both the motto and official song of the Coast Guard, the motto was adopted in 1910, and the words were composed in 1922 by Capt. Francis S. Van Boskerck. Five years later he completed the melody.

http://www.va.gov/opa/publications/celebrate/militarysongs.pdf

Ancient Battles and Current Times

By Charles Anderson

In the long history of mankind’s battles and wars (estimates of deaths vary widely from 50 million to 630 million) attempting to enforce some particular kind of belief, competing claim to land ownership or out of just plain nuttiness or evil there are innumerable examples of battles labeled as “decisive.” These are battles where if the loser instead had been the victor, the result would have altered future history. Indeed, the idea of a particular battle or war that could change the future is one type of the “alternative” history genre. There are series of books based on the premise that the South won the Civil War or that Germany won World War II.

Greek campaign map VFW post newsletters at times carry short synopses of specific engagements, particularly in wars involving members of the VFW. Rather than looking at contemporary wars, this article describes an important engagement that preceded two battles so decisive they could have changed our present. This happened nearly two and a half millennia ago at the Pass of Thermopylae and was followed by the major battles of Salamis, 480 B.C. and Plataea, 479 B.C. These struggles between Greece and the Persian Empire impacted the entire future course of Western history. Had the Persians won at Salamis and Plataea, there might never have arisen and flourished a great Hellenic civilization that contributed so much to the ideals and beliefs such as democracy that still exist—at least in some places in the Western world. Had these wars ended with the Persians winning, Europe possibly might be an Islamic nation today, although Mohammed arrived long after these wars.

We may be approaching a similar crux in the future history of the West. At the very least, by remembering history, we can see how a few defiant men made a difference in this early battle and for the future that led to our still relatively free United States of America.

For centuries before these two battles took place there was a struggle between Greece and Persia. It was the first major conflict in written history between East and West. During those long years there were multiple attempts by the Persians to invade Greek territory. They usually ended somewhat disastrously for the Persians. Then, around 485 B.C., the Persian king Xerxes, having reestablished order in the Persian Empire, began preparing for another invasion of Greece. Each individual settlement in the Persian Empire was required to provide fighting men for the Persian army. Estimates range from 150,000 to 180,000 soldiers. To move this many men into Grecian territories required considerable preparations including bridging a milelong section of sea between Asia and Europe at the Dardanelles.

When Xerxes was ready, he sent emissaries to all of the Greek states asking for “earth and water,” at the time the symbolic way of saying “Give up.” The Greeks did not. They settled on a strategy of defense with the primary aim of blocking Persian advance at selected locations. The two areas most amenable for stopping the enemy were the Vale of Tempe and the pass of Thermopylae. Because of the land configuration here small armies could hold the land invasion of the Persians up long enough to convince them to try to outflank the Greeks using their naval fleet. Even though the Persians had a numerical superiority in naval vessels the Greeks felt they had a good chance of winning a battle at sea because of the configuration of the surrounding land.

Greece sent two divisions consisting of 10,000 soldiers to the Vale of Tempe, one a Spartan division under Evaenetus and the second commanded by Themistocles. In one of those typical leadership fumbles which still happen today, the overall commander-in-chief of this army, Evaenetus, decided there were more passes to hold than he had men. He gave up and went back home. Although considerably discouraged, the Greek leadership knew they had to continue to defend their land. The decision was made to hold firm at the main land invasion route, the pass at Thermopylae and try to engage the Persian Navy in the channel.

Leonidas prepared to defend Thermopylae with about 7,000 men against at least 100,000 Persian and their allies. The pass was ideal for a small number of individuals in a defensive position. It was a narrow area only about 47 feet wide, with mountains on one side and the sea on the other.

Xerxes arrived and set up camp but sat there for four days. The historian Herodotus says it was because he expected the huge size of his army to scare the Greeks away as in “Give up your weapons and surrender.” Eventually this event gave rise to the saying Molon labe—Come and Take Them. No one ever said Xerxes was stupid so it is more likely he was waiting in hopes his fleet would win a naval battle allowing him to bypass the Greeks on land.

On the fifth day Xerxes attacked and learned as many commanders have learned in the succeeding 2,500 years that armor and a good defensive position beat unarmored troops, no matter how many. In this case, armor meant personal armor on the Spartan soldiers, not mechanized forces. Xertes tried again the next day and again had to fall back. As commanders also have learned, if you extend your supply line beyond your reach eventually you get in trouble. Xerxes was getting desperate because he was facing the possibility of retreat as his supplies ran out.

Then, a Greek traitor told him of a possible way through the forests to cross the mountains and surprise the Spartans from the rear. When Leonidas heard what was happening he split his army into two divisions, keeping approximately 1,500 at the pass and dismissing the rest. An attempt to close down the forest path with some Greek forces was a case of too little/too late and failed. The Persians came on; Leonidas was attacked both from the front and rear. In the end, he and most of his men, refusing to surrender, were killed.
Even so, Leonidas and his men did some heavy damage to the Persian forces and delayed them long enough to allow the Athenian forces to retreat from Athens to the island of Salamis. Thermopylae was a tactical loss, but it gave the Greeks a moral victory, an upsurge in hope and defiance which helped in their next battles at Salamis later that year and the following year’s battle at Plataea.

[Note: The primary information source for this article as well as the map was J.F.C. Fuller’s three volume The Decisive Battles of the Western World and Their Influence Upon History, Eyre & Spottiswoode, London: 1957, along with some additional Web material].