News – Page 43 – Ballard Eagleson Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3063

Service Throwback: Paul Pioli

Comrade Paul Pioli (third from the left), then a U.S. Army Sergeant with the HHC 2/32 7th Infantry Division, is pictured here on a hilltop in South Korea on his birthday, November 15, 1967.

We’d love to see your photos too! Submit them to [email protected] or drop a copy off at the office.

New Member Spotlight: Shennae Curtis

Comrade Shennae Curtis in her dress whites with friends shortly after she enlisted in the Navy.

This is a recurring column that highlights new VFW Post 3063 members. Comrade Shennae Curtis joined in October 2020 and volunteered to be the Post 3063 Historian.

What motivated you to join the VFW? After seeing so many of my compatriots struggle as they got out to find purpose and meaning in their lives I realized that what I really wanted was a community. One of the things that is hard to find in civilian life but was easy when I was in the military is finding a network of people all trying to achieve the same positive goal. While the time has passed for me to be on active duty, the VFW is a way to still support both my country and the people that protected it.

What is your military background? In the Navy I was a nuclear Electrician’s Mate. We worked long hours, in the depths of a ship, with little in the way of sunlight or communication to the outside. It was difficult, but by bonding together we managed to make the most of it. Some of the strongest bonds that I’ve made in my life were in the service, and I carry them to this day.

Civilian job, education, family, hobbies, or anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself? Now I’ve taken a much less stressful position as a Field Service Engineer for a lighting control company and spend my off hours pursuing my education or reading.

What do you hope to achieve being a member of the VFW? As Post historian I hope to catalog all the stories that Post 3063 holds. I would like to capture all the memories that we have and preserve them so that new members can see all that we’ve accomplished and all that we’ve experienced. If you would like your stories put to record, please reach out to me: [email protected].

Quartermaster’s Update (April 2021)

By Harold Rodenberger

Welcome to SPRING 2021. As we move toward more freedoms, let’s take a break from earthly restrictions and look to the heavens for inspiration. This quarter we’ll see three “super” moons in a row: The Super Pink Moon on 4/27, the Super Flower Moon on 5/26 and the Super Strawberry Moon on 6/24. There also will be a short full lunar eclipse of the Flower Moon on 5/26 that can be seen from the west coast, if the sky is clear.

Looking to the heavens reminds me to be thankful that the vaccines were developed quickly and are being administered to more and more people. Please do your part to protect yourself, your families and your countrymen by getting your shot(s) as soon as you can. The more people vaccinated, the quicker we can put this virus behind us.

Big things are happening not only in the lunar realm but also right here in Ballard at your VFW Post. We are experimenting with a hybrid in-person and Zoom meeting for our April business meeting. If that goes well, we will have combined in-person and Zoom meetings into the future. The goal is to have regular meetings in person and Zoom for our members across the States and around the world to tune in and participate.

Around the hall, our ceiling project is finished. The newer ceiling tiles look fresh and clean. Thanks again to the volunteers who helped. Member Michael Mahar devoted many hours to cleaning up the hillside north of our parking lot, and for the past couple months volunteer Campbell Krawitz has spent many hours helping spruce up the hall. Many thanks to both.

Chef Kay and crew have been putting out some seriously good take away dinners for our third Thursday socials. The past few months she has been preparing one hundred meals. This is the maximum we can handle, so remember every third Thursday and reserve your order before they’re gone.

Memorial Day is coming in May. We have small, 12” x 8” flags on 24” sticks that were donated by ACE Hardware and are available to members free of charge. If you would like some for memorial or patriotic purposes, please stop by the office and pick them up.

Finally, as always, keep a weather eye out for new members. Help keep our post growing!

Commander’s Corner (April 2021)

SPRING IS IN THE AIR! It’s coming…and hopefully coming with it will be the beginning of the end to this Covid pandemic crisis as well.

We have all been working hard to attain the herd immunity that will get us beyond the pandemic. But with the fear or threat of Covid hanging around us and the worry of it all, we have found ourselves living “half lives” in the process.

So now with the vaccinations numbers ever increasing and our moving into phase 3, it’s time for us to drop the worry (without totally abandoning masking and social distancing ) and use the uplifting spirit of Spring to guide us into actions that move us forward and on with our lives. Erma Bombeck said it best when she wrote, ”Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere.” Just as Daylight Saving has sprung our clocks forward, we too need to get off the Covid rocking chair and spring forward. We need to get our lives back, to get out and breathe the air again, to get on with the return to normal.

Your post has been moving into this return on several fronts: the tremendous efforts by Chef Kay and Co. in continuing to put out the monthly take out dinners is a prime example! This service has helped the post keep the uncertainty of Covid at bay while maintaining a positive connection with members and friends alike!

We have not stopped there, however. Besides keeping the business meetings intact thru Zoom, there have been other ongoing post projects moving us forward as well. The damaged ceiling tile project has been completed, we have continued with the parking lot hillside cleanup and “tagger” wall maintenance efforts, and we are upgrading the Color/Honor Guard uniforms to a new and more appropriate look. But the most significant post effort to getting us back to normal is coming very soon. We are now moving forward with the return to in-person post meetings! As planned, it will happen starting with the upcoming April Business meeting. This is covered briefly in Quartermaster Rodenberger’s column with more specifics to follow soon. Perhaps sooner than later we will be seeing you at the post again.

So there you have it, we are moving on! As Bob Marley sang, “Don’t worry about a thing, ‘Cause every little thing gonna be all right!”

– Commander Joe Fitzgerald