Field Reports
By Col. Chris Giaimo, USAF-Ret., Director, and Col. Jim Pauls, USAF-Ret., Council and Chapter Affairs, and Kris Ann Hegle

Donations Help Soldiers on the Mend 

Members of the Cape Fear (N.C.) Chapter are doing their part to support America’s troops by donating clothing and other much-needed items to the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who are recuperating at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Servicemembers wounded in Iraq often are airlifted to Landstuhl, where they arrive wearing only the clothes on their backs. These military members need clothing for forward transportation or to wear in the hospital once they become ambulatory.

When members of the Cape Fear Chapter learned of the situation, they took action. Marty Baldwin, who heads the chapter’s Ladies Auxiliary, started a clothing drive called Operation Sweat Suit, which asked area residents to donate new sweat suits, T-shirts, underwear, socks, and slippers for troops recuperating at Landstuhl. 

More than 100 pounds of items were collected from donation boxes placed at area churches and stores. Members of the Cape Fear Chapter then donated $255 to cover the cost of shipping the goods to Germany.

Another chapter member, Col. Jack Cox, USA-Ret., has launched a similar effort called Operation Restore Faith. To date, the fundraising effort has netted $18,000, which will be used to purchase clothing, disposable cameras, stationery and stamps, prepaid phone calling cards, and other items for hospitalized troops at Landstuhl. Several corporate donors, including Burger King and Kodak, also have contributed to this initiative. 

“We need to see to it that these great heroes have what they need and their loved ones back home know they are respected and loved,” says Cox.

Chapter members who wish to make a monetary donation can visit the Army and Air Force Exchange Service’s Web site (www.aafes.com) and click on the link for “Gifts from the Homefront” to send a CertifiCheck to patients at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. The medical center’s chaplain’s office will use the CertifiChecks to provide items such as toiletries, sweats, undergarments, socks, prepaid calling cards, and other items of convenience or necessity to servicemembers being treated at the facility. 

Members Volunteer at National High School Finals Rodeo

For the second year in a row, members of the Totah (N.M.) Chapter helped make the National High School Finals Rodeo a success. At the rodeo, held July 21–27 in Farmington, N.M., 1,500 high school students competed for national titles, awards, and scholarships in events such as bull riding, roping, and steer wrestling. 

“The chapter contributed at least eight volunteers who donated about 200 hours of their time,” says Lt. Col. Steve White, USA-Ret., editor of the Totah Chapter’s award-winning newsletter, The Totah News. 

White developed a database that the rodeo track has used to coordinate volunteers’ activities. Approximately 600 volunteers contributed a total of 12,000 hours at this year’s rodeo, which was sponsored by the National High School Rodeo Association in Denver and the Tres Rios High School Rodeo Association of San Juan County, N.M. 

In addition to helping at the rodeo, members of the Totah Chapter support six local Junior ROTC (JROTC) units, which contain as many as 820 high school students. Currently, the chapter’s 49 members are working to start a scholarship fund that will provide financial assistance to college-bound JROTC cadets. 

Chapter members also volunteer their time to Meals On Wheels and support area veterans in a variety of ways, including setting up a display to honor veterans at a local museum, raising funds to build a veterans’ memorial in Farmington, and participating in the annual Veterans Day parade in Aztec, N.M. 

The president of the Totah Chapter, Lt. Col. Al Garcia, USA-Ret., says the chapter currently is working to recruit more members, particularly Native American officers. To aid in the recruiting effort, a free, one-year national MOAA membership will be given to those who join the chapter. 

Members Help Build Vietnam Memorial

Members of the Western Colorado Chapter turned out in force to help dedicate the new Western Slope Vietnam War Memorial Park at the Welcome Center in Fruita, Colo. More than 5,000 veterans, families, and friends attended the event, which featured an F-16 flyover and speeches from various state and local dignitaries and Vietnam veterans, including Gen. Ron Fogelman, USAF-Ret., former Air Force Chief of Staff. 

Fruita resident Jim Doody spearheaded the effort as a way to pay tribute to his brother, who was killed in action during the Vietnam War. Two members of the Western Colorado Chapter who are Vietnam veterans, Brig. Gen. Harry Hagaman, USMC-Ret., and Col. Roger Hagerty, USMC-Ret., lent their support to the effort by serving on the memorial park’s executive committee. 

According to Hagerty, it took more than four years to raise the $250,000 to build the memorial park, which features a uh-1h Huey helicopter and a wall of black granite panels with the names of area veterans who served in the military between 1959 and 1975. Dozens of area builders, contractors, and local veterans’ organizations contributed to the effort, including the 160 members of the Western Colorado Chapter, who purchased a $1,000 memorial brick. Many chapter members also responded to the opportunity to be listed on the wall as veterans.

“This was truly a community effort and one that we were proud to be part of,” says Hagerty, who was a featured speaker at the dedication ceremony.

The Western Colorado Chapter also hosts an annual golf tournament to raise money for its scholarship program, which awards three $1,200 scholarships annually to students at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colo. To be eligible for a scholarship, recipients must either be in an ROTC program or have a family member who has served in the military. 

Western Colorado Chapter members also support a local Navy Junior ROTC (JROTC) unit in Montrose, Colo., by presenting an MOAA medal and certificate each year to the unit’s outstanding cadet. Chapter President Lt. Col. Don Schneider, USAF-Ret., says the chapter plans to support a new Army JROTC program starting this fall in Grand Junction. 

Korean War Veterans Honored

Several members of the Military Officers Association of Sarasota (Fla.) Inc. were honored recently during a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Korean War. At the ceremony, held in Sarasota, 150 Korean War veterans from Sarasota and Manatee counties in Florida received a proclamation and a freedom medallion thanking them for their sacrifice and service. 

David Stone, president of the Sarasota County Veterans Commission, hosted the commemoration ceremony, which was attended by numerous local dignitaries, including former U.S. Rep. Dan Miller (R-Fla.), Sarasota Mayor Lou Ann Palmer, Sarasota County Commissioner David Mills, and Kimberly Brenner and Hartley O’Brian, who staff the district office of U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.). Eugene Chin Yu, a Korean-born U.S. citizen who now lives in Augusta, Ga., presented the proclamations and freedom medallions, which were struck by retired Maj. Gen. Choi Seung-Woo of the Republic of Korean (ROK) army.

“I received a letter of appreciation in July 1953 from Gen. Sun Yup Paik, chief of staff of the ROK Army,” says Brig. Gen. Jack McLain, USA-Ret., a chapter member who saw action in Korea as an advisor to the 99th rok field artillery battalion. “This proclamation was worded very similarly, and it brought back a lot of memories.”

The chapter’s 275 members have made their presence felt in the community in other ways as well. Approximately 48 percent contributed to the scholarship drive this year, raising $12,046. Their generosity enabled the chapter to award nine $1,000 scholarships to area college-bound students. 
The chapter also supports the Academic Olympics Program, which is sponsored by the Education Foundation of Sarasota County Inc. This year, members spent $1,000 to award 50 outstanding students at Sarasota high schools each with a six-language translator, organizer, and travel alarm from Seiko. In addition, the chapter supports four Junior ROTC programs and is a Partner in Education with Booker High School in Sarasota, which gives members the opportunity to mentor and raise funds for programs that benefit students.