Baldwin County Chapter MOAA

BCmOAA50

March 2019 (Pres)

BCMOAA President’s Message – March 2019

I am not sure where the last two months have gone but it is not difficult to see that spring is right around the corner as the grass is beginning not only to turn green but to grow. Our Board of Directors met following our lunch meeting last month and we are well on our way to finalizing plans for our first half of 2019. This year our chapter is responsible for the Annual Joint Meeting with South Alabama Chapter (Mobile) on June 20th. That dinner will be held in the hanger at the Alabama Memorial Battleship Park. Please mark your calendars and be looking for additional information as it becomes available.

Our February lunch was attended by 65 members, spouses, and guests, the largest number we have hosted for any previous lunch. Thanks to Susan Stein for an excellent presentation on the history of The Grand Hotel and especially its involvement in a secret WWII operation. This month’s meeting will be back at the Blue Marlin Restaurant for a dinner on March 21st where our speaker will be Alex Doleac the Project Manager for the Baldwin County Development Alliance. Come see what is new in and around Baldwin County as well as what is coming in the near future.

Your Board of Directors continues to make minor changes to our young Chapter’s operations as we identify needed improvements. One such change was made at our Board meeting in February where we determined the responsibilities for the 1st Vice President, as outlined in the by-laws, involved too much responsibility for one person. At that meeting we decided to remove the responsibilities for managing our speakers from the 1st VP and have that responsibility go to one of our Directors. Effective immediately Rob Fields will be responsible for all aspects of identifying and coordinating speakers for all BCMOAA meetings. The great speakers we have experienced recently are the result of recommendations provided by you, our members, so when you hear a good speaker or hear of one you believe would be appropriate for our Chapter please contact Rob or any of our officers or directors as they will forward that information to Rob.

I thank each of you for your continued support of MOAA and especially our chapter. Without each of you and your regular attendance at meetings, prospective members who visit our meetings would not be interested in joining as you, our membership, make our Chapter what it has been and you are responsible for our continued improvement.

I am very proud to serve with each of you! May God bless you and your loved ones and may God continue to bless America.

Jerry

March 2019 (Chap)

I Packed your Parachute

Charlie Plumb graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1964. He earned his Navy Wings of Gold in 1966 and went on to fly the F-4 Phantom jet with fighter squadron VF-114. He was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and flew 74 successful combat missions over Vietnam. On his 75th mission, with five days before he was to return home, his plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. Plum ejected and parachuted down and into enemy hands, resulting in his capture and torture. He spent six years as a POW in North Vietnamese prison camps. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience.

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, “You’re Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down.” ”How in the world do you know that?” asked Plumb. “I packed your parachute,” the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, “I guess it worked!” Plum assured him, “It sure did. If your chute hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here today.”

Plumb couldn’t sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, “I kept wondering what he had looked like in a Navy uniform; a white hat; a bib in the back; and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said “Good morning, how are you?” or anything because you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor. Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn’t know. Now, Plumb asks his audience, “Who’s packing your parachute?” Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. He also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory – he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute.

He called on all these supports before reaching safety. Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just say something nice for no reason. As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachute.

– Author Unknown

March newsletter

The March newsletter is published. TRICARE is front and center in this issue and has some really interesting information. Of major interest is the information as regards TRICARE and the potential changes thereto. There are significant potential financial changes that are being looked at will affect TFL beneficiaries.

There is a good introduction to our March guest speaker Alex Doleac who is the Project Manager for the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance.

Want space available quarters for a reasonably priced place to stay while you are in New Orleans and more – read the newsletter!

Feb BOD Meeting Agenda

DRAFT for February 21, 2019 BOD Meeting

Following our lunch meeting at the Fairhope VFW we will hold our usual board meeting.  Attached is the draft agenda for that meeting.  Please review and provide any additional items for the agenda to all members of the Board.

Agenda For Board Of Directors BC-MOAA

Roll Call immediately following lunch/business meeting at Fairhope VFW

Minutes of Board Meeting, November 15, 2018

Treasurer Reports – Dennis Koppersmith

Committee Reports

Programs – Frank Connell

Membership – Jim Wallace

Legislative – Sid Vogel

Publicity – Brenda Wallace

Communications – Jim Parnell

Web site – Ken Cooper

Joint Meeting – Jim Beck

Director’s Comments

Old Business

Update on legal issues – Jerry

Purchase of sound system & screen – Jack Gifford

Roster of members as a publication – Jerry

Free meal for top recruiter

Ron Morgan’s Calendar Inputs – Ken Cooper

Chapter Chaplain

Additional Old Business

New Business

No shows and charges – Dennis

Additional New Business

April Meeting

Thursday, April 18, 2019
Location – Homestead Village Ballroom – 924 Plantation Blvd. – East side of US-98, just north of Fairhope Ave.    McDonalds is on west side of US-98 across from where you turn.
Speaker – SGT Keith Moore formerly with the Arlington Cemetery Honor Guard
Doors open for Social at 11:30 am, Meal at Noon
Menu – To be determined
Dress is casual.

March Meeting

The March meeting be held 21-March at the Blue Marlin. The social will begin at 5:30 PM and dinner at about 6 PM. Our speaker for the March dinner will be Alex Doleac, the Project Manager for the Baldwin County Development Alliance.  He will tell us about all the development that is going on in Baldwin County and what they think is coming in the near future.

Other details to be announced later

February Meeting

The next meeting of the Baldwin County MOAA will be Thursday,  February 21, 2019.
The speaker will be Susan Stein, Historian for the Marriott Grand Hotel.    She will speak on the history of the Grand Hotel and its role in “Operation Ivory Soap”, a secret World War Two project, that was kept classified for more than a half-century.
Location – Fairhope VFW
Doors open for Social at 11:30 am, Meal at Noon
Cost    $15.00 per person.    Payable at door with cash or check.    NO CREDIT CARDS.
Menu – Soup, sandwich bar (make your own), chips, desert, iced tea, water
Dress is casual.

Reservations required NLT Monday, Monday, February 18.  Please make reservations to Dennis Koppersmith using this link  (denkopbcmoaa@yahoo.com)  Please list names of all who will attend.

AS OFFICERS, YOUR RESERVATION IS A COMMITMENT TO PAY.    IF YOU MAKE A RESERVATION AND DO NOT ATTEND, YOU WILL BE BILLED.

January 2019 (Chap)

A good analogy:

You are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you or shakes your arm, making you spill your coffee everywhere. Why did you spill the coffee? You say because someone bumped into me! Wrong answer. You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup. Had there been tea in the cup, you would have spilled tea. Whatever is inside the cup is what will spill out. Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you (which WILL happen), whatever is inside you will come out. It’s easy to fake it until you get rattled. We have to ask ourselves, “What’s in my cup?” When life gets tough, what spills over? Is it joy, gratefulness, peace and humility; or anger, bitterness, harsh words and reactions? You choose! Today, let us work towards filling our cups with gratitude, forgiveness, joy, words of affirmation; and kindness, gentleness and love for others.

-Author Unknown –

Veteran of the Year 2018

Fairhope Veteran of the Year

Frank M. Connell

On October 22, 2018 the Fairhope City Council recognized Lieutenant Colonel Frank Connell (U. S. Army Retired) as Fairhope’s Veteran Of The Year. LTC Connell graduated from Fairhope High School in 1954 followed by his Business Administration degree from the University of Alabama in 1958.

In January of 1959 Frank began his active duty military career that continued for over 20 consecutive years with an additional 4 years in the US Naval Reserve while in high school and college. During his active duty time, he served two complete tours in Viet Nam, and two 3 year tours in Germany, where he met and married his wife of 57 years, Elvira. Also, while in Germany he earned a Masters of Commerce Degree in Economics from The University of Richmond. Additionally Frank served two short tours in Thailand, was an instructor of logistics force structure and operations at the Quartermaster School in Ft. Lee VA, and later at the Army Logistics Management Center. His final active duty assignment was developing future logistics force structure in the Concepts Analysis Agency (CAA) in support of the Pentagon’ s Director of Logistics.

Frank’s military decorations include: the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal (2 awards), Meritorious Service Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal (2 awards), Army Commendation Medal (2 awards), Vietnamese Honor Medal (!st Class), Meritorious Unit Citation, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal with 5 campaign stars, and the Armed Forces Reserve Medal and 4 overseas bars.

Following his active duty service, Frank worked an additional 20 years for a defense contractor in the National Capital Region before returning to Fairhope for a well-deserved retirement. Frank has not slowed down one step in retirement and has never stopped serving. He is a charter member of the Baldwin County Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America where he is currently the 1st Vice President and previously the treasurer. Frank currently serves with the US Armed Forces Honor Guard, is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 5660, and the American Legion Post 199. If these service projects were not enough to stay busy he is the Cantor for Saturday night services at St John the Baptist Catholic Church where he has been a member and lector since 1998. Frank has also been a member of St. Lawrence Catholic Church’s choir since 2011

December 2018 (Pres)

BCMOAA President’s Message – December 2018

Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope you will have many opportunities to be with your families and friends during this holiday season.  I sincerely miss the opportunity to greet each of you this month but I look forward to starting 2019 with many of you at our first meeting of 2019 at the Gift Horse Restaurant in Foley on January 17th for dinner.  In addition to having Chris Elliot, the newly elected state senator from District 32 (mostly Baldwin County) as our guest speaker, our newly elected 2019 Board of Directors for our chapter will be installed by LTC Dave Jensen the President of the Alabama Council of MOAA Chapters.  The Gift Horse always has great food and is a good venue for visiting with other MOAA members and spouses.

As we conclude 2018, we can look forward to new opportunities for our chapter in the coming year.  Our goal for 2019 is to improve our communication to current and potential MOAA members keeping them informed of active and retired military life issues, and to experience good camaraderie with fellow members.

I recently notified you that our chapter was named as a defendant in a claim resulting from injuries sustained in the February 28, 2017 Mardi Gras Parade accident in Gulf Shores.  Again, I want to reassure you that it is the Baldwin County MOAA Chapter that is named in this suit and not individual members.  In addition, the BC/MOAA Chapter is registered with the Internal Revenue Service and the State of Alabama as a non-profit corporation, which limits individual liability, including Board members.  Our legal counsel feels confident the case against our chapter will eventually be dismissed, but the legal process is slow and may take many months to conclude.

As new information is available, you will be kept informed.

We owe much gratitude to Ken Cooper our webmaster for his diligent work and continued improvements to our award-winning website, bcmoaa.org.

A big salute is also due Frank Connell, our chapter’s 1st Vice President, who was selected as Fairhope’s Veteran of the Year, a very well deserved selection.  Frank is a true soldier.

Most of all, I thank each of you for your continued support of MOAA and especially our chapter.  I am proud to serve with you!  May God bless you and your loved ones and may God continue to bless America.

Jerry