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2013 Christmas Party
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VVA Chapter #1069 held its 2nd annual Christmas party & monthly meeting on Wednesday, December 11th, 2013. The party was held in the banquet room of Mikeska's BBQ, located in El Campo, Texas, just off Hwy 59. There were 78 total attendees, which included Chapter members, their spouses and guests. Good food, friendly camaraderie, and plenty of refreshments were had by all. |
The evening meal was provided by Mikeska catering and was served at 7:30 PM. The evening meal consisted of prime rib, gravy, mixed vegetables, buttered mashed potatoes, bread rolls, and ice tea. The food was absolutely delicious. The Chapter wishes to thank the entire Mikeska crew for their help with our Christmas party and the wonderful food that they served. We also want to take this opportunity to thank the Mikeskas for providing our Chapter with a monthly meeting place and for all the other help they have given our Chapter the past year. We want to wish the Mikeska family and all of their employees a very Merry Christmas and hope they all have a Happy New Year!
38 Chapter members plus wives and guests brought the total party attendance to 78 people! Special guests included: Phil Stephenson, State Representative from Austin, Sarah Hudgins, the local leader/coordinator for the Wreaths Across America program, M/M Hawes, from Wharton, retired Sergaent Major Bob Riley, and Stephen & Laurie Brady from Houston. Stephen is vice president of VVA Chapter 343, San Jacinto Texas. Chapter 343 is also the sponsor for the Texas Vietnam Heroes exhibit, which is currently on display at The Health museum in Houston Texas.
Leonard would also like to thank several folks for their help with the party; to Dana Sternadel for helping coordinate the party, to Carolyn Milder for decorating tables, to Dianne Newman for bringing her poppyseed cake, to Bob Supak for putting the slide show together and setting up our new projector, to Larry Wendel for donating the candle set and whiskey for the gift raffle, and to Mikeska's BBQ for donating the use of the banquet room and preparing a great meal.
From The President: Our Year in Review
It has been an exciting and fun year for Chapter 1069. We are now up to 57 members and still growing. I'm very proud
to be your president; Thanks for all of your support. What a wonderful way to bring 2013 to an end with such a great
Christmas party. We had 78 members, wives, and friends attend our celebration. Again, we couldn't do this without
members and their wives stepping up to help out. I'd also like to thank everyone for their participation in the
the Chapter's past year's activities (see list below). It's been a very busy year and it looks like 2014 will be the
same. On behalf of my wife, Dana, and myself, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and we'll see
you at the January 8th meeting!
Leonard Sternadel
A reflection of our activities in 2013:
The Chapter would like to Thank the above two ladies for working at the sign-in table - great job Ladies! Also note the name badges laying on the table - these are a recent addition for our Chapter members and everyone seems to like wearing the badges during our monthly meetings and special events. Each badge contains the name of the individual, along with information about the division, brigade, company, etc. that they were attached to in Vietnam.
The above photo shows the snacks & gifts table. Note the M&Ms jar sitting on the table. Folks were asked to guess the total number of M&Ms in the jar. Total M&Ms in the jar was 287.
Our Chapter just recently purchased a new Epson media projector and it made its debut appearance at our Christmas party. It can be seen in the above photo. The projector was used to put on a continuous slide show of over 250 photos that were taken at our Chapter's past year's projects and events. Pictures included those taken at our Firebase Helen outings, our meeting events, our Christmas parade, etc.
In the above photo, a picture of the Chapter's 2013 Christmas float can be seen on the projector screen. Note that the Chapter also participated in this year's El Campo Christmas parade. Many more pictures of the parade can be seen on this website's EVENTS page.
In above photo, it looks like one of our Chapter members came in the proper attire for a Christmas party. You can never go wrong wearing a red shirt and a red & green Santa ball cap to a Christmas party! Rusty, you're looking good!
The above photo shows folks gathering before the party started. Looks like everyone is having a good time.
More gathering before the party. Note that next year we're thinking of starting the party an hour earlier so that folks have more time to socialize. After all, that's what a Christmas party should be about - having a good time with friends. Let us know at the next meeting if you would like for next year's party to be extended. And any other thoughts you might have regarding the party - your Chapter leaders want to know.
Above photo shows some of the party attendees looking over the Vietnam-War era memorabilia that some members brought to the party for show & tell. Some of the items included Military money that was used during the war, some Vietnam military operations magazines, some official Vietnam military travel & discharge documents, etc.
Included in the Vietnam-War era show & tell items, was the aluminum framed rucksack shown above, being worn by one of our Chapter members. It is the very same style rucksack as was carried by some of our Chapter members in Vietnam. The rucksack was artificially weighted to 75 pounds in order to give some idea of how much weight some of the ground soldiers had to carry on their backs in Vietnam. Several of the Chapter members did strap on the rucksack, including Jimmy N. above. Note that besides carrying the rucksack, the soldier also carried his weapon, either an M-16 rifle, or an M-60 machine gun. The M-60 weighed in at 32 pounds, not counting a few hundred rounds of ammunition for the gun.
The above photo shows more Vietnam-War era show & tell items displayed on table. Note that the pistol shown in the holster is not a real weapon, however, the holster is a real Vietnam-War item. Also shown is a Army duffel bag and a nylon pancho liner. The pancho liner was very useful item carried by soldiers - it was well insulated and would keep a soldier warm on cold Vietnam nights. Another VERY useful function that the pancho liner served, was as a sleeping hammock. The material was very, very strong, and easily carried the weight of soldier, when the pancho liner was tied at two opposite ends with nylon cord, and then both ends would be tied to two opposing trees. Being able to sleep off the ground at night, when in the Vietnam jungle was a good thing.
For show & tell, one of our Chapter members brought in the above framed photo of the BIG 175mm guns that resided on all of our FSBs in Vietnam. FSB stands for Fire Support Base (or just Firebase), and the FSBs were scattered everywhere and anywhere where there were active military ground operations in progress. The Firebases were manned by various Army Artillery groups and their main function was to provide fire support for the surrounding ground troops (grunts) that were working in the area around each FSB. The picture above was taken on Firebase Bastogne which was located in the mountainous Northern I-Corp region of Vietnam, just a few miles outside of Camp Eagle, near Hue, the homebase for the 101st Airborne Division. This Firebase (and the others located in the I-Corp region), were each sitting on the very top of a high mountain. Speaking from the position of one of those grunts working the area around Bastogne, it was a great feeling to have those artillery guys on the Firebase, covering our rears at night while we were hunkered down in the surrounding jungle. Thanks for your service in Vietnam Frank!
Much thanks goes out to Sarah Hudgins (of El Campo) for bringing a box full of Vietnam maps to the party for dispersal to any member who wanted one. Sarah was one of our special guests at the party, and was also one of our special speakers during our meeting (we also held a Chapter meeting during the party). The maps were actually given to her by someone from Vietnam, so she decided to pass the maps on to our Chapter members. Some of the members were able to find maps that showed their area of operations when they were in Vietnam. The Chapter members would like to very much thank Sarah for bringing the maps.
The above photo shows the show & tell items that Stephen Brady (Vice president of San Jacinto VVA Chapter 343) brought to the party. They are minature replicas of various military items from the Vietnam-War era. In the photo you can see a miniature replica of a helmet and a jungle boot, both of which are very similar to what a ground soldier would have worn when in Vietnam. Stephen said he received a miniature replica boot from someone in the past as a Thank-you gift, and thought that it was a grand gift idea. He then contacted the vendor to find out more about them. They make the following statement on their website.
“Our miniature combat boots, helmets and boonie hats are now available mounted on wood bases with personalized inscriptions. A truly unique gift. Celebrate a memorable achievement, retirement, promotion, or a heartfelt welcome home.”
Stephen said that you can even provide the company with a jpeg image of a particular battalion or division patch and they will reproduce it on a set of personalized jungle boot or helmet bookends. The company name, mailing address, phone number, email address, and website link are shown below.
The above photo shows one of the boxes that the "Memories in Miniature" items came in.
Leonard Sternadel, vice president of Chapter 1069, along with his wife Dana are shown in the above photo. After the evening meal, the meeting was brought to order and some Chapter business was conducted, along with other fun gift raffles.
Above photo shows Phil Stephenson, our State Representative from Austin Texas. He was one of our special guests and speakers at the party. Representative Stephenson has attended our Chapter meetings before and he is definately a friend of Texas Vietnam Veterans. The Representative spoke of various projects that he is working on in Austin. One of his primary projects deals with the strained water situation in Texas and he is trying to pass legislation that will ensure Texas communities and their residents will have a plentiful supply of water in the future. During his presentation, the Representative also mentioned the following two important items.
(1) Representative Stephenson presented our Chapter with a Texas flag that has flown over the State Capitol in Austin.
(2) Representative Stephenson promised that he would write letters to each of his fellow Texas State Representatives in Austin, asking/challenging each of them for a $1000 donation, to go towards the final funding for the construction of the Texas Capitol Vietnam Veterans Monument (TCVVM). The monument will be dedicated in March of 2014 on the grounds of the State Capitol in Austin. At this point in time, the project still needs $200,000 worth of funding.
VVA Chapter 1069 would like to thank State Representative Phil Stephenson for his generosity and support for our Chapter the past year and for his overall support for all Texas Veterans. The Chapter hopes that in 2014 we continue our partnership with Representative Stephenson. We also would like to wish Representative Stephenson and his family a very Merry Christmas and hope they have a Happy New Year!
The photo above shows Sara Hudgins, one of our special guest speakers the night of the party. Sarah is the local Wharton county leader/coordinator for the national organization called "Wreaths Across America". The mission statement for the national WAA organization is: "To Remember, Honor, & Teach about the service and sacrifices of our veterans, active military, and their families. We will Never Forget." One of the main functions of the organization is the laying of Wreaths (Green pine boughs shaped into wreaths and affixed with bright red ribbons) on the graves of those veterans who gave their lives in the service of our country. Sarah and our Chapter have worked together for the past two Christmas seasons so that our Chapter may participate in the laying of the Wreaths on the graves of veterans in our surrounding county cemeteries. This year our Chapter purchased 25 Wreaths from Sarah (and the WAA) for distribution by our Chapter members on December 14, which is National Wreaths Across America Day.
Sarah also helped us coordinate the Wreath distribution to the various surrounding cemeteries. The Chapter members would like to express their gratitude to Sarah for working with our Chapter in this honorable Veteran related endeavor. We also wish Sarah Hudgins and her family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
There is an article in the local El Campo online Leader Newspaper that describes the Wreaths Across America
program as it applies to the Wharton county area. The article also explains Sarah's role with the WAA program.
Click here to read the online news article about Sarah and the WAA
Click here to view the Wreaths Across America national website
p.s. We would like to apologize to Sarah for the above poor quality photo of her. Unfortunately we missed the opportunity to get a good picture of her standing at the podium while she was speaking.
Dwight Winkler, our local county Veteran's Service Officer also spoke at the meeting. The paragraph below is Dwight's own commentary, as sent to us via email, regarding his presentation at the meeting.
I was trying to inform our members last night that if a veteran is receiving disability compensation at a 30% or higher rating, then their dependent or dependents are entitled to some compensation also. The compensation for the dependent(s) is included in the veteran's compensation and therefore the veteran may not be aware of the exact amount the dependent(s) is receiving. The "Award and Payment Start Date Letter" will specify that the VA is "paying the veteran as a single veteran with no dependents or a veteran with one dependent or some variation of that description of dependents" to tell the veteran that the dependent(s) is receiving compensation.
The problem is that the veteran will not know the exact amount of their compensation or the dependent compensation and thus they should contact me to verify who is getting what amount or, in the case of the veteran from yesterday that I saw in the library, he did not notify the VA, by way of a form, that he was married. Thus, he has not rec'd compensation for his wife for 58 months. We sent in the necessary form to declare his wife as a dependent as well as a request to retroactively pay him for the 58 months. I would be surprised if he receives the 58 months of compensation for his wife as the veteran has one year to appeal the decision of theVA and this happened in 2009.
If you are in this similar situation and would like to get Dwight's help or ask him some questions, please use the link below to view Dwight's contact information and office hours. This information is located on this website in the 'Local' News page. See link below.
Click Here for Dwight's Contact Information and Office HoursThe Chapter also wants to thank Dwight for the bang-up job he is doing, serving as the Veteran's Service Officer (VSO) for Wharton county. Dwight is currently providing Veteran's Services 5 days a week for ALL veterans of the local county, and for Veterans of other counties! Dwight is a Vietnam Veteran himself and is well-informed of the ins & outs of dealing with the VA. The Chapter would like to wish Dwight and his family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
The above photo shows Leonard & Dana raffling off various gifts during the meeting.
Because there was some extra food left over from the evening meal, the above photo shows Leonard & Dana raffling off to-go meal plates for 9 lucky Chapter members. Each meal plate included apple pie desert.
The above combined photos should give some idea of the large turnout for the party. Note that the meeting started after we were served the evening meal, and at this point some members had aleady left. In the phtoto, Leonard & Dana are raffling off all the pointsettias that decorated most of the tables. A total of 12 pointsettias were given away. The Chapter provided the pointsettias for the party.
Again, much thanks to all of you that attended this year's Christmas party. We hope all of you had a fun evening and enjoyed the comaraderie with your fellow Vietnam Veterans. Hopefully next year's party will be even bigger & better. We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!