Current Newsletter

VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS OF THE UNITED STATES
VETERAN VIEWS
THE AWARD WINNING NEWSLETTER
OF WOODRIDGE MEMORIAL VFW POST 1578
Volume 13, Issue 2
February, 2014
Dates To Remember
1/23
Color Guard Posting
Colors Event
1/27
Volunteer at CRC
1/28
Post Meeting
2/11
Breakfast Club
2/24
Volunteer at CRC
2/25
Post Meeting
“Service Before Self”
Post Officers
Commander— Bob Reichert
Sr. Vice-Commander— Dann Boland
Jr. Vice-Commander— Don Curby
Quartermaster— Randy Braasch
Post Answering Machine
630-910-1578
Inside This Issue
Post Information
1
New Bergdahl Video
Surfaces
2
Patriots Pen Banquet
The US Navy's Most
Intimidating Creation
Just Hit The Water
3
VFW Fundraiser
Family Pasta Dinner
with Raffle
4
This Award Winning Newsletter is written for ALL members of VFW
Post 1578. If you have an article or any worthy event that you wish to
share please contact Bob Reichert at 630-985-0070 or
[email protected], or mail it to:
Woodridge Memorial VFW Post 1578
P.O. Box 8219 Woodridge, IL 60517
Visit Us On-Line
Keep up to date with our current activities,
upcoming events, VA news, links, stories and
pictures of our members at:
www.woodridgevfw.org
[email protected] (email)
Operation Welcome
You Home
NEXT POST MEETING
Operation Support Our
Troops
Jim Stewart VFW Memorial Scholarship
5
Toys For Tots 2013
6
Family Pasta Dinner
Flyer
7
VFW Membership
Flyer
8
Our next regular monthly meeting
will be on Tuesday, February
25th at 7:30 pm at Shanahan’s
1999 W. 75th Street, Woodridge,
IL 60517. Plan to attend! All
Eligible Veterans are Welcome!!
Meet and Greet at 7:00 pm
“Safety Meeting” 9:00 until 10:30 pm
Woodridge Memorial VFW Post 1578 was chartered on November 8, 1983 with 33
original members. Today we are in our 31st year of community
service to the people and Village
of Woodridge. Post 1578 is a
proud sponsor of:
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New Bergdahl Video Surfaces
VFW Washington Weekly, January 24: A new
video surfaced this month showing Army Sgt.
Bowe Bergdahl, the only known American service member being held against his will. It is the
sixth known video to show him in captivity after
being captured in eastern Afghanistan by the Taliban on June 30, 2009. They initially demanded
$1 million and the release of 21 Afghan prisoners
being held at Guantanamo Bay. The Taliban later
reduced their demand to five prisoners in exchange for Bergdahl. This is an extremely difficult
situation for the U.S. Government. Bergdahl is
being held in an unknown location by an enemy
combatant who represents an ideology, not a
country. Plus, the Taliban's offer for a prisoner
swap goes against U.S. policy to not negotiate
with terrorists. The VFW knows that pinning
down his location and launching a successful
rescue operation remains a top U.S. priority. We
remain hopeful, and have communicated our
support directly to the Bergdahl family.
Patriots Pen Banquet
by Bob Reichert
Patriots Pen is the VFW sponsored 8th grade youth essay
competition which gives students an opportunity to write
essays expressing their views
on democracy. Our Post refers to this program
as the Larry Gervais Patriots Pen. This year
more than 125,000 students nationwide participated.
On Sunday, January 26th, VFW District 19 held
its annual Patriots Pen award banquet at Batavia
VFW Post 1197 with more than 70 Post winners
present. Based on the number of school participants, our Post had 1 winner, Faith Key, from
Jefferson Jr. High School and 2 winners, Isaiah
Isobal and Madeleine Barbeau, from St. Scholastica. Madeleine and her parents were unable
to attend, but Faith’s and Isaiah’s parents,
friends and teachers joined us at our table.
The District awarded first place to Matthew
Hatch of Naperville, with our own Isaiah coming
in fourth!
Jefferson Jr. High School
Winner
Faith Key
St. Scholastica School
Winner and VFW District 19
4th Place Finisher
Isaiah Isobal
Congratulations to all our winners!
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The US Navy's Most Intimidating Creation
Just Hit The Water
The Navy just put its newest destroyer, the USS
Zumwalt, into the sea.
Constructed by General Dynamics with weapons
systems and software from other companies, the
Zumwalt "DDG-1000" Guided Missile Destroyer
is like the iPhone 6 of naval ships.
Its "tumblehome" hull avoids enemy radar while
composite armor absorbs it, advanced weaponry
strikes from more than 100 miles offshore, Linuxbased networking in the bridge allows for purchase and implementation of off-the-shelf software, and an all-electric drive system keeps her
purring quietly like a well-fed tiger. Lucky for
America 's rivals, at about 87 percent completion, the Zumwalt is not quite ready to start making the rest of the globe flinch yet. It first hit the
water this past October and is due to start patrolling by 2014.
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On the outside, the USS Zumwalt not only looks
cool (rule #1), but it's a full 100 feet longer than
existing classes of destroyer. According to the
Navy's press release, "The shape of the superstructure and the arrangement of its antennas
significantly reduce the ship's radar cross section, making the ship less visible to enemy radar
at sea." The hull of the ship is made of a composite material which
effectively absorbs
radar waves. Construction of the
ship required General Dynamics to
build a special $40
million "Ultra Hull"
to hold the pieces.
The Sumrall’s weaponry is tailored for land attack
and close-to-coast dominance and will also have
a sensor and weapons suite optimized for littoral
warfare and for network-centric warfare. BAE
Systems Land and Armaments developed the
The Zumwalt was originally estimated to cost
ship's advanced gun system (AGS), which will be
about $3.8 billion, but so much technology was
crammed able to fire advanced munitions and the Zumwalt
onboard Class vessels have two landing spots for helicopters. Zumwalt has a peripheral vertical launch
that its
cost has system (PVLS), which consists of 20 four-cell
PVLS situated round the perimeter of the deck.
nearly
doubled, And finally, the new Long Range Attack Projectile
and after (LRAP) — The DDG 1000 will be armed with tacthe first
tical tomahawks, standard missile SM-3s, and
three are the evolved SeaSparrow missile.
built, proWith the "tumblehome" hull reducing drag and
duction
will stop. radar detection, along with such advanced weapons, it's like the Zumwalt is the Navy SEAL of
With all the new weapons systems the Navy
ships — always operating under cover of night, a
wants aboard the Zumwalt, planners installed a ninja of the sea.
power plant that could provide power to 78,000
homes. Such power could enable the first uses
of the Navy's magnetic rail gun project, which
combines magnetic currents and electric fields to
fire projectiles at 7 times the speed of sound.
Computers and automation have reduced the
crew to a bare bones 158. (By comparison, the
USS Barry Arleigh-Burke Class requires 210
sailors.)
Sean Gallagher of Arstechnica referred to the
Linux-powered bridge as a "floating data center"
and wrote that it was akin to the bridge on Star
Trek's Starship Enterprise.
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VFW Fundraiser
Family Pasta Dinner with Raffle
Woodridge VFW invites you to our Post’s 4th annual family pasta dinner on Saturday, March
29th. This event will be held at Shanahan’s, located on the corner of 75th Street and Woodward
Avenue. (1999 75th Street) All proceeds allow
Woodridge VFW Post 1578 to serve our local
veterans, the VFW National Home and the Village of Woodridge.
We will be serving from 5:00 – 8:00pm. The
meal will be Buffet Style – All you can eat – and
includes spaghetti, pasta, salad, bread sticks and
dessert. A cash bar is available. Tickets will be
available at the door, or in advance from any
Post 1578 member, or call the Post at 630-9101578 and leave a message. Tickets are $10.00
per person or $25.00 per family!
The VFW is also raffling off
two prizes! 1st Prize is a
46” MAGNOVOX LED
HDTV and 2nd Prize is a
32” SEIKI LED HDTV.
Raffle tickets are $15.00.
Winner need not be present!
See Flyer on Page 7.
Hope to see you there!
If you can’t stand behind our troops
feel free to stand in front of them!
Our mission is to provide respectful, thoughtful,
uplifting and joyous homecomings for all of our
returning warriors and their families. We do this
to show our utmost thanks and support for serving our Country. We will accomplish this only
when invited by the family of the Soldier, Sailor,
Marine, Airman, Coast Guardsman, Veteran
equally recognizing and honoring all. It is our
honor and privilege to Welcome Home all Military
branches. The commitment we make is to provide a memorable, thankful, and honorable experience our Troops will never forget.
A Grateful Nation Never Forgets!
Operation Support Or Troops
Hi, I’m one of the soldiers who has received a
care package. I wanted to start by saying thank
you so much. The love and support back home
is crucial for us to continue our mission. It is so
amazing that there are still people out there who
really care about the military and what we are doing. Everything in the package was perfect, I
shared a lot of it with others in my platoon. We
are expected to return in the August-October time
frame depending on the Afghan elections. I
loved reading the
letters from everyone who cares so
much, it really
gives me a reason
for being
here. Thanks
again so much
and God bless
ya’ll for everything
you do.
Sincerely,
Trevor
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Jim Stewart VFW Memorial Scholarship
PAGE 5
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Toys For Tots 2013
Big John Sucansky
did another great job
this past Christmas
season by representing our Post with the
DuPage County USMC (reserve) Toys For Tots.
He reports your kind and generous support provided approximately two toys each to 25,768 children.



58,909 toys were collected.
$54,634 in monetary contributions was received. These funds were used to purchase
toys specifically for the 11-13 age group,
since this group rarely receives enough toy
donations.
67 qualifying agencies received these dona-
PAGE 6
tions working through schools, religious institutions, community pantries, early learning
centers and woman’s shelters.
Many volunteers, like John, tirelessly delivered
toys to the warehouse, then sorted and packed
them to help fill orders. Some even stayed with
the team long enough to prepare the warehouse
for closing.
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