JOIN VVA and AVVA

Remember: Sunday, December 18 at 1:30 pm at the American Legion Post at 525 East Broad Street. We hope to see you there! This is your chapter, take part in it! Bring your ideas on what you would like to see your chapter doing!

Remember: Sunday,January 15 at 1:30 pm at the American Legion Post. We hope to see you there! This is your chapter, be part of it!    Together then - Together Now!

The February meeting will be Sunday, February 19 @ 1:30 pm at the American Legion Post.

At our November 20 meeting we voted to set aside some funds to purchase and mail some care packages for the local Marine Corps Reserve Unit that has around 50 members who are going to be activated early in 2012. We had a very good showing of members and had a great feast. We discussed several projects: the Care Packages; the naming of the Stout/Creamer Bridge; the assistance to veterans in local nursing homes; the Christmas parade, etc., etc.

On November 21 two VVA # 278 members went to Texarkana College and gave a presentation on the Vietnam War and later that evening two members went to the Miller County Quorum Court meeting to present the idea of the Kyle Stout/Zaniah Creamer Memorial Bridge - it passed!

On Monday, November 28 several VVA # 278 members attended the Texarkana Texas City Council meeting where they approved the resolution to name the State Line Bridge over I-30 the "Kyle B. Stout/Zaniah Creamer Memorial Bridge." Of the four entities required to approve this bridge we have three approved - Bowie County, Miller County and Texarkana, Texas. We now need Texarkana Arkansas' resolution approving this naming of this bridge. This will be a unique memorial to twp of our heroes, a bridge straddling a boundary between two states (Arkansas & Texas) named after two heroes, one from Texas (Kyle Stout), and one from Arkansas (Zaniah Creamer). We will be participating in the upcoming Christmas parade, Monday, December 5 at 7:00 pm.

Support the Troops & Remember the Veteran!

We have 7 members who are delinquent. They are Boyce Freeman, L. Huddleston, Michael Pearson, Terry Strong, John Webb, Glenda Davison, and Dona Millward. We really want you to remain in the VVA # 278 family. We also had a member, Charles L. Attaway pass away since our last newsletter and Donna Carmeli had a son pass away. Please keep these families in your thoughts and prayers.

A reminder: To become a member of the Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc, you do not have to have served in-country Vietnam. You just have to have served in the United States military (for other than training purposes) between August 5, 1964 and May 7, 1975. If you served in-country: between February 28, 1961 and May 7, 1975.

Also, VVA has a program whereas the dues of a permanently hospitalized Vietnam era veteran is waived. If you know of a Vietnam era veteran in these circumstances that would like to become a member of VVA let us know. We need a copy of his or her DD 214 and a letter from the Doctor or Director or the VA stating the veteran is permanently confined to a hospital and/or nursing home. Also, VVA has a time-payment plan for Life membership according to age (see the application attached).

We want you, we need you!! Together then, together now!! Help us help veterans!!!

Join VVA & AVVA.

Note: Since the local Post Office has had most of it's jobs moved to Shreveport, our postage cost have went up. Even thou we are still mailing from the Oaklawn office we are now mailing out of state. It seems to me that the United States Post Office has broken a contract here. Anyway, we will be paring back our newsletter mail outs. We request those of you who can receive then via email please let us know (my original list is lost). Email me at: USMCgreg@aol.com. Also, some of those we have not heard from in a while (red dot on address label) will be dropped. We regret this as we feel our main focus is to get information out, but we want to send it where it is appreciated and wanted. Therefore, if we have not heard from you (joining VVA # 278 would qualify) this could be your last "News & Views" from us.

There are 3,347 Americans unaccounted for from World War I. There are now 73,690 Americans unaccounted for from World War II. There are now 7,980 Americans unaccounted for from the Korean War (108 from Arkansas; 151 from Louisiana; 152 from Oklahoma; and 451 from Texas; 6145 - Army, 908 - Air Force, 278 - Navy & 658 - Marines). There are 125 Americans unaccounted for from the Cold War. There is one American, Ahmed Altaie, unaccounted for from Operation Iraqi Freedom, and one American, Bowe Berghal, unaccounted for from Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. We will never forget!! Remember them!!

Our 25th Annual POW/MIA Vigil and our 18th Annual "Ride to Remember" will be held Friday & Saturday, August 31 - September 1, 2012. Help us make this the biggest & best ever!

WE WILL NEVER FORGET!!

VVA # 278's delegates and alternates are: Billy Walker, Fisher Plymale, Ann Walker, Donna Carmeli, and Greg Bischoff.

Tentatively, the 13th annual Texarkana Area Veterans Council's Chili Cook-off is scheduled for Friday, February 17 at Texarkana College in the Truman Arnold Center.

To schedule a ride on one of the vans call the following numbers: To ride the van to Shreveport call: 1-800-863-7441 Ext 7025. To get a ride on the local van call 318-286-6735.

Help us help veterans!

Other individuals with a need for documents must still complete the Standard Form 180, which can be downloaded from the online web site. Because the requester will be asked to supply all information essential for NPRC to process the request, delays that normally occur when NPRC has to ask veterans for additional information will be minimized. The new web-based application was designed to provide better service on these requests by eliminating the records centers mail room and processing time.

The National Personnel Records Center has a new address: National Personnel Records Center
1 Archives Drive
St. Louis, MO  63138-1002

As a reminder, all veterans and military retirees should ensure their family knows the location of their military Separation Document, in most cases a DD 214, plus other important papers, ie, marriage licenses, divorce decrees, birth certificates, insurance policies, banking statements, last wills & testaments, funeral plans, etc., etc.

S *Ask the individual to SMILE
T *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently)
R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS

If he or she has trouble with any of these tasks, call emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher. New symptom of a Stroke: Stick out your tongue. NOTE: Another sign of a stroke is the: Ask the person to stick out their tongue. If the tongue is "crooked", if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke.

Something to think about - most parents are now deceased. There are 58,267 names now listed on that polished black wall, excluding those added in 2011. The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized. It is hard to believe it is 36 years since the last casualties. Beginning at the apex on panel 1E and going out to the end of the East Wall, appearing to recede into the earth (numbered 70E - May 25, 1968), then resuming at the end of the West Wall, as the Wall emerges from the earth (numbered 70W -continuing May 25, 1968) and ending with a date of 1976. Thus the war's beginning and end meet. The war is complete, coming full circle, yet unbroken by the earth that bounds the angle's wide open side and contained with the earth itself.

The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth, Mass. Listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having been killed on June 8, 1956. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Corporal Richard B. Fitzgibbons III, who was killed on September 7, 1965.

There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall.

There are thirty-one sets of brothers on the Wall.

39,996 on the Wall were just 22 years old or younger.

8,283 were just 19 years old.

The largest age group, 33,103 were 18 years old.

Twelve Americans on the Wall were 17 years old.

Five Americans on the Wall were 16 years old

One American on the Wall was 15 years old.

997 Americans were killed on their first day in Vietnam.

1448 were killed on their last day.

8 Women are on the Wall.

246 Americans were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War. (see the list here)

54 Americans on the Wall attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia.

Beallsville, Ohio with a population of 475 lost 6 of her sons.

West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the nation. There are 711 West Virginians on the Wall.

The Marines of Morenci - They led some of the scrappiest high school football & basketball teams that the little Arizona copper town of Morenci (pop. 5,058) had ever known and cheered. They enjoyed roaring beer busts. In quieter moments they rode horses along the Coronado Trail, stalked deer in the Apache National Forest. And in the patriotic camaraderie typical of Morenci mining families, the nine graduates of Morenci High enlisted as a group in the United States Marine Corps. Their service began on July 4 - Independence Day, 1966. Only three returned home.

The buddies of Midvale - LaRoy Tafoya, Jimmy Martinez, and Tom Gonzales were all boyhood friends and lived on three consecutive streets in Midvale, Utah on Fifth, Sixth, & Seventh Avenues. They lived only a few yards apart. They played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. And they all went to Vietnam. In a span of 16 dark days in late 1967, all three would be killed. LaRoy was killed Wednesday, November 22, the 4th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Jimmy dies less than 24 hours later on Thanksgiving Day. Tom was shot dead assaulting the enemy on December 7, Pearl Harbor Day.

The most casualty deaths for a single day was on January 31, 1968 - 245 deaths. The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 - 2,4215 deaths was incurred. For most Americans who read this they will only see numbers that the Vietnam War created. To those of us who survived the war, and to the families of those who did not, we see the faces, we feel the pain that these numbers created. We are, until we too pass away, haunted with these numbers, because they were our friends, fathers, husbands, wives, sons, daughters - our Brothers and Sisters!

Room rates are &94 per night. You must make your own room reservations. Registration is $40 for delegates and $35 for AVVA and guests. Make checks payable to VVA # 685 and mail to: Jim Rose
4307 Winterborne Drive
Pasadena, TX  77505
281/991-1467

Registrations must be postmarked by January 2, 2012.

Project Amigo recipient is "The Resource & Crisis Center."

December 1: TAVC meeting

December 5: Christmas Parade

December 7: Pearl Harbor Day

December 18: VVA #278 meeting

December 25: Christmas

January 5, 2012: TAVC meeting

January 15: VVA # 278 meeting

February 2: TAVC meeting

February 3 & 4: VVA Texas State Council meeting

February 17: TAVC Chili Cook-off (Tent.)

February 19: VVA # 278 meeting

January 5: VVA #278 meeting