FROM THE CORNING LEADER

CORNING AMERICAN

LEGION

Newsletter Date Volume 1, Issue 2

American Legion Commander:

Vincent Hill

Auxiliary President:

Mary Pipe

SAL Commander:

Kirk Jarvis, Sr.

Newsletter Editor:

Steve Schwarz

THE EATON EDITORIAL The Newsletter of American Legion Post #746

Vince Hill, a longtime American Legion Post 746 member and U.S. Army Veteran, was recently named Legion commander for 2012-13. Outgoing Commander Frank Edger passed the title to Hill at an official ceremony in early June. Hill's father, Richard Hill, was commander of the post in 1971, as were his brothers, Michael in 1974, and Brian in 1988. "It's an honor to take charge of the Post with so many dedicated people with the desire and ability to make a difference to our veterans and our local community," Hill said. "I will do my utmost to continue the fine tradition of accomplishment of those who have served before me." Other officers named at the ceremony include: 1st Vice Commander Jim Grossteph-an, 2nd Vice Commander, Jim Vaughan, 3rd Vice Com-mander, David Warunek, Treasurer, Les Hampton, Chaplain, Gary Warner, Sergeant-at-Arms, Bill Winton, Judge Advocate, Dick Naylor, Historian, Mike Cunning-ham, and Service Officer, Brian Hill.

New Auxiliary officers for year

2012-2013

President Mary Pipe 1st Vice President Liz Edger 2nd Vice President Jackie Williams Secretary Emma West Treasurer Mary Ann Mineo Chaplain Mary Lou Belles Sgt-at-Arms Tammy Palmer Historian Mary Ann Mineo Parliamentarian Olive Stam

The city of Corning will help pay for flags placed in city cemeteries to honor veterans on Memorial Day. Mayor Rich Negri said Monday at a United Veterans Organization Memorial Day Flag Board meeting at City Hall that he was proud of the city’s $865.20 contribution. The funds will help purchase 240 flags for the Memorial Day ceremony, officials said. Committee member Brain J. Hill, also of Graves Restoration and Decora-tion Committee, made the motion, which was seconded by Vincent Hill, Commander American Legion John P. Eaton Post 746, and supported by Negri and William Crane, president of Italian American War Veterans Post 47.

Articles provided by : Jeffrey Smith, Corning Leader.

The following 10 members’ names were drawn for a free beverage for the month of July. Stop at the post and tell the hostess your name is in the newsletter.

John Swanson

Mert Anglehart

John Abercrombie

Leigh Ann Evans

Charles R Miller

John Wenck Gary

Ribble Robert

Beiswenger Richard Howard

Alyce Steele

Photo courtesy of Schwarz ProFoto

Page 2

Modification XXX Gaëtan Marie In the lighter moments of WW II, the Spitfire was used in an unorthodox role: bringing beer kegs to the men in

Normandy. During the war, the Heneger and Constable brewery donated free beer to the troops. After D-Day, supplying the invasion troops in Normandy with vital supplies was already a challenge. Obviously, there was no room in the logistics chain for such luxuries as beer or other types of refreshments. Some men, often called 'sourcers', were able to get wine or other niceties from the land or rather from the locals. RAF Spitfire pilots came up with an even better idea. The Spitfire Mk IX was an evolved version of the

Spitfire, with pylons under the wings for bombs or tanks. It was discovered that the bomb pylons could also be modified to carry beer kegs. According to pictures that can be found, various sizes of kegs were used. Whether the kegs could be jettisoned in case of emergency is unknown. If the Spitfire flew high enough, the cold air at altitude would even refresh the beer, making it ready for consumption upon arrival. A variation was a long range fuel tank modified to

carry beer instead of fuel. The modification even received the official designation Mod. XXX. Propaganda services were quick to pick up on this, which probably explains the official designation. As a result, Spitfires equipped with Mod XXX or keg-carrying pylons were often sent back to Great Britain for maintenance or liaison duties. They would then return to Normandy with full beer kegs fitted under the wings Typically, the British Revenue of Ministry and Excise stepped in, notifying the brewery that they were in violation of the law by exporting beer without paying the relevant taxes. It seems that Mod. XXX was terminated then, but various squadrons found different ways to refurbish

their stocks, most often done with the unofficial approval of higher echelons. In his book Dancing in the Skies, Tony Jonsson, the only Icelancer pilot in the RAF, recalled beer runs while he was flying with 65 Squadron. Every week a pilot was sent back to the UK to fill some cleaned-up drop tanks with beer and return to the squadron. Jonsson hated the beer runs as every man on the squadron would be watching you upon arrival. Anyone who made a rough landing and dropped the tanks would be the most hated man on the squadron for an entire wee

FROM THE POST HISTORIAN

FROM THE DESK OF THE NEWSLETTER EDITOR

The newsletter committee would like to thank all those who made the very first “New” newsletter a success. There were some glitches that will need to be worked out. Some of you received two copies mailed to your resi-dence. A database glitch caused this and it has been fixed. Very few negatives were heard about our new look. Going forward, if you have a concern or comment, the committee will consider all inquiries, providing, a name and or a face are put forward. One very cool way to get your newsletter that we neglected to think of before the last mailing is this. An email, with the electronic version of the newsletter in .PDF format attached, can be sent to anyone that wants to do this. We build a database of email names/addresses and send out an email that you can open and read, in full color, at your leisure in your own home. And this style of viewing the newsletter is ab-solutely free of charge. We highly recommend you consider this method of receiving your newsletter. We are ALWAYS looking for articles, stories or any news that you may want to see in the newsletter. If you have some-thing, send it. We will consider virtually anything that will benefit the post membership. Summer is upon us and many organizations take a well deserved break. If you do not see some information that would normally be in the newsletter, most likely, at the end of the Summer season those missing items will be back. With that being said, the only organization having a meeting in July and August is the regular membership Legion meeting on July 5. This newsletter will not publish for August. We will be back in September.

Page 3

CHARLIE ALPHA… Viet Nam.. February 1970 We staged combat interval on either side of the Tay Ninh flight line, arranged in chocks for each inbound slick. The start of another day in Viet Nam, one day shorter. Early morning and the sun was already hot, god awful hot. This operation felt bad. The GI grapevine was working in overload. Eve-ryone packed extra ammo and frags. We all knew this assault was going in hot. The upcoming fight would test our mettle. Tay Ninh provence sat next to Cambodia and it was always hot. Charlie owned the Parrot’s Beak and the Fish Hook. We hear the womp , womp of the rotor blades, and the order is relayed, slicks Inbound, Bravo Company, stand to. Forty five men struggle into their packs. NCO’s do a final leaders inspection. We scramble on the birds as they touched down, a front row seat for the coming battle, legs hanging out the side door, air rushing pass and around our helmets. An airborne side exit Higgins boat. We skim the treetops into the LZ, M-60 gunners working the tree line as the Cobra gunships did the same with rockets and mini-guns. Our ship took hits but the pilot pressed on. Huey pilots were issued a huge set of balls. As we were off loading and moving to the fight, the pilot sat stationary behind his Plexiglas wind shield. We offload in under ten seconds but I’m sure the pilot thinks we took ten minutes. We hit the ground running, infantry fanning out to secure their sectors of the LZ. Charlie had us in his sights, the shit started to hit the fan. Charlie was in the tree line and bunkers, they had us surrounded. They were trying their best to keep the slicks on the ground. With rocket and mini-guns, the gunships were keeping Charlie’s head down. Red tracers coming down, green tracers going up. A riveting sight for the uninitiated. Charlie was pissed. How they didn’t hit me I’ll never know, sure glad they missed. Charlie was walking mortar rounds toward us, I could see them hit the dirt. They started coming closer, I knew we were in for it. Like a movie in slow motion, grunts got up everywhere and brought the battle to Charlie. I saw many acts of bravery that day, courage everywhere abounded. Valor was the order of the day, even as they had us in their sights. We punched a hole in Charlie’s lines, the firefight turned our way. Suddenly the battle was over. Charlie faded into the triple canopy jungle and lived to fight another day. He left in a hurry, he left his dead behind. The scorecard read 9 enemy KIA’s and numerous blood trails. Our side sustained 16 wounded, 3 gunshot and 13 shrapnel, all but three non life threatening. The WIA’s are medevac'd. We search the AO, capture one PW and destroy numerous hooches containing tons of 200 pound rice bags. Rice bags stamped product of USA. The next day we are in a PZ waiting for another Charlie Alpha. I guess we won the fight or was that in my mind.

Respectfully submitted, Frank Edger

LEGION RIDERS

American Legion Riders chapters are well known for their charitable work, which has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local children's hospi-tals, schools, veterans homes, severely wounded servicemembers and scholarships.

2012 Legacy Run Home The American Legion Legacy Run Home begins Aug. 21 with the National Commander's Ride, which will start in upstate New York. Online registration is now available. See link below.

https://www.legion.org/riders/registration

On May 5, 2012 Full Military Honors (FMH) was provided for Joseph Burger, an Air Force and Korean War Veteran at St. Mary’s cemetery. On May 4, 2012 FMH were provided for Frederick Reep, an Air Force Veteran, at Bath National cemetery (BNC). On May 12, 2012 a Color Guard was provided for the annual Caton Days parade. On May 14, 2012 FMH were provided for Kevin Litson, an Army Air Corps and WWII Veteran at St. Mary’s cemetery. On May 18, 2012, FMH were provided for Norman Densberger, an Army Air Corps and WWII Veteran at BNC. On May 24, 2012, FMH were provided for Dale R. Graham, a Navy Veteran at BNC. On May 24, 2012, a Casket Watch was provided for Edwin D. Bartlett and on May 25, 2012 FMH were provided for this Navy and Viet Nam Veteran at the Evergreen cemetery in Tioga, Pa. On May 26, 2012 FMH were provided for William D. DeCourey a Navy Veteran at

Hope cemetery. On May 28, 2012 our Ritual Team conducted several Rifle Salutes at Hope and St. Mary’s cemeteries and at the Pained Post and Veterans’ Memorial Parks; later the Team provided a Color Guard for the annual Memo-rial Day parade. On May 29, 2012 FMH were provide for Richard C. Jones, an Army Veteran at BNC. Ritual Team training is being held at Post 746; if interested in learning more about our organization, contact any Post Officer or Ritual Team member. Respectfully submitted, Frank Sansone

ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE

Page 4

RITUAL TEAM HAPPENINGS

The Activities Committee is busy looking for fun and new “stuff” for our members enjoyment. There will be a casino trip Sunday, July 22 to the Mohegan Sun Casino and Racetrack. For more information on this trip call the post at 607-654-7735. The Activities Committee is always interested in what our members would like to do. Please contact the post with any/all suggestions.

If you know people who are eligible to join the American Legion, American Legion Auxiliary, or the Sons of the American Legion, Please invite them to join.

REMEMBER: It’s not the price you pay to be a member; it’s the price you paid to be eligible

Board of Directors Positions ELECTION RESULTS

Three Year Term

Jim Grosstephan & Steve Schwarz

One Year Term

Brian Hill

“Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free”. Dwight D. Eisenhower

Page 5

June 13; Corning Gray @ Big Flats American Legion Tyler Vanderhoff went 1-1with a single in the sixth inning as Corning Gray took home an 8-5 victory over Big Flats in six in-nings at Big Flats on Wednesday Corning Gray stayed on top until the final out after taking the lead in the second, scoring five runs on three singles. Big Flats scored one run in the bottom of the fourth to cut its deficit to two. A passed ball gave Big Flats life. A one-run fifth inning helped bring Big Flats within one. A walk triggered Big Flats' comeback but a strike out ended the Big Flats threat. Corning Gray piled on three more runs in the top of the sixth. A sacrifice fly scored Connor LeBarron and Dan Cevette for the inning's first run. One run in the bottom of the sixth helped Big Flats close its deficit to 8-5. A groundout fueled Big Flats' comeback. Big Flats' #20 struck out to end the ballgame.

June 15; Corning Gray @ Caledonia-Mumford Corning Gray refused to relinquish the lead after grabbing it early against Caledonia-Mumford, recording a 9-3 victory on Fri-day at Caledonia-Mumford HS. Seven runs in the first three innings allowed Corning Gray to put the game away early. A groundout by Nate Shollenberger in the first inning and an error and a passed ball during the second inning helped Corning Gray put some runs on the board early. The game was back-and-forth heading into the second, with five lead changes. Zach LeBarron racked up three RBIs on two hits for Corning Gray as he homered in the third inning and singled in the sixth inning. Patrick Fero recorded the win for Corning Gray. He allowed three runs over seven innings, struck out eight, walked seven and surrendered six hits. The top of the first saw Corning Gray take an early lead, 1-0. It didn't take long for Caledonia-Mumford to respond as it scored two runs of its own in the first. Caledonia-Mumford scored on an RBI single by #19 and an RBI single by #21. Corning Gray added four more runs in the top of the third. Shollenberger started the inning with a double, scoring Sean Locker. That was followed up by Josh Grant's triple, plating Shollenberger. Corning Gray matched its one-run fourth inning

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 Mansfield Tournament

2 3 4 VS Newburgh Post.

5 VS Utica 12:00 PM

6 VS Binghamton

7 Binghamton Tournament

8 Binghamton Tournament

9 10 VS Wellsboro 11 12 13 VS Brockville (Can)

14 VS Oneonta HS 10:00 AM

15 Oneonta 16 17 VS Gaffer 18 VS Elmira 19 District 7 20 District 7 21 District 7

22 23 24 VS Big Flats 25 26 Al Registro Tournament

27 Al Registro Tournament

28 Al Registro Tournament

29 Al Registro Tournament

30 31 Gray VS Red 6: 00 PM

JULY 2012 Corning Gray Legion Baseball

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 3 VS Wellsboro 4 5 6 7Possible

Tournament

8 AT Elmira 154 3 team Round Robin

9 VS Bath 10 11 AT Big Flats 12 13 14 At Rayson Miller Post (2) games Pittsford-Mendon HS

15 16 17 18 AT Gaffer 19 20 District 16U Tournament

21District 16U Tournament

22District 16U Tournament

23 24 VS Ithaca 25 AT Big Flats 26 27 Al Registro Tournament

28 Al Registro Tournament

29 Al Registro Tournament

30 31 Gray Vs Red 6:00 PM

JULY 2012 Corning Red Legion Baseball

The Newsletter Committee is pleased to recognize Dick Naylor as this month’s member spotlight. Dick was the post commander when our new building was going up. He was a prime driver for this new building. Dick has served on almost every committee within our post. Last year he was awarded a Gold Brigade reward for recruiting over 50 new members. If you see Dick at the Post, let him know you saw him in the newsletter. Dick is one of a very few who have been commander two consecutive years.

Page 6 THE EATON EDITORIAL

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 Graduation Party

2 3 Ritual team Practice

4 5 Legion Membership Meeting Hot Dogs

6 Wedding 7 Graduation Party

8 Breakfast Party

9 Dance w/Monica

10 11 12 Hot Dogs 13 Fish Fry Friday

14 Graduation Party

15 Graduation Party

16 Dance w/Monica

17 Ritual Team Practice

18 19 Hot Dogs 20 Fish Fry Friday

21 Class Reun-ion

22 Graduation Party Casino Trip

23 Dance w/Monica

24 25 26 Hot Dogs 27 Party 28 Wedding

29 Party 30 Dance w/Monica

31

July 2012 Calendar of events

with one more in the sixth. In the fourth, Corning Gray scored on an RBI double by Mitchell Allen, scoring Jeremy Brenning. June 19; Corning Gray @ BathCorning Gray and Bath volleyed the lead six times on Tuesday, but Corning Gray came out on top for a 8-6 win on Tuesday at Bath VA. Corning Gray took the lead in the fourth inning and held on for the victory. A bases loaded walk by Bath pitcher, Hall, scored Josh Grant and gave Corning Gray the lead for good. Corning Gray staved off Bath as Bath was unable to match Corning Gray down the stretch. Bath scored on an error in the sixth inning and a sin-gle by Nate Underhill in the seventh inning. Unfortunately, Bath wasn't able to take the lead back. Jeremy Brenning racked up two RBIs on two hits for Corning Gray. He doubled in the third inning and singled in the fourth inning. Patrick Fero got it done on the rubber on the way to a win. He allowed two runs over four innings. Fero struck out five, walked six and gave up one hit. Bath jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Jeff Tunison singled to ignite Bath's offense. The scoreboard lit up again for Bath when Tunison scored on an error. Corning Gray got one-run rallies in the second inning and the seventh. In the second, Corning Gray scored on an RBI single by Bryce Patterson, scoring Connor LeBarron. Bath an-swered Corning Gray's top inning with two runs of its own in the third. Bath scored on a two-run double by Pete McDonnell. Corning Gray never surrendered the lead after the fourth inning. The runs piled on thanks to two singles. Corning Gray is currently 5-1 in district play. Check the calendar for future games and locations.

Page 7 Volume 1, Issue 2

This month’s article talks about the top 10 craft brewers in the United States. Let’s see how many of these you knew!! 10. Harpoon Brewery Annual sales: 130,516 barrels. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Harpoon Brewery is known best for its India Pale Ale, but also has a range of beers, including award-winning Munich Dark, 1636 brew and four seasonal beers. In 2000, Harpoon also acquired a Catamount Brewery plant in Windsor, Vermont, which increased the brewery’s capacity by 55,000 barrels per year. Harpoon is also a staple in Boston culture, hosting three annual festivals - St Patricks Day, Summer BBQ and Octoberfest - which draw large crowds to the brewery. Har-poon also used to produce non-alcoholic beverages, such as root beer and crème soda, but ceased production to focus on its main staple, beer. 9. Boulevard Brewing Co. Annual sales: 138,954 barrels. Boulevard is a regional brewery located in Kansas City, Mis-souri. When Anheuser-Busch was sold to InBev, Boulevard became the largest independent American brewery in Missouri. Their beers are primarily available in 20 states across the Midwest and Great Plains. Boulevard has recently completed an expansion of their brewing facility that gives them the capacity to produce up to 700,000 barrels per year, and they are ac-tively looking to expand their market share. 8. Magic Hat Brewing Co. Annual sales: 154,236 barrels. Located in South Burlington, Vermont, Magic Hat brews four year-round beers and four seasonal beers, with “#9” as its flagship beverage. In August, Magic Hat was acquired by Rochester-based North American Breweries Inc, along with several other brewers. 7. Matt Brewing Co. Annual sales: 171,700 barrels. The brewers of Saranac Beers, the Matt Brewing Co. is the third larg-est craft brewery in the US. Located in Utica, New York, it is a family-owned brewery that also produces soft drinks and is primarily available on the East Coast. 6. Deschutes Brewery Annual sales: 186,783 barrels. Located in Bend, Oregon, Deschutes Brewery produces a range of beers, including Black Butte Porter and Mirror Pond Pale Ale as well as a specialty brew called The Abyss, which is an im-perial stout with 11% alcohol by volume. Aged in bourbon barrels, “The Abyss” has won numerous awards since its 2007 release and is considered to be one of the finest beers in the country. 5. Pyramid Breweries Inc Annual sales: 192,199 barrels. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Pyramid Breweries was acquired by North American Breweries Inc. in August, along with Magic Hat. With its introduction of Apricot Ale in 1994, Pyramid has been known as a leader in the fruit beer category. They operate several ale houses and restaurants in Wash-ington, Oregon and California. 4. Spoetzl Brewery Annual sales: 409,000 barrels. Also known as the “little brewery in Shiner”, Spoetzl hails from Shiner, Texas. Founded back in 1909, Spoetzl is also the oldest brewery in Texas and is distributed in 41 states. Spoetzl’s flagship beer is the Shiner Bock, which has been brewed since 1913 and contains 4.4% alcohol by volume. 3. New Belgium Brewing Co. Annual sales: 583,160 barrels. The third largest craft brewery in the country is the New Bel-gium Brewing Co., located in Fort Collins, Colorado. Founded in 1991, the brewery began when Jeff Lebesch decided to take his passion for home brewing to a commercial level. Fat Tire, the company’s flagship beer, originated from a bicycle trip Lebesch took through Belgium from brewery to brewery, and the icon of a bicycle is also displayed in company logos and labels. The company’s beers are distributed in 19 different US states. 2. Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Annual sales: 723,880 barrels. Established in 1980 by Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi, Sierra Nevada is the second-largest craft brewery in America and is located in Chico, California. Producing over 723,000 barrels of beer annually, the most popular brew is the company’s pale ale, although the company has a wide range of sea-sonal brews, porters, stouts and special releases. 1. Boston Beer Co. Annual sales: 1,841,348 barrels. The largest craft brewery in the country is the Boston Beer Company, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Known best for their Samuel Adams brand, the brewery also produces a wide range and diversity of beer. Although the most popular brew is their Boston Lager, the company is also popular for their seasonals and specialty beers, such as the high priced Utopias, which contains 27% alcohol by volume and is aged over 16 years. Following the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch by InBev, the Boston Beer Company is the largest American-owned brewery, producing over 1.8 million barrels annually. The company was founded by Jim Koch, who based the original recipe on his ancestor's pre-prohibition formula.

FROM THE DESK OF THE BEER GEEK

8 River Road Corning, NY 14830

Phone: 607-654-7735 Fax: 607-654-7961 E-mail: info@corningamericanlegion.com

CORNING AMERICAN

LEGION

We’re on the net www.corningamericanlegion.com

CLUB HOURS Monday-Saturday

9:00 AM to 1:00 AM Sunday

12:00 noon to 12:00 PM

OPPORTUNITY FOR POST MEMBERS WHO OWN THEIR OWN BUSINESS

The newsletter committee has decided that post members who own their own business can have the opportunity to put a business card size ad in this newsletter. The details for this promotion are as such. ONLY 8 such ads will be allowed on one side of our newsletter. We WILL NOT have more than 8 under any circumstances. We do not want our newsletter to become an ad forum. If we receive requests for more than 8 then it will be on a rotating basis. The cost of this ad will be $10/month. The primary reason for this is to offset our color printing costs with the new newsletter. As of this newsletter, no mailed newsletters will be in color, only B&W. If you want color newsletters you can pick up at the post or download from the website. Three businesses below have signed up so far.

American legion John P. Eaton Post 746

8 River Road Corning NY 14830

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED Fish fry's during the summer months. We will be holding fish fry’s on July 13 & 20 and August 10 & 24. Normal weekly fish fry’s will start on September 14. Come join us for some hard, rewarding work. If you are interested, please contact the post at 607-654-7735