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THE VIETNAM SALUTE FOR AUGUST 2020 NEWSLETTER VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA, INC. PO BOX 26842 EL PASO TX 79926-6842 www.vvachisolm844.org Newsletter Editor Edward E. Wilkes LIASIONS Texas State Council: Mike Grijalva D.A’s Victim Crime Walk Ray Fierro & Sukie Fierro UAVO: Moe & Virgie Molina Sun Bowl Flag unfolding: Doug Davis National VVA : SUPPORT Parliamentarian: Raul Vargas 915-309-4437 Chapter 844 Chaplin: Doug Davis 915-204-0723 Sgt.at Arms: Ben Flores 915-256-4832 George Enriquez 915-496-7490 Juan Huerta 915-252-1365 POW/MIA of the month: Tony Vega 915-999-1420 Accredited Service Officer: Virginia (Virgie) Molina 915-591-3670 Marketing Director: Gilbert Blancas 915-3093791 PIO: Steve Nordberg 915-833-5915 Newsletter Editor: Edward E. Wilkes 915-500-0178 Need a document Notarized? Elias Camacho (915) 843-6889 Free to Members of VVA & AWA Standing Committees Chairs 2020 1. Membership Affairs: Joe Ortiz 915-356-8667 2. Scholarship Committee: Al Dozal 915-566-0025 3. Public Affairs/ PIO: Steve Nordberg 915-833-5915 4. Community Services Committee: Doug Davis 915-204-0723 5. Finance Committee: Russell Vincent 915-204-2698 6. Website: Rene Rodela 915-345-4211 7. Social Media Committee: Bonnie Jones 580-919-1110 8. Awards and Public Relations Committee Moe Molina 915-591-3670 9. Color Guard / Vietnam War School Education Mike Grijalva 915-873-4878 10. Fund Raising and Promotions Committee: 11. Government Affairs/Legislation: Tom Shaughnessy 915-252-8008 12. Elections Committee: David Luna 915-564-0575 DIRECTORS: #1 Edward Wilkes: 915-500-0178 [email protected] #2 Arturo Ramirez: 915-422-7796 #3 Ramon Fierro 915-920-7415 [email protected] #4 Douglas Davis: 915- 204-0723 [email protected] #5 Eusebio Molina 915-591-3670 #6 Frank Rios 915-259-7837 [email protected] #7 Joe Ortiz 915-356-8667 [email protected] Life: Robert Chisolm 575) 874-1004 [email protected] AVVA Advisor: Sukie Fierro 915-920-0237 [email protected] 2019-2021 Board Of Directors Officers President: Elias Camacho 915-843-6889 [email protected] Vice president: Miguel Grijalva 915- 8734878 [email protected] Secretary: Joel Garcia 915-373-7727 [email protected] Treasurer: Russell Vincent 915-204-2698 [email protected] Happy Birthdays August 2020 Candelario Calderon 1 Aug Ramon Baca 13 Aug Robert Candelaria 1 Aug Mary Hernandez 15 Aug Linda Gonzalez 4 Aug Armando Barraza 18 Aug Sara Vallejo 6 Aug Gilbert Blancas 18 Aug Mary Ellen Vega 12 Aug Ellie Dozal 24 Aug

THE VIETNAM SALUTE FOR AUGUST 2020 …...for the Month of August 2020 Message from VVA National President John Rowan dated 17 July 2020 I hope everyone is staying safe and that you

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Page 1: THE VIETNAM SALUTE FOR AUGUST 2020 …...for the Month of August 2020 Message from VVA National President John Rowan dated 17 July 2020 I hope everyone is staying safe and that you

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THE VIETNAM SALUTE FOR AUGUST 2020 NEWSLETTER VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA, INC.

PO BOX 26842 EL PASO TX 79926-6842

www.vvachisolm844.org

Newsletter Editor Edward E. Wilkes

LIASIONS Texas State Council: Mike Grijalva

D.A’s Victim Crime Walk Ray Fierro & Sukie Fierro

UAVO: Moe & Virgie Molina

Sun Bowl Flag unfolding: Doug Davis

National VVA

:

SUPPORT Parliamentarian: Raul Vargas 915-309-4437

Chapter 844 Chaplin: Doug Davis 915-204-0723

Sgt.at Arms:

Ben Flores 915-256-4832

George Enriquez 915-496-7490

Juan Huerta 915-252-1365

POW/MIA of the month: Tony Vega 915-999-1420 Accredited Service Officer: Virginia (Virgie) Molina 915-591-3670

Marketing Director: Gilbert Blancas 915-3093791

PIO: Steve Nordberg 915-833-5915

Newsletter Editor: Edward E. Wilkes 915-500-0178

Need a document Notarized?

Elias Camacho (915) 843-6889

Free to Members of VVA & AWA

Standing Committees Chairs 2020 1. Membership Affairs: Joe Ortiz 915-356-8667 2. Scholarship Committee: Al Dozal 915-566-0025 3. Public Affairs/ PIO: Steve Nordberg 915-833-5915 4. Community Services

Committee: Doug Davis 915-204-0723

5. Finance Committee: Russell Vincent 915-204-2698 6. Website: Rene Rodela 915-345-4211

7. Social Media Committee: Bonnie Jones 580-919-1110

8. Awards and Public Relations Committee

Moe Molina 915-591-3670

9. Color Guard / Vietnam War

School Education Mike Grijalva 915-873-4878

10. Fund Raising and Promotions Committee:

11. Government Affairs/Legislation:

Tom Shaughnessy

915-252-8008

12. Elections Committee:

David Luna 915-564-0575

DIRECTORS: #1 Edward Wilkes: 915-500-0178 [email protected] #2 Arturo Ramirez: 915-422-7796 #3 Ramon Fierro 915-920-7415 [email protected]

#4 Douglas Davis: 915- 204-0723 [email protected]

#5 Eusebio Molina 915-591-3670

#6 Frank Rios 915-259-7837 [email protected]

#7 Joe Ortiz 915-356-8667 [email protected]

Life: Robert Chisolm 575) 874-1004 [email protected]

AVVA Advisor: Sukie Fierro

915-920-0237 [email protected]

2019-2021 Board Of Directors Officers President: Elias Camacho 915-843-6889 [email protected]

Vice president: Miguel Grijalva 915- 8734878 [email protected]

Secretary: Joel Garcia 915-373-7727 [email protected]

Treasurer: Russell Vincent 915-204-2698 [email protected]

Happy Birthdays August 2020 Candelario Calderon 1 Aug Ramon Baca 13 Aug

Robert Candelaria 1 Aug Mary Hernandez 15 Aug

Linda Gonzalez 4 Aug Armando Barraza 18 Aug

Sara Vallejo 6 Aug Gilbert Blancas 18 Aug Mary Ellen Vega 12 Aug Ellie Dozal 24 Aug

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Vietnam Veterans of America

Chapter 844 El Paso, Tx

President’s Newsletter

for the Month of August 2020

Message from VVA National President John Rowan dated 17 July 2020

I hope everyone is staying safe and that you and your family are healthy. We were really taking a beating in NY, NJ, CT, and other northeast states but have turned things around. We were hoping that the virus would stay here but now it is everywhere. Please wear a mask, stay home as much as possible. It is not a hoax. It is deadly. Mariann and I know six people who succumbed to the virus, including our Maid-of Honor's husband. As I said in several interviews, I feel like I have a target on my back. Prime targets are older persons with pre-existing conditions. That is every Vietnam veteran I know, as well as many of our spouses. Please stay out of the line of fire. I know the world seems to have gone crazy since our January meeting. VVA has been turned upside down since this virus hit. For many years we were concerned that something could happen that would impact our main fundraiser, the Household Goods Donation Program. Well now we know. It is a disaster. With the lockdown in some areas caused by the pandemic the HGDP's stores were closed cutting off their source of income, thereby cutting off our source of income. We were able to hold off the inevitable with rollover income from last year and a federal PPP loan which should turn into a grant. Treasurer Jack McManus has delineated the details of our financial issues in various memos. But even though we cut our annual budget in half, eliminating such items as travel and other expenses, and making the Veteran a digital magazine, we still were forced to reduce our staff. Some of that was accomplished by not filling vacancies but it still resulted in eleven people leaving. The Officers agonized over this decision, but we had no choice. The reductions were based on positions not people. We tried to pare down the staff while enabling us to continue operations. We are in survivor mode. VP Tom Burke has provided the details of these personnel issues in various memos.

Greetings, Brothers, and Sisters.

My section will be very short as I’m forgoing my section this month so that you can read a message from our VVA National President John Rowan. However, I can’t go without thanking some very special people that helped with our raffle fund raising. Jerry Campos who even from his hospital bed was worried on how things were going. Ray Baca who jumped in and took over( he will be making a report on this newsletter) and his team, Rudy Escajeda who also gave a personal $100.00 donation to the Chapter and $100.00 from El Zarape restaurant and another $110.00 from Inni Heart Café) and $500.00 from Classic American Homes, thank you so much Rudy. To Candelario “Candy” Calderon, Ed Wilkes, Vergie and Moe Molina, and Raul Vargas committee members. Also attending were a few of our brothers like Sonny Ojeda and Frank Rios. My condolences to David Luna on the passing of his mother. May she rest in peace. I’ll see you guys next month. “All ahead Flank!” May your Journey bring you clear skies, smooth seas, and favorable calm winds.

Elias A Camacho, President

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While our internal issues have taken a lot of our attention, we still conducted business. We have been working with Congress on various items of interest. Recently, I joined Sen. Chuck Schumer at a press conference in NYC on proposed amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act that would add the four presumptive AO diseases that were approved by the scientists three years ago: hypertension, hyperthyroidism, Parkinson's-like symptoms, and bladder cancer. Yesterday we issued a press release on military sexual assault in response to the unsolved murder of Army Private Vanessa Guillen near Ft. Hood. in recent months our Veterans Benefits staff have recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars for our veteran clients. We will not let our troubles hinder our work for veterans and their families.

As you may know, we have decided to waive the reporting deadlines for the State Councils' and Chapters' election and financial reports. Secretary Bill Meeks has prepared a list of all the State Councils and Chapters that are behind in their reporting. There are 28 SCs and 326 Chapters that owe at least one report. Bill has conducted and will undoubtedly oversee several more e-votes after this meeting.

I must take a moment to commend the staff, both those who had to leave as well as those still with us. Our staff has always worked hard but things have been tougher with the reductions. The Officers are working on a reorganization that we will finalize sometime next week. In some instance we are down to a one-person operation. But we will persevere.

For now, many staff persons are working primarily from home, although some of the senior individuals have been coming into the office more often. As a result, the office is closed to the public. We had a staff person in the front office to answer the phone and collect the mail and packages. This will cease by the end of the month when the reduction in staff will have been completed. thankfully, we have a good phone system that can direct calls to the proper office to leave messages. The new answer script will be ready soon. As for the mail, we are looking into a locked drop-box that can be placed in the hall on the second floor where the mail can be retrieved on our schedule. In this way there is no need for someone to be maintained on the first floor. Now, let me say a few words about the future of VVA. In earlier e-mails I stated that Resolution GA-20 "Changing the Name of Vietnam veterans of America" is moot. The officers had been looking into the possibility of such a change, but after talking to many younger veterans it became clear that would not work. The recent veterans live in a 21st Century world. They are not interested in taking over a 100+ year-old organizational structure. Unlike Vietnam veterans who were disregarded when we came home, these veterans were welcomed home with open arms and great benefits such as the new enhanced GI Bill education benefits. 67% of today's veterans have a college degree of better. Most of the new veterans organizations are run by a board of directors, many of whom are benefactors not veterans. They do, however, appreciate our advocacy work in Congress and with the federal agencies, especially the VA. They also appreciate our Veterans Benefits Program helping people with their disability claims. If we are going to live up to our motto that "never again will one generation of veterans abandon another", we must figure out how to pass our methods and operations on to the next generation. With regards to Veterans Voices of America this is a fledgling organization that is just getting itself organized. It is being formed by new veterans and others, such as family members of veterans, some of whom work with and are familiar with VVA. There is no VVA money in this developing veterans organization. As they progress, I am sure they will begin to communicate with us. With regards to Veterans Voices of America this is a fledgling organization that is just getting itself organized. It is being formed by new veterans and others, such as family members of veterans, some of whom work with and are familiar with VVA. There is no VVA money in this developing veterans organization. As they progress, I am sure they will begin to communicate with us. One thing that I think that this pandemic has shown us is that VVA's ability to maintain its operations long-term is severely compromised. We need to develop a long-term plan. We can continue the chapters and even state councils for as long as there are people able to operate them. That is different than maintaining a functioning national organization. Meanwhile we carry on. I look forward to hearing from you tomorrow.

Thanks, John

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VVA CHAPTER 844 2020 STATE OF THE UNION April 2019- April 2020

Our By-Laws require that I as President of the Chapter make a yearly state of the union report on our members. Since becoming President in April of 2018, I have given 1 previous State of the Union in 2019 verbally. I choose to use the general meeting in May after the elections and the swearing in to address the membership. However now, due to the coronavirus I will be making it by these means. This is my opportunity to inform you of my accomplishments and what I’ve done for the Chapter as President and how I have carried the Chapter forward and how we stand.

FINANCIAL: Our financial status is very good. I see lately where many of the other Veterans Organizations are struggling to make ends meet due to the coronavirus, but we are in a very good condition. As of August 1 st, 2020, we have in our checking account $ 7,652.45 and $ 700.63 in our savings. We also have a combined total of $ 24,399.30 worth of CD’s (7 CD’s) which are used for our scholarship awards. These CD’s are set up to where one CD will mature every year. At my recommendation the AVVA money which used to be mixed with our money has been moved over to a special saving account (presently has $2,346.51) in which ONLY AVVA money is deposited and is kept separate from ours. Previously that money which wasn’t ours would give us a false amount balance, this way it is not included in our balances at all. Last year I recommended that Advertisements be sold in our newsletter to offset its cost. We were spending in the vicinity of $650.00 annually in printing, paper, and stamps. I also instructed Ed Wilkes to mail out the newsletter to all those without an email only (with certain exceptions) . We called members and found that many of our members did actually have an emails but had never given it to us. By sending email newsletter to those with emails we cut down on the mailing cost. Thanks to Gilbert Blancas our marketing director he (by himself) sold an average of $2,100.00 of Ads for the year. And later I got with Ed Wilkes and he was able to work a deal with Allstate who now picks up all publishing expenses, in exchange we give them a free monthly Ad, now all we pay for is stamps.

I also asked the BOD to authorize the use of debit cards for the treasurer and myself. Having to run around to have both of us sign a check at times was not very practical. It also helps on trips, so our members won’t have to spend their own money. It is now during this epidemic where its coming in real handy. The BOD also authorized me a monthly expense for Chapter items and expenses, although I have it, I seldom use it except for Flowers for our deceased members and again the debit card comes in handy as I can do it over the phone or on line. (see our by-laws)

We also had two delegates attend the TSC conference for the cost of $1,100.00. Our food budget is the vicinity of $720.00 a year, give or take (depends on what is served and replacement of condiments and utensils). It used to be that the AVVA members (our wives) would buy the food, prepare it and serve it to us at our general meetings. There were approximately 10 wives and Virgie divided them into two teams each taking turns each month. The ladies would spend their own money for this and after our meals would pass the hat around and ask for donations. The only ones who were donating were the husbands of the same ladies who did the buying, cooking, and serving. This meant that we had about 80 percent of our members who only went to a free lunch. I didn’t think this was right so I told the BOD that if we could not afford to pay for our own lunch maybe we should not have it at all. I recommended that we reimburse the ladies for their expense (with receipts). The BOD agreed and we started reimbursing the ladies, they still cooked and fed us only now they got the money they spend out of their own pockets back.

We also spend $600.00 for our banquet 20-year celebration mainly on food. Thanks to Jim Paul who covered the hall rental and Joe Ortiz’s son who donated the music.

Our awards presentation cost us $450.00. In 2019 we were still paying the VFW Post 812 $400.00 an annual donation. We also had other miscellaneous expenses like, we bought the trailer and registration for a cost of about $800.00, we also paid the P.O. Box rental and officer supplies. We had Christmas expenses and we bought pens, pins, hat logos as well as car logo stickers. We had 2 black cloth table covers made with our logo on them to use during our meetings and for special events. We had a new banner made. We also made two wooden logos, one 3’ tall and the other one smaller for our podium. The calendars last year cost us under $200.00 (also my idea 3 years ago) thanks to Jesus Dominquez because previously they were costing us around $600.00. Jesus was able to get a sponsor who paid 2/3 of the cost.

Our two main fund raisers are the Golf Tournament and 4 th of July raffle. Last year’s golf tournament (thanks to Frank Rios) brought us in over $5,000.00. (This was my idea 4 years ago when I convinced the BOD to start a golf tournament) Our 4th of July raffle ( thanks to Sukey and Ray Fierro) brought in about $2,000.00.

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For years the only person that had access to our bank account from our chapter was our treasurer. We relied on him to tell us what was going on with our accounts. Being that the case, he was the only one that could make changes or move money around if need be. Of course, all these had to have BOD approval. However, I felt this was not good to only have one person, what if something happened to our treasurer? No one could do anything, and we would be on a boat without a paddle. So, as of late 2019 I also got access to our account and now I too can go into our account and verify if need be. Incase an emergency can do what the treasurer can do. Our vice President has also been given access to the account. We are letting our treasurer do all the entries and such but we both can check into our account anytime we wish.

At an average our yearly income is $ 7,100.00 and our expenses are $7,080.00.

MEMBERSHIP: Our members ship last year went up to 120 members, more than in any year. We had 5 members pass away during this period and Chapter funeral wreaths were sent to each (cost of $135.00 each). Brothers from VVA574 who transferred helped in our count.

STANDING COMMEETTES: I appointed 11 committee chairs and 10 support personal. New Standing Committees included the membership committee, which we never had before (Joe Ortiz) Public Affairs ( Tom Shaughnessy) and Social Media ( Bonnie Jones) and Webmaster ( Rene Rodela) . We also have a PIO (Steve Nordberg).

SPECIAL COMMETTES: I created a special committee lead by our Vice President (Mike Grijalva) called the School Education committee. Using a video made by our brother Jim Paul as a base, I made a school curriculum about the Vietnam War and spoke to all the local school district Superintendents (or their representatives) and made a presentation of our program. They all liked the idea and wanted to program for their schools. I formed 2 teams of brothers who trained on the presentation and later received calls from teachers from local schools and did the presentations to high school kids using the video and slide presentation. Vice President Mike Grijalva took charge of scheduling and participating. There was great interaction with the kids as they made comments and asked answered. It was a great success and loved by both teachers and students and our brothers had a great time talking to the kids of their involvement in the Vietnam war and setting some things straight.

MEETINGS: After our fiasco with VFW Chapter 812 I was able to obtain a free hall (we were paying VFW812 $400.00 a year) from the county which was a great location and facilities but proved to be to small so then I was able to get us quarters at Vista College free of charge and saved us the $400.00 annual fee.

Uniforms: I came out with the idea of making and using garrison caps to be used with our class A uniforms and they were a great hit and improved our uniform and chapter visibility tremendously. (In the pass most would use their VFW or American Legion cap) I was also able to get a bugle donated to our chapter which upgraded our color guard to a higher and admired level. Our POW/MIA table presentation is so good that we were praised by some Washington DC offic ials who were present on one occasion in Ft. Bliss and commented on how impressive our presentation was. Moe and Alfred are outstanding.

By-Laws: At my recommendation we had some changes done to our bylaws to better suit current activities and I also came out with a Chapter binder for new ( and current) members, This binder gave our members knowledge of our Chapter’s history, structure , uniforms and by-laws which was handed out to all members. This binder is under the control of our membership Chair Joe Ortiz and is updated as needed. It also includes our roster.

Future: Brothers there is a good chance I might have left some items out, but this will give you an idea of what I have been doing for the good of our chapter. I have been transparent, informative, and made myself available as much as I possibly could. As for the future, my plans are to continue with the programs that are working and improve on them as needed. I also want to form a committee to review all of our By-Laws, finances, and structure preparing us for the possible changes within the national level. All dependent of course on the future of this horrible pandemic. Either way, I alone can’t do this thing. (Thank God I have a very good Board of directors) It is only with YOUR help that we keep this Chapter on its momentum for whatever time it has left. So, I ask you to please join me in making our chapter the envy of other veteran organizations. I welcome any suggestions and ideas. Together we can do it.

Your President

Elias Camacho

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VVA Chapter 844 President

Elias Camacho

JESUS M. DOMINQIEZ

Francisco Rios

USMC / Army National Guard

Autobiography

My name is Frank Rios born April 1, 1949 in El Paso, Texas

I graduated from El Paso High School in 1968. On January 13, 1969 and joined the United States Marine Corps and

went for Boot Camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California. Graduated 13 week later graduated on 14 April

1969 and received my 0300 MOS Infantry proceeded to Intensive Training Regiment for 8 weeks at Marine Corps Base

Camp Pendleton, California. and received 0311 MOS at Graduation on or about 16 June 1969. Reported to Staging Battalion

to prepare to go overseas on July 4, 1969.

I landed in Okinawa, Japan and received my orders to West Pac destination Vietnam. A few days later landed at Da

Nang Air Base Vietnam and the rest of my history as a 0311 infantry. I didn’t complete my tour, due to being put out and the

unit was sent to Okinawa, Japan. Then was sent to Mt. Fuji for cold weather training. In December of 1970 was Honorably

Discharged as a Corporal.

I married my High School girlfriend Amelia and we had 3 sons. In 1973 joined the Army National Guard retired as a

Sargent First Class on March 1990. Retired from the Department of Defense of 37 years.

I have joined different organizations and still going strong. Thank God for that.

President’s Award 2020

For months I labored with the thought of who should be awarded the President’s award. Many names came up and I felt that many members keep helping year in and year out. But I also felt that we as members have a certain obligation to help our chapter and thus there are some things that should be expected. I was looking for someone who went a little further than just doing his obligations to our chapter. Finally, it all came down to one name.

The President’s award was given this year to a member who has never refused to take on an assignment or to volunteer whenever he sees the need or asked. He is always working for the best interest of Chapter 844. When first joining this chapter, he had been in less than a year and was asked to run for Director to help out and he did. When asked to handle the website along with the webmaster he did. When asked to join the color guard, he did. When asked help with the golf tournament he quickly joined and helped get sponsors and handled the hole in one contest. After the first year he was asked to chair the golf committee and he did. At one time when we were having trouble finding sponsors for the golf tournament he put on his uniform and went down the street stopping at business after business and was able to get some dealership sponsors. When we need flyers for the tournament, he quickly volunteered to do them for the chapter free of charge, not charging for paper nor ink. After the tournament he suggested giving the sponsors certificates of appreciation and he printed them himself. When the idea of a chapter calendar was mentioned he quickly grabbed the bull by the horn and ran with the idea. When the board told him, we had no money for the calendars he went out and got a sponsor to pay for them so that our members would not have to pay for them and get them free. This brother doesn’t know the word CAN’T. There is not a thing that this brother will not do to help his fellow brothers, this is why I have presented JESUS M. DOMINQIEZ with the 2020 Presidents award. I’m sure you will all join me in congratulating Jesus for a job well done.

JESUS M. DOMINQUEZ

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Vietnam Veterans of America

Chapter 844 El Paso Tx.

Submitted by Rev./Pastor

Douglas P. Davis, Sr. Life Member.

L/C Robert E. Chisolm

On July 27 we had a Zoom meeting @ 2PM where Raul Vargas Elections Committee Chairman gave the reports of the elections from 127 members, I had only 16 members voting. The Results were as follows: Doug Davis received 15 votes and was reelected to the position #2. Art Ramirez received 14 votes and was reelected to the position #4 Frank Rios received 16 votes and was elected to fill the vacant position #6. Thank you for your votes.

Respectfully Submitted

Raul Vargas

VVA Chapter 844

Elections Committee Chairman

VVA Chapter 844 Directors Elections

From your Vice President Miguel Grjalva and Color Guard Commander Charlie Golf Six, news reference your color:

From: VVA Chapter 844 Vice President Mike Grijalva The Veteran’s arade:

I am sorry to have to inform everyone, we have been informed that because of COVID-19 and all the restrictions,

health, safety, and liability factors involved; we WILL NOT BE ABLE to conduct a Veterans Parade this year.

Respectfully submitted

Mike Grijalva

VVA Chapter 844

Vice President

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Chaplain’s Payer for the Month of August 2020

Vietnam Veterans of America

El Paso Texas Chapter 844 Chaplain Respectfully Submitted

Rev/Pastor Doug Davis

JULY 2020 FUND RAISING RAFFLE

AS WE ALL KNOW, THIS ISSUE WITH THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC TICKET SALES WERE VERY SLOW BUT WE MANAGED TO COVER THE PRIZE EXPENSES WITH ABOUT $1500.00 FOR THE CHAPTER FUND. I THANK ALL THE CHAPTER MEMBERS FOR BUYING THEIR OWN ALLOTTED BATCH OF TICKETS AND THAN SOME. IF IT WASN’T FOR THE MEMBERS, WE WOULD HAVE BEEN ON THE RED. NOW HERE ARE THE WINNING TICKET NUMBERS.

1ST NO.0341 ARMANDO BARRAZA I-PAD

2ND NO.0199 CARMEN VINCENT 55’ TV

3RD NO.0194 CARMEN VINCENT 125.00 GIFT CARDS

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS AND ALL PARTICIPANTS.

ALSO, THANKS TO THE RAFFLE COMMITTEE. JERRY LONGO, RUDY ESCAJEDA, CANDELARIO

CALDERON AND RAMON BACA

Respectfully Submitted

RAMON BACA

VVA CHAPTER # 844

Submitted by Edward E. Wilkes

for Rev/Paster Doug Davis

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Jokes of the week # 1

A rabbi, priest, and a preacher meet every Monday in a coffee shop to talk things over about their spiritual life.

One day, the priest makes a bet with the other guys that he could convert a bear in the woods over to his religion. They all agree that the next time they meet, they’ll share stories about how they were able to convert a bear. They all end up in the hospital, but the priest is in the best shape of all of them. They decide to meet in the rabbi’s room.

The priest has his arm in a sling and says, “Yeah, it was tough at first, but I was able to dash it with some holy water. The next thing I know, it started saying Hail Mary. He’s coming to mass this Sunday.”.

The preacher is in pretty bad shape. He’s in a wheelchair, and he has a concussion, a broken leg, and a broken arm. He says “Well, when I finally happened upon it, I wrestled that thing to the ground and started beating its head with a Bible. So he lunges at me and we tumble down this hill into the river where I dunked him seven times. Finally, he came to the faith. He’ll be coming to church next Sunday.”.

Both men turn to the rabbi to hear his story.

The rabbi looks like he got the worst of it. He’s in a body cast and there’s no way he’s getting out of bed any time soon. He looks at both men and says “Well, I probably should’ve started with something different than circumcision.”.

Please submit

info by the 10th

of Each Month

Brother and Sisters,

My name is Edward Elmer Wilkes and at present I’m your Newsletter Editor. I have been working with

members of the VVA Chapter 844 for the past year and have got know them very well. They are very dedicated

especially President Elias Camacho and Vice President Mike Grijalva. Both of them are very knowledgeable

with a lot of experience in running the affairs of the Organization. They do a lot of checks and balance to make

everything run smoothly. I want to complement both of them on their dedication and determination even with

COVID-19 Virous going on.

We have continued with producing the Newsletter each month to ensure up-to-date information is

provided to the members as it happens. Due to the fact that there are sickness and members and family passing

away each month.

I’m asking all the members to please provide any information so I can include them into the monthly

I’m trying to make the Newsletter more informative so members can enjoy reading the news that happens each

month. I need the help of every member make this work. I started in July 2019 and my plan is to improve each

month the quality and informative new as it happens each month. Please feel free to call me 915-500-0178 or

email me [email protected] to provide info and or comments so I can add it to the Monthly Newsletter.

Thank you

Respectfully Submitted

by Edward E. Wilkes

VVA CHAPTER 844

NEWSLETTER EDITOR

Vietnam Veteran of America Chapter 844 El Paso Tx.

GySgt Edward Elmer Wilkes

Newsletter Editor

Input for the Month of August 2020

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EL PASO COMMUNITY ADVERTIZING

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