VVA Clermont County Chapter 649 September 2019 Newsletter
September 12th Membership Meeting 7:30 PM
VVA 649 Meetings
VVA 649 meets the second Thursday of every month.
NEXT MEETING: Sept 12th
LOCATION Union Township Civic Center
Senior Center
4350 Aicholtz Road Eastgate Exit of I-275
Food served at 7:00 PM Meeting at 7:30 PM
Guest speaker immediately following the pledge of allegiance.
AVVA Membership
Associates of Vietnam Veterans Members actively participate and work in supporting VVA.
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The mission of Chapter 649 of the Vietnam Veterans of America is to provide fellowship, advocacy, education about veter-an benefits, as well as financial assistance, as appropriate, to veterans of all eras, pursuant to the founding principle of the Vietnam Veterans of America, “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another.”
The Business of the Month for August is The Village Barber Shop in Williamsburg. VVA President, Michael Newman presented the certificate to owner, Pete Cooper who has supported the VVA Golf Outing for many years.
Business of the Month
Honor Flight September 24th
The next Honor Flight returns on Tuesday, 9/24. VVA 649 Board member Tom Olenick will be on board. Please join us to welcome him home. Meet at CVG lower level near the elevator by 8:30 PM. Some members will be carpooling from Union Township Civic Center. Contact Mark Brandon if you are interested. 513-309-3568.
Chaplains Corner
Hello Everyone. No matter what you hear or see on TV there are more good people than bad in this world. Let us be thankful that we are Americans because we can make so much good out of a tragedy. If we would all pray more, this world be a better place.
My brother, and good friend, Bob Gustin is in Forest Hills Nursing Home, room 305, phone 513-578-6278. Let me know if there is anyone else in the chapter that needs prayer or a visit from me. If you don’t call, I will not know. Pray for our troops and our leaders. God bless you! Chaplain Bill Graybill 513-316-5515.
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Memorial Bricks Re-installed
Our memorial is looking a little different thanks to a grant that was received by Union Town-ship for use to complete several improvements in the Townships parks.
The bricks at our memorial needed to be taken out and replaced because of an erosion problem impacting the sand base. This work was scheduled for the end of 2018, but weather and other logistical issues delayed it until this month. Two contractors were involved in the project. One oversaw removing and replacing the bricks and the other replaced the sand bed with concrete. The job was made more complex because the bricks had to be replaced in the same location to match our on-line brick finder.
The chapter apologizes to those who had to wait months for their bricks to be installed. All me-morial pavers ordered before July 31st should be in place within the next 30 days.
S T O R I N G
C O N C R E T E
& E D G I N G
R E P L A C I N G
Installing new bricks will be easier now because no digging and no sand will be re-quired. Bricks can be removed and re-placed with a brick removal tool.
State Award Received
Mark Brandon, VVA 649, past President, cur-rent Treasurer, and Chairman of the Community Affairs Committee was nominated for the Buck-eye State Council Veteran of the Year award.
While he was not chosen as the finalist, it is an honor to be recognized at the State level for his accomplishments serving the membership of VVA649. Mark was presented with the award by current President, Michael Newman.
Clermont County Library
The Clermont County Public Library Miami Township Branch on Buckwheat Road will be hosting a 90 - minute presentation on Vietnam by VVA member Ken Williamson. The date is September 17th and the time is 6:30 to 8:00 PM.
Contact the library for more information. 513-248-0700
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Coming Soon -VVA 649 Events
September 7: VVA 649 Golf Outing at Elks Run. Contact Ken Williamson 513-260-6501
September 24: Honor Flight at CVG Delta. 8:30PM
October 12: Georgetown Veterans Home Bingo. VVA Chapter 649 volunteers should ar-rive by 1:30 and plan to stay until 3 PM. Sign up at our next meeting or call Mark Brandon at 513-309-3568.
October 19: Buckeye State General Membership meeting in Columbus. Details TBA.
November 4: Buckeye State Council District 3 Meeting in Cincinnati - Details TBA
November 11: Veterans Day Ceremony at the memorial 6:00 PM.
Chapter 649 - Mission Support Fundraiser
This year we are drawing for a Ruger 5.56. Donation is $5.00 per ticket or 5 tickets for $20.00. If you want to help sell tickets, call Michael Newman at 513-607-9309. Tickets will be available at our membership meetings and at our next Meet and Greet. The drawing will be held on December 12, 2019.
Photo May Not Be Exact
Drawing Rules: You do not have to be present to win. The winners will be notified by telephone. The winning ticket num-ber will be posted on www.vva649.org. A winner who does not pass the background check will be disqualified and a new winner will be drawn. The winning ticket and/or the weapon is not transferable, the person designated on the ticket must claim the prize. You must be 21 to participate.
September Birthdays
Birthday Information If your birthday has not appeared here this month or anytime this year or if the date is not accurate, please contact Ken Williamson with the correct information. 513-260-6501
09 / 01- Cliff Riley
09 / 01- Tom Hesler
09 / 04- James Brath
09 / 05- Herstle Bridges
09 / 05- Robert L. Barger
09 / 06- Bruce Nutley
09 / 06- Robert Ireton
09 / 06- Wayne Waligorski
09 / 06- James “Peanut” Kahles
09 / 07- John Pane
09 / 07- John Swigert
09 / 07- Phillip Tussey
09 / 10- Tom Fecher
09 / 12- Ray Miller Jr
09 / 13- Kim Bredenbeck
09 / 13- Richard Day
09 / 14- Danny Sims
09 / 14- Tim Long
09 / 14- Walter Shipley
09 / 15- Robert Derr
09 / 15- Ronald Sirabry
09 / 16- James Bell
09 / 17- Walter Ruther
09 / 20- David Loving
09 / 20- David Watkins
09 / 20- Lannie Cornell
09 / 21- Darryl Trace
09 / 22- Luther Perry
09 / 22- Peter Wendell
09 / 23- Stephen De Hass
09 / 25- David Drake
09 / 25- Frank Brisker
09 / 25- James Ohsenhirt
09 / 26- George Anderson Jr
09 / 26- John D. Rudolph
09 / 27- Cindy Smith Avva
09 / 27- Robert Bell
09 / 28- Samuel Bray
09 / 30- Dennis Waler
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Got News ? Ideas for news related to chapter events or veterans issues may be sent to Ken Williamson or Michael Newman. Deadline is the 22nd of each month. [email protected] or [email protected]
From the President
Last month’s meeting was a bit different than usual. I had mentioned at a previous meeting about having submitted last year an Honorary Life Membership application for our Donut Dolly, Judy Squire. I also noted that she had passed away this past May.
Just a week before the August meeting I received her Honorary Life Member certificate and mem-bership card for VVA Chapter 649 from VVA National. As I had met her sister Cathy while attend-ing Judy’s memorial, I thought it might be nice to present her the certificate at our August member-ship meeting. I told her that we had a full agenda but I could fit in about five minutes at the begin-ning of the meeting.
Cathy showed up about five minutes before the start of the meeting with her two sisters from Indi-ana, and I assured them that it would not take long. At about the same time, Ken Williamson, our public affairs chairman, advised me that Channel 9 News team would also be attending our meeting and that they were on the way. This had been arranged the day before by Mark Brandon.
Since I had scheduled the presentation for the beginning of the meeting, I went ahead and intro-duced Judy’s sisters (Mary Catherine, Marianne, and Mary Martha, the three sisters of Mary Judith) and began talking about her service in Vietnam, but since the news team had not shown up yet I de-cided to detour and skip ahead to the next item on the agenda – the report of the convention by the delegates. When the news team finally showed up and got their equipment arranged, I began again with the presentation and was finally able to present Judy’s certificate to her sisters. Each sister spoke about Judy’s service in Vietnam and what it had meant to them.
With that part of the meeting over, the news team decided they wanted to interview the four of us so I turned the meting over to Ken, who had a picture presentation of the convention to share.
So what began as a quick five minute presentation for her sisters, actually wound up taking over an hour and a half, as the sisters interview took much of that time, during which I was finally able to resume control of the meeting and finish it up on time.
It was really an experience that I was not prepared for. As chaotic as it might have seemed at times, the guys all maintained their patience and I believe that Judy’s sisters really appreciated the honor she received.
Craig McKee, WCPO Channel 9 news anchor, also a veteran, has advised us that the story is Scheduled to air on September 16
th at 6PM.