October Meeting Notes

We started the October meeting with Tolling the Boats lost in October, followed by birthday wishes for our members, introductions, and officer reports.

Old and New Business:
Holiday Luncheon - The Seattle Base USSVI and Lockwood Chapter, Submarine Veterans of WWII Joint Holiday Luncheon is set for Saturday, December 14 at Anthony's HomePort Kirkland restaurant. You can download a copy of the registration form here. The form will also be included in the next newsletter. It will be a fun time and we hope to see you there.

See you at Anthony's Home Port

Auburn 2013 Veterans Day Parade – The 48th annual Auburn Veterans Day Parade will be on Saturday, November 9. Seattle Base and other submarine veteran groups will be at the parade. We are planning to meet around 10:00 - 10:30 at the intersection of Main and K Streets, and the parade starts at 11:00. You might want to get there early since there will be over 200 parade entries. There will be other events around Auburn that weekend, including the Vietnam Veterans Traveling Wall, and you can find out more at the city's website.

Veterans Day Service – The Veterans Day memorial service at the Tahoma National Cemetery will be on Monday, November 11 at 11:00. The speaker for the event will be Congressman Dave Reichert.

Veterans Appreciation Week - Seattle Base will participate in Veterans Appreciation Week the at the University of Washington's Bothell campus on Wednesday, November 13 from 10:00 – 3:00. If you are interested attending and talking with some of the students, please contact Base Commander Doug Abramson.

Cabela’s Lacy Event – We are taking the float to the Cabela’s Lacy store on Sunday, November 10. This will be a quick turn-around from the Saturday parade, but should be fun. If you are interested in participating, please contact Base Commander Doug Abramson.

Seattle Base Elections - Base elections are coming up in January. Our base needs men like you to stand for the necessary positions to keep the base running, and we want to invite you to throw your name in the ring for one of the Base Officer positions. Even if you aren’t ready to be a Base Officer, you can still help out as one of the committee chairs or appointed officers for the base. Committee chairs and appointed officers are really needed to handle the necessary base functions that make our base valuable to us all. Please consider stepping up for an officer or committee position.

Membership Dues - If you are on the annual membership plan, it is time to look at paying your dues. Please contact Jim Harper to pay your dues or if you have questions.

October Program:
We didn’t have a scheduled program for October, but Chief of the Boat Ralph Sterley talked to us about his trip to Washington DC with the Honor Flight Network. Ralph’s group was in the capital during the government shutdown, so he didn’t get to see all the memorials. He was able to go to the Navy Memorial, the World War II Memorial, and Arlington Cemetery. Ralph had some interesting insights into the trip and Honor Flight Network.

Good of the Order:
Lois Mezek let us know that with the holidays coming up, a lot of organizations that claim to support veterans will be asking you for money. Be sure to check out the organizations before you donate. A good place to check is Charity Navigator (http://www.charitynavigator.org/).

Base Storekeeper Bill Giese let us know that he expects to have 2014 calendars available at the next meeting.

Finally, here is a reminder that Don Ulmer will be providing the program for the November meeting. Here is a short description of Don's program: Don will spin a true bittersweet saga of World War I told him by his best friend at age 11. It is the story of his friend's Aunt Marge Van Sciver and 1st Lt Malcom Gunn, of the embryo US Army Flying Corps, who married on the eve of his deployment to France over objections of both families. Film clips excerpted from a musical play based on this tale produced by the Seattle Museum of Flight spice Don's PowerPoint presentation. This is a good program for wives and significant others, so bring them along. This story will really tug at the heartstrings.