C.L. Elms Post 9951, Bangkok,
Thailand
Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States
August 2005, Post Newsletter
Comrades,
In my May newsletter I spoke about the furious round of activity in the early
spring. I thought that the summer would be quieter, my mistake. The continuous
round of events this year has not slackened with the passing of months. Your
Commander and Quartermaster attended the Department of Pacific Areas Convention
in Angeles City, The Philippines 10-16 June and shared good times with post
members from throughout the Pacific Areas. Thailand was awarded the Convention
for Pacific Areas next June to be hosted by Post 9951 in Bangkok. This is quite
an honor, but also a good deal of work to make it a memorable meeting. The
planning will be going forward with the appointment of a Convention committee at
our September meeting. If you do not live in Thailand now is a good time to
consider a holiday during the convention to meet old friends from around the
Pacific. The Convention dates will be June 17-22, 2006 in Bangkok at the Impala
Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 24.
Registration and committee meeting are on Saturday and Sunday, opening
ceremonies on Monday, 19 June 2005. Bring the family as there is plenty of
sightseeing and shopping available while you attend the DPA convention and catch
up with old friends.
July started off with the Independence Day Picnic, your post served up
Hamburgers and Beer throughout the afternoon, many favorable comments on the
cold US beer and good hamburgers. The only down side was the price was 25 cents
higher than last year and several complaints on price were received. We started
the Picnic with a presentation of colors and posted the service flags beside the
bandstand for all to see and appreciate throughout the day. We had a total of 27
members attend the picnic and a good time was had by all, with many comments of
appreciation on the Flag ceremony. Then the third weekend of July was the
quarterly meeting of District V, hosted by Post 9951 at the Tara Hotel. Various
awards were handed out to the posts that had been received by the new District V
Commander Delbert Marohl. Post 9951 received an award for Americanism
participation and recognition for achieving 100% membership for the 2004-2005
year.
We continued our support of the Royal Thai Prosthesis foundation, donating
pull-tabs to the foundation to provide free artificial limbs to those in need.
We also made another donation of used stamps to the Veterans Hospital in Tucson,
AZ to assist rehabilitation of disabled veterans.
During August we journeyed to the US and attended the 106th National VFW
Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah. There were a number of items on the agenda
but the two of most concern was the proposed increase in Life Member dues, which
was defeated in committee based on the COLA clause that would have automatically
increased dues; and membership for non-US citizens that had served honorably in
the US military and qualified in all respects for membership, excluding
nationality. Even though both of these proposals were defeated, we can expect
them to be returned next year. If any of you are familiar with the two issues
and would like to comment, please send me an e-mail with your comments. Our
input will be solicited at the DPA Convention in Bangkok next year.
District V Past Commander and long time Commander of the Korat Post, Charlie
Zuill, passed away on 26 August, he was a real pillar in the Korat community and
will be missed by many comrades. His funeral service had the local Thai Army
Band and a bugler for his final recall. Over 300 persons attended the service.
Charlie donated his body to the medical school in Khon Kaen, so even in his
parting, he was giving to the community he lived in for so many years. Our
sympathies go out to his wife and family.
We did very well in recruiting last year; the post now has 234 members versus
227 the year before. As of August 31st, we are at 88.5% primarily based on
having 203 Life Members. We have had two new Life Members join, but need our
annual members to send in your dues, or consider converting to Life Membership,
before the dues go up. If the post is at 100% by 30 November, we can get a free
Life Member paid by Department of Pacific Areas. So please send in your annual
dues payment or convert to Life in the next couple of months. If we qualify for
the free membership it will be awarded at a drawing of those annual members that
have renewed before November 30th. (We need to submit to National before that
date, so give us a week for that function.)
In my last newsletter we were looking for six (6) comrades. We have not been
able to locate any of the 6, however we are still looking. Neither post 9951 nor
National has an address for sending news of post activities or the VFW magazine.
If anyone has information on the following comrades, please send us an address
update:
Boham, Charles C.;
Campbell, Ronald D.;
Carrier, Clark, Johnny W.
James T. [my note: I think there's a
typo here, and that this man's surname is either "Carrier" or Clark"];
Fox, Randy L.;
Hammer, Max R.;
Wood, Gene L.;
and Wright, Richard G., whose last known address was here in Bangkok. Any
information you may have on any of these members is appreciated.
There is a lot of news out these days of concern to all veterans, not just
retirees. We try to keep this information current, so please check the
post website at
There is usually 6 months of news releases from government and other sources
about benefits and other important information for veterans.
We continue to receive new e-mail addresses regularly. If you have e-mail,
please contact us at the address below. Our desire is to keep our post members
informed, e-mail is the quickest method. Keep in Touch!
VFW Post 9951 Bangkok, Thailand
HQ, JUSMAGTHAI, c/o RAO (9951)
APO AP 96546
Or, 7 Sathorn Tai Road, Bangkok, Thailand 10210
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