ANNUAL GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Just a reminder that this year’s General Membership Meeting will be held on 9 January at the Arizona State Veteran Home, Phoenix.  The new officers and directors will be sworn in at this meeting.  I will turn over the President’s gavel to Gerry Berger, our new President.

NEW LEADERSHIP COMING
It has been a great privilege and honor to have been entrusted with the presidency of this grand society.  This includes working with one of the most talented and dedicated governing board members one could hope for.  Gerry Berger will be sworn in as our new president at the General Membership Meeting in January.  I wish her all the best.

I have declined the position to stay on as our Immediate Past President.  That position will be superbly filled by Ron Perkins, one of our past presidents.  However, I am not totally leaving.  I will continue to serve as the editor of the Patriot and remain as the president of our Cochise County Chapter.  

Tom Hessler
AVHOFS President
Class of 2007

Please save the date of Saturday, 16 March 2019, for our Society’s 13th Annual Patriotic Awards Dinner.  It will be held at the Hilton Scottsdale Resort and Villas.  Both the Unified Arizona Veterans (UAV) and our Society will be presenting our 2019 Copper Awards.
Major UAV honorees will be:
Copper Shield – Honorable Gail Griffin
Copper Star – Honorable Mark S. Nexsen
Major AVHOFS honorees will be:
Copper Eagle – Franciscan Renewal Center
Copper Eagle – Sundt Construction, Inc./Sundt Foundation                

Gerry Berger
AVHOFS Vice President
Class of 2016

14 NOVEMBER 2018 AVHOFS BOARD BRIEFS

Dennis DeFrain
AVHOFS Secretary
Class of 2013

2018 DONATIONS TO DATE
Here we are entering the final month of the year.  Our Century Club has a goal of $5,000 for the 2018 year and listed below are both the contributors and the total as of the end of November.  It may look like our goal of $5,000 is unreachable, but I'm certain that many of you have been waiting for the holidays to arrive so that you can make your 'special' contribution.  I might mention that there have been occasions where members have made TWO contributions in the same year.  We wouldn't turn down any contribution.  Your Society board thanks you for helping grow our Scholarship Fund with your contributions to our Century Club.

Below is the listing of members who have contributed this year. In the January issue we will list all 2018 contributors by name and what our total was at the end of the year

Our annual goal is $5,000.  Here is how well we have done over the past few years.
2013 - $3,300          2016 - $4,480
2014 - $3,350          2017 - $4,300
2015 - $4,700          2018 - $3,995.12 to date

Jerry Wojtas
AVHOFS Treasurer
Class of 2011

The Country Store will open March 1, 2019 and accept orders from that date until April 13, 2019. At that time it will close for all orders until sometime in the Fall.  To order, go to the Country Store at www.avhof.org.

Roy McClymonds
AVHOFS Quartermaster
Class of 2017

In the past the Arizona Veterans Hall of Fame Society Patriotic Gala has been held in February or April.  This year the newly named Patriotic Awards Dinner will be held on 16 March 2019 at the Hilton Scottsdale Resort & Villas, 6333 North Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, Arizona

The Chair for the Dinner is Eldora Engebretson.  Gerry Berger and Kathleen Laurier’s support has helped immensely in getting this project off to a good start.  A committee is currently being formed.  Please let me know if you would be interested in serving on this committee.  Contact me at elnjoeng@cox.net or 653-566-9299.  We will keep you informed as we pull everything together.  Expect your SAVE THE DATE postcard in the very near future.

Eldora Engebretson
Class of 2002

CLASS LEADER FOR CLASS OF 2018
I welcome Toni Grimes, Class of 2018, as our newest Class Leader.  The Class of 2018 can expect to be contacted by her in the near future, if not already.

CALL FOR VOLUNTERR CLASS LEADERS
We now have Class leaders for the classes of 2015 through 2018.  If you are in a class before 2015, and would consider serving as your Class Leader, you are encouraged to contact me, John Ady, at john.ady80@gmail.com.

I’M STAYING WITH THE PROGRAM
I will no longer be a Director past the January 2019 meeting.  However, the Board of Directors has agreed to let me stay as the coordinator of the Class Leader program.

John Ady
Director
Class of 2015

Most of our Society members are very active in their communities.  Veterans Day will be upon us shortly.  You are invited to send in pictures of our “Members in Action”.  Be sure to identify the members in the pictures.  We will select a few of the best for publication.  Please send to Tom Hessler at tjhessler@cox.net. 

WORLD WAR 1 MEMORIAL REDEDICATION
On the 100-year anniversary of the end of WWI (Armistice Day), our World War I Memorial was rededicated at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza in Phoenix. The memorial had fallen into disrepair and had been vandalized many years ago. A team spearheaded by the Unified Arizona Veterans (UAV) and the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services (ADVS) raised funds for the rededication and drew up plans for the renovation. A donation from the AZ Veterans Hall of Fame also supported this effort.  Shown here is past Chairman of UAV Reggie Yates (Class of 2013), Director Wanda Wright of ADVS, and David Lucier (Class of 2009), who provided leadership to insure the success of the rededication. The U.S. lost 116,000 in ‘The War to End All Wars’. We must continue to honor their sacrifice.

VETERANS DAY IN SIERRA VISTA
Society members were very prominent, as always, in this annual event.

  

Seated above is COL (USA Ret) Doris Caldwell (Class of 2018).  As the Greater Sierra Vista United Veterans Council’s 2018 Veteran of the Year, she was the Veterans Day Parade Grand Marshal.  The gentlemen standing included 1SG (USA Ret) Larry McKim (Class of 2011), the Vice Chair of the Greater Sierra Vista United Veterans Council who was the ceremony emcee; and Clarence “Shorty” Larson (Class of 2015) who was the parade and ceremony color guard commander.

Pictured below was an informal gathering of some of the local Society members present at the ceremony.

MEMORIAL DAY AT THE MESA CEMETERY
On Veterans Day, members Kathleen Laurier and Roy McClymonds participated with their Scottish American Military Society (SAMS) chapter, in a memorial honoring the 23 Royal Air Force Cadets that lost their life during the #4 British Flying Training School at what is now Falcon Field.  The event was sponsored by the Commemorative Air Force.  November 11th also celebrated the 100th Anniversary of the Royal Air Force.  The British Honorary Consul was in attendance, representing Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, among other dignitaries.  The Mesa Caledonian Pipe Band participated, and the memorial included a bi-plane fly-over and Missing Man salute.  SAMS posted Colors and escorted the presentation of wreaths.

Request you let me know as soon as you know of an inductee’s passing.  If available, I would like to know the inductee’s name, date of passing, funeral and memorial service details, and a copy of the obituary.  Here are Arizona Veterans Hall of Fame inductees that have passed so far this year.  They are:

Robert S. Delsi (Class of 2015) passed 1 March
Elmer Urda (Class of 2007) passed 15 May
Claudia Johnson (Class of 2007) passed 4 July
Ralph T. “Tom” Browning (Class of 2008) passed 7 July
Thomas W. Stephens (Class of 2004) passed 13 July
Jesse Gersten (Class of 2004) passed 31 July
Arthur G. Sloane (Class of 2008) passed 6 August
John S. McCain III (Class of 2010) passed 25 August
Pete Rosales Sr. (Class of 2015) passed 29 September
Edwin Gene Spruce (Class of 2008) passed 6 October

Tom Hessler
President
AVHOFS

By Lea Seago - Class of 2013

Ships were a fascinating and devastating part of WWI.  The seas were absolutely filled with ships going and coming in all directions, large, small, iron and wood, with or
without masts, above and below the surface.

Everything and everyone involved in the war worked on docks, loaded or unloaded, sailed on or waited on ships for much needed supplies and/or soldiers.

From October 1914 until the US declared war, we sent allies over half a million tons of cordite, gun cotton, nitro cellulose, fulminate of mercury and other explosive substances, even the very unstable Picric acid.

J.P. Morgan was instrumental in shipping contraband to Europe in support of the war at a distance.  Many other suppliers such as DUPONT made fortunes as well.  These actions were sanctioned by President Woodrow Wilson.

Germany became wise to this supply/re-supply action, so they declared all ships were fair game no matter what flag was flying, no matter the cargo.  All Cunard ships were to reserve cargo space for crucial supplies from the United States.  Passengers were notified that travel from New York going east had risks.  Thus, the sinking of the Lusitania on 7 May 1915.  German shipping lines had connections with Standard Oil and St Louis Breweries, at this time.

Ships had to play the game of cat and mouse to ensure that cargo arrived at the appropriate destination.  Ships sailed in convoy with escort across the Atlantic.  Speed as well as the ability to use diversion tactics determined the type and size of convoy.

When WWI began, action was taking place off the coast of South America. 16 August 1914 the ship HMS Glasgow captured German Merchant Ship SS Santa Catherina.  The Glasgow saw action at the battle of Coronel of the Falklands and a short battle near Mas a Tierra where the SMS Dresden was scuttled.  One of the sailors on the Glasgow spotted a frightened pig swimming furiously in the water, a survivor of the Dresden.  After rescue the pig was declared Mascot of HMS Glasgow and was named “Tirpitz.” 

6 April 1917 the German cruise liner Vaterland was seized by the US government and turned over to the US Navy, June 1917.  This ship was the largest ever built at this time.  She was renamed SS Leviathan and used to transport over 12,000 American Soldiers.

On 6 December 1917 at approximately 8:45 a.m., the French Ship Mont Blanc sent by the British arrived into the Halifax Nova Scotia Harbor called the Narrows to have safe haven while awaiting an escort.  The 3,000-ton slow ship arrived from New York with a final destination across the Atlantic.  The cargo included 2,300 tons of picric acid, 200 tons of TNT, 35 tons of high-octane gasoline and 10 tons of gun cotton.  An empty ship, the IMO, formerly Norwegian, headed for New York to pick up supplies for Belgium Relief arrived in Halifax and proceeded into the Narrows canal.  The two ships collided.  At 9:05 a.m. the Mont Blanc exploded in a blinding flash. The number of dead and wounded numbered 11,000.  More than 1,600 were killed instantly, flying glass blinded 200.

Not only was the Halifax Explosion itself a tragedy for the Narrows, a powerful Tsunami was set in motion which swept away 20 Mi’kmaq families in the First Nation Settlement of Turtle Grove.  Many descendants of the victims and survivors of Turtle Grove live on the First Nation Millbrook Mi’Kmaw community about an hour away from Halifax.

We have come a long way---however?  Facts to Ponder:

“Ghost Fleet of the Potomac, 40 miles south of Washington DC lies the largest ship graveyard in the Western Hemisphere, the remains of some 100 wooden ships built for America in WWI.  The wrecks tell the story of a nationwide race to build 1,000 wooden vessels as quickly as possible to replace steel-hulled ships sunk by German U-boats.  The effort mobilized a half-million civilians working in over 40 shipyards, as well as lumber, mining, iron and engine manufacturing industries.”  National Trust for Historic
Preservation.

“Tirpitz”, the pig, served as mascot of HMS Glasgow for a year and was then transferred to Whale Island Gunnery School for the rest of her career.  The crew of the Glasgow
awarded her a fake Iron Cross for remaining on board the sinking Dresden.

Among the US Navy Leviathan crew was the chief quartermaster, future film star,
Humphrey Bogart.

Members of Millbrook First Nation gathered at Turtle Grove on Wednesday 6 December 2017 marking 100 years after the explosion and Tsunami and to honor the lost settlement.

Picric acid was the first high explosive nitrated organic compound widely considered suitable to withstand shock of firing in conventional artillery.  Picric needs to be stored
wet in glass or plastic for safety from explosion.

9 Jan 19            
Annual General Membership Meeting at the Arizona State Veteran Home, Phoenix.

9 Mar 19
“Saluting Stories of Service” celebration dinner, Hilton Scottsdale Resort & Villas.

16 Mar 19
Patriotic Awards Dinner (formerly the Patriotic Gala), Hilton Scottsdale Resort & Villas.

31 Mar 19
Postmark deadline for submitting nominations for the Class of 2019.

30 Jun 19
Postmark deadline for submitting nominations for the Copper Sword and Copper Eagle.

30 Sep 19
Postmark deadline for submitting nominations for the Copper Shield and Copper Star.

Oct 19
Annual Business Meeting at a specific date and location to be determined.

25 Oct 19
Arizona Veterans Hall of Fame Induction at a location to be determined.