This is my first newsletter as your President and as you may be aware, I have used a personal motto for a very long time, and it is:  Aspire to Inspire Before YOU Expire.  I hope you can reflect on this for yourself and find some value from it.  As we move along with the Society, I want to insure everyone can contact me and insure we continue to be able to contact you.  Please let us know of any change in your address, email and phone number.  Along with that, I want to know if you would appreciate a thinking of you card when you are ill or need a boost in attitude!  We all need that from time to time so don’t be a stranger, please email me (bergergerry@hotmail.com) with your name and phone number and I will return a call to you.

I want to extend a very personal thank you to Tom Hessler for being the Society President for two years as he leaves the Society Board and returns to the Cochise County Hall of Fame Chapter and all its activities. At our 9 January 2019 meeting, we also thanked John Ady and Sam Young for their many contributions to the Society Board these last two years.  In fact, they will remain contributors to the Society in the future.  I have assured them they aren’t truly leaving us.  We welcomed three new Directors and they are:  Lee Lange, Pat Little-Upah and Christine Mahon.  Gary Fredricks agreed to be our Vice President. They all come to the Board with many talents and you will get to know them through the Patriot in months to come.  Photo of the new and reelected Board members is here in the Patriot.

For those who have already made their donation to our Century Club in January, we kindly Thank You and we encourage all others who have not done so yet, to please transmit your donation as soon as you can.  Your check should be made to the Arizona Veterans Hall of Fame Society. 

Gather your friends and make plans to attend our Patriotic Awards Dinner on Saturday, the 16th of March 2019.  You can read more about our planned special evening from Kathy Laurier in our Patriot.  Be sure to make your reservation promptly.

Members of the Arizona Veterans Hall of Fame are selected for their continued service to our community, state and nation.  The deadline for submitting nominations is 31 March 2019.
Wishing you a most wonderful month of February.  Thank you for all you do for veterans.

Gerry Berger
AVHOFS President
Class of 2016

Aspire to Inspire Before You Expire

1. New President Gerry Berger encouraged all members to submit articles to the PATRIOT on significant events in which they are involved.
   
2. The AVHOF Society Veterans Court program is going strong with Phoenix being the largest court in the nation.
   
3. Eldora Engrebretson reported plans for the Patriot Awards Dinner on March 16 at the Hilton Scottsdale Resort and Villas are going well.  Cost will be $65 per person. 
4. Reggie Yates, UAV representative reminded everyone that nominations for the Class of 2019 are due by March 31.  He also encouraged all members to get involved in the Arizona State Legislature veteran’s legislation.
5. The Society request for funding from the ADVS has been submitted.  Fund request included support for Society philanthropic projects and other events.  Awards will be considered on January 30 and announcement made later. 
6. The Board voted to send a letter of support for the Blue Waters Bill to our U.S. Senators and Representatives.  If passed, this bill would provide benefits for those on ships in surrounding waters who supported ground combat operations.  Society member Rob Welch volunteered to draft letter.
7. Society Member David Lucier briefed the Board regarding plans for building a Fisher House in the Phoenix area.  It was voted to send a letter of support from the Society to the Phoenix VA Health Care System.
8. Jim Sylvester stated the full-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial will be on display in Casa Grande From March 5-10.  The following week it will be in Peoria.
   

CENTURY CLUB DONATIONS

I have been asked by a number of our members what is the purpose of the Century Club and what is done with the money donated?

Well, that is an easy question for me to answer.  When the Society was formed, it really didn’t have a source of income.  The Society decided that one of its goals would be to give out scholarships to deserving veterans.  Each year the Society gives out between $8,000 and $10,000 in scholarships during our annual Awards Dinner.

Below you will find the results from last year and a listing of all those members that contributed.  I’m truly sorry that your name couldn’t be included with this group of members.

Our 2018 contributions totaled $4,295.12

This year we are off to an excellent start.  Members who attended our annual election meeting in January, held at the Veterans Home in Phoenix, contributed generously to our Century Club.  Their names are listed below.  I hope those of you reading this article will say, “I haven’t given in 2019 and I should do so right NOW”.

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.  In the meantime, you can browse the store and decide what you want to order when the store opens again.

Roy McClymonds
AVHOFS Quartermaster
Class of 2017

Have you registered for the Patriotic Awards Dinner yet? Register online or download the fillable and printable registration form and mail it in with your check. 

Individual ticket sales and table sales are now open for Veterans Heritage Project's "Saluting Stories of Service" Celebration fundraising dinner.  Organize a table of your friends and save $50 per person.  At the March 9 event you will get to meet special guest, Medal of Honor Recipient Sammy Davis, known as the "real Forest Gump", dance to big band swing music, perhaps win a trip to Washington DC, and most importantly, support the connection between veterans and students through VHP's oral history program.  Click here to purchase your ticket, learn more, or contact VHP at 602-218-4036 x 101. 

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 me (Tom Hessler) at tjhessler@cox.net. 

CHANGE OF LEADERSHIP
Our January board meeting featured the swearing in of Gerry Berger as our new Society President and six board members.  The left picture is outgoing president, Tom Hessler, conducting the swearing in ceremony. Shown left to right are Christine Mahon (Director), Jerry Wojtas (Treasurer), Pat Thompson Little-Upah (Director), Dennis DeFrain (Secretary), Lee Lange (Director), Gary Fredricks (Vice President), Gerry Berger (President), and Tom Hessler at the lectern.  At the right, President Gerry Berger opens her first meeting as our new President.

DR. ALEXANDER WHITE (Class of 2014)
Dr. Alexander White (Class of 2014) was honored at an event on January 28th with a Mensch Award  from the MENSCH International Foundation. These awards are given to celebrate a commitment to tolerance and human rights.  Mr. White was recognized for his undying hard work to make people aware of the suffering by millions during the Nazi holocaust.  He has written two books, one of which talks about his own experience in WW II, where only he and his father survived.  He has worked tirelessly for years to bring the truth to younger people in schools.  A well-earned recognition.

PHOENIX STANDDOWN

Gerry Berger (Class of 2016), Terry Araman (Class of 2016) and Kathleen Laurier (Class of 2012) manned the registration table at this year’s Phoenix Standdown.	Roy McClymonds (Class of 2017) spent three days working the Phoenix Standdown and was found helping veterans in the eye clinic.

GREATER SIERRA VISTA VETERAN-OF-THE-YEAR, 2019
Glenn Hohman (Class of 2018) was selected as the Greater Sierra Vista Veteran-of-the-Year for 2019.  Former Society President Tom Hessler (Class of 2007) presented Glenn a Society Certificate of Honor.  Tom also presented Glenn with one from the Cochise County Chapter of the Society.  The luncheon in Glenn’s honor was co-sponsored by the Greater Sierra Vista United Veterans Council and the Coronado Chapter of MOAA.

BRIAN MANCINI (Class of 2017)
Brian Mancini posthumously inducted into the Arizona Veterans Hall of Fame in 2017 will be honored with the building of a memorial in his hometown of Surprise Arizona.  In 2012 Brian founded The Honor House a Phoenix based organization whose mission is to assist transitioning veterans from all eras.  An article on the project was featured on AzCentral.   

Request you let us know as soon as you know of an inductee’s passing.  If available, we would like to know the inductee’s name, date of passing, funeral and memorial service details, and a copy of the obituary.  Send notices to me at bergergerry@hotmail.com.

Gerry Berger
AVHOFS President
Class of 2016

By Lea Seago - Class of 2013

Even though war can be brutal, art seems to emerge in various forms.  During all military wars and conflicts, photographers capture the moments of fear, anxiety, sadness and pain that otherwise would be private.  Artists paint and draw experiences they see and feel as well as reside in their mind as memories.

Poster Art was the most widespread expression of war and peace during WWI.  This medium was at the apex of war propaganda.  The entire world is well aware of WWI and American involvement because of James Montgomery Flagg.  His self portrait of Uncle Sam, 1917, seems to be even now, everywhere!  The idea for the US Army recruiting poster, “I Want YOU” for the US Army was inspired by a 1914 British recruiting poster.  It depicts Lord Kitchener pointing, “Britons want YOU, Join your Country’s Army, God Save the King” by Alfred Leete.  During the years 1917-1919 Flagg produced forty-six posters for the US Government.

Women played a significant role in WWI on the art front.  Their creations included photographs, posters, and sculptures, of those who served and even Belgium Lace and knitted garments for soldiers in an effort to keep them warm and dry.

Sculpture in various forms made a lasting impact on the art world.  Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney not only contributed money to the arts, she had a personal humanitarian place in helping the wounded in WWI.

Gertrude was the great granddaughter of the Commodore, Cornelius Vanderbilt.  She was not only an heiress from her Vanderbilt birth; she married into extreme wealth as well.  Art was her base.  She was known for her sculptures and founding of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

During the war in Europe she grew tired of writing checks to help the war and the wounded so an idea of building a hospital became her hands-on focus.  Gertrude moved to France and indeed built a hospital.  The result being 225 beds in the small Marne town of Juilly, just a few miles from Paris.  She financed a staff of Doctors, Nurses, Orderlies, as well as a stable of ambulances.

Between 1917-1919, Gertrude created war sculptures which included “Private of the Fifteenth”.  The fifteenth soldier was part of the “Harlem Hellfighters”.  The sculpture depicted an African American soldier offering a Salute.

The most heart wrenching sculpture art was developed by Anna Coleman Ladd, born in Philadelphia and was well known in Boston.  Her effort to help wounded soldiers was over the top.  She founded the American Red Cross Studio for Portrait Masks in Paris.  This group of dedicated workers created prosthetic masks (now called anaplastology) for soldiers whose faces were disfigured by combat.

Anna first made a plaster cast of the entire damaged face.  She then produced a mask of an extremely thin sheet of galvanized copper.  The copper mask was in turn painted to match the flesh tone of the soldier by using hard enamel.  Ladd painted the mask while the soldier was wearing it.  She used real hair to create, eyelashes, eyebrows and mustaches.  The time for a total creation of each mask was 30 days or 1 month.  Masks were often held in place with spectacles or merely string.  The French Government honored Anna Coleman Ladd as a Knight of the Legion of Honor and the Serbian Order of Saint Sava.

Belgium has always had a place in the art world.  Their fine lace has and is still made by women artisans.  This art form contributed and still contributes to the income of Belgium.  The lace making was absolutely stopped when Germany invaded Belgium at the start of WWI.

Herbert Hoover, a wealthy industrialist living in London stepped in as chairman of the Commission for the Relief of Belgium.  He negotiated with England and Germany to stop the embargo on food and thread.  By his action, lace continued to be made and the artisan hands of Belgium women helped fund the country through WWI and is a part of the Belgium tourism economy today.

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

Shortly after 9/11, Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s face was substituted for James Flagg’s Uncle Sam.  This was used again, asking for help after the World Trade Center Tragedy.  Even Sam Young, Class of 2012, is up close and personal with a life size copy of Ladd’s Uncle Sam.  Need one?

Gertrude Vanderbilt entered the sculpture “Fountain of El Dorado” in the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco (she was given the medal of award).  Her “Titanic Memorial” in Washington DC is considered the most important achievement in her artistic career.

Anna Coleman Ladd entered her “Triton Babies” piece in the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco.  The fountain sculpture now rests in the Boston Public Garden.

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.