Massena American Legion

From the Commander: Congratulations to Past President Linda Firnstein on her appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show. She was nominated by a letter sent in by her daughter Martha and was flown to Chicago for the show that was taped on February 11th and was aired on February 17th at 4pm locally. This is a great and well-deserved honor for Linda.

The 84th Birthday Dinner for the American Legion will be held on March 15 here at the Post. Cocktails will be from 5pm - 6pm and dinner will be served at 6pm. There is a sign-up sheet at the bar. This is also the 84th anniversary of this post that was formed in July of 1919 at a meeting held in the Massena Police Station by a few returning WWI veterans.

Anyone that is a member of the St. Lawrence County 40&8 that would like to join the Franklin County 40&8 can do so by contacting Larry Hodge at 769-3687.

The Fish Fries are starting up on February 28th. Cost is $7.00 each. Come on down and enjoy a great meal. Anyone that is interested in working these meals can contact Bob Cowles at 764-8867 or leave your name at the bar.

I was asked recently why we don’t display the awards the post has received. The reason is we don’t have the room to display all the awards we have received over the past year, let alone previous ones. I actually have a stack of them up in my office.

Scholarship applications for the post will be out in the high school at the post March 1st. We give out two (2) $1,000 scholarships each year. Every little bit helps towards tuition and lodging these days, so if you have a college bound student, pick up a scholarship application and fill it out and return it with a copy of the students grades by May 1st.

At the April 2003 membership meeting there will be nominations of officers for the 2003 - 2004 Legion year. If you ever thought about running for a office you can either attend this meeting or attend the May 5th meeting and be nominated off the floor for any of the offices. I get to sit back and enjoy the confusion this time since I’m not running for office.

Some of you have complained that your key cards won’t work in the back door. Check to see if you have paid your 2003 dues. If you haven’t paid your dues yet, then your key card has been turned off. Once you pay your dues I’ll turn it back on. Also, please refrain from punching a hole in your key card to place it on your key ring. This will crack the card and it will not work right.

Auxiliary: Our Auxiliary would like to welcome 5 new members: Rebecca Manfred, Janace Planty, Gretchen Ashley, Meghan Dobbins Jr., and Jessika Dobbins Jr.

We only need 4 more renewals to make our goal of 236 members. If you have not paid your 2003 dues we would appreciate it if you did so soon. We have 14 renewals that need to pay your dues.

Also any member that is 70 years old or older your dues are paid by the unit. The only thing you have to do is to let us know because we have no record of your age. Marilyn Snyder is our membership chairman. She can be reached at 384-3230.

If you know of any of our Auxiliary members that is sick you can call Rita LeBlanc our Chaplain (769-9269) or you can call Suzanne Vatter, co-chairperson (389-5150) or leave the name at the bar (769-6819).

Our COUNTY MEETING for February 20th is at Gouverneur Post #65. We are asked to bring a covered dish this time. There will be a guest speaker there. Kim Richards will be speaking on the V.A. OUTREACH CLINIC in MASSENA.

On March 15th we have permission to set up a table at the mall to sell chances on a Easter Basket and Raffle off a blanket that was donated by Peggy Pelligrino. We need some volunteers to sit at the table. We will be taking turns. We need some donations to fill this basket. If you can think of anything you want to donate please feel free to do so. You can call me (Joanne 769-8223) or Carrie Sickles (764-0469).

I would like to thank the people that donated the food for the food pantry. During the Fish Fries if you have any canned goods you would like to donate to the Food Pantry, please bring it along and drop it off. The Food Pantry is in need of food. I delivered the food we have collected already to the Neighborhood Center. They really appreciated it. They are in need of more food and don’t have much left.

Don’t forget to get your 2003 DUES PAID before the end of February.

Auxiliary President,
Joanne MaComber

Sons of The American Legion: I would like to welcome a new member - Lee Selleck. We have very few up-coming events going on this month. There are the Fish Fries starting February 28 from 4pm - 7pm., and every Friday there after ending on April 18 (Good Friday). All are welcome to come and enjoy the delicious fish and work if you choose to. There is also the Legion Birthday on March 15. All members that are in good standing are welcome to attend and bring a guest. Cocktails are at 5pm and dinner at 6pm.

We will selling 50/50 tickets during the Fish Fries, so come and support the club and your squadron.

Don’t forget that our meetings are the second Monday of every month. I would like to see some new faces. Once again, check your membership card to see if you have paid your dues. I will be sending out letters this month to remind members that have not paid this year. So lets get them paid before the Legion Birthday so we can get our 100%.

Scott Bolia
Commander

The following is an article that Al Marlow sent to me and I thought that you would enjoy it.

Pride in Service – An Article by Columist Bryan Burwell

SAN DIEGO - It was just around midnight Tuesday night, and the outdoor courtyard at Dick’s Last Resort was throbbing with the rowdy energy of a spring break bacchanal. There was loud rock music blaring out of the stereo speakers, and the air was filled with the distinct and somewhat revolting aroma of deep-fried bar food, cigarette smoke and spilled beer.

Dick’s is the sort of bar-restaurant ideally suited for Super Bowl week mischief, because it has a down-and-dirty roadhouse feel to it. The waiters, waitresses and bartenders are charmingly rude, and the wood floors are covered with sand and all sorts of indistinguishable debris. The clientele on this evening is a fascinating mix of twenty-something college kids, thirty-something conventioneers and 40-something Super Bowl high-rollers.

Yet, there was one table in Dick’s courtyard Tuesday night that was noticeably different from the others. There were six young men at the table and one young woman, and while they were drinking like everyone else in the room, there was something all too serious going on at this table that let you know that their thoughts were a long way from the mindless frivolity of Super Bowl week.
(continued below)

Yours for The Legion,
Mark S. Phillips
Commander

Maybe it was the close-cropped "barracks haircuts" that gave them away. All the men’s heads were cut in that familiar look of a professional soldier, skin-close on the sides, and on the top a tight shock of hair that resembled new shoe-brush bristles.

"We’re Marines," one man told me. "And tomorrow we’re boarding a ship for....well....I can’t tell you where, but you know."

Of course we knew. In less than an hour, they would report back to a ship docked along the Southern California coast, then on Wednesday head across the Pacific Ocean, bound for a potential war in Iraq. So this was no Super Bowl party for them. This was their last night out on the town. One Marine was saying goodbye to his wife. The others were not so lucky. They all just sat around the table, throwing back beers and wrestling with the sobering uncertainty of the rest of their lives.

"We’re going to war and none of us knows if we’re ever coming back," said another Marine, a 28-year-old from Southern Illinois. They all requested that I not use their names. "Just tell them that we’re the men of (Marine Aviation Land Support Squad 39)," they said.

On Super Bowl Sunday, the men of MALS 39 will be watching the game from the mess hall of their ship. "That is, if we’re lucky and the weather is good and it doesn’t interfere with the satellite signal," said the Marine with the bald head and burnt-orange shirt.

"But I gotta tell you, I’m not that big a sports fan anymore. It’s going to be the first pro football game I’ve watched in....I can’t even remember."

Why is that?

"Well, here’s my problem with pro sports today," he said. "I don’t care whether it’s football, basketball or baseball. Guys are complaining about making $6 million instead of $7 million, and what is their job? Playing a damned game. You know what I made last year? I made $14,000, and you know what my job description is? I’m paid to take a bullet."

When he said those words, it positively staggered me. Fourteen thousand dollars to take a bullet.

Not a day goes by that I am not reminded of what a wonderful life I lead. I am paid to write about sports and tell stories on radio and television about the games people play. But sometimes, even in the midst of a grand sporting event, something happens to put the frivolity of sports into its proper perspective, and this was it.

Fourteen thousand dollars to take a bullet.

As I sit here writing from my hotel room, I can look out my balcony window and I see a Navy battleship cutting through the San Diego Bay, heading out to sea. I can see the sailors standing on the deck as the ship sails past Coronado Island, the San Diego Marina and the downtown Seaport Village, and I wonder if any of the men from MALS 39 are aboard.

It was on 12 hours ago that I was sitting at the table with my guys, buying them beers, and listening to their soldier stories. The Marine from Southern Illinois who sat to my right pointed to the bald Marine in the orange shirt who was seated to my left. "You know, I don’t even know this guy, can you believe that? We just met a few hours ago when we came into Dick’s. Oh, I’ve seen him on the base, but I’ve never met him before tonight. But here’s what’s so special about that man, and why I love that man. He’s my brother. Semper Fi. I know a guy back home, and he is my best friend. I’m 28 years old and we’ve known each other all our lives. But today, that friend is more of a stranger to me than that

Marine sitting over there, who I’ve never met before tonight. That’s why they call it a Band of Brothers."

The little Marine in the orange shirt lifted his glass toward the Marine from Southern Illinois and nodded his head. "That’s right," he said. "That’s my brother over there, and I’m gonna take a bullet for him if I have to."

He said it with a calm and jolting certainty. There was a moving, but chilling, pride in his words.

All around them, people were drinking, shouting and laughing. The college kids and the conventioneers and NFL high-rollers were living the good care-free life. Across the street, a storefront that was vacant two weeks ago was now filled with $30 caps, $400 leather jackets, $40 mugs and $27 T-shirts with the fancy blue and yellow Super Bowl XXXVII logo embroidered on it.

From every end of the streets of downtown San Diego’s fabled Gaslamp Quarter, Super Bowl revelers toasted the Raiders and the Bucanneers with grog-sized mugs filled with beers and rums. But just around midnight in the middle of the courtyard of Dick’s Last Resort, a far more deserving toast was going up to the men of MALS 39. We clicked our glasses together, and a few minutes later, they quietly slipped out the courtyard gates.

Suddenly, the Super Bowl didn’t seem so import anymore.

(Please keep our military personnel in your thoughts and prayers)

Quote: "A thoughtful mind, when it sees a nation’s flag, sees not the flag only, but the nation itself; and whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag, the Government, the principles, the truths, (and) the history which belong to the nation that sets it forth." Henry Ward Beecher