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/ THE COUNCIL COURIERBrevard Veterans Council, Inc. & Veterans Memorial Center, Inc.
400 South Sykes Creek Pkwy. Merritt Island, FL 32952-3547
Office 321-453-1776 DAV Service Office 321-452-1774
Fax 321-453-1152
Web Site:
December2017
(A Coalition of Veterans Organizations)
A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life,
wrote a blank check, made payable to “The United States of America” for an amount of “up to and including my life.”
Editor: Doris Hendricks
Council Chairman’s Report
Well November has been something to be proud of. The month started with our annual Veterans Day activities. Rain tried to dampen our day but everyone stayed till the end and enjoyed a great meal provided by Chic-fi-La. Then we supported Massing of the Colors at Eastern Florida University Campus and the turn out was great. Thanks to my stand in Donn Weaver who covered it for me. Next it was off to a fund raiser at Kiwanis Island. I wanted to say thanks to Col Knight and Sherriff Ivey for coming to share with us at all three events. We are proud to be the 1st location in the state of Florida to remember 22 veterans a day who take their own lives. A Gold star Mother Robin Kiepert who with others from around the area placed the the 660 flags at the entrance to the park on November 19 which will remain up for 30 days. This is the approximate number that is reported per month by the VA. Realizing that it is not every state reporting. Tickets still remain on sale for our annual Christmas party, which will be held Dec. 13 starting at 11am. Food is provided by Courtney Springs Village. A minor Meeting to be held at 10 to cover some agenda items with Rockledge H.S. presenting the colors. The council picked up several new members the past month and a new VFW post will be established in December by its authorized charter released. This will be the 1st new post in Florida in over 12 years.
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Respectfully, Bill Kowalczyk Chairman BVC
President’s Report
We are definitely into the Holiday Season. November is a month of thanks, a time to remember our support for veterans, and a time to be with family and friends and to reflect on what we are thankful for. It’s also time to prepare for the quickly approaching Christmas and New Year Holidays.
We had a great Veterans Day ceremony which was attended by an estimated 500 people. A big thankyou to Donn Weaver, the MIHS JROTC cadets, Sea Cadets, Boy Scouts and all the other volunteers that made it a success. A special thanks to Chic-Fil-A for their generous contribution of a delicious lunch. The War Bird Museum hosted a 1920’s theme “Boomer Bash” with entertainment by a singing duo, Gracie and Lacy. Dave Miller manned a table/display to spread the word about our Center, Park, Plaza and Museum. A recently retired LCDR, U.S. Navy veteran, William Hillbert, Jr., sang an acappella rendition of the National Anthem. I am sure we will see more of LCDR Hillbert in the future.
November continues with our first annual Alternative Gift fair put on by our Museums of Brevard (MOB) group on Saturday, November 18th. On Sunday, November 19, we will sponsor a display of 660 flags at the entrance to our Center to honor the Flags For Forgotten Soldiers Display. This display is to honor Veteran loved ones we have lost to suicide, 660 flags displayed for 30 days. Each flag installed represents a Veteran that takes their own life each month, at the alarming rate of 22 each day. We have T-Shirts for sale in the Veterans store to honor this event.
Dean Schaaf, President
PLAZA REPORT
The Plaza was looking great for Veterans Day activities. Thanks to Chad and Kitty from C-Spray for completing all outstanding brick orders and refurbishment. Thanks to Chad Shore for cleaning and preserving the War Dog again. We added a 250 pound drop bomb next to the A-7 that we picked up from the former Army Navy store in Cocoa. We continue to get more orders for bricks every week which helps us to maintain the appearance of the Plaza. We are working to help support two new monument projects planned for our new park. 1st one is helping the Medal Of Honor Park team to get started with additional fundraising. Then the Four Chaplins Monument team which is working towards being completed in late February. We could use some volunteers that would be willing to come over on weekends or during the week to weed all of the islands around the parking lots near the Plaza and Park. The county is short of personnel and it is our park which we need to keep looking outstanding.
Respectfully Submitted, BillKowalczyk
VETERANS DAY
MUSEUM REPORT
Attendance at the museum is rapidly picking up. We had 839 visitors in October, as snow birds began trickling back. We’ve also had some big events already in November. We had 130 people for a tour by preschoolers and their parents and on Veterans Day, we surpassed 500 visitors between those who attended the ceremony and those who visited later in the day. We especially enjoyed the talk on Veterans Day given by our museum partner, Dr. Barbara Gannon from the History Department at UCF. She repeatedly commented about how special she thinks the museum is and can see all the hard work, love and care so many people have put into making it a wonderful place to visit. Many thanks to all who have helped and those who continue to support us!
If you’re interested in joining us as a docent or working in the store, library or as MOD, please submit a volunteer form or contact Becky Zingarelli (321-704-9194). The museum is open 6 days a week from 8:30 – 4:00, and noon to 4:00 on Sundays.
Artifact Highlight for the Month:We recently received, free of charge,two large display cases from Florida Tech. One is in the USMC section and contains Marine Corps rifle badges, hat badges and insignia, through time. The other is along the railing in front of the Women in the Military section and provides a new and easier way to display our challenge coins. Check them out when you get a chance.
Becky Zingarelli, AsstMuseum Curator
A Piece of History
Provided by Lou Rossi
Veterans Memorial Center Founding Member
Four Chaplains: In the early hours of February 3, 1943, the US Army Troopship Dorchester steamed through the icy waters of “Torpedo Alley”. some one hundred miles off the coast of Greeland. The ship carrying more than 900 men, was having a rough go of it. Winter winds screeched across the North Atlantic, and heavy seas pounded the bow beneath the frenzied surface lurked a ‘German Submarine’.
At 12:55 AM a torpedo ripped into the Dorchester’s side, and immediately the ship started to sink. Desparate soldiers rushed topside, stumbling toward the lifeboats and jumping overboard.
Amid the confusion, four Army Chaplains quickly and methodically, calming the soldiers, redirecting them toward the lifeboats, and handing out life jackets. When they ran out, they took off their own life jackets and put them on other men.
They were four chaplains of different faiths; Jewish Rabbi Alexander Goode, Catholic Priest John Washington, and Prostestant Ministers George Fox and Clark Poling. They had joined the US Army to tend to the spiritual needs of the troops. Now in this hour of urgent need, they put their courage and faith to work so others might live.
As the ship slid beneath the surface, soldiers in the lifeboats took one last look at the Dorchester. They saw the four chaplains standing on the deck arms linking, praying
Rescue ships plucked 230 men from the sea, but 672 died in the freezing Atlantic. The four chaplains were not among the survivors.
“They were always together” one of the soldiers later said. “They carried their faith together.”
The four chaplains died as they lived, serving their country, their fellow men, and GOD.
MEMBERSHIP
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Just a reminder to everyone if there is a change in your membership information to please make me aware. As mentioned in the Courier previously this will assist our leadership as it will provide statistics that they can use to promote our Center, our Council and apply for future grants and recognitions. Thank you for all you do for our center/museum and out Veterans in need.
Doris Hendricks / Membership
“Some people live an entire lifetime and wonder if they have ever made a difference in the world. A Veteran doesn’t have that problem
”Ronald Reagan”
“The two enemies of the people are criminals and the government. So let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so that the second will not become the legalized version of the first.” Thomas Jefferson
WHAT IS A VOLUNTEER
A person who voluntarily offers himself or herself for a service or undertaking. Please consider volunteering if you are able to.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.” – Abraham Lincoln
OUR COUNCIL COURIER
Hello everyone! I hope that everyone is enjoying The Council Courier. Thank you to everyone that helps monthly to accomplish this. It continues to be the goal of this editor to have it completed the last day of each month. And also to have it emailed or mailed to you within the first two business days of the month.
I would encourage anyone that is able to receive their Courier per email to please do so. Email copy is nice as it is in color. The mailed copies are in black and white only. Contact me and let me know if you are able to receive it per email. Also if there is a change in your email address I will need it. Emailing helps to reduce printing and mailing expenses involved with it.
If you have an article to submit please make sure it is to me prior to the 15th of the preceding month. Should you have any questions or concerns about the Courier or
It’s distribution please feel free to contact me at and/or at (321)458-1138.
Doris Hendricks/Council Courier
“Local Businesses”. We will show their Business Card in our Courier monthly. It will be $5 a month or $50 for the year. Any questions please feel free to contact me. Doris Hendricks / Courier Editor
“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” ― George Washington
*ATTENTION*
NOTE: As of January 1, 2018 all fee’s will be reviewed. All agencies will be required to pay a meeting contract and/or increase in existing contract. Per the Executive Staff.
Thanksgiving and Why I Joined the Military
By Margie Collins
This might sound a little unbelievable but my family has been able to trace our ancestors back to the Mayflower. There are three people that we can trace to: John Howland, John Billington and Stephen Hopkins. Back then, the children and grandchildren of the original families intermarried quite a bit, which is why we can trace back to three Pilgrims. I grew up in Massachusetts where Plymouth Rock and Thanksgiving are celebrated to a much greater extent than in some other places. So I have been very proud of being an American from my earliest years. When I decided to join the Air Force I was 32 years old (they take nurses that old!) and had decided that it was time that I took my turn serving my country. I was barely through my first few weeks at my first base when my husband of 8 years decided that this was not the life for him and left my 5 year old daughter and me to live our new lives in Texas alone. It was hard, but it turned out that I loved the military life and my daughter and I thrived.
Three years later we moved to Germany where I served at Wiesbaden Hospital for three years, meeting my new husband, an MC130 pilot flying for a Special Operations squadron at Rhein Main, and later giving birth to our son there. When that tour was completed, I decided to resign my commission, and went on with my husband to his next assignment in Florida, where our youngest daughter was born.
The Pilgrims came to this country for freedom and independence. I am very proud that I am descended from them. As a single parent in the military, I became free and had to learn to be independent. As a spouse of a SpecialOperator who was defending our freedom, I had to maintain my independence as he was often TDY or deployed for long periods of time. Freedom and Independence: That is why I decided to serve in the military, that is what I learned in the military, and that is what I am grateful for this Thanksgiving.
VERANS GIFT SHOP
We were back on track in October. The store contributed $1,000 to VMC. November is off to good start. We will have a new “Veteran Lives Matter” shirt in time for our special suicide awareness display and program on November 19th. Also this holiday season we will have Veteran Sales Store gift cards (plastic, swipe). We have picked up three new distributors including Nine Line apparel.
Dave Miller
LIBRARY REPORT
Another advance at the VMC library was a new policy on handling donated media.The following is the main ideas of this policy. The complete policy can be read on the library bulletin board.
August 9, 2017 : Library Book/Media Sales Policy
As of the date of this policy, the VMC library will not accept books or other media on loan. All donations must be outright with no expectations of retention or display of the items. Donors will complete a donation form relinquishing ownership and future control over the disposition of the items in their donations.
As for the donations prior to the date of this policy, the Library will develop and execute a procedure to allow prior donors to reclaim their donation, if desired, within one month of this policy date if the items are still available in the library. After that date, all items will be considered the sole property of the Library to retain or dispose of, as needed.
For items the Library does not desire to retain, they may either be sold in the library for unspecified donation (at buyer’s discretion), donated to another organization, or otherwise permanently removed from the Library . No such books will be sold through the Museum Store which will only sell military-related, commercially available books and those written by local authors.
Tim Scott , Assistant Librarian & Paul Julian, Librarian
A GOOD READ
Air America by Christopher Robbins
During the Vietnam war many air operations came under the CIA air force known as Air America. It would come as a shock to find out that Pan Am once supplied air support for the invasion of Red China, or that British Airways had been the lifeline for Tibetan horsemen who parachuted into the Himalayas to fight a guerrilla war. It would be unthinkable that any of the world’s major commercial airlines would indulge in illegal overflights of Russia and China and support rebel troops against legally constituted governments.
But Air America did all those things and much more. The book “Air America” written by a British writer is well written and covers the unbelievable activities of this the LARGEST Airline IN THE WORLD! This is a good read.
Tim Scott Librarian assistant
Bob RutiglianoThomas Faron
David Slawson
George Kappes
Theodore Schmid
Ed Venable
Russell Graddick
John Fishbourne Van Lear, III
Jerry Byrne / Travis White
Robert Kolterman
Stephen Bodie
Mark & Sherry Reichert
Ken Huffman
Duane Vierk
Jackie Knoll
James Greene
Lance Armstrong III
Everett Watson / Franklin Sebree
John Sherman
Jeffrey Heiser
Channing Hayes
Mark Grual
Becky Zingarelli
Donald & Mary Henry
Shane Burgman
Gregory Guerrero
Rebecca White /
SICK CALL& TAPS
Taps: None to report this month.
CHAPLAIN MESSAGE
I hope all of you had a Blessed Thanksgiving. Now we continue our very festive time of year.
Remember Pearl Harbor, December 7th 1941; Japan attacked America, killing thousands.
At Sundown December 12th begins the seven-day, eight night celebration of Hanukkah, which celebrates two things: a miracle in which one day’s worth of oil burned In lamps for eight days, and the victory of the Jewish freedom fighters over the Syrian-Greek forces that tried to wipe out Judaism.
In a larger sense, then, Hanukkah celebrates a reaffirmation of freedom and a recommitment to the spiritual quest.
On December 25th, we have the Christian celebration of the birth of Christ. The current celebration as we know it began under the Roman Emperor Constantine (his Mother was a Christian). He had accepted the one true God, and Jesus Christ as his Savior. The population of Rome was not converting easily. Constantine met with Christian leaders and together they agreed to change the celebration of the winter solstice to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Thus began Christmas, as we now know