Commandant Commandants Message 602) 618-1515

Saguaro Detachment MCL

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Hello everyone,

Here it is almost Christ-mas again and seems like we just had a Christmas Party but here we are just two weeks away from another one...This year has really flown by and it was a great year for our detachment. We accom-plished so many things, grew in our membership, and I feel with some of the things we did we really helped out people in out community.

With the close of the gun show today our fund-raising for 2009 is com-plete. We will be ready to start 2010 off with a bang. As you know there is not a meeting in De-cember but will be back on schedule in January.

In 2010 we look forward to getting to know and supporting our Ladies Auxiliary, the Saguaro Blossoms. I am sure they will add much to our de-tachment and look for-ward to working with them.

I want to take a moment and give a HUGH thanks to each and every person who made 2009 a great year for our detachment. Whether you helped a little or a lot it makes no difference, it is all appre-ciated.

I want to wish everyone a very HAPPY Holiday and a Happy New Year…..See you next year…..

Bill Ebright Commandant

When Does Your MCL Membership

Expire? No January Memberships

February Member-ships

Richard Amorose Gerald Belleville Jorge Cavazos Sr.

Barney Cox Robert James

Bob Kelly Brian & Kathy Sekardi

Rick Shimel

March Memberships

Michael Sublette

Commandants Message

15 December 2009

Auxiliary News Great News!

I'm so pleased to report that the "Saguaro Blos-som Marine Corps League Auxiliary" is formed. I'm looking for-ward to a wonderful year with these outstanding ladies. I'm confident that our Auxiliary will be a fan-

tastic unit and accomplish many goals in the coming year. Mark your calendar. The next meeting of the Sa-guaro Blossom MCLA is scheduled for Monday, January 25, 2010 at the Citadel at 7:00 P.M. Ladies come and be

apart of the groundbreak-ing accomplishments of the Saguaro Blossom MCLA.

Marcy Trupe President

Bill Ebright Commandant

602) 618-1515 Email [email protected]

Http://www.freewebs.com/saguarodetmcl/

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 New Years Day

2

3 4 Ron Garay & Rosemary Jackson’s Birthday

5

6 7 8 9 Robert & Linda James’ Anniversary

10 Margaret Brice’s Birthday

11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 Kathy Johnson’s Birthday

19 20 21 22 B.J. Pringle’s Birthday

23 Joanne Perini’s & James Trupe’s Birthday

24 25 Detachment Meeting/Dinner Dinner 1800 meet-ing 1900

26 27 Marine Expo 28 Marine Expo Doug Brown’s Birthday

29 SW DIV. Conference

30 Quinn Conf. Mary Alger’s Birth-day

31 Betty Archer & Brad Toth’s-Birthday

January 2010

PAGE 2 SAGUARO SENTINEL

Wally Roberts at the assisted living house in Mesa on Beverly Street. Wally is doing well and looking very well. He said that he wanted to attend our meeting but he didn't call back. It seem Wally is being controlled by the caretaker and her beliefs. By us seeing these things going on with one of our members, we need to know about the benefits we have through the V.A., at the same time to be able to change the bi-laws to help our members financially. Let us go to God's word. Ro-mans 8:35-39 "Who should separate us from the love of Christ?" Shall tribulation, or distress or persecution or famine or naked-ness or peril or sword?" As it is written for thou sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these

Hi Marines, On November 21, 2009, Nancy Sherm had Fred's Memorial Ser-vice. The service was held at the American Legion Post 29 in Gilbert, AZ. The American Le-gion did the service, and it turned out very nice. The Ma-rine Corps League was well rep-resented. We had 11 people that attended. Lynn Ivory and myself went to Mountain View hospital to visit James Farquharson. He had a stomach operation. The doctor removed about 6 feet of James intestine. He seem to be in good spirits and doing well. We prayed with him and visited with him for about an hour. We talked about the Marine Corp and the things they go through. Just before our last meeting Frank Alger Sr., and I went to visit

things we are more than con-querors through Him who loves us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor death, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is Christ Jesus our Lord." Remember Marines that we are more than conquerors through our Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ which Strengthens me."

Semper Fi Chaplain Arnett Brice Saguaro Detachment 554 602-573-6607

Caring For Our Own

S.O.S. RECIPE –USMC STYLE 1 ½ Lbs extra lean Hamburger or Ground Chuck 2 Tablespoons Butter 1 cup freshly cut Chopped Onion 2 table spoons Flour 2 tea spoons Granulated Garlic 4 table spoons Soy Sauce 1 table spoon Worcestershire Sauce 2 cups Milk Salt & Pepper to taste Brown meat, add butter and stir. Add onions and cook until they are translu-cent. Add flour, stir and cook two to three minutes. Add garlic, soy sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. Mix thoroughly. Add milk and stir until it thickens. Serve on a ”shingle”…..

Invite friends & family but don’t let on the QM told you……. Take all the credit!

Semper Fi!

Respectfully submitted,

Tom Schwarz Quartermaster (480) 983-3175

REPORT FROM THE QUARTERMASTERS HOOCH Is there any Marine who would not value the following recipe for SOS direct from the Galley of the USMC!


On Saturday 14 November 2009 26 Care Boxes were packed and then shipped on 18 Novem-ber: 16 boxes to 1st Lt John N. Sims, Communications Officer, 2nd Bat-talion 2nd Marines in Afghani-stan. 8 boxes to SSgt Frank Hendrick-son, MALS-40, Afghanistan 2 boxes to L Cpl Tyler J. Idland, USMC, CLB -46 TS Co, 2nd Plt, Iraq. We have already heard back from Lt Sims who emailed: Dear Saguaro Detachment, Thank you for all of the support you have provided my Marines. They really appreciate the boxes. Life here hasn't changed much from our last update to Any-Marine.com. The food s the same, up to (12) mice, the temps remain in the low 70's with mid 40's at night. Morale is high. The past few days has been the Muslim

holiday of Eid-al-Ahda, "Festival of Sacrifice" or "Greater Eid, cele-brated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God. Makes for interesting days when the locals here are shooting guns into the air to celebrate. We are winning every engage-ment with the enemy and proving there is no place they can hide. You should be proud of your Ma-rines. As you wrap up the Thanksgiving holiday, call a loved one and raise your flags high. We miss you all and can't wait to come home soon. Again, thank you for your sup-port!!! Semper Fi 1st Lt John N. Sims 2/2 HQ SVS CO

Special thanks to November pack-ers who helped load up the boxes at the Amorose family's garage!! Thank you Kathy and Brian Sekardi and Mary Ellen Walker!!. We packed 25 boxes on Saturday 12 December. It is also the begin-ning of our Jewish brothers' Ha-nukkah, the "Festival of Lights", and a great day to help support all of our USMC brothers and sisters serving in harm's way in order to preserve America's precious free-dom of religion.

Our next packing day is Saturday 9 January at 0830. Happy Hanukkah!! Merry Christmas!!

Clem Amorose (480) 248-9743 .

military personnel records system to request documents.

Other individuals with a need for documents must still complete the Standard Form 180, which can be downloaded from the online web site. Because the requester will be asked to supply all information es-sential for NPRC to process the re-quest, delays that normally occur when NPRC has to ask veterans for additional information will be mini-mized. The new web-based applica-tion was designed to provide better service on these requests by elimi-nating the records centers mailroom

The National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) has provided the following website for veterans to gain access to their DD-214s online: http://vetrecs.archives.gov/

This may be particularly helpful when a veteran needs a copy of his DD-214 for employment purposes. NPRC is working to make it easier for veterans with computers and Internet access to obtain copies of documents from their military files.

Military veterans and the next of kin of deceased former military members may now use a new online

and processing time.

Remember, if you want more than a DD-214, be sure to write in the dia-logue box something like: “Request a complete undeleted set of PER-SONNEL records and MEDICAL records.”

Submitted by: Harold Gee

Project Marine Care

It’s Official; DD-214s are NOW Online


Back in September, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies school teacher at Robinson High School, did something not to be forgotten. On the first day of school, with the permission of the school su-perintendent, the principal and the building supervisor, she re-moved all of the desks out of her classroom.

When the first period kids en-tered the room they discovered that there were no desks. 'Ms. Cothren, where're our desks?' She replied, 'You can't have a desk until you tell me how you earn the right to sit at a desk.' They thought, 'Well, maybe it's our grades.' 'No,' she said.

'Maybe it's our behavior.' She told them, 'No, it's not even your behavior.'

And so, they came and went, the first period, second period, third period. Still no desks in the classroom. By early afternoon television news crews had started gather-ing in Ms.Cothren's classroom to report about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of her room.

The final period of the day came and as the puzzled students found seats on the floor of the deskless classroom, Martha Co-thren said, 'Throughout the day no one has been able to tell me just what he/she has done to earn the right to sit at the desks that are ordinarily found in this classroom. Now I am going to tell you.' At this point, Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it. Twenty-seven (27) War Veter-

ans, all in uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. The Vets began placing the school desks in rows, and then they would walk over and stand alongside the wall... By the time the last soldier had set the final desk in place those kids started to understand, per-haps for the first time in their lives, just how the right to sit at those desks had been earned.. Martha said, 'You didn't earn the right to sit at these desks. These heroes did it for you. They placed the desks here for you. Now, it's up to you to sit in them. It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, to be good citizens. They paid the price so that you could have the freedom to get an educa-tion. Don't ever forget it.' By the way, this is a true story.

Submitted by Angelo Santoni

our contract successfully, having a Program Booklet design rough-out and a list of potential advertisers by January 1.

FINANCE: I'm really proud to inform all mem-bers that we are financially sound and successful. We had another really good month last month, and a lot of guys made it happen. I don't feel this newsletter is the proper forum to re-lease specific financial information, but members attending meetings re-ceive a detailed monthly report from our Paymaster, Clem Amorose, so attend meetings regularly and stay informed. I take great pride in being part of a Detachment that puts it's money where it's mouth is and pro-vides substantial financial support to Marines in need, and other programs

CONVENTION: Progress is tedious at present in wrapping up contract negotiations for the State Convention in June. We have chosen a primary and a back up site. We have the room price we want. We have meeting rooms, etc. I plan to complete all negotiations in December so we can move forward. There are still a few critical points which must be negotiated properly before we make a final commitment to a site. I've asked Esther Alger to assist with creating a list of potential advertising sponsors for our Program Booklet, and I've asked Brian and Kathy Sekardi to design the booklet. This is another large but very important task which must be accomplished on schedule. I'm focused on wrapping up

we have deemed worthy. There was discussion at the meeting last Monday night that demonstrates we need to examine and revise our by-laws to bring the rules and reg's up to date and in line with our financial strength and our ability to help Marines. This matter will be addressed fully in the coming months. As with any suc-cessful, growing organization or busi-ness, we have growing pains. Great. We can handle it. What matters is that we are focused, moving forward, and achieving our goals.

AUXILIARY: Marine Corps League history was written at Saguaro 554 last night as a full slate of ladies successfully formed their Auxiliary to be known as the continues on page 6

A lesson that should be taught in all schools . . And colleges

Convention, Finance, Auxiliary, Parade, & Marine Riders By James Trupe


"Saguaro Blossoms". They elected officers last night and formed their unit with 9 founding members, and another 3 that were unable to attend. Obviously much remains to be done and it will be. I wish them every suc-cess and extend my personal con-gratulations. My wife, Marcy, is one of the ladies involved in getting this Auxiliary started. She made a presentation at a Detachment meeting, passed out information flyers and made dozens of calls within the Detachment mem-bership seeking support from the De-tachment. She received virtually no help from the Detachment itself. When she asked for my advice, I counseled her to build it from outside the League. She did. The response was immediate and excellent. At pre-sent, nearly half of the founding mem-bers have come from outside not only our Detachment, but from outside the League completely. There's an impor-tant lesson here for all of us if we will just look. Why would we not want to support an entity that will help us in the long run? All of these ladies are intelligent, strong, creative, dedicated individuals. Working together, there are no limits on what they can accom-plish! OOOORAH, LADIES! Set your goals high, focus and work hard, and you'll achieve success.

PARADE: As Parade Coordinator for our De-tachment, I can honestly report that we had the best entry in the parade-bar none! Of course, that's my opin-ion (and I may be slightly biased). The Back-story: The parade theme was "Viet Nam" and our float was built on a 21' steel trailer, pulled by a military jeep. The float featured a 7' 3" high by 6' wide replica of the Viet Nam Wall, a sandbag bunker with Marines in it, and a solid flag stand built all the way across the front of the trailer with 3 - 10' flagpoles flying the U.S. flag, Marine Corps flag, and POW flag. Tom Schwarz was wearing

his Marine Corps blues standing tall in front of the Viet Nam Wall. A ban-ner in front announced who we were, and the back side of the float featured a large banner containing President Reagan's famous quote "Some peo-ple spend their lives wondering if they made a difference. Marines don't have that problem". It made a very impressive statement coming and going. Thanks to all the guys that helped design, build, present, pay for and take down the float, to our good friends and supporters who did the printing, loaned us the 21' trailer, and provided the jeep to pull it, and finally to Chris and Theresa Lambly for pro-viding the build-out site and even pro-viding lunch for the guys working on it. Follow Up Story: The first Annual Vet-erans Parade Association Awards Banquet will be held 11 Dec 09 at the Mesa Hilton. Cocktails and an auction will begin at 5:30, followed by the awards dinner and presentations at 7 and a dance at 8:30. Cost is $34 per person. You can make arrangements by calling me at 480-217-9356, or email Esther Alger at [email protected]. If we attend as a group with 8 or more, we receive a substantial discount per person. Why is this important? Frankly, I wasn't planning to attend until Esther talked to me about it. We are fast becoming one of Arizona's premier Detachments and I think it's important that we have a presence at all major veterans-related functions. We need to represent our League in our com-munity professionally and continue to provide the leadership and elbow grease to get things done the right way.

MARINE RIDERS: The Back Story: Marine Riders Group (marineriders.org) is an organi-zation being built with national chap-ters, consisting of Marines who are members of the Marine Corps League and ride motorcycles. Any

make, any model. Race, color, creed, political affiliations don't matter. What does matter is that we are all bound by the brotherhood of Marines and the Marine Corps League. At present, the Arizona Chapter is just being built. I joined it last month. Dues are $10 and the big red patch is $35 (do your research-go to the web site.) We have talked to several potential new members already and the idea is catching on. I've talked to a few po-tential sponsors and have received immediate solid support. They will support us. The Arizona Chapter of the Marine Riders will be built state-wide. The idea is that Riders could choose to go on local scenic day rides, rides to restaurants and bars, poker runs, rides hosted by members in out state areas, fund raising rides, etc. Rides will be relatively small, probably 5-10 bikes per run max, so don't worry about getting sucked into a ride with 100 bikes jamming you up at every turn. We would like to build out to around 40/50 members state wide. I've already made arrange-ments to have a prominent display of motorcycles and colors at the Con-vention in June indoors by the main convention hall. If interested, check it out online (marineriders.org). Pass the word around. Feel free to call me (480-217-9356) for info. I leave you with this. You can only be a Charter Member of anything once in your lifetime. This is your chance. Become one of the Charter Members of the Arizona Chapter of Marine Rid-ers.

Semper Fidelis James Trupe (480) 219-6906


Thought of the Day

In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join hie, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot. —- Mark Twain

Schedule of Events • 19 December— Christmas party at Crescent Run, 8500 E. Southern Ave, Mesa. Bring finger food to share and a bag of White Socks

for the VA Home/Hospital. 1900-2200.

• 28 December—No Detachment Meeting

• 27-28 January Marine Expo

• 29 January– Southwest Division Conference

• 30 January– Quinn Conference

• 4-6 June Department Convention Hosted by Saguaro Detachment 554

Saguaro was 3rd in the ‘People’s Choice” award at the Mesa Veterans Day Parade


Detachment Members & Young Marines that participated in the Parade Float from the Back

Float from the front Getting Flags from the float to hand out to people watching parade

Photographs by Yosef Rodel

PO Box 15015 Mesa, AZ 85211-5015

SAGUARO DETACHMENT MCL

Phone: 480-835-1929 Email:[email protected]

Officers

Commandant Bill Ebright 480-354-6738 [email protected] Sr. Vice John Malta 480-325-4470 [email protected] Jr. Vice Angelo Santoni 602-717-7333 [email protected] Judge Advocate Brian Sekardi 480-332-3163 [email protected] Jr. Past Cmdt. Frank (gunny) Alger 480-570-4032 [email protected] Chaplain Arnett Brice 602-670-5149 [email protected] Adjutant Bernie Bidwell 480-835-1564 [email protected] Paymaster Clem Amorose 480-248-9743 [email protected] Sgt. At Arms Pat Campbell 480-981-5197

Quartermaster Tom Schwarz 480-983-3175 [email protected] Recruiting Angelo Santoni 602-717-7333 [email protected] Pr/Finance Jim Trupe 480-219-6906 [email protected] Project Marine Care Clem Amorose 480-248-9743 [email protected] YM Liaison Frank (gunny) Alger 480-570-4032 [email protected]

Http://www.freewebs.com/saguarodetmcl/

Documents

Commandant Commandants Message 602) 618-1515