05/18/11

Officers and Executive Committee Members

 Officers 2010-2011

Commander: Allyn Rub; ALLYN

Adjutant: Johnnie Sawyer, Jr.

1^st Vice Commander: Kenneth Poe

Finance Officer: Morrison Smith; MORRISON

*Service Officer: vacant

Chaplain: Lance Idol

Sergeant.-at-Arms: Roy Buntyn

Historian: Kenneth Poe (pending replacement)

Judge Advocate: Harold Goehmann

Hubmaster: Harvey H. Klee; Harvey

Members at Large: Bob Ewalt, Luke Rogers ROGERS, Andy Smith

Note: The Members-at-large together with the Officers of the Post constitute the Executive Committee

Standing Committees: None presently

* The Llano County Veterans Service Officer is R. G. Floyd who is appointed by the Llano County Commissioners Court. He can be contacted at 801 Ford St., Llano, TX 78643-1910 (325) 247-3009‎.

Who We Are and What We Do

The American Legion was chartered by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic, war-time veterans organization, devoted to mutual helpfulness. It is a not-for-profit community-service organization which now numbers nearly 3 million members, men and women, in nearly 15,000 American Legion posts worldwide.

Meeting Date, Time and Place

Monthly Legion Newsletter

January 2010 Frank Griggs Post 370 Newsletter

First let me say, Happy New Year and I hope everyone had a happy and blessed
Christmas Holiday Season!

Yes, another year has come and gone and we are again a country at war. Many of us know what it feels like to be at war during the holidays. Absence from family and friends takes an emotional toll, especially those on foreign soil. All of us—veterans of numerous wars and campaigns—have experienced the loneliness and half-hearted attempts at cheerfulness during the holidays.

A famed war correspondent Joe Galloway wrote “Christmas and New Year’s in Iraq and Afghanistan are where killing and dying never take a day off…It’s a hollow celebration for a lonely soldier so far from home and loved ones, and lonely, too, at that dinner table back home where a chair stands empty at the head of the table.” A lot of soldiers struggle to find meaning in Christmas. We must remember to give those soldiers “HOPE” That’s what Christmas is all about.

Why am I taking about Christmas when Christmas is over? Just thinking of the troops in the field around the holidays is not enough; this should be a year-around goal. We should feel very strongly about this because we have been there ourselves. It’s our duty now to assist them! Like we once did, our armed forces are prepared to put their lives on the line at any time to preserve our freedoms. It is now our duty here at home to assist them and show them how much we honor their service to our country.” As veterans ourselves, we owe them at least this much to ensure the highest morale in the armed forces. We need to remember how important morale is during war.

With a New Year come New Year resolutions. The word resolution is defined as a firm resolve to accomplish something. Carla and I have made our personal resolution this year to exercise more and watch what we eat. Have you made your New Year resolutions yet? I may have one for you.

How about being an active member and attending our monthly meetings? I ran into one of our long time members during the Christmas holidays. As we were visiting on the side of the highway, he recognized me and told me he has been meaning to start attending our post meetings but has been busy with honey- dos and church activities. Ok, somewhat understandable. After all when we retire that is the sort of things we look forward to, more family time and time with our Lord. But think about this. If I can work approximately 200 hours a month of varying shifts at a full time job, volunteer at my church and other community organizations and raise a family along with attending the monthly stated meetings, coordinate post activities and building rentals, can you make a resolution to attend our meetings one day a month?

We are continuing to plan the Spring Convention. Flyers are going to be mailed out the District posts about the same time as the mailing of this news letter. Harvey is also coordinating with our District Commander W. L. Fleming. It was decided at our last meeting, we would charge $30.00 for attendees. In an effort to encourage our members to attend and help out we decided to charge a special rate for our post members. Please mark your calendars and plan on attending!!!! This is very important to our post.

Morrison is planning and working on our new post sign with Nailhead Spur.

Building rentals stayed steady in December but have declined a little so far in January. There are three rentals scheduled so far for the month of January and two rentals so far in the month of February. Every weekend in March is reserved including our Spring Convention.

I hope everyone will be able to attend our next meeting on Thursday, January 28^th.

Executive meeting at: 5:30pm

Regular meeting at 6:00pm

Dinner at 6:30pm

Allyn Rub, Commander

January 2010 Newsletter

It is that time of the month again folks. We met on January 28, 2010 for our monthly meeting.  We discussed:

1)    progress on the convention

2)    program on protocols

The program was well received and we appreciate all of Harvey Klee’s hard work and presentation. With an update on protocols we will be working on following protocols more closely in future meetings. We will purchase a POW/MIA flag and chair cover to be part of our opening ceremonies to honor POW/MIA’s.

3)   American Legion clean-up day February 20^th, Saturday. starting at 10am.

Everyone!!! PLEASE show up to help!!!! If you have anything in the American Legion that belongs to you please come see that it is taken home. We will begin to throw things away, giving away items that are not being used at the Legion. We need everyone’s help!!!!

 Kenneth Poe has gathered some prices on the materials and labor for our new awning and gutter on the south side of the post. Labor and materials will be approximately $1000.00. We hope to begin construction soon and have this project along with our new sign completed in time for the convention. Cheryl Crabtree from the Chamber of Commerce has approached me about working together on dances at the post. Cheryl has some bands that will be willing to help us get started. 

Anyone with any ideas or input on these projects and ideas PLEASE get with me.

From VFW Magazine

A Time to Remember Disabled Vets

Among our fellow citizens today are 3.4 million veterans with service-connected disabilities. They amount to 1.5%

of the entire U.S. adult population. Many of them no doubt feel forgotten, especially those confined to VA medical centers for any length of time. While they span all generations, it is the youngest among them who are foremost on our minds, because their wounds are fresh. ALL AMERICANS HAVE A NEVER ENDING DEBT TO THESE & ALL VETERANS WHO SACRIFICED SO MUCH FOR THEIR COUNTRY!

National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans is celebrated the week of February 14. Please take a few minutes and send a card to a veteran, send a gift, or more importantly pay a visit to the VA veterans. They were there when we needed them, now it’s time we are there for them.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association is an organization that was started by an Iraq veteran to support our new generation of veterans. IAVA not only supports Iraq and Afghanistan vets but is lobbying on behalf of all vets. This week they are holding their 5^th Annual March on Washington. There are over 2 million and counting soldiers and veterans who have or are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. IAVA is marching and meeting with Congress to lobby for disability reform on their behalf. Please help this group in their efforts.  Their web site is iava.org

Next meeting February 25^th see all of you then.

Executive Meeting at 5:30pm

Reg. meeting at 6pm

Dinner to follow

December 2009 Newsletter

My Fellow Comrades,

I want to say thank you to everyone who attended our stated meeting on November 19^th including our District Commander W. L. Fleming. Commander Fleming stated he thought the meeting went well and he is impressed with the progress on the Spring Convention. I appreciate everyone’s support. Those who could not attend, I sincerely hope everything is okay and you are well. As I have said before I want to be here for our members and our community’s veterans. If there is anything I can do please let me know.

I am appreciative of those members who feel I have been doing a good job as your commander. I hope to continue to be an active hard working commander on the behalf of our members and our post home. I am also concerned by the observed lost of members attending our meetings. If there are concerns amongst you about how things are being done at our post or anything you may be dissatisfied with please let me know. I would like to see all of our members at the stated meetings and for new members to join our ranks.

In June 1994, while I was serving on a security detail in Normandy for the 50^th Commencement Exercises of the D-Day Landings, I walked through a massive field of white crosses in the American Word War II Cemetery. As I looked upon one in particular my interest was mainly focused on the deceased’s father and his place in history. I did not realize at that time I was looking at one of the founding fathers of the American Legion and that one day I would be a member of this fine organization. The Medal of Honor recipient’s cross I was looking at belonged to Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. Maybe I am silly and my mother used to say I was a romantic and a dreamer while I was growing up. But I can not help but firmly believe, Roosevelt intended the American Legion to be a service organization for our nation’s veterans. That is why I want to see the members of Frank Griggs Post # 370 firmly support the Llano Military News Group and its Christmas from the Homefront efforts. Our young service people deserve and need all of our support.

I think we all need to be proud of our status as veterans. Some of us were drafted and some of us served voluntarily. We all have stories of long hours, bad weather, being away from home and of course those buddies who always had our back. There is no shame in service to our country. That is how our nation was founded. Do not be afraid to say you are a veteran or are a member of the American Legion. I think a great way to show your pride is to attend our meetings and help with our community efforts. Show your pride as a Legionnaire by wearing your American Legion service cap to the meetings and functions. If you do not have a service cap please get with our Adjutant Johnny Sawyer.

During the convention, it would be nice and appropriate if we all wore our service caps. Also if we wanted to have a uniform shirt that would probably look real good and give us an opportunity to show how much pride we have in our post. We can order some nice polo style shirts or oxfords from the American Legion’s Emblem Sales.

At our November meeting, I believe the consensus of the membership present was to go ahead with a new sign for the post from Nailhead Spur with a few changes to the sign design. I believe this will be a good way for us to show the community our pride in our post home and a good way to let those fellow comrades traveling through town where we are. Who knows maybe there will be a deer hunter who served and would like to talk war stories with some fellow vets. Or they may have heard about the delicious banana pudding our ladies serve at dinner. I’ll continue to work on getting this project completed.

On the convention, I have made arrangement for hotel rooms at discounted rates for our out of town guests. Our lunch and dinner meals will be served by Inman’s Kitchen for $13.00 a person. That’s $3.00 for lunch and $9.95 for dinner. Lunch will be sandwiches and dinner will be BBQ brisket dinner. Entertainment will be provided by Terry Mikulenka. I am trying to get a guest speaker from Fort Hood. There will be a social hour before dinner.

The rental of the building was discussed. It is the consensus of the executive committee, everyone including members will pay rental prices as set forth in the rental contract for use of the building to include the cleaning deposit. There will be no exceptions.

A special part of our meeting was when we honored our departed members J.P. Dodgen and Garland Hinsley with a draping of the charter ceremony. Our charter will remain draped for thirty days in their honor.

If you have not checked out our new web site on the internet, please do at amleg370.org. Harvey has done a wonderful job. I am sure he will do a good job in keeping all of us up to date on information from the National, State, Division and District departments in his new position as our post hub master. For those not familiar with a hub master, this is a new position created by the State Commander. The hub master works with the commander to make sure information is properly passed out to the membership.

Speaking of the website, Harvey has a good idea of getting a picture of our post officers together to be put on the web site. We need to get together with our service caps and maybe uniform shirts and do this. Again we need to have pride in our great organization and show it.

Our December meeting will be December 17^th with the executive meeting at 5:30 pm, regular meeting at 6:30 pm and a Christmas dinner to follow. Does everyone like honey baked ham and candied yams? That just sounds like Christmas to me.

For God and Country

Allyn Rub, Commander

November 2009 Newsletter

 Greetings Fellow Legionnaires;

I want to thank everyone who attended our monthly meeting on October 22, 2009. The meeting was well attended. There was a lot on the agenda. We still have a lot to discuss and any input from our membership is greatly appreciated at least by me. Our post is going through some changes, changes that may be good for the Post. Please be patient as we work through these changes. I apologize for leaving early but duty called.

Please be sure to attend our monthly meetings. Our next monthly meeting is going to be a week early due to Thanksgiving. Please be there on November 19^th for our Thanksgiving meeting and family night. Maybe some of our ladies will make some dressing and banana pudding.

As I said our Post is going through some changes and your input is needed to ensure we are headed in the right direction. 1^st Vice Commander Honig is no longer responsible for the rental of the building. I am handling the rental affairs for now. There are some questions about the prices we charge for rentals and our insurance policy especially where it concerns the use of alcohol in our building.

I attended the District Executive Committee meeting on October 10^th. The meeting was well attended and I thought the District’s posts were well represented. There was a lot of good information.

One thing that caught my attention was the Volunteer of the Year award. The district is interested in any and all nominations for people who have volunteered their time to assist our veterans. The nominations have been down recently and the district would like to see them come up as our district has a history of people winning the award.

I have left some information at the post about volunteering at the VA hospitals. Please check out the information and volunteer when you can. Kerrville VA hospital is having a Christmas party for its patients on December 2^nd. This may be a good time to help out. The hospital is seeking donations and volunteers to help decorate for Christmas.

We will be hosting the Spring District Convention possibly in March. The convention can be as big or as small as we want to make it. If you can help with the convention or have any input please let me know. I think the convention is an excellent way of letting people knows our Post is very much alive and active.

I have received a price for a new post sign from Nailhead Spur Company for $1600.00. The sign will be in the same design as the Chamber of Commerce sign. Nailhead Spur will make the lettering and we will provide the logos. We can order the logos from the American Legion. Nailhead Spur will do the complete installation. I have not received any other bids even though I asked Lyle Costar to provide me one. If you have ideas please let me know.

Harvey Klee has our new web site up and running. Please check it out at amleg370.org. I have seen it and I think it looks very good. We will be using this web site in addition to our local media outlets to inform the public of future events involving our post.

Our heartfelt sympathies go out to the families of J. P. Dodgen and Garland Hinsley. We are deeply sorry for your losses. These were two good men who will be greatly missed. We will with the assistance of Harvey Klee hold a Draping of the Charter ceremony at our next meeting on November 19^th for these comrades and those we have lost through out the year.

I am thinking about putting out our wreaths at the monuments on the courthouse square on November 11^th in honor of Veteran’s Day. I believe in my heart this is a special day and we need to recognize and remember all of our veterans.

Again please continue to come and please encourage others to attend our monthly stated meetings.

EXECUTIVE MEETING IS AT 5:30PM

POST MEETING IS AT 6PM

LADIES AUXILIARY MEETING IS AT 6PM

Thanksgiving dinner is to follow all meetings.

Allyn Rub

Commander