0pdate UpoeTE Or.t - American Legion Department of Louisiana

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UpoeTE Or.t
Post 56 Oakdale
Receives
MEnaBERSHIP
0pdate
From Lorry Abshire
Dept. Membership Choirmon
From A. J. Jones
Chairman
Dept. of I"A
Baseball Commission
Thanks to all the
Legionnaires for securing the new and
renewal
members that
have been
reported by
The new National American
Legion website is now up and
operable. The Baseball site
your Posts
of now.
is
efforts
www.lesion.org/baseball.
Coaches can, starting on January
1, 2OlO, register their team
electronically on the website.
number
of goal that your Post has obtained.
This is the time of the year
that each Post Officer should contact
Original Charter
the members of the Post to thank them
having to wait for checks to clear
before having insurance coverage
or teams purchasing Legion
insurance to play in other
Mike Roach and Kenneth Lafleur
presented John Yates and Post 56 with
their original charter that had been lost.
eliminates "the check is in the
mail" in which we had two of
those this past year.
that had gone to a garage sale and found
The Baseball Commission is
The Post had called and requested a
duplicate which they have been using.
Mike Roach told the story of a young man
this document that looked very
important. He took it home to his dad
who happened to be a member of the
requesting help in securing a site
for the Senior State
Championship Tournament to be
American Legion. ln the end, it wound up
that the document was indeed the original
charter of Oakdale Post 56. lt was a very
proud moment and dedication for the
Anyone having a desire to host or
acknowledged Vernon Ware as the man
held on July 23-27, 2010.
questions about hosting this
Tournament, please contact me
(A.J. Jones) at 337-581-3691. We
need to get a site determined
ASAP to let National know as to
where it wiII be held.
Thanks to Pat Reeves for setting
up our Baseball website. For
those of you who have not visited
the
site
at
www.lalegionbaseball.ore, it is
fantastic.
We just need
information from each District to
fill it up! Please send me
anything concerning Baseball
that we could use and any news
from your District, such as
Coaches' meetings, Baseball
schedules,
Tournaments,
pictures, etc. This can be
a
tremendous tool for our program.
The Fifth and Eighth Districts
are working to field teams in
their Districts this coming
season. My thanks go to Al
Sanders from the Fifth District
and to Billy Ray Foley and
Charles Cobb, Jr. from the
Eighth District for their devotion
to establish American Legion
teams in their respective
Districts. Keep up the good
work.
of
members and
the percentage
playing without insurance, not
In a nutshell, it
are
reflected in the
The electronic registration of
teams will eliminate teams
leagues.
as
Your
men of the Post. John Yates
behind the new building
also
and
for his hard work in
for the new building.
congratulated him
raising money
Pictured above from LtoR: Bud
Ritter, Post 371, Area C Commander
Robert Doucet, Post 15,
-
7th
District
Commander - Walter McDaniel - Michael
Roach, Post 370,
Commander West
7th District
- John
Vice
Yates, Post 56
Commander - Dr. Kenneth Lafleur, Post
45, 2009-2010 Department Commander Vernon Ware - Patrick Miller, Post 371,
7th District Vice Commander East - Mavor
Andrew Hayes - Louise Pettit, Auxiliary
President - Sheriff Harold Brady - Ralph
Stapleton, Post 56, Secretary-Treasurer.
You can view a full sized photo of the
above on www,lalegion,orF under "Post
News
-
for their service to the community,
state and nation; to wish them all a
Merry Christmas and Prosperous New
Year; to thank all that have paid their
2010 dues and remind those that have
not of the benefits of being a member
of the American Legion Family.
Personal contact
is a
very
good recruitment tool. As an example
of what
personal contact
will
do:
Recently a Legionnaire remarked that
he had been a member of a local Post
for three years and no one
had
contacted him. Research showed that
was a member of the District Holding
Post. The local Post was contacted;
the Post contacted the Legionnaire;
the Legionnaire was transferred into
the local Post and his wife joined the
local Unit of the
Auxiliary.
Leglonnaires need to be contacted and
informed of the activities and programs
of the local Post.
At Mid-Winter Conference,
request from the Department
Membership Chairman a list of names
and addresses of all Legionnaires from
surrounding towns by name or zip
code that you may recruit for your Post
membership. Ladies, each of these
Legionnaires may have a wife that
could join the local Unit of the
Auxiliary. lf the ladies will recruit the
spouses, the Legionnaires will follow.
Remember to keep God and
Jesus in the Christmas Season.
Districts 5-8".
More News:
1
POST
Dinner
LAKE CHARTES - Post t held a
for Troops Families recently.
Photos of the event can be found on
www.lalegion.org under "Post News Districts 5-8".
309 GRAND ISLE - Post 309 held
their Installation of Officers at the end of
the hurricane season. You can view
POST
photos of
the Installation on
-
www,lalegion.orq under "Post News
Districts 1-4".
38 BATON ROUGE - Post 38 was
host recently to the visit of the National
Auxiliary President for 2009-2010, Rita
Naverette from New Mexico. Photos of
the event can be viewed on our website
POST
www.laleqion.org under "Post News
-
Districts 5-8".
POST
POST
222
HARVEY-MARRERO and
174 NEWELTTON
-
Recent events
of each Post can be found on our website
www.lalegion.org under their respective
Districts.
R qd,,, ts e{orq Y ow V) r
There tells of a woman who waited
ftql
until the last minute to send
Christmas cards. She knew she had
49 folks on her list. So she rushed
into a store and bought a package of
50 cards without really looking at
them. Still in a big hurry, she
addressed the 49 and signed them
without reading the message inside.
On Christmas Day when things had
quieted down somewhat, she
happened to come across the one
leftover card and finally read the
message she had sent to 49 of her
friends. Much to her dismay, it read
like this: "This card is just to say, a
little gift is on the way." Suddenly she
realized that 49 of her friends were
expecting a gift from herl
From the Sons of The American Legion
Camille A. LeJeune, Jr. - Membership Ghairman 2OO9-2O{O
Legionnaires, These issues of the Alerars
& Views are reaching over 750 members of the American
Legion and only me for the
S'A'1. Please copy and share thls with your members from your Squadron. lcan only reach them through phone calls or
emails and, other than that, it is only when we mail our call outs for the DEC in August, Mid-Winter in January, and Convention
in June' This article will be released to those Squadrons that I have listed in my address book. please feel free to copy and
circu late.
Louisiana has been maintaining membership in the top 10 nationwide. Louisiana has dropped to 5th in the Nation this week and holding
3'd in the Southern Region. National as of Friday has not recorded two of the transmittals. Hopefully, those will hit this week's report. Remember
if you sign up a member, take the responsibility and collect his dues for the upcoming year. You are his contact to the organization until he comes
forward to meet with your Squadron.
"Operation Proud Sons" is an initiative designed to grow Sons membership to 350,000 members and raise S500,OOO.0O for Child Welfare
Foundation (CWF). One way to increase membership will be a program called the "Triple Nickel" in which everV Detachment will be pushed to
retain 85% of their current members, reach 105% of their membership goals, and charter at least 5 new Squadrons. Commander Mark will also use
a new incentive program called "Sons that Shine" to identify and reward Blue Cap Sons across the countrv who excel in their efforts to assist
veterans and promote programs of the S.A.L. Commander Mark is using the slogan, "Molded in Excellence - Embodied by Tradition" throughout the
year' He wants to use the images and traditions of The American Legion to help make the S.A.L. stronger, which will in turn contribute to a
stronger American Legion Family.
Report dated 72/tL/09 shows us with 1358 at 69.964%. Last year at this time we had L438 at 81..L5%. We still have ten Squadrons that
arenotreportinganymembershipasofthiswriting. lfthosetenwouldhaveatleasthalfatthistime,wewouldmovetoaboutl44gwithT4.652%.
lf there is anything the Detachment can do to assist, do not hesitate to contact Department for a list of names or check your current roster.
Eligibility rests on you as veterans and only you and your loved ones can decide if they wish to be a member of this Familv.
In closing, on behalf of the Membership Team, we would like to extend o loyous ond Sofe Holiday Seoson for each one of you and your
loved ones. While we are here celebrating Christmas and New Year's, let us not forget our soldiers and their families still serving overseas. Please
keep them in your prayers.
FINAL THOUGHTS
A First Word
- From The Editor
Some yeors bock in writing this essoy port of the newsletter, f wos privileged to be oble to use on excerpt from the memoirs of
avery special mon. Thot mon wos the lote Philip J. Moyeoux, much beloved by those who knew him both personolly ond os on
importont member of the Americon Legion, Deportment of Louisiono. 'Mr. Philip" penned his memoirs qs "My Life During WWff'
ond this porticulor eveni stood out in my mind os o rerninder of how sometimes it's the smollest things thot moke the lorgest
impression on our heorts ond memories, especiolly during this speciol time of year.T present to you once ogoin o bit of
December remembronces in his words from o mon not eosily forgotten: of q time being f orgotfen much too soon; ond f inolly of
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"By the time I was ready to go back home to Plaucheville, I knew it was just about my time to go in the military. I worked on the farm
until then, cultivating good crops. I had my orders to report to Lafayette for a physical in December'43. When I arrived, I waited my turn for my
medical checkup. My first choice was to go into the Navy but my mother asked me to change my mind. I guess she thought that I would be in
harm's way sooner. My second choice was the Army since I had worked building an Army camp and had worked on ships at Delta Shipyard.
Passing the physical, I went before a group of military men from all branches of service and since they all needed men, each tried to change my
mindtogowiththem. ChoosingtheArmy, lendedupbeingassignedtoArmylnfantryandreturnedtomyhomeforthenexttwoweeksuntil lleft
to go for training at Camp Beauregard.
During this time my brother, Peter, had raised and fattened some pigs. He was to kill them sometime before Christmas. Unbeknownst to
anyone, he would butcher this pig the day before I was to leave to go in the service. lt just so happened that the day before I would leave to go
was a Friday and nobody would ever butcher a pig on this day because no one ate meat on Friday in our Catholic family. They would rather NOT eat
anything at all if there was only meat for Friday! When you killed a pig, it was a big day and a day for eating all day. No one could talk him out of
butchering the pigs on that day, not even me and we were very close. I knew I would have to go help him since I was about the only young man
left to help and I had been helping all the neighbors butcher their pigs for almost two weeks prior. I was tired and just wanted to hang loose with
family and friends before I left and people thought he had lost his mind for wanting to do it that day.
On this Friday everything went well and we did get finished early. The weather was still cool; the cracklin turned out gooo, even some
lengths of sausage and two to three pound pieces of meat was put into the hot crackling grease pot. All this good food and no one could eat any,
not even me, and I was leaving the next morning, maybe never to come back home again. I don't remember, but knowing me, I drove to Jay's
Saloon for my last drink before leaving the next day. On Saturday morning who shows up at the house to bring me and the others who were
leaving also but none other than my brother, Peter. Using the family Model A Ford, he drove us to Marksville where we were to travel the
remaining trip by buses, As we were early, Peter stayed with us and when we were loading the bus to leave Marksville, he Ieft for a few minutes
thencamebacktothebuswithalargeboxandhandedittomewiththesewords: 'l hopethatyouandyourfriendswill enjoyeatingthis.'Herewe
are leaving Marksville in buses, not knowing what would happen to us; I don't think we were thinking of eating, not even enough to look in the
large, heavy box.
Arriving at Camp Beauregard we were assigned to a tent we knew would make for a very cold winter and issued clothing including shoes
not remotely close to our sizes but told we would 'grow into'. Our spirits were very low, especially some of the older men, They did not like Armv
life' lt is then that I opened my box of food Peter had given me. In the box was plenty of the good food we had left behind including fried sweet
potatoes and homemade bread. We had a feast and it cheered up everyone. I then knew why Peter had butchered his pig on Friday. lt was so he
could send me off with good food at a time when I might never have the chance to eat this way again. Good old country cooking a taste of home
and the Holidays. That box of food will be remembered by me until my dying day."
Last Words - From The Editor
"'Wfrm we recaff Cfr.ristmns p6t, we r$tnfbfind tfrat tfre simpbst
tfrings - not tfre great
occosions - give offtfre greatest gfow of fiappiness."-4o6
ttopt
"God grant you the light in Christmas, which is faith; the warmth of Christmas, which is lovel the radiance of
Christmas, which is purity; the righteousness of €hristmas, which is justice; the belief in Christmas, which is truth."
- Wilda English -
Amen to tfrat,
I sa), anf geace to a[[,