Austin, Texas Chapter
May is our last meeting until
September. Use this time to identify programs that you would like to see next
year. If you provide the name of a potential speaker, our First Vice Commander will run
with it.
May 2009 The new covenant that I will make with the people
of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them
and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and
they will be my people. (Jeremiah 31:33)
God is the God of new things. There is no way God is going to be satisfied
with "business as usual" unless the situation is according to God's
will. God continually works at making all things new, including you and me.
1830-1900 - Social The disaster at Kasserine
Pass confirmed to the Allied commanders that drastic changes were
needed. Improvements in logistics, fresh troops, the new M-4 Sherman
tank, and expanded air support increased the fighting power of Allied
units. With the British Eighth Army now closing in on the southern
flank, the British, French and U.S. commands in Tunisia narrowed their
battlefronts and shifted north. Finally, a decisive new commander was named
for II Corps: Maj. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.
Infantry Battalion Approaching Bizerte
Name ____________________________
Menu Selections
Accompaniments: Mushroom Risotto and Chef's Choice of Vegetables
Tomato and cucumber salad served with a vinaigrette dressing on a
bed of greens.
All entrees are $27.00 (tax and tip are inclusive)
or FAX to 261-4614
The Association for all Military Officers
Companion Bulletin-May 2009
If you will be attending our May meeting, please
complete the attached menu form and mail it with your check to our
treasurer, Companion Andrew McVeigh.
Our organization is run by volunteers, and I would like to thank Stan
Bullard for the fabulous programs that he has provided this year. I
would like to thank Andrew McVeigh for coordinating our meetings with the
Holiday Inn, paying the bills, and providing continuing support across the
board. I would like to thank Ernest Dean for ministering to and caring for our members. I
would like to thank Leon Holland for coordinating our ROTC awards program.
I would like to thank Tom Anderson for his work supporting the Youth
Leadership Program. I would like to thank Pat Egan for her work as the adjutant.
Our thanks go to the following for their generous support for our ROTC
scholarship program: William Castile, Stanley Bullard, Andrew McVeigh,
John Patterson, and Gabe Nossov.
We will be sending three Bowie Students
to the Youth Leadership Conference this year. This is a great program to
expose top students to leadership, ethics, patriotism, success
stories, and our national heritages.
This program is run in affiliation with the National Sojourners, Inc, the
Hugh O'Brien Youth Leadership Foundation, the Joe Foss Institute, and the
National Association of Secondary School Principals.
We thank Carlos Higgins for last months review of his career
that I enjoyed very much. Stan Bullard provides a change-up
this month that will appeal to our better half.
It's hard to believe that our program year is over, and summer is
almost here. Since we don't have children in school, we can travel year
round. It is still the time when I like to hit the road. Since we have an
offspring in the military, at least one of or destinations changes every
few years... very convenient.
J. Robert Howard
Chapter Commander
Meeting.
Our next meeting will be May 14th at the
Holiday Inn Northwest (Mopac & Hwy 183)
Program
Women of Heart Song
Edie Elkjer, who is also a Music Together® instructor, is the fabulous
director who not only gets women singing divinely together but also knows
how to create a supportive, affirming, and nurturing community of women.
Members will sing many styles of music, concentrating on three and four-part
harmony and centering on the theme of mothers and womanhood
Scripture and Commentary
Chaplain Ernie Dean
We may disappoint God. Ancient Israel did. The obedience to the Law had proven
inadequate; it is a matter of the heart, God decided. So, God moved allegiance
and obedience to the heart, the inner-most part of our being. If the heart is
right, life is right!
Then God could say again, with renewed pleasure, "I will be their God and
they will be my people." About what or whom in life do we use the word
heartfelt and mean it? God wants so very much, I believe, for us to give
ourselves, heart and all, to the holy covenant, within which we are truly the
"people of God."
As a rule, men worry more about what they can't see than about what they can
.... Julius Caesar
MEDICARE HOSPITAL DISCHARGE
Update 01: A large study found that one in five Medicare patients end up
back in the hospital within a month of discharge and that practice costs
billions of dollars a year. The findings suggest patients aren't told
enough about how to take care of themselves and stay healthy before they
go home, the researchers said. A few simple things like making a doctor's
appointment for departing patients can help, they said. The study found
that a surprising half of the non-surgery patients who returned within a
month hadn't even seen a doctor between hospital stays. "Hospitals
put more effort into the admission process than they do into the discharge
process," said Dr. Eric Coleman, one of the study's authors from the
University of Colorado in Denver. Coleman, who runs a program to improve
"hand-offs" between health care systems, said patients often
have a honeymoon notion about how things will be once they're home. Then
when they become confused about how to take their medicine or run into
other problems, they head back to the hospital because they don't know
where to turn, he said. They estimated that the cost of unplanned return
visits in 2004 was $17.4 billion...RAO Baguio
Staff Meeting
The next staff meeting will be at the call of the Commander.Stimulus Package Situations
" Non-working
military retiree with Social Security or VA disability compensation - Will
get a $250 check from Social Security or the VA soon, and will end up having
$400/$800 (singe/married) less withheld from their retirement checks this
year, but will still owe that money when they file taxes next year.
SOLUTION: DFAS executed the new withholding on April 1, therefore, retirees
in this category can ask DFAS to restore the previous, higher withholding
amount (note: the reduction in withholding will not appear in checks until 1
MAY.)
" Working military retirees who DON'T receive Social Security or VA
disability compensation - Will have $400/$800 less withheld from BOTH their
military retired pay AND from their employer's pay - a total of $800/$1,600
less withheld, which means they'll have to pay $400/$800 of that back when
they file their 2009 taxes next year (you can only get the tax credit once).
SOLUTION: People who don't want that to happen can ask EITHER DFAS or their
employer to restore the original higher withholding now.
Stimulus Package Situations
" Working military retirees who DO receive Social Security or VA
disability compensation - Will get the $250 payment soon and will also have
$400/$800 less withheld from both their military retired pay AND from their
employer's pay -- a total of $800/$1,600 less withheld. But the total tax
credit they can qualify for will be $400/$800, and the $250 counts against
that. That means they'll end up having to pay back $650 (single) or $1,050
(joint filer) of that money when they file their 2009 taxes next year.
SOLUTION: If they don't want that to happen, they should ask DFAS and/or
their employer to increase their withholding an extra $100-$180/month for
the rest of the year so they come out even.... RAO Baguio
Schedule:
1900-1905 - Invocation & Salutes
1905-1945 - Dinner
1945-2000 - Break
2000-2045 - Program
2045-2100 - Adjourn.
Eat breakfast by the window. A 20-minute dose of sunlight will reset your natural circadian rhythms and help
ensure a healthy nighttime melanomin peak... Reader's Digest
IF you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it.
... Julius Caesar
Tunisia
In mid-March the Allies went back on the offensive. Montgomery's
Eighth Army hit the Axis southern flank around Mareth with a
multi-division force, breaking the Mareth line on 20 March. In a
month-long series of battles, the British, hampered by heavy rains,
pushed Axis units over 150 miles north to within 47 miles of Tunis.
While Montgomery rolled up the German southern flank, Patton's
revitalized II Corps drove east into their flank, drawing enemy units
from the south, thereby weakening the opposition to Montgomery's push.
By
mid-April Axis forces, increasingly hampered by growing Allied success
interdicting their supply line from Sicily, had been pushed into a perimeter
at the northeast corner of Tunisia.
After much difficult
fighting and slow progress in the last two weeks of April, on the
morning of 30 April 1943, Patton's II Corps began a general offensive
that set in motion the collapse of the remaining German forces. As the
British V Corps entered Tunis, the final American battle of the campaign
began 6 May when two American divisions enveloped Bizerte, pushing the
Germans out of the city the next day.
As II Corps units pushed on to cut the Bizerte-Tunis road, they found
surrendering enemy troops clogging the roads, impeding further advance.
Rommel had already been flown out, too ill to continue the battle, but
other Axis generals began surrendering on 9 May, included in the total
of over 275,000 prisoners rounded up that week. The six-month Tunisia
Campaign was over 13 May 1943, when the last resistance ended.
The Germans were defeated in Tunisia, but the bickering among the
French remained. In the victory parade in Tunis on 20 May, Gaullist
troops refused to march with those loyal to Gen. Giraud.
for
The Military Order of the World Wars
White Wine $3___________ Red wine $3 ___________
Balsamic Tilapia
_________
Pork Roast topped with a Rosemary Demi-Glaze
_________
Chicken Picatta
_________
Strawberry and Lime Sorbet
Mail your meal selections and check made out to Austin Chapter MOWW to
Colonel Andrew J. McVeigh III
48 Cottondale Road
Austin, Texas 78738-1513