The Association for all Military Officers Companion Bulletin- November 2012
In "honor of all who served" the Travis County/Austin annual Veterans Day parade will take place Sunday, 11 November in downtown Austin. It begins at 0900 hours from the Ann W. Richards Congress Bridge and travels up to the Capitol Building. The annual ceremony will take place at the South Capitol Steps at 1100 hours. Thanksgivings Day this year is 22 November. Since there are five Thursdays this month, it may seem that we will be celebrating Turkey Day a little early. Needless to say, we all have so much to be thankful while enjoying the freedom that we have honorably served to protect. Last month, we held our first luncheon meeting. Attendance was lower than anticipated, but those who attended were very pleased with the venue. The menu selection was excellent! Several expressed the desire to return. Thank you, Companion Rudy, for making the arrangements. This month once again Companion Rudy has selected our meeting place. The meeting begins at 1830 hours at Abuelo's Restaurant located in Barton Creek Square Mall, 2901 South Capital of Texas Highway. If Mexican food is one of your favorites , you do not want to miss this meeting on 8 November. Remember, we will not have a meeting next month. Chapter members are invited to attend the MOAA Annual Holiday Dinner Dance at Camp Mabry on Wednesday, 12 December 2012 at 1830 hours. If you are not a member of MOAA, please contact me or Companion Eagan for details. Additional details will also be available in next month's issue of the Companion Bulletin.
Our Region VIII Commander Chamberlin has reinforced the MOWW Chief of Staff's
message regarding attendance at the National Convention next August in Dallas.
Let's plan ahead so that the Austin Chapter will have a strong representation. | We look forward to seeing you at Abuelo's Restaurant on 8 November. HAPPY THANKSGIVING! -Leon Holland, COL USA (Ret.) Next Meeting. November 8 Abeuelo's Mexican Restaurant Barton Square Creek Mall 2901 S Capitol of Texas Highway 512-306-0857 Please join us at 1830 hours Over the past dozen years, as the number of prescriptions for narcotic painkillers written by U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs doctors soared, pharmaceutical companies waged a behind-the-scenes campaign to get the VA to focus more on veterans’ pain, which would lead to more drug prescriptions. The agency’s use of the drugs was bound to grow as more men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan — carrying more survivable wounds than in previous wars — demanded treatment during recovery. And pain-dulling narcotics are an important component of the treatment of acute pain. Yet much of the increase also has come from the surging use of the drugs to manage service members’ chronic, long-term pain — a use that pharmaceutical companies have promoted even though experts say there is little hard research to support it. |
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November 2012, Chaplain Ernie Dean Come, let us praise the Lord! Let us sing for joy to God who protects us! Let us come before him with thanksgiving and sing joyful songs of praise. For the Lord is a mighty God, a mighty king over all the gods. He rules over the whole earth, from the deepest caves to the highest hills. He rules over the sea, which he made; the land also, which he himself formed. Come, let us bow down and worship him; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker! He is our God; we are the people he cares for, the flock for which he provides. (Ps. 95:1-7) All days are holy! This is God’s plan and it is up to us to help make the plan a reality. Sometimes we do better than at other times. We are nearing a particularly holy season of the year, so maybe we can be more attuned to God and self and we can demonstrate a higher degree of gratitude and thanksgiving. In these few verses we are offered solid guidance: “Come, let us praise the Lord!” “Come before him with thanksgiving.” “Come, let us bow down and worship him; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” Why? We do this right thing in gratitude for God’s everlasting and steadfast love. “We are the people God cares for, the flock for which he provides. From early on in life we have been taught by family, teachers, and others who care, to say “thank you. ” We say thank you to someone who holds a door for us, someone who lets us into the traffic flow, someone who buys us a cup of coffee, and on so many more occasions. This is good; it is gracious. But what about God? Ponder life. Each one of us has ups and downs. It rains on the just and the unjust alike (Matthew 5:45). However, the moment to be thankful is always right now, whether we are having an up or down time. The call goes out to all of us, especially in this designated month for celebrating the holy day of Thanksgiving, to live lives of thanksgiving, always. Make this month of November 2012 be a time of “singing joyful songs of praise.” Seal the joy by bowing down in worship, kneeling out of gratitude, responding in love to the very God who cares for us—the very ones the Bible calls the family of God, “the flock for which he provides.” Here we are. We know what to do. We have heard the guidance from God and from others—DO THE RIGHT THING! Yes, “do the right thing!” The life we live is to be an on-going expression of thanksgiving. |
Can we measure up? Indeed, we can. The only question, then, is this: Will we?
Vet Service Dogs Update 08: The growing list of small nonprofits involved in training affordable assistance dogs for vets has created a Wild West-type atmosphere in the service dog world, creating tension between mom-and-pop groups trying to fill what they call a crucial void and the Veterans Administration and more traditional service dog groups. Exacerbating the situation are several recent actions by the VA, including a decision against covering the cost of service dogs for PTSD and traumatic brain injuries until a study on the scientific benefits can be completed — a study that has itself been plagued with potential delays and problems, including issues with aggression of some of the participating dogs. At the same time, the VA refused to loosen its requirement that service dogs it covers be trained by groups accredited by either Assistance Dogs International or the International Guide Dog Federation One thing they all seem to agree on, however, is that dogs do help soldiers suffering PTSD. “For instance, we had a client who had night terrors,” said Wilson. “He would wake up in the middle of the night just screaming. His dog was taught when he starts getting restless, the dog would turn the light on ... then jump in bed and push his body as close as he could. His wife said his breathing would start to mirror the dog’s and he would never wake up.” Stanek compares his relationship with his dog to that of a sniper and a spotter in the military. “Sarge is my spotter. When we go out, she lets me know what’s going on. She lets me know how I am doing,” he says. “On a scale of one to 10, 10 I used to sit at about an eight or nine on a constant basis — like wake up that way. Now I sit around at two or three. And Sarge will alert me when that level starts to rise.” [Source: Associated Press article 9 Oct 2012 ++] Oct 19 1917 – WWI: The first doughnut is fried by Salvation Army volunteer women for American troops in France. Six months after their return from Iraq and Afganistan, 42 percent of 31,885 National Guard and Reserve veterans who received a screening by U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs clinicians were found to need mental health treatment. |
SEPTEMBER 2012 - MAY 2013 (Schedule is subject to change)
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| Schedule: 1830-1900 - Social 1900-1905 - Invocation 1905-1945 - Dinner 2000-2045 - Program 2045-2100 - Adjourn. |
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The Battle of Cantigny, fought on 28 May 1918 was the first American
offensive of World War I. The U.S. 1st Division, the most experienced of the
seven American divisions then in France and in reserve for the French Army near
the village of Cantigny, was selected for the attack. The objective of the
attack was both to reduce a small salient made by the German army in the front
lines but also to instill confidence among the French and British allies in the
ability of the inexperienced American Expeditionary Force. Background A single regiment was tasked to take and hold Cantigny, which was located relatively close behind the front, but also subject to intense counter-attack. Jump-off trenches were dug in preparation, resulting in a massive gas attack on the Americans by the Germans on the day before the planned attack, in which 15,000 gas shells were fired, cutting off all communication with the forward positions. Cantigny was the point of a salient into the Allied lines approximately 5 kilometers deep, and was thought to be held by a battalion of entrenched German infantry, but on the planned day of the attack, a relief was in progress and the attack actually encountered two battalions. Capture of Cantigny At its 06:45 H Hour, American troops left their jump trenches following an hour-long preparatory artillery barrage in which German counter-battery fire nullified the location of German artillery positions. A rolling barrage advancing approximately 25 meters a minute preceded the attacking troops. The 28th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Division (3,564 troops), under Major-General Robert Lee Bullard, captured Cantigny from the German Eighteenth Army commanded by von Hutier. Aiding the capture, the French provided air cover, 368 heavy guns, trench mortars, and flamethrowers. The advancing American infantry was aided by twelve Schneider tanks of the French 5th Tank battalion, used to eliminate German machine gun positions. With this support, and advancing much more audaciously than expected, the 28th Infantry took the village in 45 minutes. It then continued on to its final objective, positions two kilometers from its jump-off point, just as the rolling barrage reached its final line, at 08:13. Defense against German counterattacks The first German counterattack, a small attack at 08:30 against the extreme right of the new American position, was easily repulsed, but German artillery bombarded the 28th Infantry for most of the day. At 17:10 the first large-scale counterattack took place, and a battalion of the 26th Infantry commanded by Major Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. was used to reinforce a weak spot in the American line. A series of counterattacks the next morning were also defeated by both American regiments, and the position held. The Americans reduced the salient and expanded their front by approximately a mile. The U.S. forces held their position with the loss of 1,603 casualties including 199 killed in action; they captured 250 German prisoners. The American success at Cantigny assured the French that American divisions could be entrusted in the line against the German offensive to take Paris. The victory at Cantigny was followed by attacks at Château-Thierry and Belleau Wood in the first half of June.  
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