Austin, Texas Chapter

The Association for all Military Officers
Companion Bulletin-September 2007

Companions, Our new slate of Chapter officers was determined by caucus at a meeting at Camp Mabry on 26 June. I was asked to be the Commander for my sixth and final year, with the assurance that next year I will assume the duties of Chapter Treasurer. Mrs. Patricia Eagan will be the Adjutant and Captain James Burrill accepted the post of Treasurer. Companion Stanley Bullard will be the 1st Vice Commander with duties as program chairman and Commander David Cochran returns as our Chaplain. LTC Tom Anderson will assume the duties as Youth Leadership Conference Coordinator and Col. Leon Holland will coordinate our ROTC program. Rounding out the 2007-2008 team is Col. J. R. Howard who will continue in due form as our highly touted Bulletin Editor. We have a great team for this year! Texas A&M had a fun YLC with Companion Robert Vaughan, past Austin Chapter President, joining the 13 member staff as the Provost. Companion Bob and his wife Jan are now living in Plano, Texas and have yet to move their membership It was like old home week again and Bob has already volunteered to be on the 2008 TAMU YLC staff. Conferee transportation to and from Corpus Christi was arranged for by Dallas MOWW and

transportation to and from A&M was furnished by Austin Chapter National Sojourners. Congratulations to our newest member, Lt Col Juste R. Sanchez, the commander of Texas Det. 861, AFJROTC at Westwood High School. We hope Companion Sanchez and his wife Ida will be frequent attendees at our Chapter meetings. We should also congratulate Brigadier General Morton M. Jones who is our newest Perpetual member. Just think sir, no more dues! We regret to tell you that Major General Bob Bernstein and Colonel Chase Jones are residing with the Supreme Architect of the Universe. Many Companions of our chapter have fond memories of both of these fine men and their absence is truly our loss. We will have a great program on Thursday, 13 September and be treated to renewing old friendships, and have the pleasure to hear from two outstanding high school students that we sponsored to the Texas A&M YLC this summer. Ervalyn and I hope to see you at the Holiday Inn Northwest. Come early and bring a new member. Andrew J. McVeigh III Chapter Commander

 

 

Schedule: 1830-1900-Social 1900-1905 - Invocation & Salutes 1905-1945-Dinner 1945-2000-Break 2000-2015 -Awards & Festivities 2015-2045-Speaker 2045-2100-Adjourn.

Meeting. September 13 2007   Holiday Inn Northwest (Mopac & Hwy 183)  The cost for the evening is $18.00.  If you are not called by 10 September, contact  COL Andrew McVeigh III at 261-6272

 

Menu: Baked Catfish in Lemon Caper Sauce Green Bean Almondine Chef's choice of potato or starch assorted desserts Freshly Brewed coffee and decaf Freshly Brewed iced tea Speaker YLC students  Quote to Ponder: People never improve unless they look to some standard or example higher and better than themselves. Tryon Edwards

" Question: Why do people clink their glasses before drinking a toast? Answer: It used to be common for someone to try to kill an enemy by offering him a poisoned drink. To prove to a guest that a drink was safe, it became customary for a guest to pour a small amount of his drink into the glass of the host. Both men would drink it simultaneously. When a guest trusted his host, he would then just touch or clink the host's glass with his own.

 

TRICARE HOSPICE CARE: Tricare hospice care is available to beneficiaries who have received a terminal diagnosis. Its function is to provide care for terminally ill patients with a life expectancy of six months or less if the illness runs its normal course. In particular, curative treatments are not covered, while personal care and home health aide services are covered. It may include physician services, nursing care, counseling, medical equipment, supplies, medications, medical social services, physical and occupational services, speech and language pathology, and hospice short term inpatient care to manage acute or chronic symptoms or to control pain. Room and board are not covered under the Tricare hospice benefit; however, inpatient care is covered when needed. You cannot receive other Tricare services or benefits related to curative treatment of the terminal illness, unless the hospice election is formally revoked.

 

VA's Suicide Hot Line Begins Operations Nicholson: "Help a Phone Call Away" WASHINGTON - To ensure veterans with emotional crises have round-the-clock access to trained professionals, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has begun operation of a national suicide prevention hot line for veterans. "Veterans need to know these VA professionals are literally a phone call away," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson said. "All service members who experience the stresses of combat can have wounds on their minds as well as their bodies. Veterans should see mental health services as another benefit they have earned, which the men and women of VA are honored to provide." The toll-free hot line number is 1-800-273-TALK (8255). VA's hot line will be staffed by mental health professionals in Canandaigua, N.Y. They will take toll-free calls from across the country and work closely with local VA mental health providers to help callers. To operate the national hot line, VA is partnering with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

"The hot line will put veterans in touch - any time of the day or night, any day of the week, from anywhere in the country - with trained, caring professionals who can help," added Nicholson. "This is another example of the VA's commitment to provide world-class health care for our nation's veterans, especially combat veterans newly returned from Iraq and Afghanistan." The suicide hot line is among several enhancements to mental health care that Nicholson has announced this year. In mid July, the Department's top mental health professionals convened in the Washington, D.C., area to review the services provided to veterans of the Global War on Terror. VA is the largest provider of mental health care in the nation. This year, the Department will spent about $3 billion for mental health. More than 9,000 mental health professionals, backed up by primary care physicians and other health professionals in every VA medical center and outpatient clinic, provide mental health care to about 1 million veterans each year. Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." -- Oscar Wilde

Question: What's the biggest gripe of retirees? Answer: There is not enough time to get everything done. Inspiration Selection The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.... John 10, 11 Staff Meeting The next staff meeting will be at the call of the Commander.

Chapter Officers Commander - COL McVeigh 1st Vice Cmdr. - MAJ Bullard Adjutant - Patricia Eagan Treasurer - CAPT Burrill Chaplain - CDR Cochran Youth Leadership Conference Coordinator - LTC Tom Anderson ROTC Coordinator - Col Leon Holland  Austin Chapter Website and Newsletter  If you have items for the website contact  LTC Howard  848-0285 or e-mail: jr99howard@austin.rr.com

 

Comments on Baghdad from the ranks.    VIEWED from Iraq at the tail end of a 15-month deployment, the political debate in Washington is indeed surreal....A few nights ago,.. we witnessed the death of one American soldier and the critical wounding of two others when a lethal armor-piercing explosive was detonated between an Iraqi Army checkpoint and a police one. Local Iraqis readily testified to American investigators that Iraqi police and Army officers escorted the triggermen and helped plant the bomb. These civilians highlighted their own predicament: had they informed the Americans of the bomb before the incident, the Iraqi Army, the police or the local Shiite militia would have killed their families.    ..... battalion commanders, even if well meaning, have little to no influence over the thousands of obstinate men under them, in an incoherent chain of command, who are really loyal only to their militias.    Similarly, Sunnis, who have been underrepresented in the new Iraqi armed forces, now find themselves forming militias, sometimes with our tacit support. Sunnis recognize that the best guarantee they may have against Shiite militias and the Shiite-dominated government is to form their own armed bands. We arm them to aid in our fight against Al Qaeda.       .... we see that a vast majority of Iraqis feel increasingly insecure and view us as an occupation force that has failed to produce normalcy after four years and is increasingly unlikely to do so as we continue to arm each warring side.

The qualified and reluctant welcome we received from the Shiites since the invasion has to be seen in that historical context. They saw in us something useful for the moment.   ...because reconciliation without consolidation risks losing it all. Washington's insistence that the Iraqis correct the three gravest mistakes we made - de-Baathification, the dismantling of the Iraqi Army and the creation of a loose federalist system of government - places us at cross purposes with the government we have committed to support.    In a lawless environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act. Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence.  ...  it would be prudent for us to increasingly let Iraqis take center stage in all matters, to come up with a nuanced policy in which we assist them from the margins but let them resolve their differences as they see fit. This suggestion is not meant to be defeatist, but rather to highlight our pursuit of incompatible policies .... without recognizing the incongruities.    We need not talk about our morale. As committed soldiers, we will see this mission through.   Buddhika Jayamaha is an Army specialist. Wesley D. Smith is a sergeant. Jeremy Roebuck is a sergeant. Omar Mora is a sergeant. Edward Sandmeier is a sergeant. Yance T. Gray is a staff sergeant. Jeremy A. Murphy is a staff sergeant. (next month, the optimist...editor)

More than 168,000 TRICARE Prime enrollees -- those in managed care networks set up more than 40 miles from a military base or a base closure site -- could lose access to those networks and therefore pay higher out-of-pocket costs under new TRICARE support contracts to take effect in 2009. Read the full story at Military.com.

The Pentagon-appointed Task Force on the Future of Military Health will endorse higher TRICARE fees, deductibles and co-payments for retirees under 65 and their families. It also will back other key features of the TRICARE "reform" package first proposed last year by the Department of Defense ... Military.com