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Vol. 18, No. 47, MAY 22, 2006 |
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The Friday Program: Swift, Silent & Deadly — Marine Amphibious Reconnaissance in the Pacific (Bruce Meyers) | Friday Potpourri | Kwon is Student of the Month | Rotary First Harvest Work Party Attracts Rotarians | Events to Note in the Near Future | Two Prospective Member Applications Approved for Publishing | Givan Returns for Duvall Rotary Appearance | Vocational Service Mini-Club Assembly | Web Fun |
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The Friday Program:
Meyers became an active-duty Marine in 1943 and earned a commission in 1945. He participated in many amphibious landings, plus making 131 parachute jumps during his tour of duty which included later service in Viet Nam, as well as a military advisor to President John F. Kennedy. He thanked Jim Gordon for his introduction, adding that he was also a “Notary Public!” Bruce Meyers grew up near the water on Meydenbauer Bay, earned two degrees from the University of Washington and a law degree from George Washington University. “This next month, I’ll be traveling to Quantico, Virginia to relinquish my Marine sword to my grandson, who’s graduating from the Marine school at Quantico.” Obviously, the Marine tradition is solid in the Meyers’ family. During breakfast, the Press Table conducted serious discussions on a variety of subjects. The crew of Powers, Maxwell, Hough, Mix, and Moloney reminisced about the appearance of “Drew Barrymore” at an April Fool’s Day meeting. “Drew” was the niece of Mike Stanley, a BBRC member at the time. She was so convincing, the crowd was led in a standing ovation by former member Paul Baker to the embarrassment of the connivers who had another ending in mind. After Mix informed the table that he’d taken a job as a “Sports Clerk” with the Everett Herald, that brought out a flood of memories from Jeff Maxwell and Bob Moloney. Both had connections with the Seattle Times, Moloney as a Copy Boy, and Maxwell being a close friend of young Mr. Pennington, son of the Times’ publisher. Mark Hough and Jay Powers took all this information in with a look of incredulity. President Steve opened the meetin,g introducing Ruben Ladlad, for the invocation and the pledge to the flag, and Tom Smith, who greeted six visiting Rotarians, including John Matheson and Frank Young, Bellevue; Joyce Bottenburg, Sammamish; Jim Trombold, Mercer Island; Janet Woods, Seattle #4; and John Armenia, Gig Harbor. Andrew Face, soon-to-be-Sergeant-at-Arms, asked Frank Young to “post-date a check with an appropriate amount to cover Frank’s healthy contributions to the BBRC kitty,” while Frank spends a good share of the summer floating around the Gulf and Vancouver Islands. Not sure if the check is in the mail. Kelly Nolan celebrated Salvation Army Week with a batch of yummy and famous Salvation Army Doughnuts, served at breakfast and made available for members to take boxes to work. Sure is sweet having Kelly in the BBRC! Kwon is Student of the Month
Larry, with Corrine’s help, awarded Joseph his SOTM plaque to a round of applause from his audience. Corrine closed the ceremony by inviting Rotarians to play in the Eastside Academy’s fundraising golf tourney at the Bear Creek Country Club on June 12. Call the school for details. Rotary First Harvest Work Party Attracts Rotarians Five BBRC Rotarians, with four other family members, put in three hours of hard work for Rotary First Harvest at the May Work Party at Pier 91 in Seattle. Howard Johnson, RFH Coordinator, reported that David Bolson, Paul Chapman, Sadru Kabani, Terry Peterson and Steve Vincent received credit for helping Rotary’s premier public service project at the May 13th work party. The participation brought to 131, the number individuals who responded to the call for workers beginning last July 1. And, it brings to 47 the number of Rotarians who supported RFH with their willingness to serve during the year. Of these 47 workers, 13 made multiple appearances for the RFH cause. This list includes Chuck Barnes, David Bolson, Paul Chapman, Chip Erickson, Mark Hough, Howard Johnson, Sadru Kabani, Steve Lingenbrink, Bob McKorkle, Terry Peterson, Hal Teel and Steve Vincent. The Board of Directors thanks each person who make this commitment and to HoJo for his leadership this year. Two Prospective Member Applications Approved for Publishing A brief board meeting immediately following Friday’s meeting resulted in the approval of applications from two prospective members. According to new member policies, these proposals will be published twice within a ten-day period, soliciting comment from the membership. Dr. John Armenia - Joining with a classification of “Education Leadership,” Dr. John Armenia is the director of the Education Leadership program at Bellevue’s City University. He has held this position since 1995. His previous employment was with the Peninsula School District. He is a 23-year member of the Gig Harbor Rotary Club, who has served as Club President, Chair of Club Service and Membership, and as trainer for District 5020. He joined the Gig Harbor club in 1983 and currently maintains his membership. With Steve Lingenbrink as his sponsor, John brings an interest in world affairs to the BBRC, with his school and Rotary partnerships. He has served as President of the Washington State chapter of Phi Delta Kappa International and as an associate with the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. He has also belonged to the Selah, WA, Kiwanis (1978-1983) and the American Legion (1971-1986). John is the editor of a publication called “A Joy to Learn” (1986-2006), and he enjoys golf and professional writing/editor. He served on District 5020’s Governor’s Newsletter staff from 1997 to 2001, and he is a member of the Canterwood Golf and Country Club (1988-2005). John and his wife Brenda live in Redmond. Ronald “Ron” Black - Ronald V. Black is president of Referral Financial Incorporated, a residential mortgage firm in Issaquah. He and his wife Stella live in Redmond. They have four children. Ron is sponsored by Dick Brown and co-sponsored by Paul Martin. His classification is proposed to be “Mortgage Broker-Residential.” Over the years, Ron has coached youth baseball, soccer and basketball. He is a member of the Washington Association of Mortgage Brokers, as well as the National Association of Mortgage Brokers. Ron enjoys listening to classical music and studies stock investments as a hobby. He lists golf as his chief recreational activity, with a membership at Sahalee Golf and Country Club, Sammamish. Members wishing to comment or raise questions regarding these proposed applications are requested to contact Club Service II Director Tom Smith no later than 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 25, 2006. Vocational Service Mini-Club Assembly Carlene Buty will be stepping down as Director of Vocational Service on July 1. She conducted a brief “Mini-Assembly” to keep the membership aware of this important Avenue of Service in Rotary.
Mark Hough represented the traveling Doug Cameron (He’s in Italy learning to cook pasta again!) to discuss the committee’s sponsorship of Ethics forums for membership consumption. The most recent forum was April 28 when Dr. Al Erisman of Seattle University explained the “Nine Reasons to be Ethical in Business.” Career Development Chair Evelyn Cogswell described her committee’s busy year. “We worked with Sammamish High School and Seattle University on Job Shadow projects. We have a list of 40 BBRC members who’ve volunteered to be Career Information speakers at Sammamish. We participated in the Seattle U Entrepreneurship Program providing speakers, mentors and judges in contests. Terry Peterson was our contact here. And, we’ve just completed submitting two works of art by two Sammamish students to an online Art contest, sponsored by a New Zealand Rotary Club. The winner gets a trip to New Zealand!”
Steve Peters represented the Job Training program in conjunction with Hopelink. He told about woman at Hopelink, a single mom with three kids who found a job after going through the mock interviews, and the resume-writing workshop conducted by Kathy Holert. “Working in this area is a special opportunity for Rotarians to impart knowledge of business and how people have success in the job market.” Steve had a check of $500 to disburse and “it’s in the mail.” And our own Mr. Rogers, David Bolson, described the club’s successful book drive for the Hopelink Lending Library. “We thought we'd get a few books during our February drive, but we got bags and boxes and carloads of books. More than 2,500 books were contributed and today they’re at work at the Hopelink Library.” Pray that David will return in the near future to soothe us with another tale fit for Rotarians. The Friday Program:
Meyers became an active-duty Marine in 1943 and earned a commission in 1945. He participated in many amphibious landings, plus making 131 parachute jumps during his tour of duty which included later service in Viet Nam, as well as a military advisor to President John F. Kennedy. He thanked Jim Gordon for his introduction, adding that he was also a “Notary Public!” Bruce Meyers grew up near the water on Meydenbauer Bay, earned two degrees from the University of Washington and a law degree from George Washington University. “This next month, I’ll be traveling to Quantico, Virginia to relinquish my Marine sword to my grandson, who’s graduating from the Marine school at Quantico.” Obviously, the Marine tradition is solid in the Meyers’ family.
Right after the end of World War II, Meyers was assigned by General Chesty Puller to design and ultimately command a new school that would provide support to troops capable of going deep behind enemy lines. Depending on the situation, the troops were delivered to their target by a variety of means: by submarine, ship, small boats, PT boats and later by air, either plane or chopper. “Many of the reconnaissance missions in Iraq have been at night by chopper,” Meyers observed. Meyers’ unit was formed prior to the OSS and today’s familiar Navy Seals. “We were the first service to have units to work behind enemy lines” he said.
The recon units made use of rubber boats and swimming to advance to a beachhead. Army units were also trained to do this type of work. Meyers described how a submarine goes “to the bottom, a depth of 65 feet to release the recon unit. Subs are slimy and slick and dry and wet so we were challenged using this method of delivery.” Meyers described the use of high-speed water transport, Flying boats and PT Boats. “We even used native war canoes at night with a team of native boaters. The island of Tinian was the most successful recon of WW II. This was a very important island, because it became the spot where the B-29s took off for the airborne attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
To his audience’s delight, Bruce described “jumping out of jets! We worked as five-man teams, so we needed five jets to deliver us near our targets. We even experimented with high altitude, low (parachute) opening free falls.” He showed a picture of the underbelly of a jet with “my legs sticking out prior to ejecting to the target area.” One more amusing anecdote was the project of experimenting with a “droppable wing tank of a jet,” something that was invented by Robert Fulton III, grandson of the inventor of the steamboat. “He surmised that a recon person could be delivered by this wing tank contraption and we tested his theories by using a 200-pound Red boar hog.” Meyers didn’t think the hog enjoyed the ride and the invention didn’t make combat. “I felt that the work done by the Marine reconnaissance units during World War II was mostly overlooked, so that’s when I sat down to write my book. Since its publication, and book signings all over the country, I’ve received emails from every part of the world from people who knew of friends or family members who served in this special war service,” Bruce commented. He received a standing ovation and a big round of applause for his presentation. A certificate of donation of a book to the King County Library’s Ready-to-Read program was presented to Bruce Meyers for his appearance Friday. The donation is in support of Rotary’s Literacy emphasis. Thanks to Jim Gordon for his introduction. I Owe My Mother 1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE. 2. My mother taught me RELIGION. 3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL. 4. My mother taught me LOGIC. 5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC. 6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT. 7. My mother taught me IRONY. 8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS. 9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM. 10. My mother taught me about STAMINA. 11. My mother taught me about WEATHER. 12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY. 13. My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE. 14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION. 15. My mother taught me about ENVY. 16. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION. 17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING. 18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE. 19. My mother taught me ESP. 20. My mother taught me HUMOR. 21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT. 22. My mother taught me GENETICS. 23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS. 24. My mother taught me WISDOM. 25. My mother taught me about JUSTICE. |
Ron Healey, on behalf of Community Service, is looking for sign-ups for the annual spring Hands-On Project, this year taking place at YMCA Camp Terry at Preston on Saturday, June 3 starting at 8:00 a.m. Sign-up sheets will be available on tables this Friday. Chip Erickson, Chair of Preserve Planet Earth, deferred to Ron’s project by canceling the planned highway clean-up that same morning. Chip will ask for clean-up help later. 
Friday Potpourri
