November Commandant's Message

The month of November is here. That means another year has nearly passed. It is also time to celebrate the 236th birthday of our Marine Corps on November 10. Pat Lisi and his committee have worked very hard on planning for the ball this year. We had approximately 62 persons at the ball last year but this year it may exceed 100. The Olsens, Estrovitzs, Lisis and Covers spent many hours planning to make the event a success. They kept me out of it to insure success.

The honor guard at the ball will be handled by Larry Mineer, Les Covey, Jack Stanfill and Terry Hansen. The cake cutting will be handled by Dave Houston, Rick Massey, Bryan Butas and Alfie Deming. For the members who could not find time to attend or attended another ball, you will miss an outstanding event. The ad sales were a little less this year but we raised more than $1,300.00 for the league. The less than 10% who care stood up and got the job done again. It used to be the 10% were the screw-ups, but now it seems it is the 10% who really try hard to make the league a success.

On November 11, the Veteran's Honor Park at SunRiver will be dedicated. A number of our members will be there to raise the flags, fire the rifle salute, provide the drum and bugle music and march in the opening event. The members planning to assist are Bill Toole, Rick Massey, Bryan Butas, Dennis Cory, Les Covey, Clyde Johnston, Ken Olsen, Larry Mineer, Terry Hansen, Jim Haney and Tom Cover.

We were asked to be part of the St. George parade on November 11 after we committed to be at SunRiver. Larry Mineer, the Color Guard sergeant, put out an e-mail asking other members to step up for that task. The only member at time of writing this article was D'Arcy who stood up, and he cannot carry two rifles and two flags with the banner. I hope that before the due date a few more members agree to help. I would particularly like to see the members who had one-half their uniform costs paid by the league take part in this event.

We have received notice that we have been approved to have use of ten M-1 rifles at no cost. We hope to have the rifles in the next ninety days. The Army will also provide the clips and blank ammo at no cost. The only cost thus far is for ten white rifle slings at $8.50 each. We do intend to purchase a secure rifle cabinet when we find a good sale. It is now time to expand the Color Guard so, in time, we will be able to do a full military funeral. We did provide a presence at two funerals this month for Marines. One was with less than two hours' notice thanks to Bill Toole, Jim Haney, Pat Lisi and our Chaplain, D'Arcy Grisier.

Because of the ball and use of our meeting room, the general meeting for November will take place on the third Saturday, this month only, which is November 19. Steve Ikuta has arranged for another great speaker as he has done the last couple months. We will be learning about staying well from an expert. You are all welcome to bring your better half to have breakfast and hear the speaker.

At the meeting, we will be discussing our involvement with Toys for Tots in December. We have two members who will handle the assignments at the Washington WalMart, but we need someone to handle the assignments at the Bloomington WalMart. Jim Haney has agreed to assist if someone will agree to help him. We intend to cover the doors from 0900 hrs to 1500 hrs two Saturdays and one Friday at both WalMarts. We also will help one night at the Bloomington Walmart from 1700 until 2200 hrs.

And lastly, we have picked up the new Dixie Direct Books to sell. The cost per book is $35.00 and the league receives $15.00 for each book sold. A few members took part last year and we sold sixty-four books. We picked up sixty books on Thursday October 27 and sent out e-mail to all members. By that Thursday at 1600 hrs, Clyde Johnston had orders for more than twenty books from his friends. Bryan Butus took thirty books to sell and the other staff members took a number to sell. We picked up an additional sixty books on Friday October 28. We got the books last year late, but this year we are ahead of the other groups. The books are not hard to sell but you have to ask people to buy them. D'Arcy Grisler has agreed to store the books to pass out to members for sale. You can reach him at 435-862-8883. We will have books at the general meeting, but hopefully you have read the e-mails which were sent out and you are already selling books. You should have any check for a book made payable to MCL #1270 and immediately send to the MCL 1270, P.O. Box 553, St. George, UT 84790.

HAVE A WONDERFUL BIRTHDAY MARINES!
Carl Kulyk, Commandant