2012-02 Commandant's Message

Here we are in February. I for one am glad we are through the holidays. As a detachment, we have a busy time in front of us. We need to elect new officers and form committees for the golf tournament and the Marine Corps Ball.

Larry Mineer has been working hard to form our color guard. He has had a number of meetings for members to practice flag folding.

We have received 2400 rounds of blank ammo and 100 clips from the Army at no cost to the detachment. We are still waiting for ten M-1's, but we are now sure our request has been approved. I will continue to follow up with the Army and we should have the rifles in next two months. Twelve members attended the funeral service for a Marine last month. But, the American Legion still had to handle the grave site service. We want and should provide this service at the request of families of Marines.

We are completing the sale of 2012 Dixie Direct Book which again has been a good fund raiser for the detachment. A number of members continue to step up to make it happen. The sales this year will be more than double the sales last year.

Our detachment brochure for recruitment of new members will be available at the February meeting thanks to the hard work of Clyde Johnston.

The big problem which continues to exist is our low attendance at monthly meetings and retention of members. We have at least five members who have not been sworn into the detachment. We need everyone to help in contacting these absent members to encourage them to attend meetings. We have had a number of outstanding speakers and we will continue to have interesting speakers. If you have ideas how we can improve attendance or if you have a service project we could work on, please come to the monthly meeting and speak up. I, myself am very proud to be a member of this detachment and I try to do what I can to make it grow.

I hope to see you all at the monthly meeting.

Carl Kulyk, Commandant

January Commandant's Message

Well, a new year is upon us! I guess we are all a little older and hopefully a little wiser.

We had a very busy December with Toys for Tots and selling Dixie Books. A number of members helped at Walmart and the Dixie Center. About eight members are working hard to sell Dixie Books. We sold sixty-four books last year and the number at this time is more than eighty. If you can sell or would like to buy a book, please contact the Chaplain at 435-656-2461.

Because of a few members working hard on the golf tournament, ad sales and the Dixie Book, we were able to donate more than $2,400.00 to worthwhile causes in the area on behalf of the league. As a reminder, our detachment only keeps less than five dollars from your yearly dues.

The final Marine Corps Ball 2011 report is in and we made a few dollars. We need someone to chair the ball committee for 2012. If you are willing to help, please contact me.

The color guard has been practicing flag folding and as soon as our M-1's arrive, drill practice will start. Larry Mineer still needs a few more members for the color guard. We are still waiting for the M-1 rifles but the Army has sent me the forms to obtain the blank ammo and the clips. They do not send out these forms until our request for rifles has been approved. As with the rifles, there will be no cost to the detachment for the blank ammo or the clips. I have submitted the forms to obtain the items.

Detachment members were at the Elks Club to do the set-up, cook and the clean-up for the Shop-with a-Cop event. Our long time member Joyce Thomas was there to help. After the event at the Elks, our color guard made up of Les Covey, Steve Ikuta, Clyde Johnston and Bill Toole assembled at the Saint George Airport to give a proper sendoff of the ashes of one of our detachment members who passed away a few years ago. Bill Feeney handled the bugle and our Chaplin D’Arcy Grisier did the final reading. Jack Stanfill provided his plane and a co-pilot for the spreading of the ashes. The wife of the Marine was present and very grateful for the service. It is our mission to support Marines and their families.

Our detachment has agreed to host the quarterly State Staff meeting in March. They will attend our regular meeting in March, then have their own meeting afterwards. Our next general meeting is on January 14, 2012 at the Abbey Inn at 8:00 a.m. I hope we can improve on attendance in 2012. Steve Ikuta will have another very interesting speaker. If you have noticed someone you know in the detachment who has not been attending the meetings, please call them and ask them to attend. We are also always looking for new members.

I do hope you had a great Christmas season. Thank you all for your support and assistance in 2011.

Carl Kulyk, Commandant