Tim Brown, Commanding Officer
I want to thank CDR Paul Werring, the XO of the Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach for making a great brief on NWSSB and its subordinate units. This was probably Paul’s last luncheon with us. He has orders and will be leaving shortly for points East! We will miss him at our SOQ luncheons but most importantly for his full support of the program and the Sailors it honors. Thanks Paul and good luck in the future.
I also want to thank the restaurants that provided gift certificates for the SOQs at the last meeting. A special thanks to Cynthia Martinez at the Seal Beach Fresh N Easy Store who provided gift bags for all eight (8) SOQs. Poor Senior Chief Jeff Reeder had to carry the extra four back to the office to distribute them to the Sailors who could not attend. Once again Eric Page of USAA made a short presentation on the history and importance of the SOQ program before he gave each SOQ a commemorative plaque from USAA. And, finally, thanks to ADCS(AW) Jeff Reeder, who introduced the SOQs and facilitated the entire process so professionally.
Just a forecast regarding future briefings. LtCol Maury Rosenberg, USAF (Ret), will brief us this month on flight operations for the famous SR-71. Coincidentally, Maury was piloting United Airlines Flight 81 on 9/11. He will tell us a little about that eventful day in conjunction with his experiences flying the Blackbird. Scheduled speaker for 9 October is Major Aric Liberman, USMC, VMFA-121 out of Yuma. Aric flew the first F-35B model into Yuma for the “Green Knights”. Our speaker for 13 November will be CDR Jerry Loeb, USN (Ret), who will re-live his exploits as a POW in Algeria as told in the two-part article in Wings of Gold.
Starting in next month’s OpPlan column I am going to start a campaign on a few fronts: (1) get us new members for ANA; (2) get you to make reservations in advance for our luncheons; and (3) get somebody to take my place as Commanding Officer of GPS. All of these issues are important for maintaining a strong and financially viable organization. GPS needs your input and action on each of these items although everybody does not need to volunteer as CO, it would be nice to get new blood in leadership of GPS. More to follow. See you next week.
