GAVEL TRAVEL
17 JUNE 2016
Following the shoot we
adjourned to the bar at Gregg’s to hoist a glass in honor of the
outgoing Officers and another to the new team taking over. The
incoming President, Charlie Knowles, was at the Statehouse for
the final day of the session so outgoing President, Jim Wheller,
gave the gavel to the VP, Vinny Andriozzi, in hopes he would
pass it to Charlie when he arrived. Which he did after some mock
resistance. Jim earned our gratitude for all of the time and
trouble that comes with the job. He now gets to sit back and
enjoy the best job, Past-President!
SHOOTOUT
been hearing about the new shooting range being built by
our good friend and supporter, John Haxton, for quite
awhile. The
Pine Ridge Indoor Range was finished
in time for our June meeting, the time we would
customarily meet at the Fogarty Range, which is
presently closed for repair. So John invited us to visit
his place and throw a few rounds downrange. The range is
fabulous, 3 rooms with 5 lanes each, state-of-the-art
ventilation system and ballistic panels all around. One
room is equipped for SWAT teams training with dark/light
capabilities and targets that move up and back at
variable speeds and with shooter/civilian presentations
that show at the last second. There is a fully
stocked sales room with shotguns, rifles and pistols as
well as ammo and all the accessories one could want.
After the shoot John gave us a presentation and we
learned that John, the owner (who’s name has escaped)
and one other guy did the lions share of the build-out
including installing all of the ballistic panels which
are large and very heavy and cover most of the building.
We recommend it to anyone who is looking for a range.
They have hourly rates as well as yearly memberships. BTW,
John thoughtfully mounted UBL targets for our shooting
satisfaction.
MEMORIAL DAY
Forthe first time in a very long time our Memorial Day
formation took place in the rain. Luckily Jim Wheeler
remembered the giant tent set up by the WWII monument for
the Governor’s Memorial Day Ceremony. As theirs was
scheduled for the afternoon we could infil/exfil before
anyone was the wiser. Some of us might be forgiven for
thinking that we were playing a hip-hop version of the Star
Spangled Banner as part of the formation’s other changes but
it was merely operator error.
After the formation we moved down the road to the Homestead
Restaurant for a fabulous breakfast and a chance to
socialize.
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Guys:
Many
of our chapter old timers have already heard of this through
the grapevine, but it is my sad duty to inform the members of
our chapter of the 4-15-16 passing of COL (Ret.) Robert Dolan.
Bob
Dolan was a charter member of Chapter 48 and had a long
history with the Rhode Island Special Forces community.
He was the commander of Co C /5th Bn, 20th
SFG(A) when I first joined the unit in August of 1974 and he
had already spent several years there well before that.
Thereafter he was the first XO of Command & Control
Headquarters and the first XO of Troop Command. He was
then posted to State Headquarters and later was on extended
active duty where he was promoted to Colonel. He visited
us at Chapter 48 often, but became an active member of
Massachusetts�s Chapter 54 (of which he was the immediate past
president � literally, his term expired at the beginning of
this month)
At
his request, there will be no funeral. His wife will be
making arrangements for the interment of his ashes at the
Crematorium in Arlington MA.
There
will be a moment of silence for Colonel Dolan at tomorrow
night�s SFA meeting. As I knew him better than the chapter
president, Jim was gracious enough to suggest I make this
announcement.
Charlie
Knowles
New State Sergeant Major
6 March 2016
CSM Moises Moniz is pinned by his wife Patti as
the TAG looks on.
Another well deserved
promotion.
5
March 2016
SGM Blue
Quietly,
so as not to step on the Change of Responsibility ceremony
taking place the following day, Mo’s replacement as
Operations SGM at 56 Troop Command, Eric Blue, was pinned
at a ceremony so low key that not even Mo knew about it.
He and we found out the next day when we saw the shiny,
new Sergeant Major at the COR. Congratulations, Bac Si!
In other astronomical news. Rich
Keene observed that there was an almost unheard of
constellation of SF SGMs at the COR. 10, both
retired and still serving, Sergeants Major led by
their Dean, CSM Bill MacNaughton, were finally
corralled for a group shot by the President.
Fathers and Sons
25 January 2016
We
were saddened to hear of the passing of Rich Burmeister’s dad, H.
Frank Burmeister and Bobby Perry’s son, Dennis Perry. Rich’s dad
lived in Florida and the funeral was held there last week. We are
awaiting word about Bobby’s son’s funeral and calling hours. Check
back here or in Taps.
Letter from the President
Special Forces Association
Chapter XLVIII
Rhode Island
P.O. Box 41283
Providence Rhode Island 02940
To all SFA Chapter 48 Members,
I would like to wish you and your families a Happy New Year and I
hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.
It�s hard to believe the year has passed by as quickly as it has
and my time serving as president of the chapter is already three
quarters of the way through. It has been very rewarding and when
you�re busy, the time definitely passes quickly. I can�t say
enough good things about the other chapter officers and the
chapter members who never hesitate to step forward to help with
whatever needs to be done.
I thought now at year�s end and the beginning of a new year is a
good time to review the status of some of our current yearly
activities.
1) Annual Steak Dinner (Formerly known as the Annual Varnum Steak
Dinner)
This event has always been popular especially
when it was held at the Varnum Armory
in East Greenwich. We encountered a
problem with our ability to use the fireplace for
cooking the steaks and had to cook
outside. This proved to be a difficult task in the
middle of the winter so we ended up
changing the date and the venue to the Quonset /
Davisville Yacht Club. This has worked
out well thanks to the efforts of Vito Pezzillo
as a member of the yacht club and a hard
working group of our chapter members.
2) The next event we have been holding on an annual basis is the
SF Bowling Night which
has been a fund raiser for the chapter�s
Family Relief Fund. We run this along with the
participation of the East Providence
Police Department and it has been a decent event.
The problem has been a lack of interest
on the part of chapter members. This is probably
due in part to the fact it is on a Friday
night because of logistics with the bowling alley
and maybe some of our members are
hesitant to show off their lack of bowling skills.
At any rate as of a little over a month
ago it looks like this is no longer going to happen.
The new management will no longer let us
purchase pitchers of beer and their price for
beer by the glass is almost half the
price we were paying for a pitcher. They also insist on
us buying the pizzas from them instead of
being able to get them from Domino�s as we
did in the past. The price they charge
for the pizzas is also higher than we want to
pay. Bob Paquette has recommended we
consider not running this event under these
conditions.
3) Our Memorial Day ceremony at the Special Forces stone in
the Rhode Island Veterans
Cemetery, Exeter, RI is well attended by
chapter members, family members and
friends. Since the closing of The Corner
Tavern we have gone back and forth between the
Homestead Restaurant and Richard�s Pub.
We are planning a return to the Homestead
Restaurant for our breakfast following
the 2016 Memorial Day Ceremony.
4) The next event we�ve held is the Shootout/Cookout which
is usually held as the June
meeting. This is another case of having
to change our venue due to the closing of the
range facilities at Camp Fogarty. Myself,
and other members talked to a few different
shooting clubs and ranges before finding
someone who would allow us to use the
facilities for shooting and had the setup
for a cookout. Larry Pezza suggested the Tri
-Town Rod and Gun Club in Foster, RI.
Charlie Knowles took the lead and along with
the valuable and hard work of some of our
members this was a great event. It was easily
the best attended Shootout/Cookout we�ve
had. Plans are to do a repeat of this in 2016.
5) July/August brings about our involvement with the Rhode
Island Army National Guard
�Leapfest� International Parachute
Competition. Steve Morin as been the primary
workhorse as he and a very dedicated
group of volunteers work a couple of different
dates and times to represent our chapter
by selling tee shirts. This has proven to be a
great fund raiser for the chapter. We
also usually end up seeing some people show up
at the DZ location who we don�t normally
see at the regular meetings. Steve with the
help of some key individuals puts a lot
into this effort and it has paid off in spades.
6) The August meeting takes place in the form of the annual
�Family Day� outing which
is a picnic held at Walt and Phyllis
May�s beautiful home and country setting in
Foster, RI. This is also a very special
event attended by more than a few of our brothers
who we don�t always get to see but like
to attend I suspect for a few different reasons.
Needless to say we are very fortunate to
have the hospitality extended to us by Walt
and Phyllis.
7) Our Veterans Day ceremony at the Special Forces stone in
the Rhode Island Veterans
Cemetery, Exeter, RI takes place on
November 11th each year. Again this event is well
attended even though it is not easy for
some members to take the time off from work
in the middle of the work week. We have
run into the problem of trying to find a place to
hold the breakfast but Richard�s Pub has
worked out for us for the past two years.
8) The last event of our chapter calendar year has been our
�Christmas� get together.
This has been a problem as we have gone
from having it as a sit down dinner with music
and dancing at the East Greenwich
Veterans Fireman�s Hall to a cocktail party at the
Varnum Armory back to a sit down buffet
dinner at the Carriage Inn and Saloon the past
two years. The chapter has paid
part of the cost of this function each year to keep the
cost down for our members and their
guests but it appears it is not a popular event with
many of our members.
I apologize for the length of this letter but I feel the
importance of the content deserves to be
fully represented and explained.
Myself, as your president, the executive board and the past
officers of our chapter fully realize the following facts and we
must ask ourselves these questions:
1) Do we stay on the current path and make some minor
adjustments?
2) Should we try something really new to enhance the
organization?
3) Do we try to continue doing what we�re doing using the
same core group of individuals,
which will only be a temporary solution?
4) The overall membership is aging and seems to be losing
interest in chapter activities so
what action should we take?
5) The younger guys (those under 40 years old) don�t seem to
be interested in getting
involved, or even joining the
Special Forces Association, so what do we do?
As Brad Preston, one of our former chapter presidents has noted
these are challenges most military and other long-standing groups
seem to face � aging membership and a diminishing source of
younger, new members.
We realize fathers become grandfathers and some of our members are
great grandfathers.
Some of us have health or medical conditions preventing us from
doing as many or the same things we used to do. As our Native
American brothers believe only the rocks live forever.
We�re not the only ones dealing with these problems and in many
ways we�re a lot better off than some other organizations. We need
to address them and the time to do it is now!
Some of the board members including Steve Morin met on
Tuesday morning, December 22, 2015 to discuss some of these
matters. We are all concerned (as I�m sure our members are) with
keeping our activities interesting to everyone. As a follow up to
our meeting our chapter vice president, Charlie Knowles has
drafted and will be sending out a separate letter to explain some
of the issues under consideration. Upon receipt, please read this
letter and comment on the questions and issues requested. Please
be advised we may follow up with a survey or two to help you with
expressing your ideas or suggestions.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.
Respectfully,
Jim Wheeler
President
SFA Chapter 48, Rhode Island
New Newsletter Format
I�m
not sure if anyone has noticed but the newsletter has been
severely late of late. Originally
the excuse was medical but apart from a few weeks I could have
sat at the typewriter (did I just say typewriter) and banged
something out. And that is the nub of it. I have been banging
out the same newsletter for nearly 20 years and you can cut
and paste the subjects from one year to the next. Judging from the lack of
feedback (hey, asshole, where�s the newsletter) you are not
missing my deathless prose either. So we�ll do what General
Mills does (he�s a General after all) and try repackaging
the contents. This format is called a blog post for some
reason and I�m hoping to post more frequently about topics
as they have happened rather than wait for a quarterly
quarto. Lets try some content.