Silicon Valley Chapter Military Ofcers Association of America
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Silicon Valley Chapter Military Ofcers Association of America Volume XVI Issue 10The<Field Missing> Bulletin October 2019 OCTOBER LUNCHEON SPEAKER Luncheon ritz-Julius Lemp tracked the app- 17 October 2019 Froaching ship in his submarine’s periscope. It had become a silhouette barely distinguishable against the darkening twilight sky, but Lemp was close enough to see the foaming white wave thrown up by its bow. He smiled when the spray arched higher, signaling the ship had begun changing course again. “You’re right on schedule,” he said to the image in his eyepiece. Lemp’s pulse quickened with the knowledge that his war was about to begin. German U-Boat 30 The chapter’s October speaker will be Thomas C. Sanger, a San Diego-based author who has written for a variety of Tom Sanger publications and audiences during a thirty- year career in journalism and public relations. He will provide an illustrated Social Hour: 11:00 AM presentation about the sinking of the Luncheon: 11:45 AM passenger liner Athenia, a gripping tale based on his book Without Warning. The Luncheon is $30.00 story will focus on the perspective of eight See Back Page for Reservations people: six passengers, Athenia’s chief Form and Directions officer, and the commander of the German U-boat. Based on accounts written by CALENDAR OF EVENTS passengers, personal interviews with 3 Oct Board Meeting 10:30 AM survivors and descendants of survivors, 17 Oct Luncheon 11:00 AM books, newspaper stories, and original 7 Nov Board Meeting 10:30 AM documents, the book honors the memory of 21 Nov Luncheon 11:00 AM cont'd pg 3 PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE I turn 79 in September. Every birthday I call my older brother in Georgia and ask him, “What are you doing, you old coot?” So, this past Wednesday, I called him again, and reality hit me like a bucket of cold water thrown in my face. There was no one on the other end to answer. George died two years ago. I saw The Green Berets on television the other night. I was in the 1st Special Forces Group on Okinawa when it came out in 1968. The entire group marched down to the theatre and watched it. It was a pretty OFFICERS, BOARD, AND CHAIRS PRESIDENT:Cpt Charles McDougald USA good movie. But Hollywood ruined the ending which showed a beautiful 415-722-1009 1st VP: Cpt Charles McDougald Interim USA sunset on the beach at Nah Trang as John Wayne consoled a Vietnamese 415-722-1009 2nd VP:CAPT John Hassenplug, USN 650-224-7638 kid. Secretary: COL Warren Enos Interim AUS 408-245-2217 It was patriotic and very moving until, from the rear of the Treasurer: CAPT Keith Ott Interim USN 530-219-2404 Past President: CAPT Gil Borgardt USN theatre, Lt. Col. Larry Trapp, B company commander, yelled out, “The 650-342-1270 sun sets in the west, you idiot.” The entire theatre cheered. Larry never DIRECTORS & COMMITTEE CHAIRS CALMOAA CAPT Gil Borgardt USN 650-342-1270 did suffer fools gladly. I reached for my phone to call him. About mid- Chaplain Col Don Bradley USAF 650-592-0915 dial I remembered I spoke at his memorial service in 2008. Chapter Outreach CWO5 Robert Landgraf USMC 408-323-8838 Commissary/Exchange Advisory How often does that happen to you? The accumulation of good vacant Friends-in-Need (FIN) Program friends over a lifetime is the best part about growing up and, ultimately, CDR Al Mouns USN 408-257-5629 Navy League Liaison LCDR Tom Winant USN 650-678-7120 growing old. I have a few on speed-dial, including George, that will Membership/Recruitment CAPT John Hassenplug, USN 650-224-7638 never answer me. But they’re still my friends and they live on in the Personal Affairs CAPT Robert French USN 650-549-8896 Programs recesses of my mind reserved exclusively for “favorites.” This is Cpt Charles McDougald USA 415-722-1009 ROTC especially true for my friends that didn’t come home from Vietnam. CWO4 Patrick Clark USA 831-402-8548 Surviving Spouse Liason vacant There are stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, Scholarship Capt Gio Picazo USAF 669-258-5057 and acceptance. We’ve all been down that road, learning to live with the CAPT Paul Barrish USN 408-356-7531 Travel (Space-A Advisory) vacant ones we lost. Veteran Affairs LtCol Neil Miles USAF 408-929-1142 But just remember – the best way you can honor your departed Web Master LtCol Mike Sampognaro USAF 408-779-7389 Sergeant at Arms friends is by keeping their memory alive. vacant Strategic Planning Capt David Down ARNG 408-202-9360 Legislation LtCol Neil Miles USAF 408-929-1142 NEVER STOP SERVING The Chapter Board meets at the Moffett Field CHUCK Museum, Moffett Federal Airfield, the first Thursday of the month at 10:30am. DIRECTORS EMERITUS CAPT Lloyd McBeth USN 408-241-3514 RETIREE ACTIVITIES OFFICE (RAO) Travis 707-424-3904 www.travisaf.mil tab Programs tab RAO Bulletin Editor LtCol. Mike Sampognaro, USAF [email protected] 408-779-7389 WELCOME NEW MEMBERS We all need to be recruiting In Memorium COL William Van der Molen, USA – Ret March 04, 1938 – September 20, 2019 See Page 17 - 2 - OCTOBER LUNCHEON cont'd projecting upwards from the sea. The U-30, a Type VIIA U-boat was one of the first fourteen U-boats to leave Germany in mid-August when the Polish crisis seemed likely to lead to war with the Western Powers. Only a few hours earlier, at 1256 hours Berlin time, that likelihood had become a reality. An urgent encoded message was broadcast: “Hostilities with England effective immediately”. The Athenia was the first UK ship to be sunk by Germay during World War II, and the incident accounted for the Donaldson Line's greatest single SS Athenia sinks by the stern loss of life at sea. 117 civilian passengers and crew Athenia’s passengers, both living and dead. were killed with the sinking condemned as a war The SS Athenia was a steam turbine crime. The dead included 28 US citizens, leading transatlantic passenger liner built in Glasgow in 1923 Germany to fear that the US might react by joining for the Anchor-Donaldson Line, which later became the war on the side of the UK and France. Wartime the Donaldson Atlantic Line. She worked between German authorities denied that one of their vessels the United Kingdom and the east coast of Canada had sunk the ship, and a German admission of until September 1939, when a torpedo from a responsibility did not come until 1946. German submarine sank her in the Western Approach. On September 1, 1939, the passenger liner Athenia set sail from Glasgow for Montreal by way of Belfast and Liverpool. She carried 1,100 passengers, nearly three quarters of whom were women and children. Tom Sanger brings this tragedy to life and makes it personal. His pre- sentation will make it possible to share the fear and the anxiety with the survivors One reviewer wrote, “My long-time friend and author Tom Sanger has provided a small literary coup and meaningful historic service by bringing to life a little-recognized footnote of the beginning of Britain’s entrance into WWII. With superb literary and research skills, Sanger has brought to life the sinking of the passenger ship Athenia by a German U-boat within a day of Germany invading Poland and Great Britain declaring war on Hitler. His remembrance as historical fiction, Without Warning, enlightened by his maternal grandmother, who was an Athenia Oberleutnant Lemp passenger, is riviting, real and an uplifting tale of Late in the afternoon on September 3rd 1939, courage and grit by ordinary people swept into an Oberleutnant Lemp in a U-30 was on patrol about extraordinary event. History buffs and historians 250 miles northwest of Ireland, about 60 miles south alike are in Sanger’s debt. He tells it brilliantly. of Rockall banks - a barren sixty-three foot rock cont'd pg 4 - 3 - SEPTEMBER LUNCHEON REPORT he U.S. 1st Infantry Division, nicknamed T“The Big Red One,” is a combined arms division, and is the oldest continuously serving in the Regular Army. During the period June 1968 through June 1969 the division participated in the largest operation of the Vietnam War, Operation Toan Thang (Certain Victory). In September 1968 the division commander, MG Ware, was killed in action Tom Sanger worked as a reporter for the when his command helicopter was shot down by Associated Press and KABC radio in Los Angeles, enemy anti-aircraft fire. In the first half of 1969, the researched and wrote television documentary Big Red One conducted reconnaissance-in-force and scripts, and directed corporate communications for ambush operations, including a multi-division a major Southern California energy company. operation, Atlas Wedge. The division operated in III Sanger is the author of numerous articles and Corps northeast of Saigon with the mission to keep nonfiction books. Without Warning is his first Highway 13 open and to protect and defend Saigon. novel. ___________________ SOURCE: Tom Sanger Co D, 2/18th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division The chapter’s September luncheon speaker was author-photographer Steven Burchik now of San Ramon, whose book, Compass and a Camera: A Year in Vietnam, was highly acclaimed. “I was not a combat photographer,” he explained. “My duty was as a sergeant in the role of a forward observer. Sometimes I brought a personal camera along on patrols in the rice paddies and jungles and recorded images of ordinary soldiers, villagers, and children living their daily lives amid an extraordinary conflict.” His illustrated presentation included some of the very best of his 4,000 photographs.