Seattle 2017
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SAVE THE DATE!! SEATTLE 2017 MSC ASSOCIATION BIENNIAL REUNION 31 Aug – 3 Sep 2017 DoubleTree Suites by Hilton 16500 Southcenter Parkway, Seattle, Washington, 98188-3388, USA TEL: +1-206-575-8220 FAX: +1-206-575-4743 RESERVATION DETAILS COMING SOON! USAF MSC Association NEWSLETTER _______________________________________________ ____________________ August 2016 FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD Officers and Key Contacts I hope everyone is enjoying their summer! We’ve had several hot and humid days Col Denise Lew Chairman this month in the DC area, so I was happy to enjoy some relief from the heat by Col Steve Meigs spending a few days in the comparatively pleasant climate of San Diego. It was the President first time I have attended the “Midsummer Classic,” the 2016 Major League Baseball Col Doug Anderson Vice President All Star Game. Although the game itself didn’t turn out to be very exciting, the Home Col Al Obuchowski Run Derby, held the night before, and the Legends and Celebrity Softball game, held Treasurer two nights before, were a lot of fun to watch. The multi-day event was filled with Lt Col Joe Haggerty Secretary concerts, a Fan Fest, street parties and other activities, and I hope to have a chance to Col Randy Borg go again when the All Star festivities are held at the Nationals Stadium in 2018. Director Col Dennis Beatty Director A big thanks to Col (ret) Garry Stanberry for his contributions serving as lead for our Lt Col Sam Bowker Survivor Family Member Committee. He graciously served and exceeded his term in Director this capacity, and has turned over this responsibility to Col (ret) Randy Borg, who Col Don Taylor Director has volunteered to succeed him (thank you Randy!) Col Frank Nelson Director Thanks also to Col (ret) Steve Meigs for volunteering to take over as chair of the Col Kevin O’Shea Brigadier General Donald B. Wagner Perpetual Scholarship Fund, and though Director Col Teri Mueller continuing to serve on our board, this means he is going to resign his officer position Director as our USAF MSC Association Board President. The board will be making a decision Col Curt Pritchard soon on his replacement. Additionally, he has also spent a lot of time and effort Active Duty Liaison Col Jim Moreland spearheading the initial planning for our 2017 USAF MSC Association Meeting and Newsletter Editor & Reunion to be held in Seattle. More details on the plans so far are explained later in Webmaster the newsletter. Capt Wm. M. Copeland General Counsel Capt Ken Bonner Meanwhile, in the world of military health care, many provisions in the draft Member Services language of the House and Senate versions of the FY17 National Defense Authorization Act have a lot of people worried on the potential impact on the Military Health System as we know it. We will be anxious to see what actually comes out in the final version. ACol summary Charlie Brown published III by the Senate Armed Services Committee can be accessed at: Director http://www.armedCol Bob Hauser -services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/FY17%20NDAA%20Bill%20Summary.pdf Director I wishCol Denise everyone Lew a safe and enjoyable time over the rest of the summer and into the fall! Director Col Tim Morgan Sincerely, Director Col Jim Pearce Denise Director Lew , Chairman Lt Col Dan Mayer Secretary Maj Wayne G. Terry 1 Newsletter Editor Capt Wm. M. Copeland General Counsel PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Greetings from sunny San Antonio! I hope this finds you all doing well and enjoying the summer. I have several items to cover, so I will get right to it. First, as hopefully you have heard by now, we have a date and venue for our biennial reunion in 2017. You may recall that we conducted a poll last year regarding potential locations for this event and our membership overwhelmingly selected Seattle, Washington – so we are headed to the Emerald City! Dates for the reunion are August 31 – September 3, 2017. The Doubletree Suites by Hilton Seattle Airport/Southcenter will host our event. Our hotel is conveniently located in proximity to the airport and across the street (one block) from the largest mall in the state (The Westfield: Southcenter Shopping Mall - www.westfield.com/southcenter/ . I will not bore you with all the details, but in summary, we received 11 proposals from hotels in Seattle based on the criteria in our request for proposals. We narrowed our initial search down to three hotels with the best room rates and facilities to accommodate our functions. We are extremely grateful to Col (ret) Bill Dick, who resides in Seattle part- time, for serving as our man on the ground during this process. Bill visited the three locations, met with the POCs, and toured each facility. Based on his assessment and the hotel’s proposal, the Doubletree was selected hands-down by the Board. They have provided superb rates and accommodations for our event, and the staff is excited to host us. In the coming months we will provide more detail regarding the process for room reservations and reunion registration, but in the meantime – SAVE THE DATE! One postscript: we selected the dates for the reunion based on many who expressed a desire to take advantage of an Alaskan cruise in conjunction with the event. The hotel has graciously agreed to give us our rates three days before and after the reunion timeframe, facilitating either a cruise pre- or post-reunion. We will also get some websites to you regarding the cruise schedules for that timeframe. Second, as Denise mentioned I am very honored to assume the chairmanship of the Brigadier General Donald B. Wagner Perpetual Scholarship Fund later this summer. I will replace Col (ret) John Lake who has superbly led this important function for 10+ years. Obviously, this responsibility will demand my full attention. Given ongoing discussions we are having on the Board with respect to creating a relationship between the Fund and the Association, I do not think it is appropriate for me to simultaneously chair the fund and hold a leadership position on the Board. Subject to discussion/approval by the Board, I intend to remain on the Board and serve out my term as a Director. Finally, speaking of the scholarship fund, the Brigadier General Donald B. Wagner Perpetual Scholarship Fund Golf Tournament is being postponed. We will keep you posted via EMAIL as soon as a date/place are established. This is our major fund-raising event for the Scholarship, so please remind your fellow MSCs and friends to be on the lookout for upcoming announcements. If you just cannot wait, you can always mail me a contribution for the scholarship fund! That’s enough from me. Thanks for your patience and enjoy the newsletter! Best regards, Steve Meigs, President 2 WEB & NEWSLETTER STUFF Jim Moreland, Editor & Webmaster Have you visited our website lately? You may have noticed that when you enter www.MSCassociation.org, you now see https://mscassociation.org pops up. The “s” after the “http” indicates our site is now secure! Your data is safe behind our firewall using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology. We were able to get the Honor Roll loaded for all of 2016. We are working on the complete Honor Roll next, and then on individual accounts where you can update your own profile information, pay your annual registration, and other features we probably have not even thought about yet. Our phone number remains the same – 404-500-MSCA (6722). We will keep you posted on our web site progress by EMAIL. If you get an email you don’t like, please send an EMAIL to me at [email protected]. Please do not UNSUBSCRIBE as our new bulk mailer will not let me add you back in FOR ANY REASON (part of the CAN SPAM ACT rules). You will have to wait until the next monthly list is created, and even then I will have to manually clear each of you with our ISP, so please do not UNSUBSCRIBE unless you truly want to stop hearing from us on all issues. Thanks to all of you for the feedback (both good and bad) to help us make the new website better and better. Our feelings are not easily hurt, so if you think something can be better, please send notice to [email protected]. On the newsletter and History Project side, don’t forget… we are always looking for more “MSC Stories”. If you have an idea or topic and need some help getting it into words, let me know and we can do an interview by phone. Thanks to all of this month’s contributors; especially Col (ret) Kerry Dexter, for his 9/11 story. AROUND THE CORPS Submit Your News Items to [email protected] VETERANS DAY LUNCHEON HOSTED BY MSC SPOUSES IN SAN ANTONIO Photos Contributed by Col (ret) Joe Vocks A group of San Antonio MSC Spouses invited their MSCs to lunch on Veterans Day! We had a private room at a local Mexican Restaurant near The Dominion, with more than a dozen couples in attendance. Corps Chief Number 12, Col (ret) Frank “Revere” Rohrbough made a special appearance at the beginning of lunch as a character right out of history. His moving narrative was a great way to start the outing, and he actually looked and sounded very authentic in historic garb. The food was great and the company even better! Thanks to the San Antonio MSC Spouses for a wonderful outing. 3 NEW CORPS DIRECTOR As we say goodbye to Col Mike Foutch as Corps Director and thank him for all of the support and advice he has provided over the past several years to our Association, we now welcome Col Curt B.