A non-profit official publication the Department of the Pacific Areas, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States Volume XVIII – Number 10 MAY 2015 FREE “Fight for our Vets!” Typhoon / Around the Pacific Table of Contents 2014-2015 Department of Pacific Areas Convention Section: Page: and Department Officer’s Comments 2 Grand of Pacific Areas Scratch Commander 2 Senior Vice Commander 3 14-18 June 2015 Angeles City, Philippines Junior Vice Commander 6 Reservation deadline 01 June 2015 Junior Past Department Commander 7 Chief of Staff 7 http://vfwdeptpacific.org/CONVENTION/ Adjutant 8 Quartermaster 8 Judge Advocate 11 Department Committee Reports 13 Americanism Chairman 13 Clark Cemetery Committee Chairman 14 Convention Chairman 16 Convention Book Chairman 16 Legislative Committee Chairman 17 Legacy Life Membership Chairman 18 Life Membership Chairman 19 National Home for Children Chairman 20 The VFW Department of Pacific Areas and Grand of Pacific Areas POW-MIA Chairman 22 Council of Administration will be held at the Oasis Hotel, Angeles City, Public Servant Award Chairman 24 Philippines. VOD / PP / Teachers Award Chairman 25 Safety Chairman 26 Assistant Department Service Officer 28 Hope to see you there! Editor 28 Around the Pacific - Community Report 29 --------------------------------------------------------------- VFW Pacific Areas General Announcements 42 Cootie Corner Announcements 45 Pacific Areas Photo of the Edition 46 Pacific Areas Joke of the Edition 47 Letters of Intent 47 49th Convention Rules of Order 51 VFW Department of Pacific Areas Page 1 Volume XVIII - Number 10 TYPHOON / AROUND THE PACIFIC May 2015 DDeeppaarrttmmeenntt OOffffiicceerr’’ss CCoommmmeennttss From the Commander: Warmest regards to all my exceptional comrades within the Department of Pacific Areas. April was an extremely busy month. First of all, led by our Membership Chairman SVC Homer Kemper, went through the process of determining who qualified to earn All State recognition, thus making them eligible for possible All American selection. The initial key requirement was to reach 100% plus one in Membership by 30 April. Several Posts and four Districts distinguished themselves by achieving this first requirement. Unfortunately, a few came up a little short in achieving some other of the All State eligibility requirements. In any case, I salute them all for attaining the 100% Membership level, as Membership is most important toward supporting our Veterans, families, widows and orphans. The All State winners are: District II District VII Post 1054-Yokosuka, Japan Post 3457-Saipan Post 9555-Yokota, Japan Post 9892-La Union, Philippines Post 9612-Camp Zama, Japan Post 11447-Subic, Philippines Post 10223-Camp Humphreys, Korea Post 12130-Cebu, Philippines Post 10217-Korat, Thailand CONGRATULATIONS! Had the opportunity to visit District II in Japan and participate in an outstanding charity event that they held on behalf of the VFW National Home for Children. Post 1054 held a Charity Concert for the National Home. I was honored to speak on behalf of our National Home during the concert. Over $2,000 was collected to help the Home and its children. Congratulations to our newest Posts to reach 100% - Post 12109, Waegwan, Korea and Post 9876 in Pattaya, Thailand. Well, our Department Convention is to be held next month. I urge each of you to register and join in on this important and enjoyable event. Simply go to DPA website and click on convention link. Also, Posts, Districts & Pup Tents-send your ads in to Convention Chairman Bob Zaher [email protected]. We are having a banner year, as one of our PDCs described it - keep it going and THINK MEMBERSHIP in support of our Vets, families, widows & orphans. Warmest Regards from the Pacific, Bear --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ““FFiigghhtt ffoorr oouurr VVeettss!!”” ASK SOMEONE TO JOIN TODAY! VFW Department of Pacific Areas Page 2 Volume XVIII - Number 10 TYPHOON / AROUND THE PACIFIC May 2015 From the Senior Vice Commander: Comrades, First of all I would like to congratulate all the Districts and Posts on achieving All State. As all the All State winners hopefully are aware of your next goal should be to finish the year with All American. The major work and dedication should have been completed your focus should be achieving the 85% retention, which will also help the DPA reach the 100% in membership. Comrades we are nearing the end to an incredible banner year, however the banner year will not be complete unless we put the DPA over the 100% in membership at the National Level. I would like to thank every Comrade within the Pacific for all your dedication and support you have gave this year to our DPA Commander Bear Hudson, his elected and appointed Officers, and the Committee Chairmen. All of the Department should be very proud of an outstanding year as we stood tall and followed our Commanders Theme “Fight for our VETS” during the 2014-2015 year! I would like to once again thank all who have recruited new or reinstated members as you will see in the posted membership statistics we made excellent progress in climbing to the at National however we are still behind that 100% mark. As of 04 May 2015 we are ranked # 5 Nationally at 98.34% compared to last month ranking of # 7. The bad news is that we are 187 members away from sending the DPA over 100%. Keep up the great work in recruiting and put the DPA BACK on TOP Nationally where we deserve to be. WE NEED 187 COMRADES TO REACH 100%. CAN YOU IMAGINE IF EVERY COMRADE IN THE PACIFIC WOULD RECRUIT ONE NEW MEMBER? Comrades did you R-cruit new members? Did you reach out and R-einstate members? Did remind annual members to pay their dues and R-etain continuous members? Thanks again to all the Comrades of the Pacific for your support during my term as DPA SVC this year our membership percentages are still increasing and your recruiting efforts reflect in our current statistics. Please take the time and effort and ask the simple question to all that you meet are you a VFW member and always carry your applications! REMEMBER 187 COMRADES NEEDED LETS GET OUT THERE AND RECRUIT AND FIGHT FOR OUR VETS! I am looking forward to seeing many of you at the DPA Convention in Angeles City, Philippines. Yours in Comradeship and Service, Homer Kemper Senior Vice Commander Department of Pacific Areas --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- See MEMSTATS below and Recruiting Tips on the following pages. VFW Department of Pacific Areas Page 3 Volume XVIII - Number 10 TYPHOON / AROUND THE PACIFIC May 2015 MEMSTATS (AS OF 04 MAY 2015) Prior N/R Prior State Post Dst Life New Reinst Cont Total Percent Div City Retention Year LM Annual DPA 9723 1 744 18 5 50 817 800 102.12% 1 OKINAWA 8 59 61.71% D. 1 744 18 5 50 817 800 102.12% JAPAN 8 Totals DPA 1054 2 711 10 0 10 731 700 104.42% 2 YOKOSUKA CITY 28 17 58.82% DPA 9555 2 339 20 1 38 398 390 102.05% 2 YOKOTA AFB 1 42 88.10% DPA 9612 2 369 4 41 14 428 367 116.62% 2 CAMP ZAMA 11 12 100.00% D. 2 1419 34 42 62 1557 1457 106.86% JAPAN 40 Totals DPA 8180 3 624 2 1 25 652 779 83.69% 1 SEOUL 4 151 20.53% TONGDUCHON- DPA 9985 3 193 126 2 45 366 473 77.37% 2 5 285 18.60% UPREA DPA 10033 3 458 21 2 22 503 510 98.62% 2 TAEGU 2 46 43.48% DPA 10216 3 906 94 8 86 1094 1193 91.70% 1 SONGTAN-SI 18 343 39.07% DPA 10223 3 221 48 1 17 287 275 104.36% 3 CAMP HUMPHREYS 3 66 36.36% DPA 12109 3 19 10 0 23 52 51 101.96% 9 WAEGWAN 0 34 58.82% DPA 12147 3 19 34 2 1 56 0 0.00% 10 SEONGNAM 19 0 % D. 3 2440 335 16 219 3010 3281 91.74% KOREA 51 Totals DPA 727 4 73 0 0 5 78 79 98.73% 8 TAICHUNG 0 5 100.00% DPA 9957 4 325 0 0 16 341 350 97.42% 3 TAIPEI 0 19 84.21% D. 4 398 0 0 21 419 429 97.66% TAIWAN 0 Totals DPA 9876 5 401 13 0 54 468 468 100.00% 2 PATTAYA CITY 2 74 77.03% DPA 9951 5 234 5 0 17 256 255 100.39% 3 BANGKOK 1 27 81.48% DPA 10217 5 115 5 2 19 141 139 101.43% 6 KORAT AF BASE 0 26 88.46% DPA 10249 5 240 2 1 25 268 269 99.62% 3 UDORN 5 39 84.62% DPA 11575 5 91 0 0 10 101 102 99.01% 7 PHNOM PENH 0 13 92.31% DPA 12074 5 68 3 1 33 105 114 92.10% 6 CHIANG MAI 2 55 65.45% DPA 12146 5 2 24 1 0 27 0 0.00% 10 BANCHANG 2 0 % D. 5 1151 52 5 158 1366 1347 101.41% THAILAND 12 Totals DPA 1509 6 332 15 1 18 366 385 95.06% 2 YIGO 1 50 42.00% DPA 2917 6 164 4 1 30 201 223 90.13% 4 AGAT 1 60 58.33% DPA 3457 6 198 18 5 12 236 219 107.76% 4 SAIPAN 10 32 46.88% D. 6 699 37 7 60 803 827 97.09% GUAM CNMI 12 Totals DPA 124 7 113 0 0 0 113 103 109.70% 7 BAGUIO CITY 13 0 100.00% DPA 2485 7 1576 24 1 59 1660 1682 98.69% 1 ANGELES CITY 43 134 56.72% DPA 9892 7 237 11 1 4 253 244 103.68% 4 BAUANG,LA UNION 6 12 50.00% DPA 11447 7 381 6 5 18 410 407 100.73% 2 SUBIC BAY 14 36 72.22% DPA 12130 7 37 17 0 29 83 65 127.69% 9 CEBU 0 47 80.85% D.