President's Message

J ohn K received a call from EMU’s Arm of Honor Alumni Association member Kirk Profit about EMU’s ROTC honoring Major Maki.  John called and asked if I was aware.  I wasn’t.  John and I attended the service on September 4^th in front of the Roosevelt Hall.  See below.

Eastern Michigan’s ROTC Cadets honored one of our KIA’s on the Washtenaw County Vietnam Veterans Memorial in September.  The Cadets honored Major Frank Maki (above) with a bench placed in from of Roosevelt Hall.  According to the Battalion History of the Army ROTC Battalion at Eastern Michigan University, "in 1961, he taught ROTC at Eastern Michigan University for four years, where he led the rifle team to the championship and served as an advisor to Arm of Honor Fraternity. 

To read more about Maj. Maki, click on his picture above if you are reading an electronic copy of our newsletter.  If a have a printed copy go to our website and click on Memorial, scroll down below the image of the memorial and under Ypsilanti select Frank Maki.  If you like, here’s the direct link to put in your browser, https://www.vva310.org/frank-maki.

Speakers were: President of EMU James M Smith, Ph. D., LTC Aaron Peters, Professor Military Science and Leadership, Kirk Profit, Arm of Honor Alumni Association, Patti Tye, Frank’s daughter, and John Kinzinger.   

LTC Peters, unknown, President Smith, seated Kirk Profit, & Patti Tye

Kirk Profit purchased 20 of our chapter challenge coins.  He will be handing them out to members of the boards he serves on.  Thank you Mr. Profit.

The Moving Wall was at Hamburg’s Manly W. Bennett Memorial Park in September.  They had a very nice setup for the Wall. Nicely landscaped with many military displays for visitors to check out. 

Moving Wall  At Hamburg MI With UH-1 Huey The Grayhound Hovering 

Michigan Flight Museum (Yankee Air Museum) was giving rides in their UH-1 Huey, The Grayhound.  The Huey was very popular as it flew over the park frequently while I was there.  As shown above, the Grayhound hovered behind the Moving Wall, posing for those with cameras to capture an image or two.  Above is an enhanced extracted frame from my iPhone video. 

In The VVA Veteran on page 30 Membership Notes, is a note about our $10.000 donation to Fisher House, Ann Arbor.  Picture I submitted with the note for the donation apparently made the cutting room floor. 

Interesting article from National President Jack McManus about National Service, think the draft.  There’s a QR code, page 3 in The VVA Veteran for a VVA survey on National Service. Scanning the code with your cellphone will take you to the survey. If the survey shows that we would be in favor of National Service, a resolution will be introduced at the 2025 National Convention.  The survey only took a couple minutes. 

From the Leadership Conference in Reno:  Former VVA VP Jack Devine, chair of the newly formed VVA Legacy Task Force discussed the group’s efforts to create a mechanism to professionally archive the organization’s chapter, state council, and national records and achievements.  Jack will create a white paper that will go out to all chapters to start the process of preserving our records and recording the war and post-war stories of our members. 

Our legacy is something I’ve wanted our chapter to consider dong since we published our website.  If you would, please consider writing your bio with images about your service time, including both pre and post as a nephew of Uncle Sam.  This will give your children and grandchildren a chance to then checkout your service to our country.   Email me your Word document and with permission I’ll add to our website.  I have a few online now.  Go to About Us > Member Pictures.  If a member’s name is underlined, its a link.  Click on it and read their bio. Some pictures are hyperlinked too.  Hover with your mouse over picture and if your ↖️  turns into a ☝️, click on it.  I’ll have to clean that option up so all are the same.

Most of you have the book, We Answered The Call, if not see me.  Review it and get a feel about how to write about yourself. This applies to all of us, not just in-country veterans.  Wives of deployed, your experiences while hubby was deployed is important as well. 

Sick Call: Chris Wetzler reports that his surgery was successful and is home doing some R & R. Meni Draper is having some R & R time as well after her recent neck surgery.   

Arf, 

Vance (Not the politician)

P.S.  I intend to live forever,,, so far, so good.