April Events:

April 14th

MOC PT 20 Scratch
7:00 pm

April 26th

Post Business Meeting

Cloudcroft Senior Center, 9:00 am

Adopt-a-Highway Clean-up following the meeting

April 27th - May 3rd

National Volunteer Week

May 1st

Loyalty Day

May 4th

District 3 Convention
1:00 pm

VFW Post 3242
Las Cruces

From the Commander:

Comrades and Sisters,

The month of March proved to be a challenging one for our Post. Due to a dental emergency, I was unable to attend the National Community Service Conference in Washington D.C. but I have been told that it went quite well and New Mexico was well represented.

March 4th several of us traveled down to Ft. Bliss in El Paso to greet our adopted unit as they got off the plane from Iraq. That proved to be a moving experience for many of us. I am so proud of the way these soldiers are being treated upon their return! While we were at the deplaning ceremony we were given the opportunity, or perhaps I should say honor, to welcome some soldiers from Tennessee who also returned from Iraq and had no families to greet them. By their report the hottest day they had in country was 145 F!

On March 9th Comrade Donna and I attended the welcome home parade and ceremony for all of C Co. 2/200 Inf. in Las Cruces. It was a wonderful site to see so many people from the community turn out to formally welcome these soldiers home. While the weather was a bit windy and cold, the ceremony was well presented and the yellow ribbon that had hung at Veterans’ Park in Las Cruces was finally taken down amongst the cheers of the families. Comrade Donna was able to procure the yellow bow to take back to Alamogordo so that it would symbolically return home with the D Co. soldiers as well.

Our regular Post meeting was held on March 15th due to the Easter holiday falling on our regular weekend. Post Officer nominations for the 2008-09 year were conducted, and elections will be held at this month’s meeting. Due to time constraints and potential windy and cold conditions our Highway Clean-Up was also postponed until this month’s meeting.

Comrade Donna reports that the Ladies Auxiliary held their 1st organizational meeting following the VFW’s meeting. They had enough ladies present to establish a quorum and elect officers. Congrats to Comrade Donna Millar who will be taking on the office of President of our Auxiliary along with all her other VFW duties.

Comrades Donna, Brian and I attended the first official meeting of the new Ruidoso VFW Post on Easter weekend. I foresee a strong atmosphere of cooperation developing between our two smaller sized Posts.

The remainder of the days leading up to our own Welcome Home Event on March 29th were filled with many trips to Alamogordo as the finishing touches and preparations were put into place. Many businesses and organizations stepped up to the plate and donated supplies and door prizes along with all the financial assistance we have received. I am grateful to our membership for all the hard work you put into this event, and for having the foresight to vote and approve fundraising for this event way back in January. When the day for our event finally dawned, I was a nervous wreck, not knowing if we would have 40 or 4,000 people show up to welcome these heroes home. Everything calmed down and we put on what I consider to be one of the best events of this kind that I have ever seen! We were honored to have US Representative Tom Udall and his wife stop by the day before and help with the decorations. Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish, General Ken Montoya, State Representative Gloria Vaughn and Alamogordo Mayor Pro-Tem Chris Lujon all attended the formal ceremony and even had some BBQ with the soldiers and their families afterward! I believe we have shown that Post 11999 is capable of accomplishing what many may have doubted of us in the past. Special thanks have to be given to my co-chairmen Comrades Donna Millar and Jack Smith who out did themselves with the preparations, and to all of you who helped with the event itself… THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Our Post has achieved the required number of members needed to qualify for All-American status. This is a prestigious and difficult distinction to achieve, once a Post is “All-American” it will always be “All-American.” All-American is not only about membership quotas. We had to become an outstanding service organization within the community and reestablish our programs, scholarships, and recognition events before we could even think of qualifying for this distinction. I am very proud of what you all have accomplished this year. Let’s continue to show Department and National what an outstanding Post we truly are and carry this momentum into the next year as well!

Speaking of momentum and community service, over the past 9 months our little post has contributed quite a bit to our local communities. As of the end of March our totals are as follows:

Total Number of Projects: 89

Total Number of Hours: 2077

Total Number of Miles: 21,776

Total Donations: More than $6,000.00!

Not too bad for a Post that started the year with only 31 members! Let’s keep up the fantastic work for the remaining 3 months of this year!

I hope to see all of you at our next regular membership meeting and officer elections on the 26th of April. Please remember to wear comfortable shoes if you plan on helping with our Adopt-a-Highway clean-up following the meeting.

Scott W. Millar
Commander