January 2020 Meeting Notice

Our January 21st Meeting the Korean War Veterans and Defense Veterans Chapter 189 will be held in the banquet room at the John Mealy Memorial VFW Post 3282, Port Orange, Florida. The Post is located a 5810 S. Williamson Blvd, Port Orange, Florida. The doors will be open for this meeting at noon. A lunch menu prepared by VFW Post kitchen will be available. When you come in order your dinner from the menu and it will be delivered to you. We have tried this at the end of last year and it appears with a little tuning the process will work out. The doors will open at 12:00 for lunch and social hour will follow. Our Post meeting will start at 1:00 PM with the Guest speaker Scott Davis a US Air Force Veteran who served in the Vietnam War. He will present a program entitled "Dawn of a World Forever Changed - the 509th Composite Group and the Atomic Bomb." The 509th Composite Group was formed during WWII to drop the Atomic Bomb and carried out the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that helped end the Second World War. If your have any question, on the program, or the details call Command Joe Sicinski at 386.492.6551.

Our November 19th Meeting the Korean War Veterans and Defense Veterans Chapter 189 was held in the banquet room at the John Mealy Memorial VFW Post 3282, Port Orange, Florida. Our meeting started at 1:00 PM with the Guest speaker Dr. Alex White, representing the Progressive Medical Research Group. He discussed medical issues such as Alzheimer's, Asthma, Diabetes, COPD, Blood Pressure and more, that may be affecting our veterans. The program described how Progressive Medical, with their clinical pharmacology research and customized solutions may be supportive. At this meeting we held our annual election for officers for Chapter 189 for the year 2020. The annual election was held to chose the officers that will serve Chapter 189 during 2020. The selected officers will be sworn in at our Christmas Party in December.

At our December 17th meeting we held our traditional Christmas Party. The party was a great success and the luncheon was really first class. As part of the program we sworn in the elected officers for KWVA Chapter 189, who will be serving KWVA Chapter 189 in 2020. These members included: Joseph Sicinski (Commander), Raymond Anderson (Vice President), Charles Husbands (Second Vice President), Donna Hawes (Secretary), Robert Hawes (Treasurer), Hans Wolfer (Chaplain), Charles Husbands (Director), Antony Polemeni (Director), Edmund Stepnoski (Director).

The Korean American Association hosted their Annual Holiday Party for our Korean War and Korean Defense Veterans and their families on Saturday 7 December 2019 at VFW Post 3289 at 6:00 PM that day. This was an exciting gathering with traditional Korean food served and traditional Korean entertainment. It was a wonderful evening and everyone enjoyed the program and the companionship of our Korean neighbors.

Our KWVA Chapter has been activity supporting the new War Museum being established in the "Tick Tock" shop on Beach Street in downtown Daytona Beach. Many of the Korean War Treasures previously displayed at the Museum in New Smyrna Beach have been transferred there and many more have been added. The museum has expanded to a real tourist attraction in Daytona Beach. Bob Hawes, one of the museum's organizers is extremely active in this outreach program. He could use any of the volunteer help that you can give him. Just contact Bob and he will give you the lowdown on what you can do to help.

On October 26th Joe Sicinski and Chuck Husbands attended a Department of Florida Council Meeting in Orlando, Florida. A number of items on the agenda, concerning membership and finance were discussed at that meeting. One of the principle objectives of the meeting was the status of the Korean War and Defense Veterans Memorials. One of the memorials is scheduled to be dedicated at Bushnell National Memorial Cemetery on November 11th. A second memorial will be dedicated at the Cape Canaveral National Cemetery in the near future. The Commander of the Department of Florida and our Chapter Commander are scheduled to meeting on January 8th at the Cape Canaveral Military Cemetery to selected an appropriate site and date for the dedication of a Korean War Monument at the cemetery.

As some of you may know, as an outreach program, the members of Chapter 189 have been serving coffee and doughnuts at the VA clinic on the fourth Friday of each months. This month the service at the VA Clinic will be on Friday 24 January 2020. The program has been well received by the Veterans going in early for blood work and other appointments. This is a wonderful outreach program for our chapter and we are always looking for volunteers. The task involves getting to the VA Clinic at about 7:30 AM to help serve coffee and doughnuts. When the coffee and donuts are gone... we are gone, which is usually well before 10:00 AM. If you are looking for a very satisfying volunteer position for a couple of hours, contact Chuck Husbands or just show up. We can always use your help and spirit in support of our Veterans. We want to sincerely thank everyone who has donated their time to this effort, in the past, and we know the efforts are appreciated. It should be noted that starting in November 2019 the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Shop in Daytona Beach, Florida has been donating the doughnuts for this service. We would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank them for there donation, and I am sure that the Veterans at the Clinic would second this tribute. Thanks CRH.

The Cape Canaveral National Cemetery is now open and accepting in ground burial for caskets and cremated remains. It is located at 5525 U.S. Highway 1 in Mims, Florida. Cemetery Administration Office phone is 321-383-2638. Burial arrangements phone 1-800-535-1117. The Cemetery is open from dawn to dusk, burials are scheduled between 9:30 AM and 2:30 PM Monday through Friday. For qualifying Veterans there are no charges for burial for you and your spouse, and the National Cemetery will provide final Military Honors. This includes standard burials and cremation burials. If anyone is interested in visiting the National Cemetery and needs a ride to look the place over or talk with the administration staff, just contact Chuck Husbands at 386.760.7163.

During the past several months the Chapter has been presenting the "Tell America" Program to a number of organizations. If you know an organization that might want to learn about the history of the Korean War please contact Joe Sincinski at 386.493.6551 and he would be pleased to try to set up a presentation. We are in the process of preparing a short brochure on the history and impact of the Korean War, to go along with the presentation. We would like to spread the story of the Korean Conflict for all those who may never have heard of it, or its impact on our current global condition.

In recent days we have become aware that their are Veterans in our community that have recently died and have not been provided with an opportunity to receive a military ceremony in their memory. Chapter 189 of the KWVA does not think that this is proper, and we will help you receive a small final military ceremony for any Veteran that requests it in cooperation with VFW Post 3282 Color Gurard. If you know of a Veteran's family that needs a final military ceremony please contact Chuck Husbands at 386.760.7163 and he will attempt to get that request fulfilled. If you know of someone who is sick at home or in the hospital and would like a visit from a member of the chapter have them contact Chuck Husbands he we will try to make a personal visit.