April 8 Meeting
Posted by Tonya Gamble
If you think you are too old to join the military, then read on...
We had lots of Rotarian guests today: Sue Foley & Craig Bledsoe from Anchorage East, Joe Zimmerman from International and our very own Don Black. Katja, our exchange student was also there.
Happy Buck Highlight: Pete is now an elected official! Those of you living in Chugiak now have Pete as your Chugiak Fire Service Area Supervisor.
After Happy Bucks and Student Bucks Martin inducted our newest member, Brad Boedecker, into the club. Brad Gamble is his sponser and Brad's classification is Service Station Manager as he owns the Chevron station across the street from Johann's.
Sue Foley who is currently Anchorage East's International Service Chair and next year's District Foundation Chair presented Jim Palmer with a 4 sapphire Paul Harris pin. What an accomplishment! Jim is definitely "walking the walk" as he encourages Foundation giving from our club.
Don Black has been handling RYLA for us this year and has found one candidate and hopes to find one more. We already had $1250 budgeted for RYLA and we gave him clearance to send 2 kids.
Our guest speaker today was Colonol Craig Bledsoe with Anchorage East Club and a frequent visitor to our club. He spoke about the Alaska State Defense Force in which he is the Director of Communication Services. He started by giving us a history of how the force came to be in the late 1980's and the State's support of it. It is not a renegade militia but rather a state sponsored force meant to respond to state emergencies or give military assistance at the Governor's request. Unlike the National Guard that has federal mobilization assignments in times of national embergencies, the ASDF always remains in Alaska to meet local needs.
To join, you just need to be a resident of Alaska, be in good health and of good moral character, and be at least 18 years old. They get together to train 1 day/month on the weekend and then again for a 1 week summer camp.
Currently there are about 250 members, but they have the clearance for at least 200 more, so there are many vacancies. I have to admit, it sounds kind of interesting and fun! For those of us who have never been in the military this could be our chance to experience it without the pain of basic training.
If you are interested you can email: Statedefense_force@ak-prepared.com
Next Week's Speaker: Colonol Overturf who commanded an airbase in Iraq recently and will tell us about Iraq. As always, it should be interesting.
Split the Pot: I won $16, hooray!!
-Tonya
Happy Buck Highlight: Pete is now an elected official! Those of you living in Chugiak now have Pete as your Chugiak Fire Service Area Supervisor.
After Happy Bucks and Student Bucks Martin inducted our newest member, Brad Boedecker, into the club. Brad Gamble is his sponser and Brad's classification is Service Station Manager as he owns the Chevron station across the street from Johann's.
Sue Foley who is currently Anchorage East's International Service Chair and next year's District Foundation Chair presented Jim Palmer with a 4 sapphire Paul Harris pin. What an accomplishment! Jim is definitely "walking the walk" as he encourages Foundation giving from our club.
Don Black has been handling RYLA for us this year and has found one candidate and hopes to find one more. We already had $1250 budgeted for RYLA and we gave him clearance to send 2 kids.
Our guest speaker today was Colonol Craig Bledsoe with Anchorage East Club and a frequent visitor to our club. He spoke about the Alaska State Defense Force in which he is the Director of Communication Services. He started by giving us a history of how the force came to be in the late 1980's and the State's support of it. It is not a renegade militia but rather a state sponsored force meant to respond to state emergencies or give military assistance at the Governor's request. Unlike the National Guard that has federal mobilization assignments in times of national embergencies, the ASDF always remains in Alaska to meet local needs.
To join, you just need to be a resident of Alaska, be in good health and of good moral character, and be at least 18 years old. They get together to train 1 day/month on the weekend and then again for a 1 week summer camp.
Currently there are about 250 members, but they have the clearance for at least 200 more, so there are many vacancies. I have to admit, it sounds kind of interesting and fun! For those of us who have never been in the military this could be our chance to experience it without the pain of basic training.
If you are interested you can email: Statedefense_force@ak-prepared.com
Next Week's Speaker: Colonol Overturf who commanded an airbase in Iraq recently and will tell us about Iraq. As always, it should be interesting.
Split the Pot: I won $16, hooray!!
-Tonya