We had the pleasure of hearing from our BAVTS Artisan of the Month, Josh Crespo, who was accompanied by his Instructor, John Karb. Josh was not at all shy about sharing how his life was spiraling downward until he enrolled in the Protective Services Program at BAVTS. The program gave him the confidence and desire to make something of himself. And he is doing just that. He is involved in Skills USA and recently won the Elmer Gates Award. Congratulations Josh!
Congratulations were in order for three Rotarians who were awarded Paul Harris Fellow multiple year pins this week:
- Ham Malek +7
- Christine Nelson - +2
- Gail Evans +2
Brennan Pursell will be inviting Club members to a Rotary Painting Party sometime in the next few weeks. Our Club’s task will be to paint some of the details into the mural. Stay tuned.
80 golfers enjoyed a friendly round of golf on a sunny but chilly and windy day at the Bethlehem Municipal Golf Course on Monday, May 15 - thanks to our Rotary Charity Golf Tournament Committee and co-chairs Rob Littner and George Kurtz, and our volunteers. We cannot thank you enough for keeping our annual event alive and well!
Buck Jones announced the next golf competition to be held on Thursday, June 8th at Putt U on Route 309, with a shotgun start at 6 pm. If you didn’t do well on Monday, this will give you a chance to redeem yourself. Putt-U has food for purchase and a pavilion will be available to us.
Today’s program topic was one that Rotarian, Bob Weed, does not like to talk about. If that’s how he feels, you might wonder why he does talk about it. It’s because the Korean War is often classified as the ‘forgotten war’ and Bob never wants others to forget about it. During the 3-year war, 1,789,000 young people served in the Korean War. Of those million plus Americans, 36,574 were killed in action and another 103,284 were wounded in action. The New York Times aptly referred to the Korean War as World War 2.5.
July 17, 1953 will be forever etched in Bob’s mind. It was what he described as the ‘night from hell’ when a Chinese mortar round landed too close to him. Although he was somewhat protected by his flat jacket, his arms and legs were severely injured by shrapnel. He was first taken to a MASH unit to be stabilized and quickly flown out to the USS Repose for further care. He was eventually transferred to a naval hospital in Japan where he was operated on 7 times in 7 months. Bob will be forever grateful to the Naval Chaplain and the Navy Medical Service Corp for all they did to help get him back on his feet.
Bob left us with two important messages:
- How very blessed we are in the US for our military – past, present and future. They deserve the highest regard from all of us.
- Those who served or are serving in the US military are the backbone of America. May God bless our military and the United States of America – the greatest country in the world.
Thank you, Bob, for reminding us of what a great country we live in and for your personal sacrifice to our country.
Other Announcements
- Our next Rotary Mini will be held on Thursday, May 25th at Taps Tavern from 5:30 pm until????
- Don’t miss next week’s program when new Rotarian, Lisa Jordan, will be presenting her Classification Talk.
