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American Legion Dept of NY 6th District Vice
Commander Bradd Vickers a Vietnam War Veteran left meets
with United States Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff Admiral Edmund P. Giambastiani, Jr., during a
Veterans Recognition Ceremony at Oneida Nations
Shenendoah Golf Club in Verona, NY. |
Joints Chiefs of Staff vice chair urges
support for military.
Recognizing all our Veterans, as we
solemnly approach another Veterans’ Day in a
nation at war, Navy Admiral Edmund P. Giambastiani Jr., a Canastota, NY native, told a
group of local veterans, that it's their duty to
personally thank young military service members
for the work they're doing abroad.
“For our great Nation to remain great, it needs
the services of talented, brave and dedicated
men and women who answer the call to colors. And
they, your sons and daughters, will do that only
with your support and encouragement. When you
do that, you make the faith of a nation real”,
Giambastiani said during a veteran recognition
breakfast organized by the Oneida Indian Nation
and attended by representatives from American
Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars throughout
Madison Chenango and Oneida counties.
Giambastiani is vice chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff and the nation's
second-highest-ranking military officer.
“All told”, he said, “190,000 American Indians
have served in American wars.” The admiral also
cited the role of Oneida Indians in helping the
Americans win the Revolutionary War and overcome
the most powerful nation on earth at that time.
The Oneidas were also among the 18 "code
talker" tribes whose enlisted men were used to
transmit messages by radio during World War II
to stymie enemy code breakers. American Legion
Dept of NY 6th District Vice Commander Bradd
Vickers and past Chenango County American Legion
Commander Frederick A. Baker had the opportunity
to hear Merril L. Sandoval a "code talker" speak
at last years event. Vickers said “Admiral
Edmund P. Giambastiani Jr., is a very personable
and sincere individual.” Baker said both he and
his wife Judy, an American Legion Auxiliary
member were honored to attend such an event.
Giambastiani went on to say, "We're engaged in a
war with violent extremists that follow no laws.
They wear no uniforms, and they defend no
borders. Don't think for a minute that they
wouldn't use a biological weapon or a nuclear
weapon if they could get their hands on one.
Here in New York State, you are familiar with
the courage, commitment, valor and fidelity of
our men and women in uniform. They are also your
neighbors, your co-workers, your children, your
friends and your family.
They represent the best and the brightest our
Nation has to offer. They have higher rates of
education and aptitude than the American
population at large when we recruit them into
your military. And they are held to higher
standards of physical fitness, morality and
ethics – and they meet and exceed those
standards throughout their military careers.
And we need men and women of their valor and
intelligence and dedication, because your
military is more engaged, in more places,
accomplishing more, and more different, missions
than at any single time in my career in
uniform”.
“Most Americans, don't comprehend the depth of
the U.S. military's humanitarian work around the
world, from rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan, to
aiding Tsunami victims in the Asian Pacific and
earthquake victims in Pakistan. There, the
favorite children's toy these days is a model of
U.S. Chinook helicopter, which they called
“angels” because they brought food, supplies and
medical equipment after the disaster. It is
almost inconceivable how much work we're doing
for our friends around the world," Giambastiani
said. “Your military service members contribute
to your communities and rally to your aid in
times of national catastrophe like Hurricane
Katrina and Hurricane Rita. Just think about
it, 295 helicopters, 27 ships, 70,000 personnel
were mobilized to deploy to Mississippi,
Louisiana and Texas.”
Vickers said, “As an Vietnam veteran, I hope
others will take heed to Admiral Giambastiani
remarks and attend a Veterans’ Day event and
personally thank military service members.”
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We
greatly lament the loss of a close friend and supporter of
the American Legion, and Post 189 Commander, Mayor Bob Raphael (left), who went to a higher
calling on Memorial Day. We shared the grief with his family, as
we remembered some of Bob’s days on the farm that shaped his
high moral standards and his exceptional humor. He will be
greatly missed. |
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Thanks to Sidney Post for providing the space for a meeting
with Chenango County Legislative Chair Bradd Vickers and
Senator Schumer. Many pertinent issues were addressed
with over 60 people in attendance at the meeting.
Marge Secrest, Vice-President of Chenango County Farm
Bureau; Senator Charles Schumer; Bradd Vickers, President of
Chenango County Farm Bureau and 6th District Vice-Commander
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Local Veterans learn how
a Navajo "code talker" affected
the outcome of World War II.
Navajo Code Talker Merril L.
Sandoval (center) meets with Chenango County American
Legion Commander Frederick Baker (left) and Department of
NY 6th District Vice Commander Bradd Vickers right
American Legion Dept. of NY 6th
District Vice Commander Bradd Vickers and Chenango
County American Legion Commander Frederick Baker were
among 200 people, many of them U.S. veterans, who
received special invitations to hear Merril L. Sandoval
speak at the Oneida Indian Nation's Ray Elm Children and
Elders Center in Oneida. He spoke about his experiences
in World War II and the coded language he was trained to
use.
Merril L. Sandoval was a "code
talker" for the United States Marine Corps during World
War II. He and other Navajo Indians used a form of coded
speech that relied heavily on the Navajo language to
relay messages from military superiors to units on the
battlefield during the war.
Born in New Mexico in 1925,
Sandoval attended the Farmington Mission School in the
1930s, where he was forced to learn English. "Any time
we got caught talked Navajo to each other we were
punished," he said his teacher's attempts to rid him and
his classmates of their native tongue. "But we still had
our language, as much as they tried to take our language
away." Fortunately Sandoval did not forget how to speak
his native language, Navajo, when he was forced to learn
English in school. That's because the language he grew
up speaking on the eastern Navajo reservation in New
Mexico played an important role in World War II. He
mentioned during the speech his belief that the Navajo
people must keep their language alive, and pass it onto
their children and grandchildren, you never know when
the language will become helpful again.
In 1943, he enlisted. After
attending boot camp in San Diego, Merril was transferred
to Camp Pendleton to be further trained at the Radio
Communication School where he trained to be a code
talker, as were many other fellow Navajo Marines. Merril
served with the 2nd and 5thMarine Division in the
Hawaiian Islands, Saipan, Iwo Jima, and occupation of
Japan.
While there were over 400 code
talkers during World War II, Sandoval said there are now
fewer than 100 left. Often during the speech, which was
accompanied by a slide show of photos taken during the
war, he would point out fellow code talkers who have
since passed away. The youngest of the remaining code
talkers is 79, just one year younger than Sandoval at
80.
As portrayed in the 2002 movie "Windtalkers"
Navajo code talkers used their native language to relay
messages in a code that the Japanese military never
figured out. Sandoval also expressed his views on the
movie about his fellow Navajo Marines, which he says is
not completely accurate. The studio that made the movie,
MGM, asked permission to make the film from the Navajo
Code Talkers' Association, of which Sandoval is a
member. The Association suggested changes to the movie,
but the studio ignored their suggestions.
Sandoval said the Japanese
intelligence officers attempting to crack the language.
"It was real fast and it was real secret." "They tried
every way to decode our language, to decipher it." The
Japanese, he said, were always trying to disrupt the
messages though. They would say things in English to
try to confuse the Navajos. "If I'm sending a message I
knew they were listening," he said, but added that the
Japanese tactics rarely worked. "We knew each other so
well; we knew each other's voices."
Relaying the messages in code,
Sandoval explained, was more complex than simply saying
the message in the Navajo language. To spell out the
names of places they used words for animals. The letter
"A" became "wol-la-chee," the name for an ant in Navajo,
while "B" was "shush," the Navajo word for bear. They
would mix it up though too. When spelling out a long
name like Guadalcanal, they would occasionally
substitute the Navajo words for ax or apple when they
wanted to say "A," instead of simply using ant all the
time. The words for different types of boats and planes
all got Navajo names as well. Since they referred to
different types of planes by calling them different
kinds of birds, the name for an aircraft carrier became
the Navajo way to say "bird carrier." To make it even
more complex, Sandoval explained to the audience, they
often used different combinations of Navajo words to
denote single English words. For example, the English
word "secured" was said by using a combination of the
Navajo words for "illness" and "cured,” because
"secured" sounds like "sick cured." Using this complex
code, Sandoval relayed messages from his Marine division
to Navajo Marines stationed with military officials in
other parts of the world. The message would be given to
him in English on a piece of paper, relayed and received
on the other end in Navajo, and then translated and
delivered to military officials in the other location.
Sandoval talked about his
involvement in the battle for Iwo Jima, which he
recalled with sadness. Everyday he had to relay
messages about the number of Marines killed or wounded,
and he said they lost over 2,000 soldiers in the first
hours and 6,000 soldiers in the three weeks it took to
conquer the small island. When the job was done though,
he spoke of his fellow troops excitement when a small
group of soldiers raised the American flag on the
island, a moment immortalized in photography and statue.
"They were glad to see that flag up there," he said. "It
meant a lot to us even though we knew it was no
victory."
At the end of his speech, Sandoval
commended the other veterans in the room for their work
in protecting the country as well.
Chenango County American Legion
Commander Frederick Baker from Sherburne, NY said
“Sandoval never missed a beat. It was refreshing to
hear how Native Americans helped the U.S. cause during
World War II.”
Vickers noted "We can be thankful
the Navajo language survived, perhaps saving thousands
of lives and preventing a far different ending to the
war."
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Chenango County Department Commanders
Visitation:
Schedule for Monday - October 17th, 2005
Link to NY Department Commander 2005 Click here for highlights from the
NY
Dept Commander's visit
NY
Department Convention 2004
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McDonough Legionnaires
sign up new members
at the Chenango County fair.
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Chenango
County American Legion presents
Scholarship Award to Catherine Suloff
Left
to Right: Joseph J. Benenati, Catherine Suloff, County 1st
Vice-Commander A J Black
SHERBURNE
- A 20-year-old criminal justice student from McDonough
was awarded the 2003 Frank J. Benenati Scholarship at the
annual Chenango County American Legion convention here Sunday.
Catherine
Suloff, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert C. Suloff, was
presented with the $500 award by former sheriff and state
trooper Joseph J. Benenati of Norwich, Frank Benenati's
brother, and A.J. Black of Post 1289, South New Berlin, Law
& Order Chairman of the county American Legion.
Miss
Suloff holds an A.A.S. degree in Social Science from SUNY
Morrisville and is a 2000 graduate of Oxford Academy.
She currently is a junior at Binghamton University and is
looking forward to a career with the New York State Police.
The
annual law enforcement scholarship honors Frank J. Benenati of
Norwich, who died 27 February 1953 near Panmunjom, Korea,
while attempting to rescue a fellow Marine. He was
a member of the Recon Company of the 1st Marine Division, and
he envisioned a career in the state police with his older
brother after the war.
Joseph Benenati, Post 189, Norwich, had a scrapbook detailing
events in his brother's short life, which he shared with Miss
Suloff and Legionnaires following the convention.
The scholarship was developed by the late Lee Campbell, a
former County Commander and Law & Order Chairman of the
American Legion, about 10 years ago. It generally is
awarded annually.
The scholarship is funded by the County American Legion and by
donations. Individuals wishing to donate to the program
can send checks to Bradd Vickers, County Legion Treasurer;
1028 County Route 19; Norwich 13815.
-30-
"A Gift from Norwich
Wal-Mart....The Chenango County American Legion Accepted
a Generous Gift of Mobile American Flags from the
Norwich Wal-Mart As A Memoriam to Our Troops
Overseas."
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American Legion
Oratorical Contest
Oneida- A home-schooled high school senior from
New Berlin captured a $1000 savings bond by placing in
the American Legion Zone 4 Oratorical Contest Sunday at
Oneida High School. Margaret
Newbold, daughter of Mark and Carolyn Newbold, had
earlier won the Chenango County and District 6
competitions in the American Legion's major scholarship
program. The oratorical contest involves writing and
delivering an eight-to-ten minute speech on some aspect
of the United States Constitution, and a three-to-five
minute extemporaneous speech on some aspect of the
Constitution which is not revealed until a few minute
befores the competition begins. |
| Miss Newbold, who is the reigning
Chenango County Dairy Princess, has been augmenting her
home schooling by taking courses at the State University
College at Oneonta. She tentatively plans to major in
Natural Resources at either Cornell or Purdue
University.
The American Legion is the world's largest
organization of veterans of wartime military service,
with nearly three million members. Eleven Chenango
County posts have about 1,300 members. Miss
Newbold was sponsored by Frank Arnold Post 348 of New
Berlin.
County Commander Fred Baker said the
Constitutional basis of the oratorical contest is
designed to lead students into a more intensive study of
the United States Constitution than they normally get in
school. |
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Membership booth at Fair a
success
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(Above) Members from posts in Chenango
County American Legion took turns at the membership booth,
that was setup at the Chenango County Fair.
(Below) American Legion Riders President
Paul Russo brought his Harley in to the booth area, it brought
lots of attention to the booth
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John Hyatt, World
War I Vet Receives Special Award
Chenango County Commander, Bradd Vickers (also 6th
District Vice-Commander) presented The American Legion -
Department of New York, Slater-Silvernail Post 806 Life
Membership Award, to World War I veteran, John Hyatt, at the
Memorial Day observance in Bainbridge.
The 99-year-old Bainbridge resident will always be a
member of Post 806. (Data RaCo Photo)
SURPRISE FOR ORGANIZER -
American Legion Commander Paul Russo was in for a surprise at
this morning's Memorial Day observance at West Side Park. He
was presented with the 6th District American Legion Veterans'
Employment Representative of the Year award by 6th District
Vice-Commander Bradd Vickers, left. Master of Ceremonies Terry
Bresina, right, arranged the presentation for the public
program. (Data RaCo Photo)
American Legion Commander Paul
Russo’s last formal function as head of the 366-member
Warren Eaton Post 189 - organizing Norwich’s Memorial Day
program - was punctuated this morning by the presentation of a
job-related award.
Russo, 43, 7A Northrup Ave., received
the American Legion 6th District Employment
Representative of the Year award during ceremonies in West
Side Park.
Russo has been the local veterans’
employment representative for Chenango County for the past 10
years, and was nominated for the award by the Southern Tier
Regional Office of the State Labor Department. The Labor
Department’s Southern Tier region corresponds almost
directly with the American Legion 6th District’s
10-county area. Russo
received the award by 6th District American Legion
Vice-Commander Bradd Vickers of South New Berlin Post 1289.
State Veterans’ Counselor Terry
Bresina, master of ceremonies for Monday’s program,
emphasized that while the award was presented to Russo by
friends, his selection was made by Labor Department managers.
Bresina, Dept. of New York Employment Chairman of the
American Legion, said Russo also finished third among all the
LVERs for the 2001 New York state award.
Russo served in the U.S. Air Force from 1982-86 as an
aircraft armament system specialist, servicing F-15 aircraft
in Bitburg, Germany and F-16s at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C.
He also served six years in the National Guard as an
engineer with the 204th Engineers out of
Binghamton’s West End Armory.
He attended Westchester Community College for two years
prior to enlistment, and he continued his education in the Air
Force, emerging with a B.S. degree in Human Resource
Management from St. Leo University.
He is the only two-year commander in the
84-year-history of Lt. Warren Eaton Post 189 of the American
Legion. In
addition, he is active in the Big Brother Program and as a
United Way volunteer. |
6th District Spring Conference was held in Waverly, NY on
April 28th.
Photo courtesy of Alvy Lucas
6th District Officer's (Left to Right)
Front Row: Bradd Vickers, 1st Vice-Commander; Carl
Griffith, Commander; Ted Doty, Treasurer; Anthony Scott,
Historian; Robert Conway, Chaplain; James Davis, Sgt-at-Arms
Back Row: Robert Johnson, Service
Officer; Kris Sims, 3rd Vice-Commander; Al
Pavigliannti, Adjutant; John Scales, 2nd
Vice-Commander; Al Champlin, Judge Advocate; Commander’s
Aides: Douglas Colborn & Alvy Lucas |
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NEW LIFE MEMBER
Oxford
Fort Hill Post #376 Acquired a new Life Member at the
American Legion Birthday Celebration March 16th, when Fred
Foote of Oxford was presented an Honorary Life Membership by
his Post.
Photo by Bud Mohr
(Shown left to right, Post
Commander Robert Shimer, new Life Member Fred Foote,
Vice-Commander Patricia Marso, Life Member president Paul
Estelow.) |
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Department of NY
Commander Paul "Gib"
Mitras and Auxiliary President Mary Anne Casadei visit Chenango County
Left to right:
Bradd Vickers, Chenango County Commander (6th District Vice
Commander);
Carl Griffith, 6th District Commander;
David Slater, SAL 6th District Detachment Commander (2nd row);
Paul "Gib" Mitras, Department of NY Commander;
Katheryn Pearson, Chenango County Auxiliary President (2nd
row);
Mary Anne Casadei, Department of NY Auxiliary President
More Visitation News
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Oneida
Indian Nation celebrates Veterans Day
Bradd Vickers 6th District Vice Commander
shakes hands with Ken Phillips, Oneida Nation Men's Council
during recent visit to Oneida Indian Nation Veterans
celebration. Also in photo are Rainy Collins-Vickers member of
Auxiliary Unit 376 Oxford, and Chenango County Service
Officer Terry Bresina.
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News-Oxford, Post #376
Breakfast anyone?
Breakfast is
served almost every Sunday from 8-11am.
Photo by Bud Mohr
(L to R: Lou Page, Esther McGowan, John Baker, Bruce
Wackford, John Farran, Carol
Loefstedt, John Sherman and Ruthie Smith. )
Six years of
Community Breakfasts put on by the Fort Hill Post #376 American
Legion, at Oxford, New York. Breakfast is
served almost every Sunday from 8-11am.
One week's breakfast netted
a check for over $1,300, given to the
American Red Cross for the "Twin Towers Relief
Fund.
The Post sponsors a troop of
Boy Scouts and a troop of Cub Scouts,
both of whom have attained District honors. These Scout Troops
also donate time at the breakfasts serving tables. Funds attained
by these Community Breakfasts are also used for
Community Christmas parties,
Thanksgiving baskets, and donations to the Volunteer Services
of the New York State Veteran's Home at Oxford.
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Members of SNB Post 1289
receive Military Awards
Military Awards - Three members of Harold
McIntyre Post 1289 of the American Legion display in front of
the South New Berlin Firehouse the military awards and
decorations they received on Memorial Day. Memorial Day
speaker Bradd Vickers, center, presented the New York State
Medal of Merit to Donald J. Dibble, left, and the State
Conspicuous Service Star to Harold Funke, right. Earlier
Memorial Day morning, Vickers received the Medal for Merit and
the Conspicuous Service Star at the Norwich Memorial Day
program. The medals were secured by State Veteran
Counselor Terry Bresina of Norwich. |
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