114th Aviation Company
"Knights of the Air"

Director's Forum
December 2011

Well it happened again.  Gettysburg was a bunch of fun and we all had a great time.  If you didn’t go you missed another get together of the Knights and their families.  There were over 100 people there and old buddies were everywhere.  The banquet was a big hit and the meal was sumptuous to say the least.  Frank Strobel was unable to attend but he sent his best wishes and wine for every table at the banquet.  It added a nice touch to an already great meal. 

I want to thank the members present at the reunion on allowing the Executive Council to serve the Association for another term.  With the exception of Robert Davis who served for Secretary for the 2009-2011 term the council remained as before.  Robert has had some difficulties and asked the council to excuse him from running this term.  We all understand and although he will be missed a very capable and active member will step in for him, Jim Wilson.  Jim was a Knight in the later years and I know he is very well qualified to handle the position.  Please drop him a line and let him know you support him in his new endeavor.

The golf outing was a small group of die-hard duffers, eight to be exact, who played at the Bridges of Gettysburg course for the title in the Don Airhart Memorial Golf Tournament.  The winning foursome won by only one stroke so you know it was a hard fought contest.  The course, although wet, was very challenging and extremely beautiful.  The staff of the course gave us all the help we needed and treated us with friendly gusto.  I hope the next one will be a full-blown contest.  Think it over, after all Paul Gayle will be glad for the competition. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see many family members there and enjoyed their enthusiasm in finding out what the men did in the war.  I think they had some other ideas of what happened over there and met many of their father’s comrades they had never heard about.  For my part I would welcome any and all family members to join us at the reunions in the future.

Jim Chapman and Bill Pressy from the Navy’s “Powell’s Rats”, our counterpart in the air in the Delta, gave us some very good information reference the benefits we can expect from the VA, but are slow in coming.  Bill is a VA Advocate and has a wealth of knowledge that he passed on to both the Membership and the Auxiliary.  He mentioned something new to me called CRSC, Combat Related Stress Compensation.  It may be worth it to each of us to look into.  Bill may be reached by phone at home 503-259-2472 or cellular 541-915-5577.  Give him a call and see what he has to say. 

There have been two sites suggested for the 2013 reunion, Branson, Mo. and San Antonio TX...  Packages are being assembled for presentation and if there are any members who would like to take charge of the site selected please let me know when you can.  We will make the selection as soon as is possible to allow time to do the groundwork.

There have been some major changes in the dues schedule for the Association and I am certain most will be very interested.  A motion was made and approved to reduce the Life Membership cost from $350 onetime payment to $185 for the Life Membership.  We had 12 new life members’ sign up that day.  There was another incentive that needs to be exposed to all of you.  David Weiner graciously offered to pay $20 of each of the new life member’s dues if they would sign up before the banquet.  He very happily made out a check for $240 to the Association.  David is carrying on his father’s legacy in offering support in any way he can for to the Association and we thank Hot Dog for that offer.  Along the same not Hot Dog also donated a $300 bottle of Glenlivet Scotch for the raffle.  His only request was that he gets a shot and the empty bottle.  The winner who passed out the rest to whoever wanted a taste happily met his demands.  Wish I still drank Scotch.

The tours offered were a big hit and a couple of people went out to the battlefield to see if there were indeed any strange ghostly figures roaming around and some even said they did see “something or someone”. 

Well it’s time for my Pearl of Wisdom.  This one is from John F. Kennedy, the only Democrat I would have voted for even though I was too young to vote.  He wrote: “Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain”.  

Lane Ramsdell
National Director