August 7, 2008

May 12, 2008
Notes from 1st Vice - Bill Johnson Jr.

We have had some really good things going on at our Post 135, wishing more member would come out and join in on the fun.
There was an Easter Egg hunt, thanks to everyone that worked on this. From the photos the kids seemed to have a great time.
We had a general clean up the Post inside and out. Pretty good turn out but mostly the same people as always. Again, sure miss meeting all the members that can not make it.

We took Carl's idea to put up flag poles out front for the Air Force, Navy, Marines, and Army and made donations from many members to make it happen. Thank you all for your contributions and most of all thank you to Carl for your most excellent idea and the hard work to get this done.
At the last meeting we had Post 135 Officer elections. Some is good and some we have a problem with and no one wanted to take the positions.
Commander Wes Benge said he can not take the position of Post Commander this year.

Here is the list as it stands now:

Commnder - Open
We really need someone to help us out here. This is a very important position for us to have a Post 135

1st Vice - Open
We really need someone to help us out here. This is very important position to keep our membership up.

2nd Vice - Carl Adams
Adjutant - Bob Pyle
Finance Officer - Bill Johnson , Sr.
Chaplain - Jerry Gay
Sgt at Arms - Frank Carlson
Judge Advocate - Jack Elsey

Historian - Open

Exec Bd.  3 year - Bill Johnson, Jr., 2 year - Sylvester (Sky) Rajnowski, 1 year - Fred Glad
Thank you to all that have take positions.

I will not be taking the position of 1st vice this year as living in Tulsa is really hard to be able to handle it. Will continue keep our Web Site the best I can with input from all you members. I will keep this as running web site with all information staying so that we can keep going back and compare what is happening now compared to the past so we can judge how we are doing.

Thank you, bill jr

February 24, 2008
First Vice Commander Post 135

        We have had a very nice turn out for the Wednesday Night Potlucks with donations going to the Hospitalized Veterans Fund. Thank you to everyone.
        Sorry to say, our scheduled Fish Fry had to be cancelled due to cold weather. We had a great time anyway.
        Carl's Chili days was really good. If you did not come by, you miss a good bowl of chili. Thanks to Carl and others for some of the best Chili there is.
        Our February meeting was full of excitement, we had a power failure and tried to do business with flash lights but ended up having to cancel the meeting. We will pick up next month where we left off. We did experience a loss of some equipment during this power outage.
        The Mardi Gras Party was fun and the food was Outstanding. Sorry you missed it. Thanks to Nanc and Roger and others for having this party and some fine food.
        There are some photos of the American Legion Legacy Run posted on the Photo Albums page. Steve Ridenour represented Post #135, Thank you Steve.
        I look forward to see some more of our members at the monthly meetings and the lounge and for Potluck night. We have elections coming up very soon so come out and decide who you want to represent you at our post.
        Bertie is having a planning meeting on March 5, 2008 at 7:00pm for an Easter Holiday Egg Hunt. Please come out and help us to make this a grand event.
        My best to each of you. Until we meet again or the first time,
Bill Johnson Jr.        

December 10, 2007
First Vice Commander Post 135
 
We have had some really fun and nice events this year:
 
The Wednesday night potluck dinners have been a great success. Thank you for your donations. We have collect quite a bit of funds for the Veterans fund to support the purchase of needed items for our hospitalized and nursing home Veterans. The fund has also made possible the Christmas Baskets put together by Bill Johnson and some help from other. Bill has been doing a great job of taking care of the Veterans needs. Thank you, Bill!
 
The Fish Frys were excellent. Thank you to all that make this possible. Thank you to those that do most of the work.
 
The Saturday Turkey shoot have been well attended this season. Many happy hunters have been scoring at this function. We even had some good eats afterwards a few time. Thank you, Carl and Joe for all your hard work on this project.
 
Our very first Halloween Carnival hosted by the Ladies Auxiliary was a huge success. I have heard rumblings of doing it again next year. Thank you to everyone involved. An extra special Thank you goes to Linda for chairing this project.
 
Our Holiday Family Celebration dinner December 8 th was well attended. The food was very delicious to say the least. Thank you to everyone who attended. The side dishes brought were very tasty. Thank you to those that put out the extra effort to prepare the Ham, Turkeys, and Brisket for this dinner. I wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas to all.
 
I have been hearing rumors of a New Years Eve party but I have no particulars. I understand we need DDs (designated drivers) so that we can keep our members and guest safe after this New Year celebration. See Nanc at the club room to add your name to the list of DDs. This will keep all our members safe and sound.
 
Thank you to our Bartenders for making our club room such a nice place to spend a few hours relaxing.
 
Thank you to Loyd for publishing our monthly News Letter. Well done.

Oh, yes. It is not to early to start thinking about who you want to fill the offices positions in our Oklahoma Post 135 for next year.
 
Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
It has been a real Joy for me this past year to be with all of you.
 
Bill Johnson Jr.

November 11, 2007
Veterans Day

I was honored to be asked to carry a Flag in the Honor Guard for the Tahlequah, Oklahoma Veterans Parade, Thank you for your service.

I intended to write a commentary about the Tahlequah, Oklahoma Veterans Parade held on November 10, 2007 however we received a hand made card from Amy that said much more that I could convey in any words. Thank you Amy, we love you.

Bill Johnson Jr. First Vice Commander, Post #135 Tahlequah Oklahoma.

October 18, 2007

First Vice Commander Post 135

This has been a time full of many events taking place at our Post 135.

Our Wednesday Night Potluck dinners have been successful. We have had great meals but also have had wonderful donations to the Veteran’s Fund so we can provide help to our Hospitalized Veterans as well as those in Nursing Homes.

We have spent many hours is preparation for the up and coming Free Halloween Carnival for Kids. We have had many donations towards this event. It will be a learning experience since this is Our first year. We are hoping for many local kids, ages 14 years and under. The Kid’s Carnival is on October 31, hours 6:00pm – 8:00pm . Come out, leave a donation of candy, toys or even a monetary donation would help. Thank you to everyone involved.

Our Turkey shoots have been very successful and the food following a couple of the Turkey shoots has been great.

Carl has installed three flagpoles at the front of our building. We are now flying the US flag, POWMIA flag and the Oklahoma Centennial flag. Thanks Carl and others.

Please welcome, Skiy Rajnowski as our Post Adjutant. Command Wes asked me to see if Skiy would fill in until elections in May 2008. He has accepted the position and has already done a great job for us.

Since I live in Tulsa , it is not practical for me to do memberships. Wes has been handling most of this with some assistance from Skiy and a bunch from his wife. Wes tells us that we are at about 80% at this time and growing in our paid up membership.

We have had two meetings since the last note from me. Our officer positions are now full and we can have a quorum at meetings. We forward to your participation at our monthly meetings.

We were to have a visit from the Department of Oklahoma Commander; the Commander could not make it. The First Vice Commander visited us instead. We had a number of officers and members attend. We were disappointed that the Commander could not make it.

Best regards,

Bill Jr.

8/23/2007

Notes from the acting 1st Vice
Bill Johnson Jr.

I am sad to say that Tommy Thompson has resigned as our 1st Vice.

Commander Wes Benge and 2nd Vice Carl Adam have asked me to fill in until formal elections next year. I have reluctantly accepted due to the fact it will be very hard to fulfill the office from my home in Tulsa as it is a long drive. I will do my best to honor you with a good job.

I know that everyone is working very hard to get your membership cards out and Member Roster updated.  Then we will go forward into the best year ever.

Now for a little history on me so you will have an idea who I am. I am the son of Bill Johnson, a Past Commander of Post 135.  I have been a member of Post 135 for about 7 years but I have not been very active since I do live in Tulsa.

I was honorably discharged US Navy Missile Fire Control Tech PO3 . Served November 1962 - Oct 1966. I served on the Frigate Ship USS Preble DLG15 out of San Diego. Our mission in Vietnam was mostly search and rescue with some shore bombardment as well. I hold a Good Conduct Medal and Expeditionary Medal Vietnam.

I have presently been your Internet Web Master since the inception of the http://www.okleagionpost135.org web site. I designed and created the web site on February 12, 2007. I hope you are all proud to have a nice web page. If you have not been there, the information is there to help you find services and many good sources of information.

We miss many of you at the meetings, Wednesday Night Potluck dinners (we use this as a fund raiser for Hospitalized Veterans), and Saturday Hamburger cook outs. Please try to attend more often. I have been driving down on Wednesdays to try to do my part. If we could get all our members to attend some of these activities, we could receive donations that would make it very much more possible to help even more Veterans of the area.

We are starting our Turkey Shoots again on September 8, We will have a Fish Fry as well to kick off our Turkey Shoot Season. Come on down, the fish will knock you socks off.

I close now saying For God and Country and Veterans.
Until next time, bill jr.

7/26/2007

From the First Vice
Post 135 is now ready to kick off 2008 dues. I have several that have already paid, and as soon as I get the 2008 cards, yours will be in the mail.

The American Legion Fiscal Year is July 1 to July 1, but the new cards do not come out till after the state convention which is usually in the first part of July. So you super early birds do have to wait till ol'Tom gets the card to send you. We had a very good year last year with over 100%. (Adds a banner for our flag staff.)Thank you!

Our dues have increased up to $30.00 so it is going to be a tougher year this year. But Post 135 has so much more going for it than it did a few years ago.

We are having more cook-outs, cleanup-days, food, fish, and fries.
Wednesday night dinners: I am trying to get people's attention on having things in the afternoon for our senior members!

We have also re-done our parking area, so no more muddy shoes. Please come out and renew some old friendships, we do have a great time!
Till we meet again,

Tommy Thompson 1St Vice

6/26/2007

Post 135 is getting ready to kick off 2008 dues.

I have several that have already paid, and as soon as I get the 2008 cards yours will be in the mail.

The American Legion Fiscal Year is January 1 to January 1 but the new cards do not come out till after the state convention which is usually in the frist part of July. So you super early birds do have to wait till ole Tom get the cards to send you.

We had a very good year last year with over 100%. (Adds a banner for our flag staff. (Thank you) Which I need quite often.

Our dues have increased up to $25.00 so it is going to be tougher year this year. But Post 135 has so much more going for it than it did a few years ago. We are having more cook outs, clean up days (Food) fish fries) Wednesday night dinners, I am trying to get peoples attention on having things in the afternoon for our senior members like me to attend before dark, OK.

We have also redone our parking area, so no more muddy shoes, Please come out an renew some old friendships, we do have a great time.

Till we meet again,

Tommy Thompson 1 st Vice