Last Meeting Summary

ETMAC April 2008 Meeting Summary

Upcoming Meetings and Events

• 5APR- Mountain Man March-UT Army ROTC -26.2 mile march/marathon through Smoky Mountains surrounding Gatlinburg. Details are posted at http://web.utk.edu/~utrotc/top.html.
• 8APR- CMSgt Chuck Kaczmarczyk (Det 800's Dining-Out speaker) will be discussing Special Ops war stories in the UT library 1700HRS  
• 9APR-MOWW Monthly Meeting-Shoney’s -Walker Springs Rd and Kingston Pike- 1130HRS
• 17APR –The Center for the Study of War and Society-1530HRS-University Center Room 223-Free Admission-Theresa Kaminski-Professor of History University of Wisconsin- “Prisoners in Paradise: American Women in the Wartime South Pacific”.
• 21-23APR-National Guard Exercise-Vigilant Guard-McGhee-Tyson ANG Base-Role players are being sought for simulating casualties of a disaster event- All participants will be paid $9.00 an hour for a minimum of 16 hours. MAJ Humphrey-228-0752 or SGM Evans 414-8278
• 22APR-Knoxville Small Business Expo-1200HRs-Knox County Health Department-140 Dameron Ave.-Those, including veterans, interested in starting or expanding small business-FREE
• 26APR- MOWW- Massing of the Colors-2^nd Presbyterian Church-Speaker Major General Carl Black USAF (Ret)-1030HRS
• 1MAY-ETMAC Meeting-American Red Cross Building-6921 Middlebrook Pike-0830HRS
• 2MAY-Baseball-University of Tennessee vs. Vanderbilt-1900HRS-Veterans Appreciation Night-Military ID holders get in free 
• 3MAY-Lady Vols Softball-Military Appreciation Day-1300HRS and 1500HRS-double header-University of Florida-Military ID holders get in free-guest $4.00
• 7-9MAY-Annual Business and Industrial Days- Business Leaders from the mid-western states will be hosted at McGhee Tyson to encourage their support for employee participation in the ANG. 
• 10MAY-Seymour Air Park Fly In-1000HRS-Activities, games, food-All proceeds to benefit the Young Marines of the Greater Knoxville Area
• 21MAY-HonorAir trip to Washington D.C. for area Veterans of WWII who have not seen the WWII Memorial.
• 26MAY-Tennessee Smokies Baseball-U.S. Veterans Night-Tribute to America’s fallen war heroes-1830HRS-pregame on-field memorial salute
• 31JUL-40^th Anniversary Celebration-I.G. Brown Training and Education Center-morning event- McGhee Tyson ANG Base
• 5AUG-2^nd Annual East Tennessee Veterans Business Conference-Directed at providing assistance to Veteran Owned Business/Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business to do business at the Complex- New Hope Center, Y-12, Oak Ridge. 
• 11NOV Veterans Day Parade
• 11NOV Veterans Day Luncheon, The Foundry-World’s Fair Park-Featured Service-U.S. Marines Corps
• 15NOV Dedication Ceremony- East Tennessee Veterans Memorial-World’s Fair Park-1100HRS
• Stay current by checking ETMAC.org web site

Welcome & Introductions

• The meeting was held on Thursday, 3APR at the Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership, 17 Market Square # 201
• President Jack Davis presided over the meeting. A total of 29 members and guests were present. The Summary of the March meeting was approved.
• Treasurer Carl G. Newby reported a balance of $5,104.28. The Corporation Annual Report has been filed with the state of Tennessee 
• Individual Membership dues of $25 and Organization dues of $100 are due. Twenty five members have paid.

Discussion Items 

UT Army ROTC (Haynes & Lee)

Additional event staff are needed for the Mountain Man March. Anyone participating in the event or helping to sponsor it can stay overnight at the Gatlinburg Inn for $20. 

UT Air Force ROTC (Ragland)

Dining Out Speaker Chief Kaczmarczyk will be discussing the final evacuation of Saigon in April 1975, the embassy evacuation of Phnom Penh, Cambodia in April 1975, the Iranian hostage rescue attempt, Desert One in April 1980 and a recently "declassified" operation that took place in Zaire, April 1980.  

East Tennessee Veterans Memorial Association (ETVMA) (Crawford)

ETVMA is seeking photographs of WWI soldiers boarding trains at the L&N Station. They have checked all known public sources without luck. They now hope that folks will come forward with photographs from family albums.  

MOWW-Youth Leadership Conference (Davis)

A total of 54 JROTC Cadets from 17 East Tennessee High Schools attended the one day Youth Leadership Conference held at the McGhee Tyson ANG Base on 29MAR. The Cadets attended classes on Patriotism, Leadership and the Free Enterprise System and were given an orientation tour of one of the refueling aircraft. The membership voted to provide $100 to support the Conference 

Military Economic Impact Analysis (Analysis) (Davis)

The last Analysis was done in 2002 and showed that the annual economic impact of military activities in this area was $634 million annually. The magnitude of these results came as a surprise to many as the visibility of the military in the community does not seem that extensive. Consequently in many quarters there has emerged a greater appreciation for the contribution of the military to the area economy. This study is now dated but is still being used by a whole host of organizations both public and private. It continues to be downloaded several times a month from our web site. When used as a reference, the numbers substantially undervalue the current impact. We are in the process of contacting the Military Units to obtain the data needed to update the Analysis. 

JROTC

The JROTC programs at Fulton High School and Austin East High School will not be part of the curriculum next year. 

HonorAir (Coffman)

Arrangements for the 21MAY flight are complete. Plans are to schedule two flights in the fall which will likely clear the backlog of WWII Veterans from the three county area wanting and able to make the flight to Washington D.C. 

Knox County Veterans Service Officer Report (Jones)

In 2006 the Veteran population in Knox County was 36,481. VA expenditures for Knox County Veterans that year were $45.3 million for Compensation and Pensions, $3.5 million for Education and Vocation Rehabilitation and $20.9 million for Medical Expenditures.

Pellissippi State Technical Community College (College)

The College is seeking Veterans qualified to serve as Instructors in their Industrial Training Curricula which consists of Electrical and Mechanical Courses.

Office of the Chief, Army Reserve (Dyess)

Pilot Oil Corporation has provided $250,000 in phone cards for use by Reserve Units. John has made the cards available to the Family Readiness Groups for distribution

MEPS (Morgan)

Area recruiting is going well. Oak Ridge and Anderson County High Schools have joined the eighty five percent of area high schools supporting the test program directed at determining an applicant’s qualifications for enlistment.

I.G. Brown Training and Education Center-TEC (Waggett)

A color guard is needed to participate in the ceremonies to be held at the Airport Hilton on 8MAY in support of the Annual Business and Industrial Days Conference.  ETMAC accepted Col Waggett’s invitation to hold our 10JUL Meeting at the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center.

Military Unit Activity

National Guard and Reserve Unit Personnel from our area continue to be deployed in relatively large numbers as units as well as in smaller detachments and as individuals. Training and exercises are proceeding with the intensity commensurate with this level of support.

Web Site

The web site had over 20,000 hits for the month of March. Military Units and Veteran Organizations are invited to send Liamon Godel (cpa@godel.com) information for posting that would be of interest to the military community.