News | VFW Post 3063

Last year was a good one for our post. We passed one hundred per cent membership in early January and ended the year at 107.81 per cent of our calculated membership for the previous year.

Our post shared in a special honor when our outgoing commander, Aaron Stoltz, was selected as an All State Commander. The white hat that goes with this honor is the first won by any commander or quartermaster of our post during the thirty-five years I have been a member. Congratulations Commander Stoltz!

In addition to those mentioned in last month’s column, other milestones marking the past year:

We made some necessary repairs to our old building and it continues to serve us as a good post home which is the envy of many VFW Posts who don’t have a place of their own.
We rebuilt the wooden stairs leading to the upstairs office and completed the remodel of that office space so it is now ready to be leased, preferably to a non-profit looking for some prime Ballard office space.
Our newsletter, Ballard Eagleson Patriot, under the editorship of Charles Anderson, was awarded second place in the medium size post category. Quite an honor for the first year of publication.
Our Post lending library is well organized and has grown under the watchful eye of Librarian Bill Hoeller.
We hosted two very successful fund raising dinners, the St. Patrick’s Day dinner chaired by Georgia Warrix and the May 1st Spaghetti Dinner chaired by Russ Seelig.
We have helped the residents of the homeless tent city next door with many gifts of food.

Not to rest on our laurels, we look forward to even more activity:

Our Service Officer, Gail Engler, in addition to being available in our own office, will be staffing an office in the Ballard Senior Center once a month to help veterans in this community.
Even more visits to local hospitals, nursing and retirement homes.
More Flag retirement ceremonies.
Occasional visitations to other posts to attend their meetings and share lessons learned.
Some special events at our post to honor our local first responders.

In addition to these plans, we will see more fund raisers and other special dinners this year as we raise awareness among our members and in our neighborhood that we are a growing post involved in doing good for veterans and our community.

Report on the VFW State Convention

July 27, 2016

By Gail Engler

Harold Rosenberger, James Williams, Gail Engler, and Jesse Basher attended the State VFW Convention in Pasco, June 22 to 25.

A day before the conference started additional training was offered for post veteran service officers and quartermasters. I attended the all day VSO training which was conducted by Nadine Warren, accredited VSO in Yakima, WA. The training was very good and I hope to become more knowledgeable and receive additional training in order to provide services for our post members and anyone who may contact our post for assistance in filing claims or obtaining benefits. I am not an accredited VSO so will not actually submit the claim myself but assist with completing forms, and providing resources and referrals.

As far as the state election there were two positions that were contested: surgeon and quartermaster. Traci Williams was elected surgeon and Carlos Almeda was elected quartermaster. Post 3063 received a number of awards including second place for our newsletter. Thanks to Charlie Anderson for his hard work and expertise in publishing a great newsletter. Aaron Stoltz received a “white hat” as commander for meeting a number of criteria for the post. Harold should have received a white hat as quartermaster but there was an administrative error at department level so he and others in District 2 did not receive the recognition. Congratulations to all for our post and individual awards. It was overall a well organized and interesting convention. I recommend that other post members attend in the future and get involved to support and improve our post.

Awards presented to members for achievements

July 23, 2016

By Harold Rodenberger

At our last business meeting held July 7th our post and members were presented with many awards. “I don’t remember the Post ever receiving so many awards,” said Commander Nestor Tamayao.

Our outgoing commander, Aaron Stoltz, was awarded a Department of Washington White Hat for his selection as a member of the All-State Team. (The All-State Team is composed of commanders who have satisfied all the requirements for their year as delineated by state headquarters.) It’s an honor achieved by few commanders and was a just reward for his final year of eight as our Ballard Eagleson Post Commander.

Other awards included:

Charles Anderson, editor, for second place in the medium size post category of state post newsletters
Gail Engler for her work as Buddy Poppy Chair
Russ Seelig for serving as District 2 May 1st Fundraiser Chair
James Williams for starting our website and his eight years as webmaster
Georgia Warrix for serving as our St. Patrick’s Day Fundraiser Chair
A JASON Award to our post officers for 100 percent reporting during July to November
Outstanding support of the USO
Voice of Democracy Awards, department and national
Patriot’s Pen awards, again both department and national levels

Officer Profile: Commander Nestor Tamayao

July 23, 2016

This is the first profile in a series of profiles of the 2016-2017 Post 3063 officers.

Tell us about your new position and what you hope to accomplish during your term.

The position of Post Commander encompasses numerous duties and responsibilities in addition to its leadership role. A primary responsibility is to preside at all monthly meetings of the post and ensure that they are conducted in accordance with regulations, by-laws and applicable parliamentary rules. The commander appoints officer positions that are not elected positions, and appoints committee chairmen and committees as necessary. The commander approves all disbursements of funds properly authorized by the post, ensures all reports are processed and forwarded to the department and certifies that post trustees audit the post’s books and records.

A goal I have is to encourage many members who have not been or no longer attending meetings and socials, to participate when possible. With the help of the membership committee, I think we can reach out to those members and inspire them to be an active member of our Post. I also want to make sure our membership remains at 100 percent or better and concentrate on recruiting new members to help mitigate membership losses in the future.

How long have you belonged to Post 3063 and did you previously serve in an officer position?

I joined Ballard Eagleson Post 3063 in 1999 at the urging of a post member who I knew at work. Since that time, I’ve held the positions of trustee, surgeon, judge advocate, adjutant, quartermaster, junior vice-commander and senior vice-commander. I was going to continue with progression to commander the first time I was senior-vice, but had to relinquish that position when I took over as quartermaster when the quartermaster at the time unexpectedly passed away.

I have also been a District 2 Trustee and Junior Vice-Commander. In 2012, I was appointed as the WA State Inspector by the WA State Commander. That position involved a lot of traveling throughout the state’s 17 Districts which I had to inspect.

What is your military background?

I was drafted on March 23, 1971 and was directed into the Army. After basic training in Ft. Lewis, WA and then Advanced Individual Training at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO, I became a combat engineer with the 5^th Engineer Battalion at Ft. Leonard Wood. In December, 1971 I was given orders to report to a Replacement Company in Korea for duty in Vietnam. For some reason, those orders were flagged and I was reassigned to report to the 16^th Engineer Battalion in Furth, Germany. Towards the end of my two-year enlistment, I asked for an early release from active duty to return to college. Although out of active duty, I still had six years remaining of inactive Reserve duty. Two summers in a row I was called to Reserve duty and in 1976 decided to enter the Army Reserve.

In the Reserve, I began as a photojournalist with the 124^th Army Reserve Command 304^th Public Information Office at Fort Lawton, WA which was later re-designated as the 304^th Public Affairs Detachment. Besides a military journalist, other positions within the Reserve included administration specialist, editor of the Command’s Three Star Final newspaper, detachment sergeant, and first sergeant, combat medic and 70^th Regional Support Command Public Affairs Chief for the Command with units located in Washington, Oregon, Northern California and Utah.

I traveled extensively while in the Reserve and besides being deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina, had duty in Korea, Germany, Panama, Hungary, Croatia as well as numerous military installations in the Continental U.S. and Alaska. My final active duty was at the Pentagon in 2002 as an NCOIC at the Army Operations Center. In November 2003, I retired from the Army Reserve with 32 years of active and Reserve duty.

What do you enjoy most about belonging to the VFW?

Although it was not by design that I would be in the Army, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would not trade it for anything. Belonging to the VFW gives me a chance to still be a part of the military experience through the camaraderie I enjoy with the members of our Post as well as other Posts. The VFW is a large fraternal organization and its members have a common bond which members relate to. The “war stories” never get old.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell Post 3063 members?

I admire how our post has evolved into, once again, active participation by members. I recall when I was initiated, there were many in attendance and thought that was the norm. However, over time, the attendance at meetings began to dwindle to a point where we could not even have enough to constitute a quorum. Today we have many active participants in several committees, various activities and events, and members with new ideas and perspectives.