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AUSA
Updated
June 24, 2009
Here is your
June 2009
Nominate your choice to be AUSA's Volunteer Family of the Year
Suspense to AUSA HQs: 30 June 09
HOT LINKS
Go to the News and
Photos Sections
for the Latest
* Healthcare reform ... AUSA Has Your Back
* Chapter Supports Spiritual Fitness Center and Wounded Warrior Care
* Chapter Farewells MG & Mrs. Jeff Hammond and the 4th Infantry Division
* And the winner is ….
* Chapter Co-hosts Statewide TRIAD Conference
* Project Home Front
* Exceptional Volunteers Recognized
* Thanks, Automax and some Hardy Volunteers!
* Golf Tourney Raises $23,000+ for Chapter Programs
* We Thank Our Scholarship Sponsors
* Temple and Belton Host Chapter Event
* Quiet Pride
* We Celebrate Our Army’s 234th Birthday!
* Your Adopt A Fort Hood Unit Involvement is MUCH Appreciated.
* Fisher Foundation CEO to Receive 2009 Marshall Medal
* Golf Tourney A Huge Success - Over $23,000 raised for chapter programs
* Gauer reappointed to AUSA’s National Resolutions Committee
* Tiniest Warriors Showered with Thanks
* Members Briefed on Global War on Terrorism - The JCS/J5 Briefing
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Chapter events give member business and individuals a chance to meet and shape the future direction of our Chapter. Learn more here!
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A Fort Hood soldier on
patrol in Irag
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Chapter Farewells
MG & Mrs.
Jeff Hammond
& The 4th Infantry Division
On June 17, our Central Texas-Fort Hood Chapter bid a sad farewell to Major General and Mrs. Jeff Hammond and the 4th Infantry Division. In mid-July, MG Hammond will change command as the 4th Infantry Division cases its colors and, after 14 years at Fort Hood, relocates to Fort Carson, Colorado.
General Hammond addressed the chapter’s third General Membership meeting of ’08-’09 program year, describing a 14-year love story between a young Soldier named “Steadfast and Loyal” and a young lady named Ms. Central Texas. It's a story of good people coming together, Hammond said, that started in late 1995 when Steadfast and Loyal first met Ms. Central Texas.
Through the years, the relationship blossomed from a mere crush to something deeper, though frequent deployments kept them apart and young Steadfast and Loyal saw the senior leadership if his 4th Infantry Division change hands six times.
Now, 14 years later, Steadfast and Loyal realizes he is deeply in love with Lady Central Texas, Hammond said. "I hope you never forget us," he continued. "You're forever a part of our hearts." Ron Taylor, chapter president responded, adding that the division's departure will be a very sad moment for all in Central Texas.
General Hammond closed by unveiling a large bronze plaque, to be mounted in the main entrance hall of the current 4th Infantry Division headquarters building, to remain us all of the history of the 4th Infantry Division, the Steadfast and Loyal Division, at Fort Hood.
(This article draws on 6/18/09 reporting of Amanda Kim Stairrett, Killeen Daily Herald)
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Our Car raffle:
And the winner is ….
 It had to be fate - with a special angel watching overhead.
We closed our June 17th General Membership meeting with the car raffle. General (Retired) Bob Shoemaker was asked to draw out the winning ticket.
He drew Ms. Marty Smith’s ticket.
The house erupted in applause. Marty, President of the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce and a dedicated Army wife with years and years of service in support of Soldiers and their families, had only recently lost her husband in an auto accident.
Earlier in the evening’s program, she participated in the presentation of a $1,000 scholarship named for her husband, Army COL (Ret) Jerry Smith. But she did not want to speak, only quietly thanking the chapter for remembering her husband in such a manner.
Then, the drawing - and the winner is Marty Smith. Jerry had to hear the roar of applause for his wife and her good fortune. Later, Marty Smith said, “you know, I was looking for a new car.”
Well, Marty, you have one.
(Adjacent Column) Past Presidents join Chapter President Ron Taylor to wish the Hammonds the very best. (L to R) Terry Tuggle, Ed Rhode, Jeanne Isdale, Billy Mills, MG Jeff and Ms. Diane Hammond, Don Jones, Sam Murphy, Ron Taylor, Jim Endicott, Ralph Gauer and Randy Sutton.
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2009 National Meeting
Noncommissioned Officers:
The Strength of the Army
Plan to join us as we celebrate success!
We’re headed to DC to support of our Soldiers and celebrate our Success. And we invite you to be a part of everything we do.
Yes, times are tough. America’s military is busier today than at any time in the past many years. Our men and women in uniform are stretched.
The issues? They are complex, overlapping and at times seeming to be in opposition one with the others. Iran, Iraq; Afghanistan; the Horn of Africa; the Korean Peninsula; China; Homeland Security, Border Security; the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction; the future of Future Combat Systems technologies and, above all, the requirement that our military be properly resourced to successfully wage and win tomorrow’s wars at whatever level they might find themselves.
National decision makers face tough choices. Over the next eighteen months, these issues will studied and courses of action proposed as DOD prepares its 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review. But whatever the answers, they will most assuredly impact our Soldiers, their Families and all of us at the Great Place.
This all means we have work to do. Our job: let everyone know that in Central Texas, our nation’s Soldiers have found - and will always find - levels of capability and support unequalled elsewhere in America.
We plan to carry this message to AUSA’s 2009 National Meeting in Washington, October 5-7, 2009. And this year, we expect to meet while Congress is in session and national decision makers should to be at their desks.
We go as Winners - and invite you to be an important part of the team!
For our Agenda, CLICK HERE.
For a National Meeting Registration Form, CLICK HERE
For a Sponsor Support Response Form, CLICK HERE
For a Roster of Attendees, CLICK HERE.
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Joining AUSA makes good sense.
An AUSA membership links you to America’s Army in ways simply not otherwise available.
And for those not now in uniform (and perhaps never were), an AUSA membership provides a superb source of timely information on the men and women who serve this nation in the defense of freedom.
With over 16,400 members, we are AUSA's fasting growing chapter.
Come join our ranks. You - and we - will gain much!!
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166 units
need
your support!
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721 Fort Hood units.
555 adopted units. |
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Updated
June 17, 2009
IMPORTANT
If the unit you want has a partner already listed -
that's OK.
You can partner with that unit, too!!
And if you find errors or
omissions, please tell us
by going to
Fort Hood Soldiers are either: 1. preparing to deploy, 2. already deployed or 3. just returned and resetting or reequipping for future missions.
And whereas for years, most of our Soldiers were rotating in and out of Iraq, now more and more will be heading to that other war in Afghanistan.
Different theaters, different battlefield realities, but the same brave Soldiers supported by fabulously generous and supporting Families.
It has been amazing to watch. How much more amazing must it be for those most directly involved?
For more than six years, Fort Hood Soldiers and their Families have remained heavily committed in our nation’s efforts to fight and defeat international terrorism.
Last year, virtually all Fort Hood units saw combat in Iraq or Afghanistan - most on their second 12 to 15 month tours of duty - - some on their third or fourth.
Today, over 20,000 of our 52,000 Soldiers are in the fight.
The 1st Cavalry Division is back in Iraq, where it overlapped with the 4th Infantry Division as that division completed its fifteen months of combat.
(NOTE: The 4th Infantry Division will soon relocate to Fort Carson, CO, in a decision announced in the 2005 Base realignment and Closures Commission process. We therefore, are not establishing new4th ID Adopt A Fort Hood Unit partnerships and ask that, as 4ID unit move out for Colorado, its Central Texas civic partners allow us to align them with other Fort Hood units).
The 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment has just completed its fifteen months in Iraq, and now is home, reuniting with Family and catching its breath.
Elsewhere, the 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division is in Afghanistan while 41st Fires Brigade, 504th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade, along with elements of the 13th Sustainment Command, and the 36th Engineer, 48th Chemical and 89th Military Police Brigades are supporting military operations in either Iraq or Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, on Fort Hood and all across Central Texas, Soldier Families work to keep the home fires burning, and await the return of their loved ones.
With all that is happening, we surely can help. We can ease their burden and support their efforts by actively participating in the Adopt A Fort Hood Unit program. We can provide truly welcomed and important support to Soldiers and their Families - if we will just choose to do so.
And many of you are!! But if you are not, you would be most welcome to join in!!
As you scroll through this list of Fort Hood units, you may find a unit with whom you would particularly like to partner, just enroll. We will be at the other end of that email, fax or phone call to help you make a match.
If you do not have a preference, we can identify an appropriately sized unit that needs a partner, and match them with your request. And if the unit you want already has a partner listed; that's OK, too. Any unit would welcome more than one civic partner.
YOUR SUPPORT REMAINS MOST WELCOME AND ALWAYS APPRECIATED
Read on!
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