Board of Directors - Signification Actions and Decisions
May 23, 2012:
Updates have been scarce this year. February saw the beginning of the push to finish the stone, prep the site, organize a Chaplain, guest speaker, band, bugler, and all the equipment they would need, and coordinate with the monument builder, National Museum of the Marine Corps, and final checks to ensure accuracy of our information before it was cut into stone, and completness of the list of supporters and contributors. This last changed on almost a daily basis until a few days before the programs were submitted to the printer.
May 17, 2012 was a beautiful day for the dedication, bright, calm, and clear. The 150-170 guests we orginally planned for had grown to 260 at last count, and will probably increase yet again when the final tally is taken. The response from VMO-6 members, families, friends and supporters was OUTSTANDING! And enabled us to complete our project on time and with enough funds to allow a nice donation to the Captain Stephen W. Pless Scholarship Fund.
The Board of Directors gratefully acknowledge the generosity of generations of Marines, Marine families, and friends of Marines who so selflessly donated and supported the project from beginning to end. This web site will continue to add photos and stories as they are submitted. Just post a short message on the Guest Book and I'll respond.
On a personal note, I consider myself to have been blessed to be working again with so many fine Marines. It was a privilege and an honor to serve with VMO-6 again, and to reunite with so many brothers from days gone by. As for the Board of Directors, they would be the nine plus 1 Heraclitus refers to:
"Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn't even be there. Eighty are just targets. Nine are real fighters and we are lucky to have them for they make the battle. Ah, but the one. One is a warrior, and he will bring the others back." Heraclitus, Greek philosopher, 500 BC
Thanks Ed.
Semper Fi
Bush
January 2012:
Support of the Captain Stephen W. Pless Scholarship Fund: For his courageous actions on August 19, 1967, and as a member of VMO-6 piloting the UH-1E aircraft, Captain Pless was awarded the Medal of Honor. In honor of his extraordinary heroism, the Marine Corps Combat Helicopter Association (CHA) established the Captain Stephen W. Pless Scholarship Fund to support worthy children and grandchildren of a Marine. The VMO-6 Memorial Fund Board of Directors decided that any excess funds in the VMO-6 Memorial Fund after the monument is built, erected, and dedicated will be provided to the CHA in support of the Captain Pless Scholarship Fund.
December 2011
Memorial Dedication and Reception: Block hotel rooms for the May 17, 2012 dedication have been reserved at the Holiday Inn, Comfort Inn, and Hampton Inn off I-95 Exit 152 some 2.5 miles from the National Marine Corps Museum. Reservation information as well as the scheduled of events for May 16 – 18 have been posted on the website. A 120 person hospitality room at the Holiday Inn has also been reserved for a squadron gathering/reunion on May 16 and in the afternoon and evening on May 17. The reunion includes a buffet dinner on May 17 at $25 per person. It is envisioned that at least 100 people will be attending the dedication and reception.
Dedication Publicity: Plans have been made for various publications to publicize the memorial dedication, reception, and squadron gathering/reunion. The information will be posted in the Marine Corps Times, MCAA Yellow Sheet, Leatherneck, Marine Corps Gazette, Pop-a-Smoke newsletter, and the Marine Corps League Semper Fi magazine. Plans are also being undertaken to get assistance from HQMC Public Affairs for coverage of the dedication of the memorial and to obtain a band and color guard for the dedication ceremony.
Monument Base: After lengthy discussions with ALMR, plans are being finalized to construct the monument foundation the first two weeks of March 2012. The monument is expected to arrive and be erected during the last week of March. During the first two weeks of April, the concrete area around the monument to include a short stone retaining wall on the back side and the apron between the main walkway and the monument will be constructed.
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November 2011:
Casualties’ Verification: A board member and his wife spent two full days at the National Archives, College Park, MD trying to obtain casualty verification information. They were able to review some of the Korean Muster Rolls, as well as the Vietnam Command Chronologies and Unit Diaries. At the end of the research, there was no found discrepancies within the WWII, Korea, and Vietnam information we already have for KIAs. The HQMC Manpower Unit Diary Section will also provide casualty names based on their research of historical files
Family and Friends Solicitation Letter: A letter requesting financial support was sent to 59 people in the Family and Friends database.
Email Blitz Campaign: In an effort to encourage squadron members to make an initial or additional donation, an email was sent to all squadron members with names in the database. The email was personalized and individually sent to each person. Over 300 emails were sent and included a pdf of the donation form.
Monument Dedication and Reception: Plans have been initiated to block rooms at hotels in the area of the museum for the planned May 17, 2012 monument dedication ceremony and reception. Plans are also being undertaken to organize the dedication to include publicity and development of a souvenir program. Details will be promulgated on the memorial project website by January 1, 2012.
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October 2011
Website: There were 300 new visitors on the website, with 77% of them coming directly from a search for VMO-6. The Webmaster is adding more pages with links for not just photos but the interesting stories as well.
Modlich: Modlich Monument Company reported they are on track with all plans. All information has been sent to granite mining company and they expect a January delivery.
Casualty Verification: As previously reported the information from the Vietnam years is available and will be furnished by HQMC. However, the records for casualties during WWII, Korea and Nicaragua are kept at the National Archives in different parts of the Washington, D. C. area. A board member and his wife will visit the National Archives and conduct the research.
Monument Base: The Board approved the monument base plans developed by ALMR and Firvida Construction Company. Based on the sketch plans, Firvida will be developing construction drawings to be submitted to the Heritage Foundation for approval. After approval, Firvida will write a contract that we can sign to begin work as construction of the base needs to be completed prior to heavy cold weather.
Corporate Solicitations: Donations have been requested from some corporate entities. Although most corporations reported that they generally do not support memorial projects, the Board completed applications and send them to Piasecki Aircraft, Essingtton, PA; Tribal Solutions, Inc., Frisco, TX; Potomac Advocates, Washington, DC; FLIR Systems, Wilsonville, OR; Radiance Technologies, Inc, Huntsville, AL; Cessna, Wichita, KS; Bell Helicopters, Fort Worth, TX; and USAA, San Antonio, TX.
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September 2011
Donations: Donations have slowed during the last half of the month. As of September 23, the total is $65 short from being 50% of our goal.
Verification of Casualties: We met with two ladies at Quantico in HQMC Code MMSB-10 and hand delivered letter requesting verification of Vietnam casualties. They assured me that they have the information but it will take time to fully provide the data. To expedite, they were informed that we will take the information in any form (hand scribed or photo copy of files). Casualties for Korea and WWII resides in the National Achieves in College Park, MD. The action being worked is to determine if they have all requested information. A research fee for the data may be required.
Contractor for Monument Base: We exchanged emails with ALMR. They are researching how to get the monument from parking lot to the site and expect their input next week. Exchanged emails with Klein Memorials and they want to visit the site before making any proposal. We plan to keep them engaged and to provide us a cost proposal.
IRA Minimum Distribution Letter: We sent letters to seven known widows over age 70 1/2. A similar letter to squadron members has been drafted with Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) instructions. The letter is our second appeal to squadron members for a donation and includes information on using the provisions of IRS code on IRA RMD.
Corporate Donations: We are working on letters to send to the corporate entities based on input from board members and their research. Based on board member findings on corporate submission time lines, the priority is: Piasecki Aircraft Corporation, Cessna, Bell Helicopters, and Pratt & Whitney. Letters will be sent to other corporations after completing research on solicitation requirements.
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August 2011
Donations: Donations total $34,385 to date with 2 substantial donations making up most of the $6,000 increase.
Database: We continue to try to update database and find more addresses to send solicitations to. Out webmaster has done considerable research on trying to locate Squadron members and/or their families. The research paid off with five donations coming from the last mailing.
Modlich: Contract was signed with Modlich; and check received from USMC CHA forwarded to Modlich. Modlich has received the scale model prepared and sent by our monument designer. He will be in phone contact with the monument makers to ensure ongoing consultation and supervision by designer.
Monument Base Contractor: Received further information from the potential installer of the base, ALMR. They visited the site and plotted out where the retaining wall would be and how to make it fit the qualifications of the Park while still allowing the monument itself to stand out in its location. From the drawings it appears that after the 1’ retaining wall was installed there would only be a 3” slope for the base, which also might be beneficial to drain any water away from the monument.
Facebook/Website: Currently have 59 active users on Facebook. Website has 487 hits. People are coming to look at both sites. Both sites continue to improve.
Casualty Verification: Our contact at Quantico who had formerly said that he would be able to help with verifying our casualty list was transferred out of the unit several weeks ago. His office then referred us back to the Library. We now have a new contact in the Unit Diary Section Command and these folks DO have the info we need from 1955 forward. They ask that we send them a letter requesting the research. The information prior to 1955 is housed at the National Archive in Maryland. We have their phone number and will contact them. After initial contact, we will take prepared letter of request and hand deliver our request to the appropriate parties. While Modlich doesn’t need the casualty list information until early 2012, we need to be persistent in order to have all the information verified by that time.
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July 2011
Donations: Over $7,500 were donated to the memorial fund during the month of July. Many squadron members responded as a result of the Board's “Email Donation Blitz Campaign” initiated mid July.
Website: A board member and webmaster redesigned the website and gave it a fresh look. He rearranging the “link buttons” so as to more closely mimic common webpages which have the buttons placed across the top.
Facebook: James Westendorf, a VMO-6 Korean veteran, volunteered to contribute some photos and stories in support of the memorial project. These items will be added to the Facebook page.
Chapel Reservation at the Semper Fidelis Memorial Park: The chapel was reserved for the monument dedication for May 17, 2012, from 10:00 a.m. – noon. The actual dedication to begin in chapel at 10:30 a.m.
Verification of KIA Names on Monument: Communication continues with the Marine Corps Manpower Casualty Office on verification of combat casualties that occurred during the history of the squadron. They promised that we will have an official, verified list by September 1st.
MCAA Article: An article on VMO-6 was written and will be published in the Marine Corps Aviation Association Yellow Sheet, a quarterly magazine. The article entitled, “Paying Tribute to VMO-6” will be published in August. It can be used to assist in the solicitation of donations from contractor entities.
Commemorative Bricks Program: The Board reaffirmed its commitment to offer a commemorative brick program after the building and erection of the VMO-6 monument. The base will include plans for a large number of bricks in the future. The process is to design the base with the bricks in the design, build the base with imbedded blank bricks, and then have the bricks taken out and replaced with engraved bricks at the proper time in the future.
In Memory/Honor Donations: The Board approved a website change that adds a link and web page to recognize donations made in memory or honor of a squadron member. The web page to be entitled: “Donations made in Memory or Honor of a Squadron Member,” and the column headings will be “ In Memory or Honor of” and “Donation made by.” Under the first column, an example of names listed will be “Memory of Cpl John Smith” or “Honor of Cpl John Smith.” The donation amount will not be shown on the web page but listed in the contribution summary box on the “Supporters” web page. The donation form was revised to show the new provision.***************************************************************************************************************************
June 2011:
The memorial proposal was submitted on June 1st to the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation and approved two weeks later but with some changes. The black granite monument as designed and with inscriptions and etchings of aircraft were approved as shown on the opening website, but the base design and distance from the main walkway were not. Consequently, the Board is now working with the designer to develop options on erecting the structure close to the edge of the walkway and with a different base design. In conjunction with the monument design approval, the Board reviewed the available sites in the Semper Fidelis Memorial Park and selected a plot on the upper or northern side of the park. From the site, the museum is clearly visible to the west and the chapel can be seen to the north on a small knoll but higher elevation. Ten feet wide concrete walkways with embedded bricks are built throughout the park and the monuments are erected along the sides but with sufficent distance between them.Approval was also granted for VMO-6 to manage the purchase of commemorative bricks for squadron members, family, and friends to memorialize the participation and service of a person who was a member of the squadron. These bricks will be imbedded in the base concrete close to the monument and look similar to the bricks in the main walkways. After much discussion, the Board decided that funding and erecting the monument is the first priority or Phase I, and offering for sale commemorative bricks is Phase II of the memorial fund program. Therfore, the commemorative brick program is held in abeyance until the primary objective of a finished Memorial Monument is achieved.
The Centennial of Marine Corps Aviation is May 22, 2012. The Board determined that all actions need to be undertaken to complete the erection and dedication of the monument around the historical, centennial date. The Board also decided to plan for a reception for the attendees to be held after the dedication. The Board communicated with the DC/S Manpower Casualty Office in Quantico that can validate the names for our monument. A full list of all names that have been identified with a request for a thorough research of all KIAs were provided. After much discussion and input from the Honorary Chairmen of the Memorial Fund, the Board decided that everyone assigned to a designated aircrew position, on an assigned squadron combat operations mission, and died as a result of injuries sustained in an operational mission and in a VMO-6 aircraft, would be memorialized on the monument This would include pilots, copilots, crew chiefs, door gunners, aerial observers, and Naval corpsman. Squadron members who died on the ground as a result of enemy hostile actions will also be memorialized. ****************************************************************************************************************************
May 2011:
The Board of Directors agreed that the names on the memorial with rank, full first name, middle initial, and last name. It was also agreed that there was no need to list the awards on the monument. It was reported there has been contact with a VMO-6 Korean war veteran who would like to know how to get in touch with more Korean war vets. A couple of useful references such as the Korean War Project.org were mentioned that might aid his search.
A response to our letter from the Marine Corps History Division was received on names of casualties and other policy issues. They did send a copy of a Casualty Notification Card of some KIAs but did not answer many of our questions. On policy issues, the Marine Corps History Division pointed out that the Heritage Foundation is a private entity and as such is allowed to make their own rules for the Park and the Monuments.The squadron member database still needs to be improved. It contains over
1,300 names, most of which have incomplete or no contact information. Members are asked to send their contact information to anyone on the “Directors/Advisors” link on http://vmo6memorial.homestead.com/Board-Info.html to assist in finding the missing details.****************************************************************************************************************************
April 2011:
An announcement email on the VMO-6 Memorial Project was sent to 357 squadron members listed in a database that was compiled during the past five years. Since minimal effort was spent on maintaining an updated email address database in the past, 30% of the emails were returned as undeliverable. Mailing addresses are known for most of those who did not get the email and the next effort will be to send them a postal letter. A separate database is being developed for squadron “Family and Friends.” The listing includes names and email and postal addresses of spouses and family members of surviving squadron members as well as non-squadron friends. Letters will be especially crafted for family and friend members for their assistance in financially supporting the memorial project.The Board is developing final monument plans that will be submitted to the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation (MCHF) for approval. Included in the proposal is a commemorative brick program whereby squadron, family, and friend members will be able to purchase a brick with specific engravings to honor or remember a squadron member or event. These bricks will be inserted in rows and level with the walkway around the squadron monument. Announcement of the squadron brick program is contingent upon obtaining approval of the MCHF and the Board agreeing to any requirements and stipulations.****************************************************************************************************************************
March 2011:
The Board of Directors sent a letter to the Director, Marine Corps Historical Division and requested: (1) verification of VMO-6 combat causalities resulting from operations in Nicaragua, WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam;
(2) policy on treatment of casualties in country of operations resulting from non-combat deaths;
(3) policy on putting names of Naval Air Observers on monument who died in squadron aircraft resulting from combat operations but not assigned to squadron; and
(4) standard or policy on indicating individual awards on monument.
Based on Monument Guidelines from by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation/National Marine Corps Museum, the Board considered a series of monument of sketches rendered by Wayne Wright Design. On March 23, the Board narrowed the proposals and has focused on a sleek airfoil design.****************************************************************************************************************************
February 2011:
After months of working with the President, Marine Corps Combat Helicopter Association (CHA), an agreement was reached whereby donations to the VMO-6 Memorial Fund will qualify as a charitable contribution for tax purposes. A Letter of Agreement between the Fund Board of Directors and the CHA was signed on 6Feb2011 that authorizes the VMO-6 Memorial Fund be affiliated with and have a CHA managed banking account. The USMC/CHA is a Tax Exempt 501(c)(19) organization.****************************************************************************************************************************
January 2011:
Lieutenant General William Bill Maloney, USMC (Ret), and Lieutenant General Bill White, USMC (Ret), agreed to support the Memorial Fund Project and will be Honorary Chairmen of the endeavor. As Lieutenant Colonels, both were Commanding Officers of VMO-6 in Vietnam. A Memorial Fund post office box for donations and communications with respondents was opened. The address is: VMO-6 Memorial Fund, P. O. Box 222, Mount Vernon, VA 22121-0222. Checks submitted for donations to the fund should be payable to: VMO-6 Memorial/USMC CHA.****************************************************************************************************************************
January 2011:
Three monument companies were contact and they submitted similar cost proposals. As a result, the Board determined that $70,000 would be needed to design, build, transport, and install the monument. The Modlich Monument Company, Columbus, OH, was selected as the contractor to help with all requirements. They also built the 2/4 Marines monument in the park that was erected about three years ago.
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December 2010:
Board of Diretors initiated actions to:
1. Build a Memorial Fund website
2. Establish a Memorial Fund Facebook account
3. Update database of squadron members that contains email and mailing addresses
4. Determine names of squadron combat casualties, and
5. Determine which squadron aircraft should be considered for etchings on the monument.
Board of Directors began twice a month teleconferences with Advisor, and Administrative Services provider. Minutes of meetings are developed and used to document decisions and track actions.****************************************************************************************************************************
November 2010:
Based on a monument sketches developed by Larry Wright's artistic son, the Board approved a sketch of the basic structure as seen on the initial page of the website.Katy Stewart, owner of virtual My Secretarial Services, agreed to provide administrative services and develop minutes of meetings.****************************************************************************************************************************
October 2010:
Bob Whaley consented to be an advisor to the Board. Bob had three tours in VMO-6 and he was the CO about a year before the squadron was decommissioned in 1976. Seven member Memorial Board of Directors selected from a list of volunteers by a three member panel. The Board consists of Gary Bright, David Bushlow, Tom Constantine, Arthur Friend, Red Trivette, Larry Wright, and Ed Kufeldt as the Executive Director. ****************************************************************************************************************************
September 2010:
Email sent to reunion attendees outlining a course of action. Project would take 2-4 years to complete (plan, build, transport, and erect) but want to complete faster if possible.****************************************************************************************************************************
July 2010:
Memorial project was approved by approximately 40 former squadron members at a squadron dinner at the Marine Corps Combat Helicopter Association (also known as "Pop-a-smoke") Reunion in Reno, NV in July 2010. Ed Kufeldt volunteered and was selected to lead the effort. UPDATES
