Region VIII — Southwest Region
Chapter 14 celebrated the holiday with a dinner out at Dinner at Old Fisherman’s Grotto in Central Coast California. In attendance were Steven Ponsi, Chris Shake, Steven King, Ken Bachini, Alan Cotta, Bill Obermeyer, and Dov Simens
We had a great Christmas party at the Double Tree Hotel in Mesa. It was a new venue for us and we had a great turnout of members. The food was excellent, and we had lots of raffle prizes. The winner of the 1911 .45 handgun was Doug Fuhrman, who donated it back to the chapter. We also installed officers for the next two year term, with Dan DuRocher stepping up (again) to take the reins as President.
Unfortunately, the chapter suffered the loss of one of our long-time members, Les “Zero” Parrish. He will be missed by all who knew him.
Spring seems to have arrived a little early this year, and it will be a busy time for the Chapter as we will be recognizing outstanding JROTC Cadets throughout the valley. We will also have our Spring Fling event in Tucson at the Chuck Ford Park April 18th, and a second day trip to the Titan II Missile museum. In addition, we will make our annual trip to Safford for Memorial Day weekend (30 May) and conduct a gravesite ceremony for our Chapter namesake, Walter Bruce Foote.
Looking ahead, July 10-12 we will have our Summer Getaway. We will be returning to Alpine AZ, located in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona. We have a “block” reservation at the Tal-Wi-Wi Lodge in Alpine; there are some great restaurants in the area, and as always, we will be conducting some weapons “familiarization” firing. So if you want to escape the valley heat in July, bring the family, guns, and lots of ammo and join us.
Anyone looking for more information on our Chapter, activities, and photos from events, is welcome to visit our website at www.sfa22arizona.org
John B. Alexander enlisted in the Army in 1956 and joined the reactivated 101st ABN Div as a medic. In 1958 he graduated from Ranger School, was promoted to SGT E-5 and became an instructor at the 101st Jump School. In 1960 he joined Special Forces and attended Pathfinder School. As an SFC (E-7) in 1964 he became the honor graduate at Infantry OCS. In 1965 he attended SFOC and was assigned to B Co. 7th SFGA at Ft Bragg. Hearing of “the original good deal,” he volunteered for D Co, 1st SFGA and deployed to Thailand as XO of A-424. In 1967 he was promoted to CPT and took over as team leader for A-4624, now 46th SF Co. His next assignment for all of 1968 was as Team Leader of A-421 (Ba Xoai), 5th, SFGA in the Seven Mountains area of the Vietnam Delta. In 1970 he joined BG Singlaub at Project MASSTER, Ft Hood. Later he led projects of phenomenology at INSCOM. As a COL his last AD assignment was Director, Advanced System Concepts, Laboratory Command. Retiring in1988 he joined Los Alamos National Laboratory until 1995. For several years he was an advisor to USSOCOM and the CIA. In 2003, as a contractor, he went to Afghanistan as a mentor to the Minister of Defence. Later, for a decade he was a senior fellow for JSOU. Periodically Dr. Alexander was involved in several NATO studies, the Council on Foreign Relations, National Research Council and the Army Science Board. In 1993 he was an Aviation Week Aerospace Laureate. Then in 2001 he was inducted into the Infantry OCS Hall of Fame and in 2012 received a US Army Military Intelligence Knowlton Award.
Chapter 75 sends greetings from sunny San Diego.
We are working on a shooting anfd casino weekend at the Pala Hotel and Casino in Temecula, CA. Their 800 yard outdoor rnge is about 2 miles from the hotel.
Until next time, stay well, take care of each other and pray for the military men and women serving this great republic – De Oppresso Liber”
A lot went on this quarter. The guest speaker for November’s chapter meeting was James Stejskal, a former Special Forces and intelligence professional. Now an author of both non-fiction and historical thrillers, including Special Forces Berlin: Clandestine Cold War Operations of the U.S. Army’s Elite, 1956–1990. Stejskal gave an overview of his background before presenting on the book’s focus: the 39th Special Forces Detachment (Airborne), or Detachment “A,” a clandestine Green Beret unit based in West Berlin from 1956–1984, offering a rare look into the unit’s mission and legacy.
At the meeting, Ch78 was given a thank you plaque by DET West for supporting one of their members during his long recovery from an auto accident. They also showed a video of him thanking the chapter for their help, and gave info on a go fund me website for his long recovery.
A few members attended the C1/19 SFNG Company’s annual Dining Out, and they presented Chapter 78 with a recognition for years of supporting the company and their families.
Our December Christmas Party speaker was Norma Shinno Irving Donlon, author of Soldiers Widow, Soldiers Husband, Soldiers Mother. We also had the Sunburst Youth Academy, whom the chapter supports, providing the color guards as guests to the dinner. Other notable guests were SFA President Chris Wilkerson with Lisa Jacobs, and SFA Chapter 75 President Lee Jacobs with Chapter 75 member Gary Clark. We also had crooner Frank DaSilvo singing Frank Sinatra classics.
At the CSU Fullerton ROTC graduation ceremony, the Special Forces Award of Outstanding Achievement was presented to newly-commissioned Lt. Kyle Debisaran by Chapter Secrtary Gary Macnamara.Gary Macnamara, acting as Chapter 78’s ROTC Program Coordinator, presented 2LT Debisaran with the Special Forces Award of outstanding achievement. 2LT Debisaran also received a check for $500.0 from our Chapter and a copy of the US Constitution.
Our January speaker was former Ranger Ryan Antes who recounted his experience as the radioman on the 2003 Jessica Lynch rescue mission, the first successful rescue of an American prisoner of war since World War II, and the first ever of a woman.
SFNG C/1/19 MSG Chris Lasala, who recently took over, talked about recruiting efforts and more.
We are looking forward to our 3rd very successful annual Valor Lunch fundraising event on 19 April. Our speaker will be SOG legend and author of the Code Name Dynamite books, which are both a riveting story and a manual on how to do deep recon missions.
DET West, a group of ASOT instructors, made a presentation to Chapter 78’s officers of a plaque thanking the chapter for its support of their critically injured teammate, John Greenbush.
Also, upcoming activities such as meeting at Iron Mike’s Gun Shop, and planning a June trip to Normandy.
