Disabled American Veterans

Blind Veterans National Chapter #1

WEB SITE: http://www.davbvnc.com/

May-June, 2011 Newsletter

Editor: Dennis O’Connell

 

"IF I CANNOT SPEAK GOOD OF MY COMRADE,

I WILL NOT SPEAK ILL OF HIM OR HER."

 

OFFICERS OF THE BLIND CHAPTER

Commander Dennis O’Connell
Phone 516 328-3438
Email: bvnc1@verizon.net

Senior Vice Commander Richard Bugbee
1st Junior Vice Commander Eddie Humphrey

2nd Junior Vice Commander Joe Wallace

3rd Vice Commander Junior Farley

4th Junior Vice Commander William Burgess
Judge Advocate Dave May
Chaplain Rev. Tony Martino
Phone 847 736 2111
email: Deaconmart@wi.rr.com

Adjutant/Treasurer Paul Kaminsky (also webmaster)

Phone 904 291-0576
email: pkjax@kaminsky.com

Immediate Past Commander Eddie Humphrey

 

 

If you know of any member who is sick or deceased please inform one of the officers whose contact information is listed above.

 

 

REST IN PEACE

Gladstone A Shaw, Anchorage, AK

William H Walkins, Kansas City MO

 

 

MESSAGE FROM THE COMMANDER

There is a consensus that the $40 which was instigated at the 2009 convention where we reimburse a veteran for joining the BVNC will not be renewed after our convention in August. So, let’s get out there and try to get a blind veteran to join our chapter. They can do it one of three ways: 1. If the veteran is not a member of the DAV he/she can just fill out an application to join the BVNC. 2. If a member of the DAV the veteran can just transfer to the BVNC. 3. If the veteran does not want to transfer, he/she can be a joint member. Meaning, stay in the local post and join our chapter.

Hope all will have a peaceful Memorial Day and don’t forget Flag Day on June 14th.

 

 

SOMETHING NEW

Paul Kaminsky has created a Blind Veterans Internet Radio web site http://www.bviradio.com

Presently it has music and information for blind veterans from the DAV and the BVA.

 

 

WITH MEMORIAL DAY COMING UP I THOUGHT THE NEXT FEW ARTICLES WERE APPROPRIATE. I HOPE YOU ENJOY THEM.

 

MEMORIAL DAY POEM               

He was getting old and paunchy and his hair was falling fast,

and he sat around the Legion, telling stories of the past.

Of a war that he once fought in and the deeds that he had done,

In his exploits with his buddies; they were heroes, every one.

And 'tho sometimes to his neighbors his tales became a joke,

all his buddies listened quietly for they knew where of he spoke.

But we'll hear his tales no longer, for ol' Bob has passed away,

and the world's a little poorer for a Soldier died today.

He won't be mourned by many, just his children and his wife.

for he lived an ordinary, very quiet sort of life.

He held a job and raised a family, going quietly on his way;

and the world won't note his passing, 'tho a Soldier died today.

When politicians leave this earth, their bodies lie in state,

while thousands note their passing, and proclaim that they were great.

Papers tell of their life stories from the time that they were young,

but the passing of a Soldier goes unnoticed, and unsung.

Is the greatest contribution to the welfare of our land,

some jerk who breaks his promise and cons his fellow man?

Or the ordinary fellow who in times of war and strife,

goes off to serve his country and offers up his life?

The politician's stipend and the style in which he lives,

are often disproportionate, to the service that he gives.

While the ordinary Soldier, who offered up his all,

is paid off with a medal and perhaps a pension, small.

It is not the politicians with their compromise and ploys,

who won for us the freedom that our country now enjoys.

Should you find yourself in danger, with your enemies at hand,

would you really want some cop-out, with his ever waffling stand?

Or would you want a Soldier--his home, his country, his kin,

just a common Soldier, who would fight until the end.

He was just a common Soldier, and his ranks are growing thin,

but his presence should remind us we may need his like again.

For when countries are in conflict, we find the Soldier's part,

is to clean up all the troubles that the politicians start.

If we cannot do him honour while he's here to hear the praise,

then at least let's give him homage at the ending of his days.

Perhaps just a simple headline in the paper that might say:

"OUR COUNTRY IS IN MOURNING,

                    A SOLDIER DIED TODAY."

 

 

THE STORY OF TAPS:

Of all the military bugle calls, none is so easily recognized or more apt to render emotion than the call Taps. The melody is both eloquent and haunting

and the history of its origin is interesting and somewhat clouded in controversy. In the British Army, a similar call known as Last Post has been sounded over soldiers' graves since 1885, but the use of Taps is unique with the United States military, since the call is sounded at funerals, wreath-laying and memorial services.

The 24-note melancholy bugle call known as  "'taps" is thought to be a revision of a French bugle signal, called "tattoo," that notified soldiers to cease an  evening's drinking and return to their garrisons. It was  sounded an hour before the final bugle call to end the  day by extinguishing fires and lights. The last five  measures of the tattoo resemble taps.

The word "taps" is an alteration of the obsolete  word "taptoo," derived from the Dutch "taptoe."  Taptoe was the command -- "Tap toe!"  to shut  ("toe to") the "'tap" of a keg.

The revision that gave us present-day taps was  made during America's Civil War by Union Gen.  Daniel Adams Butterfield, heading a brigade camped  at Harrison Landing, Va., near Richmond. Up to that  time, the U.S. Army's infantry call to end the day was  the French final call, "L'Extinction des feux." Gen.  Butterfield decided the "lights out" music was too  formal to signal the day's end. One day in July 1862  he recalled the tattoo music and hummed a version of  it to an aide, who wrote it down in music. Butterfield then asked the brigade bugler, 0liver W. Norton, to  play the notes and, after

listening, lengthened and  shortened them while keeping his original melody. He ordered Norton to play this new call at the  end of each day thereafter, instead of the regulation  call. The music was heard and appreciated by other brigades, who asked for copies and adopted this bugle  call. It was even adopted by Confederate buglers.

This music was made the official Army bugle  call after the war, but not given the name "taps" until  1874.

The first time taps was played at a military  funeral may also have been in Virginia soon after  Butterfield composed it. Union Capt. John Tidball,  head of an artillery battery, ordered it played for the  burial of a cannoneer killed in action. Not wanting to  reveal the battery's position in the woods to the enemy  nearby, Tidball substituted taps for the traditional  three rifle volleys fired over the grave. Taps was  played at the funeral of Confederate Gen. Stonewall  Jackson 10 months after it was composed. Army infantry regulations by 1891 required taps to be played  at military funeral ceremonies.

Taps now is played by the military at burial  and memorial services, to

accompany the lowering of  the flag and to signal the "lights out" command at day's end.

“Day is done

Gone the sun

From the lakes, From the hills, From the sky

All is well,

safely rest.

God is nigh.

Fading light

Dims the sight

And a star Gems the sky, Gleaning bright

From afar,

Drawing nigh,

Falls the night.

Thanks and praise,

For our days,

Neath the sun, Neath the stars, Neath the sky,

As we go,

This we know,

God is nigh.”

 

 

WHAT IS A VET? By Father Denis Edward O'Brien, USMC

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg - or perhaps another sort of inner steel:

The soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can't tell a vet just by looking.

What is a vet?

He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia

sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.

He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in

the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th

parallel.

She - or he - is the nurse who fought against futility and went

to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't come back AT ALL.

He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat -

but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account

red necks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to

watch each other's backs.

He is the parade - riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons

and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns,

whose Presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - annoyingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is the blind man or woman with a white cane, a guide dog, or a cane that makes funny noises to alarm them he or she is approaching something like a step, wall, or curb. He or she too is the one who is rarely spoken to but rather whispered about or pointed to. Otherwise for the most part all but totally ignored, all while living with the memory of the last sight or vision was of horror.

He or she too is the one in the wheel chair in a tattered coat trying

to find refuge from the wind and shelter from the storms of war in their mind.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - a

person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of

his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not

have to sacrifice theirs.

He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness,

and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on

behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

 So remember, each time you see someone who has served our

country, just lean over and say Thank You. That's all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.

Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU".

 

 

BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING LAUNCHES EYENOTE™APP TO HELP THE BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED DENOMINATE US CURRENCY

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) has developed a free downloadable application (app) to assist the blind and visually impaired denominate US currency. The app is called EyeNote™. EyeNote™ is a mobile device app designed for Apple iPhone (3G, 3Gs, 4), and the 4th Generation iPod Touch and iPad2 platforms, and is available through the Apple iTunes App Store.   

EyeNote™ uses image recognition technology to determine a note’s denomination. The mobile device’s camera requires 51 percent of a note’s scanned image, front or back, to process. In a matter of seconds, EyeNote™ can provide an audible or vibrating response, and can denominate all Federal Reserve notes issued since 1996. Free downloads will be available whenever new US currency designs are introduced.  Research indicates that more than 100,000 blind and visually impaired individuals could currently own an Apple iPhone.

The EyeNoteTM app is one of a variety of measures the government is working to deploy to assist the visually impaired community to denominate currency, as proposed in a recent Federal Register notice. These measures include implementing a Currency Reader Program whereby a United States resident, who is blind or visually impaired, may obtain a coupon that can be applied toward the purchase of a device to denominate United States currency; continuing to add large high contrast numerals and different background colors to redesigned currency; and, raised tactile features may be added to. redesigned currency, which would provide users with a means of identifying each denomination via touch.

More information is available at http://www.eyenote.gov/ or through email at eyenote@bep.gov.

More information can be found also at: http://www.bep.treas.gov/uscurrency/meaningfulaccess

 

 

 

 

 

 

GOD BLESS AMERICA!