NAVY LEAGUE OF THE UNITED STATES

Citizens in Support of the Sea Services

Denver Council Peak News, 10 (4), September 2020

Denver Council Virtual meeting featuring the

Chief of Staff, Expeditionary Strike Group

THREE, Brian Quin, Captain, USN and hon-

oring our Top Sea Cadets of the Year

I hope this newsletter finds everyone safe and healthy,

and doing well in this “new normal” of the pandemic. We

have seen many events cancelled or postponed, including

the Navy League National Convention. Our board of di-

rectors also voted NOT to meet in person for our Denver

Council dinner scheduled for September 25th. Please see

instructions for Virtual registration via computer or

phone, noted in this newsletter.

Our guest speaker for the Friday 25 September Virtual

Meeting is my son, Captain Brian Quin, Chief of Staff for

Expeditionary Strike Group THREE, who will speak on

the recent devastating fire onboard USS Bonhomme

Richard (LHD 6). Captain Quin has extensive first-hand

knowledge of this event, since this ship is within his

command. He will also address other issues impacting

the Navy, such as the COVID-19 response. This will be a

not-to-be-missed presentation.

Jim Quin, Council President

Captain Brian Quin

Chief of Staff, Expeditionary Strike

Group THREE

Commissioned in 1991

through Northwestern Univer-

sity’s NROTC program, Cap-

tain Brian Quin has served over

15 years at sea on cruisers, de-

stroyers, and amphibious

ships. He has deployed multi-

ple times and has completed a

career circumnavigation

of the globe.

Captain Quin has nearly six years in command, includ-

ing command of USS GRIDLEY (DDG 101), USS AN-

CHORAGE (LPD 23), USS SOMERSET (LPD 25), and

USS ESSEX (LHD 2).

He was also the senior technical advisor to season 1 of

TNT’s “The Last Ship” television series. Since 2017, he

has been chief of staff for Commander, Expeditionary

Strike Group THREE / Amphibious Force Third Fleet.

Council Officer & Executive Board

Member Elections

We are currently developing a slate of candidates for

Council Officer and Executive Board Member positions

to be voted on during the NOVEMBER meeting. These

positions are:

Officers:

President Secretary

Executive Vice-President Treasurer

Executive Board:

Council Contact Photographer

Membership Recruiting Newsletter Editor

Membership Retention Council Awards

Military Affairs Council Chaplain

Legislative Affairs Youth Programs

Social Media Public Relations

Members-at-Large

Those interested in running for ANY position should

email Council Contact David Fong at:

dfong@lexdiv.org.

Council members assist Commander Navy

Recruiting Command, Rear Adm. Dennis

Velez

Members of the Denver

Council were requested to as-

sist the Commander Navy Re-

cruiting Command, Rear

Adm. Dennis Velez, for a first

-ever Virtual National confer-

ence call. Purpose of the July

14 conference was to discuss how leaders in the commu-

nity could assist Navy Recruiting in attracting the “best

and brightest” to man our future Navy. Attendees were

Rear Adm. Richard “Dick” Young, (ret.); Captain Dave

Oppenheim (ret.); and Council Exec. VP, Dan Puleio.

The Denver Council was chosen to lead the conference

due to their particularly dynamic community network and

the fact that lifetime member, Rear Adm. Richard “Dick”

Young started the national Recruiting District Assistance

Council (RDAC) concept at the inception of

the all-volunteer Navy back in 1972.

Denver Council Page 2

President’s Column

Once again, I hope this newsletter

finds everyone safe and healthy and

doing well in this “new normal” of the

pandemic. We have seen many events

cancelled or postponed, including the

complete cancellation of the Navy

League National Convention. We will

additionally not be meeting in person

for our Denver Council dinner scheduled for September

25th.

Sadly, one of our board members, Rick Martin, passed

away tragically on May 20th from injuries sustained in a

boating accident. Rick was a long time Navy League

member and an accomplished attorney and author. We

will miss his good counsel and his wry sense of humor.

Although we were not able to host this year’s maritime

academy appointees and NROTC scholarship recipients

from our area at our (cancelled) May meeting, we sent

letters of congratulations to all of them thanks to the per-

sistent efforts of Dan Puleio.

The Denver Council continued our tradition of awards

to outstanding students in MCJROTC programs and

NROTC programs this spring. Although we were not able

to present these awards in person, all recipients received

their awards. Thank you Joe Mahaffey for all your efforts

on the awards.

In March, the Navy League national office awarded the

prestigious Scroll of Honor to Florence Mackin in recog-

nition of her many years of outstanding service to the

Denver Council and to the Navy League in general. Most

recently, Florence served as Council Treasurer, Social

Media Director and Council Contact, and was very active

with the USS Colorado Commissioning Committee. She

has also coordinated our annual Holiday Bazaars. Con-

gratulations Florence, on this well-deserved award.

During the last week of July, I had the privilege of serv-

ing as a mentor for a virtual STEM camp jointly spon-

sored by the Society of American Military Engineers

(SAME) and the Naval Academy. We had 140 high

school students participating on-line in this first-ever vir-

tual experience.

I look forward to the day when we can once again meet

together in person. Meanwhile, stay safe, and don’t forget

to renew your membership when it is due.

Jim Quin, Council President

USS Colorado Submarine Association

In July the Association had

planned to host a visit by the

USS Colorado’s Commanding

Officer, Chief of the Boat and

two junior enlisted sailors.

Unfortunately, due to travel

restrictions, the visit was

called off. However, in place

of the visit, we hosted two Virtual meetings with key

members of the boat’s leadership in mid-August. The

meetings were led by the Commanding Officer, CDR

Garth Storz, the outgoing Executive Officer, LCDR Ken-

ny Kirkwood, the incoming Executive Officer, LCDR

Jeremy Wheelis, and the Chief of the Boat, Master Chief

Chip Alger.

At each call, the boat’s leadership discussed the current

status of the boat and crew, their response to COVID-19,

and their performance on their recently completed first

deployment. The presentations were followed by ques-

tion and answer sessions. We believe this is the first ses-

sion of this type between a crew and their support organi-

zation.

We received a number of comments from attendees that

they enjoyed the sessions and hoped we could continue

them in the future. In the hopes that travel will ease in

2021 we are beginning to think about trips to New Lon-

don to visit the boat in the spring.

In July, the first USS Colorado Scholarship was award-

ed to Renee Prieto of Mystic, CT. Her sponsor is former

crew member STS1 Messina. Renee will commence

studies in Nursing this Fall.

The scholarship was established by the USS Colorado

Commissioning Committee with money raised in con-

junction with fundraising for Commissioning Week activ-

ities. It is administered by the Dolphin Scholarship Foun-

dation, a non-profit organization that raises funds to ease

the financial burden of education for eligible members

of the Submarine Force and their dependents.

If you like the work we’re doing, please consider joining

us by becoming a member of the Association at:

www.usscoloradosubassoc.org

Don Price, President

NAVY LEAGUE OF THE UNITED STATES

Citizens in Support of the Sea Services

Denver Council Page 3

Sea Cadets Update

Both cadet units have experienced challenges from the

restrictions imposed by the corona virus pandemic. How-

ever, these chal-

lenges have been

mostly overcome

by the innovation,

hard work and dedi-

cated efforts of the

units’ leadership

and support staffs

under Lexington Division Commanding Officer LT Greg

Hall, NSCC and Training Ship Colorado Commanding

Officer LT David Gilfillan, NSCC assisted by the Sea

Cadet National Headquarters Support Team.

Lexington Division – Over the summer, cadets com-

pleted a total of 50 on-line trainings in a variety of topics

such as medical response, celestial navigation, FAA

Ground School, robotics and submarine operations.

The unit has now returned to nearly fully operational,

meeting in person, practicing all the requirements of so-

cial distancing, temperature checks and wearing masks.

They recently completed a weekend drill involving a

ropes/challenge course along

with mandatory training on

the prevention of hazing and

sexual harassment, and are

currently participating in a

local five-day duration boot

camp. The unit continues to

grow and recently brought

aboard five new cadets along

with three transferees from

Training Ship Colorado who had reached their fourteenth

birthday.

Training Ship Colorado – While regrouping to deal

with restrictions imposed by the pandemic, league cadets

were individually challenged to use that time to complete

the coursework and pass the promotion exams for their

next two higher ranks. Seventy-five percent of the cadets

successfully completed this challenge and the remainder

are diligently continuing to pursue completion. Summer

training courses were virtual and cadets completed about

20 online courses on topics such as aviation, first

aid, and submarine operations. The cadets’ recruit train-

ing involved 40 hours online followed by a two-day in-

person drill weekend while observing the necessary re-

strictions. In June, the unit received exciting news from

Sea Cadet National Headquarters that Training Ship Col-

orado had been ranked as the number two League Cadet

Unit out of the 90-plus Training Ships in the nation, a

remarkable accomplishment made possible by the hard

work and dedication of the cadets, adult volunteers, par-

ents and leaders. The unit continues to grow with new

cadets joining every month.

The Denver Council is extremely proud of all our sea

cadets.

LT Greg Hall & LT David Gilfillan, NSCC

In Memoriam –

Ralph Michael (Rick) Martin

Longmont Patent Attorney and long-

time member and Board Member of the

Denver Council, Rick Martin passed

away May 20th at Medical Center of the

Rockies, Loveland. He was 75 years of

age. Rick’s death resulted from fatal

injuries suffered during a tragic weather-

related sailboating accident on Carter

Lake on May 19th.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, he earned a degree in

physics from Bucknell University and later, in his 40’s, a

law degree in Florida. He utilized his degrees in physics

and law to become a registered patent attorney. After

practicing patent law in Florida, he moved to Colorado

where he founded and operated his patent law office in

Longmont for 25 years before his untimely demise. Our

deepest condolences go to his wife Tanya and family.

NAVY LEAGUE OF THE UNITED STATES

Citizens in Support of the Sea Services

U.S. Navy

U.S. Coast Guard

U.S. Flag Merchant Marine

National and Local Dues

Please remember to keep up with your Navy League nation-

al dues (and keep Sea Power magazine coming to you) and our

local Council annual dues of $15 per individual or $25 per cou-

ple. These local dues became mandatory in January 2019 and

are a key element in supporting Council initiatives.

Naval Academy/SAME Joint STEM

Camp

During the last week in July, I had the privilege of

serving as a mentor for a virtual STEM (Science, Tech-

nology, Engineering and Math) camp for high school

students that was jointly sponsored by the Society of

American Military Engineers (SAME) and the Naval

Academy. In normal times, SAME sponsors several in-

person camps at various locations across the country,

including the Air Force Academy and Scott Air Force

Base, IL; Vicksburg, MS (Army); Camp Lejeune, NC

(Marines) and Port Hueneme, CA (Navy). The Naval

Academy normally runs three STEM camps each sum-

mer on campus at Annapolis. This year things were

different, in that all of the in-person camps were can-

celled due to COVID-19.

The Naval Academy then elected to do a first ever on

-line version of their camps weekly during the month

of July.

I am a long-time member of SAME and served as

instructor at the Air Force Academy camp in the late

1990s and early 2000s. I

was asked to serve as a

mentor for this year’s

virtual camp and accept-

ed the challenge.

For my actual camp,

we had 140 students from all over the country, with

one student participating from Japan. The campers

were divided into nine Strike Groups of 14 or 15 stu-

dents. The Strike Groups were named for carriers and

amphibious assault ships. Three mentors (all volun-

teers) were assigned to each strike group. I was a men-

tor for the Carl Vinson Strike Group. The other two

mentors in my strike group were both active duty per-

sonnel – one a Navy Sea Bee (E5) who joined us from

his current assignment at the US Embassy in Kabul,

Afghanistan, and the other, a Coast Guard commander

(helicopter pilot) currently in San Francisco.

My specific camp began on Monday, July 27, with a

Welcome Brief and introductions by Naval Academy

personnel, a strike group meet and greet, a virtual tour

of the Naval Academy grounds, a presentation on

“What it Means to Serve” and the first day of a virtual

scavenger hunt of The Yard. For the scavenger hunt

(different questions each day) the students had to the

go to the Naval Academy Museum website to find cer-

tain objects and answer questions about naval history.

Tuesday consisted of a virtual tour of the Smithsonian

Museums in Washington. Wednesday through Friday

consisted of technical sessions in the morning, all

taught by Naval Academy faculty, a half hour break for

lunch, and then 3-hour strike group sessions in the af-

ternoon, where the students worked on the challenge

presented in the morning

presentation. Wednes-

day was the cyber chal-

lenge, devoted to cryp-

tology. Students had to

code and decode mes-

sages using various

techniques. At the end

of the day on Wednes-

day, students watched a

presentation titled “Character Does Matter” and in our

strike groups we discussed the ideas of leadership, eth-

ics, and character.

Thursday was the engineering design challenge,

where students had to design and build a parachute for

an object such as an aluminum soft drink can that

would cause the object to achieve a terminal velocity

of 1 meter/second while falling through the air. Oddly

enough, this was the only exercise that I personally

completed successfully. The final day was devoted to

computer programming, using Python code. The chal-

lenge was to create a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors on

the computer. At the end of the day we had an awards

ceremony citing the outstanding students in each strike

group, and talks by the President and the National Ex-

ecutive Director of SAME.

In our strike group the students were actively engaged

and eager to help each other. I came away from the

experience with renewed confidence in these young

men and women who will be our future leaders.

Denver Council Page 4

NAVY LEAGUE OF THE UNITED STATES

Citizens in Support of the Sea Services

Denver Council Navy League Peak Newsletter is an official publication of the Denver Council, serving the members and community of Colorado. This publication does not necessarily reflect the official views of the National Navy League or Department of Defense.

Stories and artwork may be submitted via email to the editor at mahaffey10@aol.com Electronic versions available upon request.

Find out more on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/DenverCouncil/

Denver Council Page 5

NAVY LEAGUE OF THE UNITED STATES

Citizens in Support of the Sea Services

Navy Recruit Receives “Citizenship

Award” for Lifesaving Actions

In Ceremonies conducted August 26 at the Mountain

View, Colo. Police station, a young Navy recruit, Garrett

Liddiard, was presented the Department’s Citizenship

award for lifesaving actions as the first responder to a

multiple car injury acci-

dent.

Signed by Chief of

Police Steven R. Davis,

the Citation reads in

part, “ On May 2nd 2020

at the location of Inter-

state 76 and 88 Avenue

exit, you assisted off

duty Chief of Police Steven Davis at a multiple car injury

accident. On that day several people were critically in-

jured and trapped inside the vehicle. Without hesitation

you stopped and placed yourself in danger, injuring your

hand while breaking a window to rescue occupants inside

the vehicle. Due to your assistance and teamwork with

others on this chaotic scene, all of the occupants inside the

vehicle were rescued and received medical treatment. As

the Chief of Police I thank you. Your assistance will never

be forgotten. We present you today with the Chief of Po-

lice Award and thank you for your amazing community

service”.

Chief Steve Davis later confided in Council member

Dan Puleio, that he was a military veteran himself and

how impressed he was with this fine young man and his

decision to join the Navy. Garrett Liddiard “shipped” to

Boot Camp on 1 September.

U.S. Navy

U.S. Coast Guard

U.S. Flag Merchant Marine

Fall Dinner “Virtual” Meeting

Friday, September 25, 2020, 7 PM

Due to the continuing social distancing imposed

by the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Denver Council

will be conducting the Friday 25 September 7 PM

meeting Virtually, at no cost to you, using the

Google Meets platform.

To be invited to the meeting, RSVP by Tuesday,

September 22nd via our Navy League RSVP site:

www.blacktie-colorado.com.

Enter event code DNL0925 (All one word, not

case sensitive.)

Provide your preferred email address and phone

number to receive later log-in instructions. Since

this is a new format for our meeting we ask that

you please not wait to the last minute to RSVP.

If you will not be using a computer, we will also

provide a dial-in phone number and log in pass-

word. Utilizing a land-line versus a cell phone is

recommended.

Your Denver Council Board of Directors, thank

you for your patience during these trying times and

for your ever–present support of the national award

-winning Denver Council.

Online Resources:

Navy League National:

https://www.navyleague.org/

Denver Council Navy League:

www.navyleague-denvercouncil.org/

Denver Council Flickr photo albums:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131150115@N07/albums/

Denver Council Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/DenverCouncil/

USS Colorado committee:

https://usscoloradocommittee.org/

USS Colorado (SSN-788) Submarine Association

https://usscoloradosubassoc.org