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John Basilone Detachment #190 Marine Corps League

Detachment Bi-Monthly Newsletter

From the Editor

In this issue you will find the yearly calendar on pages 4 & 5. On March 9 we have the flag retirement ceremony in Menlo Park that was postponed from January. Also, on March 20 there is the Youth Physical Fitness at Rutgers where we help. All are invited to the staff meeting on March 17. Also, there are our regular bingo and sing alongs in March and April. Help is always appreciated at the fund raiser at Branchburg Shop Rite on April 19. Come on out if you can make it. Semper Fi, Jim Velcheck

Volume 11 Issue 2 March 1, 2013 Mel Meszaros Commandant March/April 2013 Newsletter Jim Velcheck Editor

Detachment Web Site: www.johnbasilonedetachment.org Detachment E-Mail: johnbasilonedetachment@gmail.com

NJ MCL Web Site: www.njmcl.org National MCL Web Site: www.mcleague.com

Editor Jim Velcheck: 732-752-6358; JimVelcheck@msn.com 1722 W. 4th St, Piscataway, NJ 08854

MEETINGS ARE HELD THE FIRST (1ST) MONDAY OF EVERY MONTH AT THE AMERICAN LEGION POST 25, MILLTOWN, NEW JERSEY AT 1930 HRS

From the Membership Officer:

National HQ is again sending out dues reminders. However, there are still some members of the John Basilone Detach-ment who are late with their dues payments. Here is a list of our members who are late by my records. If you have MCL license plates and your membership expires, your plates will be re-called by the state of New Jersey.

Mansour, Dennis – Nov. 2012, Piccoli, Joseph – May 2012, Schlesier, Vincent – June 2012, Yelencsics, Steve – Oct.2012

Trautwein, John—June 2012, Osterman, Kenneth – Nov. 2012, Buzney, Donald – Sep.2012, Zollinger, John – Sep. 2012 Jurewicz, James – Oct.2012, Murphy, Donald – Sep. 2012, Abraham, Joseph—Feb. 2012

Make check for $31.00 payable to John Basilone Det. #190. Mail to John Heacock, PO Box 235, Kingston NJ 08528.

Any corrections or questions please contact me: John Heacock, Membership Officer

Email j.c.heacock@comcast.net Phone 609/924-0074 Semper/Fi

Please Support Our Corporate Sponsors; see page 6

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Officers and Staff November 2012 - November 2013

Commandant:…………. Mel Meszaros 732-718-6460 Sr. Vice Com:……….... Rudy Persaud 908-783-7325 Jr. Vice Com:………..Vincent Schlesier 732-710-0418 Judge Advocate: ..........Jim Velcheck 732-752-6358 Adjutant:…………………... Fred Billand 848-218-6638 Paymaster:……………….John Heacock 609-924-0074 Chaplain:…………………. Stan Szumel 732-752-3846 Sgt. At Arms:………........... Gil Castro 732-248-1915 Food For The Needy: . Harriet Sosley 732-469-0005 Membership: ………….. John Heacock 609-924-0074 Honor Guard: …….. Norm Bloomfield 609-409-1110 VAS Officer: ……....... John Heacock 609-924-0074 Fund Drives: ………...... Stan Szumel 732-752-3846 Ed Sphatt 732-247-5792 Phone Squad:……. Vincent Schlesier 732-710-0418 Quartermaster:…... Norm Bloomfield 609-409-1110 Aide De Camp:……...… Ruth Lincoln Menlo Park Eagle Scouts…... Ray Skarzynski, PC 732-257-4582 Web Sergeants:………... Cliff Walling 732-613-0441 Doug Rattazzi 609-296-2345 Newsletter:……….….... Jim Velcheck 732-752-6358

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

If your birthday and/or anniversary does not appear here when it should it means we don’t have your info. Call or email it to me (732-752-6358 or JimVelcheck@msn.com) or give it to me at a meeting.

Honor Guard Report The following funeral services and rifle sa-lutes were rendered by the John Basilone Color/Honor Guard for the month of Febru-ary....Feb. 6 Funeral-- Marine William Kehoe ...Feb.7 Rifle Salute....Feb.7 Funeral-- Marine Jim Cavallaro.....Feb.10 Funeral--Marine George Dolias...Feb 11 Rifle Sa-lute...Feb 13 Commandant Mel Meszaros and H/C Guard Captain Norm Bloomfield at-tended the funeral of Ben Roth Exec. Director JWV. H/C Guard Capt. Norm Bloomfield

At our April and May meetings nominations for Ma-rine of the Year will be accepted. These nomina-tions must be in resume form describing in as much detail as possible why your nominee de-serves this honor. Recipient of the award will be announced at the May meeting. Come on out and nominate your choice! There is a college scholarship from the Department of NJ for children and grandchildren of NJ Marine Corps League members in good standing. For a copy of the application contact Jim Velcheck and he will send you a copy. Applications are due by June 1 at the latest. There are also scholarships available from our Na-tional Marine Corps League organization and from the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation (this one is mostly for children of Marines and Corpsmen - limited availability for grandchildren & must be ap-plied for online). The link below will take you to the page of our national website where you will be able to access information and applications for both of these scholarships. If you do not have internet ac-cess you can contact me or Jim Velcheck and we will get the MCL application to you. When I checked the national application it still shows the application for last year. I would imagine the appli-cation for this year will be available soon.

http://www.mcleague.com/mdp/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=29

S/F, M. Meszaros

Commandant’s Report

John Loftus Mar 1 Randy Crotzer Mar 6 Richard Rydstrom Mar 8 Charles Myers Mar 9 John Pfeiffer Mar 14 Tim Braden Mar 17 John Ryan Mar 27

John Kuhlthau Mar 28

Ray Skarzynski Mar 28

Rosemary Fleming Mar 30 Raymond Houck Mar 31 Joseph Piccoli Apr 2 Dennis Mansour Apr 4 Ken Osterman Apr 9

Gil Castro Apr 16

Karlo Sarmiento Apr 20

Joseph Duh Apr 21

Charles Kelly Apr 29

Tim & Anne Braden Mar 2 Rudy & Miriam Persaud Mar 23 George & Katherine Anderson Apr 4 Richard & Daiasila Manser Apr 12 John & Marge Heacock Apr 23 Robert & Eileen Imbraco Apr 26 Ralph & Barbara Meade Apr 28

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

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From the Quartermaster: Items for sale 1 new pair of shoes size 11, black, velcro lace “Ambulatory” $5.00 1 new pair of shoes size 11, black, velcro lace Ortho $5.00 1 slightly used pair of dress shoes size 11 $5.00

Contact Norm Bloomfield 609-409-1110 or cvboomer@aol.com

At our February meeting we had our annual memorial ceremony honoring John Basilone. February 19 marks the date he was killed in the invasion of the island of Iwo Jima. Marine Norm Bloomfield read a tribute to Basilone that he wrote. It was a moving ceremony. This photo is of the cake we shared that night. Photo by Ray Skarzynski.

Ski’s grand daughter is a government agent who was recently on Saipan for government business. She brought back this postcard and photos of the island. In the battle for Saipan 28,000 Japanese troops died, 3500 Americans died and over 20,000 civilians died by committing suicide at the command of the emperor. Were any of you on Saipan or any of the other Mariana Islands?

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Corporate Sponsors for John Basilone Detachment MCL Let these sponsors know you saw their ad in our newsletter.

Dedicated to the memory of our Fallen Marines

M.A. Maliszewski Funeral Home 218 Whitehead Ave., South River, NJ

732-254-0428 Carmen F. Spezzi, Manager

Maliszewski Memorial Home 121-123 Main Street, Sayreville, NJ

732-254-1458 Carmen F. Spezzi, Manager

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