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THE MILITARY ORDER of the World Wars
GREATER BOSTON CHAPTER – January – February 2020
Among the members of our Chapter, from left: MG Mark L. Hersey, MOWW Commander-in-Chief 1925; General of the Armies John J. Pershing; Governorand Senator Leverett Saltonstall, a founding member of the Chapter; former Chapter Commander and Acting Adjutant General of Massachusetts,Brigadier General John H. Sherburne; President John F. Kennedy; Major General George S. Patton, Jr.; Captain Thomas J. Hudner, Jr., MOH; CaptainGeorge L. Street, III, MOH; Lieutenant General L. Scott Rice, Former Adjutant General of Massachusetts and Director of the Air National Guard; MajorGeneral Gary W. Keefe, Adjutant General of Massachusetts; Captain Thomas G. Kelley, MOH OFFICERS:
Chapter CommanderCOL (MA) Lawrence A. Willwerth, USA, (Ret.)
NEXT MEETING: TUESDAY, 4 FEBRUARY 2020
Sr. Vice Commander
COL Raoul H. Alcala, USA (Ret.)[email protected]
TIME: Social ½ Hour: Begins at Noon andthe Call to Order is at 12:30 pmPLACE: UNION OYSTER HOUSE
41 UNION STREET, BOSTON MAParking: Parcel 7 Garage, Congress St. (½ block from
restaurant - $3.00 for three hours parking. Ticket must bevalidated by Union Oyster House Cashier.)
2nd Vice Commander LT Timothy Haraden, USN (Fmr.)
Finance OfficerLTC Walter G. Opanasets, USA, (Ret.)
Assistant Finance OfficersCOL Kristian J. Stoltenberg, (Ret.) MAARNG
LTC James R. Littleton, USA (Ret.)
Public Transportation by the “T” is approximately one block from the restaurant if you use eitherthe Government Center or Haymarket Square stations. Haymarket Square Station services the
Green and Orange lines; Government Center Station services the Green and Blue lines.
RSVP s ARE REQUESTED by noon on Monday, 3 February, to [email protected]
Adjutant & Webmaster CPT William J. Maloney, USA, ( Fmr.)
COST: $40 (soup, entreé, tip and tax included), BRINGA GUEST: ACTIVE OR FORMER OFFICERS
JOIN US FOR ONLY $15Judge Advocate
BG (MA) Emery A. Maddocks, Jr., USA (Ret.)[email protected]
4 February 2020
Group Captain Jason “Booj” Begley, Royal Australian Air Force. See nextpage for his bio.
Entreé Choices: (1) grilledbutterfly shrimp, or (2) pan-
seared haddock, or (3) steak tips,or (4) scrod, PLUS soup of the day or clam chowder. Desserts will
also be provided.
Chapter Post Office Address: c/o William J. Maloney, P.O. Box 318,Reading, MA 01867
Marshal & Recruiting Chairman CAPT Paul E. Mawn, USN (Ret.)
Immediate Past CommanderLCDR David W. Graham, USN (Ret.)
SPEAKER PROGRAM: LTC Fred J. Maguire, USA (Ret.)ROTC AWARDS PROGRAM: CAPT Alan G. Rieper, USN (Ret.) BOY SCOUTS AWARD PROGRAM: BG (MA) Emery A. Maddocks, USA (Ret.)GIRL SCOUTS AWARDS PROGRAM: HPM Ivy M. Clevenger CONVENTION STUDY CHAIR: CAPT Earl K. Kishida, USN (Ret.) NOMINATING COMMITTEE: CAPT Alan G. Rieper, USN (Ret.)
Comments and submissions to: [email protected]
MEETING AND SPEAKER SCHEDULE On 3 March our guest speaker will be the Director of Army Aviation of the Massachusetts National Guard. COL Robert W. O’Connell was commissioned in 1993 through the ReserveOfficer Training Corps (ROTC) at Boston University, Boston MA. During ROTC training, COL Robert W. O’Connell completed the Airborne qualification course, the Air Assault qualification course and RECONDO school. Following graduation, he attended pilot training at FT Rucker, AL and graduated IERW in 1995. Upon completion of training, he reported to the Massachusetts Army National Guard as a Platoon Leader in F Company 126th EAC. COL Robert O’Connell has also served as an Aviation Battalion Commander, Deputy Director of Army Aviation, Battalion Executive Officer (XO), Army Aviation Support Facility Commander (AASF), Aviation Battalion Operations Officer (S3), Battalion Assistant Operations Officer (AS3), HHC Company Commander and Battalion Logistics Officer (S4). He mobilized numerous times while serving as the Battalion Assistant Operation Officer (2005-2006) and the Battalion Executive Officer (2010-2011); both times he was assigned to the Aviation Task Force Kuwait, located at Udairi Army Airfield, Kuwait. COL O’Connell has numerous deployments to Kenya, Africa supporting the Kenya Air Force Huey II aircraft program. He is a graduate of the US Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Commandand General Staff College, FT Leavenworth and the Captains CareerCourse at FT Rucker, AL. COL Robert O’Connell also holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts (BA), a graduate degree from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MS) and the US Army Senior Service College (Strategic Studies). COL O’Connell completed an Executive Education Fellows- Leadership in Homeland Security, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government. Awards held: Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal (2), Air Medal (2), Army Commendation Medal (2), Army Achievement Medal (5) Master Army Aviator, Airborne and Air Assault badges. Qualified in theTH-67, OH-58, UH-1, UH-60 A/L/M and CH-47D aircraft. COL O’Connell resides in Sandwich, MA with his wife Jenn.⃞
Our speaker on 4 February will be Group Captain Jason “Booj”Begley, RAAF, who joined the Royal Australian Air Force in 1991. After achieving a Bachelor of Arts degree withHonours in Politics, he completed Navigator training and operational conversion to the P-3C Orion. Following a tour with No 10 Squadron, during which qualified as a Tactical Coordinator, he became an Electronic Warfare Mission Coordinator at 92 Wing Development Flight. Over the following six years he coordinated multiple operational trials of advanced airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems and procedures, for which he was recognised with a Conspicuous Service Medal in the 2004 Queen’s Birthday Honours. In 2006 Group CaptainBegley undertook anElectronic Warfare staffposition within CapabilityDevelopment Groupfollowed by a 2008deployment to Al Udeid AirBase as the AustralianLiaison Officer in CentralCommand’s CombinedTheatre Electronic WarfareCoordination Cell for whichhe received the UnitedStates Meritorious ServiceMedal. 2009 to 2011: Group Captain Begley wasExecutive Officer at 92Wing Development Flightand in 2012 graduated Australian Command and Staff College as the recipient of the Chief of Air Force Prize. Group Captain Begley served as Deputy Director – Surveillance, Maritime Response and Attack in Air Force Headquarters from 2013-14, during which he managed a range of Air Force’s current and future air and land-based intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and attack programs. In late 2014 Group Captain Begley was appointed Commanding Officer of Number 10 Squadron. During his tenure the AP-3C continued to meet heavy operational taskingdespite the draw-down of the fleet, culminating in 10 Squadron’s 2017 support to the liberation of Marawi by the Armed Forces of the Philippines. In late 2017 Group Captain Begley became the Director of Joint Effects at Headquarters Joint Operations Command, where he oversaw planning and integration of Electronic Warfare, Information and Cyber effects into operations and managed the Joint Targeting process. Group Captain Begley is currently a National Security Fellowat the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge. In his spare time, he is also one of Air Force’s Williams Scholars, workingtowards completing a PhD through the University of New South Wales.⃞
Tuesday, 7 April 2020: Speaker to be determined.
Tuesday, 8 May 2020: Our guest speaker will be the author CAPT Phil Keith,USN (Ret.). Phil Keith attended Harvard on an NROTCscholarship, completed his AB degree in history, andwas designated a Distinguished Naval Graduate uponcommissioning in 1968. Phil trained as a naval aviator,then completed both the Naval Justice and AirIntelligence Officer Schools before joining his firstsquadron in Vietnam. He served three Vietnamdeployments between 1970 and 1973 earning the PurpleHeart, Air Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, NavyCommendation Medal, and several unit and campaignawards.
After his wartime service, Phil transitioned to the activeNaval Reserve and from the line to naval intelligence.Between 1973 and his retirement in 1990, CAPT Keithserved in air intelligence assignments at NAS BarbersPoint, NAS Moffett Field, NAS Willow Grove, NASNorth Island, The Pentagon; tours aboard the USS NewJersey (BB-62), USS Constellation (CV-64), USS BlueRidge (LCC-19), and USS New Orleans (LPH-11);Executive Officer of FLTCORGRU-1, Coronado; and,Commanding Officer of CINCPACFLT TrainingDetachment 120, Long Beach. During his reserveservice CAPT Keith was awarded the Naval ReserveMedal, a 2nd Navy Commendation Medal, the Republicof Korea Presidential Unit Citation, and Korean Defense
Service Medal. Briefly re-activated for service during the GulfWar (1990-91), CAPT. Keith served in Yemen and the USEmbassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, earning a Bronze Star.
In his civilian career, Phil worked as a sales and marketingexecutive for the Jostens Corporation, a COO for BerlitzPublishing, and as a Senior Vice President of Simon &Schuster. He is also a former assistant professor of business atLong Island University, and adjunct instructor at the RhodeIsland School of Design.
Since 2008 Phil has been a full-time author and has writtenthree fictional novels and seven nonfiction books to date. HisVietnam book "Blackhorse Riders" won the 2012 USA BookNews award for Best Military Non-Fiction, was a finalist forthe 2013 Colby Award and earned a Silver Medal fromMilitary Writers Society of America.
His second Vietnam book, "Fire Base Illingworth," wasreleased in 2013.“Stay the Rising Sun,” (2015) is an accountof the crucial WW II Battle of the Coral Sea and the loss ofthe aircraft carrier USS Lexington in May, 1942. It won aBronze Medal from The Military Writers Society and was afinalist for the 2016 Morison Award for Naval Literature.
"Crimson Valor" (2011) is a commemorative published forHarvard University and features the brief biographies of alleighteen Harvard alumni who have been decorated with theMedal of Honor.
"All Blood Runs Red" (2019) is the biography of EugeneBullard, the first African-American fighter pilot (co-writtenwith best-selling author Tom Clavin), and was recentlyfeatured as an "Editors Pick" by the New York Times. Thenext book, to be published by Harper-Collins, is "To TheUttermost Ends of the Earth," the riveting story of the CivilWar's most famous sea battle, the duel between the USSKearsarge and the CSS Alabama (to be released in early2021).
Phil has also completed a biography of Maj. Gen. Henry W.Lawton, Civil War hero and Medal of Honor recipient entitled"Long Hank." The manuscript is currently out for bid.
Phil serves on the planning board for the Town ofSouthampton, writes an award-winning column for theSouthampton Press, and is a member of VFW Post 5350,American Legion Post 924, the Disabled American Veterans,and Vietnam Veterans of America. He advocates for fellowveterans concerning disability compensation and issues relatedto Agent Orange, of which he, too, is a victim.He lives in Southampton, New York, with his partner LauraLyons and son Pierce. ◙
SPECIAL GUESTSAt our 4 February meeting wewill have the opportunity to meet LTC J. Marshall Preston, USAF, the Commander, Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps Detachment 365 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. He is Detachment 365'sProfessor of Aerospace Studies, and a Visiting Professor at MIT. The Cadet Wing is comprised
of over 80 cadets from MIT, Harvard and Tufts Universities and Wellesley College. A cadet from his program will accompany him.Prior to this assignment Lt Col Preston served as the deputy commander of the 436th Mission Support Group, Dover Air Force Base, Delaware where he led over 1,400 Airmen in six squadrons: Civil Engineering, Security Forces, Logistics Readiness, Communications, Force Support, and Contracting. The group provided complete combat support, emergency services and base infrastructure for over 4,200 personnel supporting 31 C-5 and C-17 aircraft assigned to the 4336th and 512th Airlift Wings as well as the largest aerial port and only stateside portmortuary in the Department of Defense. His professional background and training is as an Airfield Operations officer (13M4). He is experienced in air traffic control, airfield management, airspace management, and terminal instrument procedures. He has deployed multiple times and served in career-broadening opportunities as Executive Officer to the Vice Commander, USAFE-AFAFRICA, Political-Military Strategist for South/East Africa, as well as Senior Airfield Authority and Installation Commander.Lt Col Preston was born in Houston, TX, went to high school in Princeton, NJ and commissioned through AFROTC at Duke University in 1998 with a major in Public Policy Studies. He was a four-year NCAA Div. 1 varsity swimmer at Duke, recognized as most valuable swimmer his junior year, and named Team Captain his senior year. He is married to Katherine R. Preston(a Registered Nurse in Women's Health, Pediatrics, and Oncology); together they have three children: Elise, Alden, and Lauren. ◙
At our meeting on 7 March, we will have LTC Joe Luchetta,USA, Commanding Officer and Professor of Military Scienceof the Army ROTC Liberty Battalion, headquartered at Northeastern University but including cadets from Boston College, Suffolk University and other local colleges. He will be accompanied by a cadet from his program. LTC Joe Luchetta was commissioned from the Early Commissioning Program at Marion Military Institute in 2000,subsequently serving in the Connecticut Army National Guard and Army Reserves while completing his Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems at the University of Connecticut.
After being selected as a Transportation Officer, LTC Luchetta’s first assignment upon completing the basic course in 2003 was with 11th Transportation Battalion, Fort Story, VA where he served as a platoon leader and battalion staff officer. After attending the career course in 2006, LTC Luchetta was assigned to the 407th Brigade Support Battalion (BSB), 2ndBrigade, 82nd Airborne Division,serving as the Support OperationsTransportation Officer andCompany Commander of AlphaCompany, 407th BSB. Uponcompleting 21-months ofcommand, LTC Luchetta attendedthe University of Virginia,receiving a Masters of Educationin Kinesiology before servingthree years as a physicaleducation instructor at the UnitedStates Military Academy at WestPoint. In 2013, he once again PCS’d to Fort Bragg, NC where he served in the 528th Sustainment Brigade, United States Army Special Operations Command as an ARSOF Support Operations Team Chief, Battalion Executive Officer, and Brigade S-4. LTC Luchetta served as the Course Director for the Logistics Captain’s Career Course at Fort Lee, VA until assuming duties as Professor of Military Science of the Liberty Battalion in June 2017. LTC Luchetta’s deployments include a 12-month tour in Iraq with the 368th Cargo Transfer Company in 2004-2005, a 15-month tour in Iraq with the 407th BSB in 2007-2008, and a 9-month tour with Special Operations Joint Task Force – Afghanistan as the SOF Equipment Recovery Team Chief in 2013-2014. His military education includes the Transportation Officer Basic Course, Combined Logistics Captain’s Career Course, Command and General Staff Officer Course, and the Basic Airborne Course. LTC Luchetta resides at Hanscom Air Force Base with his beautiful wife Gayla and four wonderful children: Gavin (7), Ava (7), Brayden (7) and Emma (5). ◙LTC Samved S. Patel, USAF, Commanding Officer and Department Chair of AFROTC Detachment 345 at the University of
Massachusetts at Lowell will be joining us on 7 April with a cadet from his program. Lieutenant Colonel Samved S. Patel is the Commander forthe Indo-Pacific Military Personnel Exchange. The Squadron directly supports US National Security Strategy through the military engagement of 47 officers and enlisted personnel with ally and partner nations across the Indo-Pacific to
include Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand.Lieutenant Colonel Patel was born in Nepal. He enlisted in the Air Force in 1992, separated in 1996, and commissioned
through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps at the University of Minnesota in June 1999. He began his commissioned career as a financial manager, including serving as the Comptroller for a deployed Wing in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. In 2002, Lieutenant Colonel Patel became a Special Agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, holding positions of Operations Officer, Counterespionage Case Officer and Detachment Commander, including a deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He also served as a Regional Affairs Strategist for Northeast Asia. Prior to his current position, he served as the division chief for Warfighter Execution at Headquarters, Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
EDUCATION:1999 – Bachelor’s degree in business (finance), University of Minnesota, MN2005 – Squadron Officer School, in residence, Maxwell Air Force Base, AL2009 – Air Command and Staff College, by correspondence2011 – Associate’s degree in Japanese, Defense Language Institute, CA2011 – Master’s degree in National Security Affairs (East Asia), Naval Postgraduate School, CA2016 – Air War College, by correspondence2018 – Joint FAO Phase II, George Washington University, Washington DC⃞N.B. As of the April meeting, the Greater Boston Chapter will have hosted, as our guests, the commanders and cadets and/or newly-commissioned officers from all ROTC, NROTC and AFROTC programs in the Greater Boston area. Many thanks to former Chapter Commander, LTC Fred Magure, who organizzes this program. ◙CHAPTER UPDATETHE CENTENNIAL COOKBOOK: IS READY to be purchased and serve immediately as a gift and ultimately as a handsome momento of this, our 100th anniversary of formation. Contact Patricia Williams at [email protected] or at (682) 438-4695. CONTINUING POLICIES OF THIS CHAPTER:1. Guests eligible to join us (active and former officers) join us at a luncheon cost of only $15.2. Annual dues-paying members switching to perpetual status will receive a $100 subsidy fromthe Chapter.3. We are continuing every one of our many youth programs this year.4. We need and welcome your donations.◙
THE GRAND UNION FLAG IS RAISED IN SOMERVILLE:
AHAC of Massachusetts and Reenactors at the CeremonyCompanions turned out for the annual ceremonial flag raising in Somerville on New Year’s Day of the Grand Unionflag, our very first national emblem. It was approved by the Continental Congress on December 3, 1775 (and newlyappointed Lieutenant John Paul Jones is said to have been the first to raise the flag that very day on the ship Alfred). The first raising on land was in Somerville on January 1, 1776, and the 244th anniversary of that event brough out our counterpart organization, the Ancient and Honorable Arillery Company (with which our Chapter has an overlapping membership), various other groups and local residents. Of course, “General George Washington” made an appearance from his headquarters nearby in Cambridge. General Washington, in command of the new Continental Army, was besieging the British Army in Boston. As has been his custom for the last 10 years, our Chapter Commander, COL Larry Willwerth, was the commander of troops for the event and gave a speech appropriate to the occasion. The Grand Union flag was replaced in June of 1777 but the more familiar design still much revered and displayed today. ◙
The Grand Union Flag Flies Again on Prospect Hill
CAPT ALAN RIEPER AWARDED THE BOSTON COMMANDER’SAWARD FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT:CAPT Alan Rieper has been running our ROTC/JROTC awards probram for all the years since we scrambled to fina a replacement for the irreplacable COL Arthur Marcotti. Alan’s outstanding efforts were recognized at our January meeting. Rather than describe the reasons for the award, all you need to know is in the following citation.CITATIONCAPTAIN ALAN G. RIEPER USN (Ret.), adedicated member of the Order and the GreaterBoston Chapter, has been a constant presence in itsleadership since becoming a companion. At a time ofcritical importance in 2011, he assumed the soleresponsibility of managing the Chapter’s ROTC andJROTC awards programs. This extensive programinvolves the organization and coordination of awardsto cadets in eight university senior Army, Navy and AirForce ROTC programs, and in approximately twentyjunior ROTC programs in local high schools in theGreater Boston area. Accordingly, for eight yearsCaptain Rieper has maintained contact with all of thelocal programs, advised the cadre officers on theselection of award recipients, and arranged forcompanions to present the awards personally atceremonies conducted across the region.
Captain Rieper has always adhered to the principlethat an award personally presented on behalf of theOrder will have greater meaning to the high school oruniversity student receiving it; and Captain Rieper hashimself presented many of the Chapter’s awards,requiring great exertion in traveling all over theGreater Boston area to attend award ceremonies of thevarious units. Captain Rieper has been exacting in hisinsistence that the citations accompanying awards beprepared so that the names of the recipients, many ofwhich are unfamiliar in their spelling, be absolutelyaccurate, a task requiring great care, attention to detailand precision.
Over the years of his administration, the NationalHeadquarters of this Order has invariably recognizedthe excellence of Captain Rieper’s efforts by annuallyawarding top national awards to the program, all dueto Captain Rieper’s superb work. In all of hismeticulous efforts to recognize the work of youthfulcadets and midshipmen, Captain Rieper hasunfailingly brought the greatest credit upon himself.
ACCORDINGLY, in recognitionofhisdiligent,remarkableandexemplary service to our members and to the Order, theGreater Boston Chapter of THE MILITARY ORDER OF THEWORLD WARS is proud to confer its COMMANDER’SAWARD for LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT upon CAPTAINALAN G. RIEPER, USN (Ret.) with the heartfelt gratitude ofall companions of the Chapter.
BIRTHDAYS IN FEBRUARY: 6th: Richard Pelosi; 8th: Paul Delaney; 10th: Cranston “Chan” Rogers (a special birthday for Chan); 13th: Raoul “Ray” Alcala; 14th: Earl Kishida; 16th Kristian Stoltenberg; 18th: Charles McCarthy; 20th: Richard “Dick” Mallion; 23rd: John “Jack” Carey; 25th : Gary Keefe; 26th: Richard Norton.FROM THE CHAPTER COMMANDER: Companions and Friends: At our January meeting, Colonel Justin Dunne raised the question of whether the generaion coming into adulthood now and future generations will step us to the patriotic responsibilities maintaining and defending our countryand its way of life. This strikes me as a question of the greatest importance as we begin to realize that there are plentiful enemies of our country who believe that the role and, indeed the very existence, of our country can be destroyed by a war of “a thousand cuts”. That is, a program of many confrontations, each of a relatively minor nature, the accumulated object of which is to cause the United States to withdraw from its world position, abandon its allies and concern itself only with matters occurring within its borders. By this process, smaller adversaries intend to obtain regional dominance and assume the first step in international influence. Larger countries wish to benefit from our withdrawal by exerting a free hand in their regions, reestablishing the expanded boundaries of their influence, suppressing democracy, and in every case by establishing forms ofcommercial colonialism whether by unfairly forcing their goods and materials upon the subject populations or by extracting the net value of local production from the dominated country. Any way you analyze it, it becomes a return to a primitive “empire” system that history and experience discredited long ago. Will the young generation rise to the challenge of sustaining our country’s position in the world, defending our democracy and independence and the ndependent status of other modern countries? This is one reason why this Chapter and the entire Order has concentrated on our youth patriotic education programs.COL (MA) Lawrence A. Willwerth (Ret.)
Above Left: CAPT Reiper Accepts the Award from Chapter Commander Larry Willwerth. In the foregroundare COL Ed Graham at Left and BG Emery Maddocks atRight.
CHAPTER MEETING OF 7 JANUARY 2020:
It was a relative mild day for the mid-winter and we had a nice attendance of about 22 for the meeting – about parfor a winter month. In the picture above, and various others, you can see in the background the coat racks bearing the heavy winter garments. The meeting was conducted in the usual fashing with an opening of a pledge of allegiance to the flag, an invocation and a recitation of the MOWW preamble. All the universities in the area still being in recess for the holidays, we had no ROTC special guests, but at our February, March and April meetings, we will complete our special guest program by welcoming cadre and cadets from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts/Lawell. Larry Willwerth presided and gave an update on the Chapter’s program and future events to the companions.
Bill Maloney gave his Adjutant’s report and Walter Opanasets the Treasurer’s report. Larry announced again that Alan Rieper was chairing the Nominations Committee and volunteers to step up into leadership positions in the Chapter were most welcome to take the initiative and contact him to discuss the possible openings.
Larry also welcomed our guest speaker, COL Justin S. Dunne, USMC, the Commanding Officer of the 25th
Marine Regiment, a formation of more than 4,000 reservists distributed in various locations across the northern part of the country. COL Dunne has had combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and nearly 25 years of continuous active duty with the Marine Corps since his graduation in 1995 from the Naval Academy. One of our members, CDR Tony LaCourse, USN, is now on deployment with a component of the 25th Marines in Japan.
Our Boston Commander’s Award, in recognition of lifetime achievement, usually conferred at the December annual party, was deferred until this meeting. Larry Willwerth announced that this year’s recipient was CAPT Alab Reiper, who has done so much with our ROTC/JROTC awards program. The citation appears above. The award includes a miniature medal, shown being pinned on Alan below. He is a steay worker for the principles of the Order and has received well-deserved National and local recognition for his exemplary work.
Above: A Nice Photo of our Chapter Commander, COL Larry Willwerth, at left, COL Justin S. Dunne, USMC, at center and Chapter Senior Vice CommanderRay Alcala at right.
After a break for lunch, COL Dunne addressed the companions to review the present status of the Marine Corps, his regiment, and adjustments to the changing composition of the force. He told us a bit about the unit and its ardous training and deployment schedule, and reflected on the question of whether the coming generations of young people are growing up aware of the needs of the nation for patriotic service to sustain thenational life as we have experienced it in the past.
Following his presentation and a question and answer session, COL Dunne was presented with a plaque representing the Chapter’s award and recognition of his long service for the country and the Marine Corps.
The meeting was then adjourned to 4 February.
[In this centennial year of the founding of the Order and our Chapter, we like to remember some of our earliest companions. Among those were John Lejeune,Wendell Neville, Smedley Butler, Thomas Holcomb, Clifton Cates, and Alexander Vandergrift. A few years ago, this newsletter published an article on the subject entitled “We get a Little Help from the Marines”.]
Above from left: Paul Mawn, Al Mundo, Paul Cancilliere,Alan Rieper and Harry Weinberg
Above : Dave Anderson on left with Jeff O’Grady
Above: Chapter Commander Larry Willwerth Presents an Award Plaque to COL Dunne
A FEW MORE OF OUR EARLIEST MEMBERS
LTC CARROLL J. SWAN: Our first Chapter Commander was COL Willis Stover, a truly experienced old-timer of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia who continued his service in the new National Guard. He enlisted in 1886 at age 16. Just back from France, COL Stover was adjusting to normal life when he completed his duties of organizing the first group and meetings and turned over the responsibility to a younger officer, then Major Carroll Swan.
Those who follow these historic articles will be familiar with the fact that many of our earliest members were Harvard alumni, socially well-connected and had been members of the First Corps of Cadets, select organization for the upper class young men of this region which dated back to 1741 and required an invitation to join. By the commencement of World War I, Carroll Swan had been in the First Corps of Cadets forabout 15 years and had risen to second lieutenant.
The First Corps of Cadets was formed as an infantry battalion, but the War Department need an engineer regiment in the New England region, and the unit was merged into the 101st Engineers. [The First Corps of Cadets survives today as an MP battalion.] To make up the numbers for a full regiment, groups of men from other states were added, including Coast Artillery soldiers. Swan was quickly promoted to captain and to the command of Company D, with a TO & E of 256 men. This rapid advancement was typical of the War reorganization. For example, Edwin Weiskopf, another early member, who had been a long-time enlisted man inthe MVM, received a direct commission to captain early in the War and quickly rose to major. Of those with a good service record, COL Stover was the exception in that he began and ended the war in the same grade.
The 101st Engineers trained at the Wentworth Institute here in Boston. The men of the unit had generallybeen soldiers of long experience, so their training was soon completed. Company D took ship for France on a British Transport, the HMS Andania.
We know all about the service of Company D and Captain Swan because, like other early members, he hada literary bent and wrote a book entitled My Company, published in 1918. This was essentially an edited print of his diary. Judging from the book, he must have been an affable man, comfortable in command and, regardlessof social background, felt a deep connection with all of
those in his outfit. Happily, we have a picture of him, with some of the men of Company D and the first company mascot,shown as well as we can reproduce it below.
As the second Chapter Commander, MAJ Swan, as he then was, brought all his enthusiasm to the task of completing the establishment of the Chapter. Today he is remembered in the work of the Carrol J. Swan Charitable Trust which he created in 1935 to benefit the children of Boston.
ADMIRAL LOUIS R. DESTEIGUER: Admiral Desteiguer joined our Chapter while he was commander of the First Naval District from 1923-5. In was in this era that the Chapterreached its largest size numbering at one time 1,400 companions. In 1927 he was promoted to the command of theUnited States Battle Fleet, with the temporary rank of admiral.Following that assignment, he reverted to his permanent rank and took command of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He retired in 1932.
MAJOR FRANK LAHEY: Dr. Lahey was a founding member of the Chapter. As a general surgeon of unusual talent and diligence, he ultimately acquired an international
reputation for his skill and inovative techniques. He was also a teacher of considerable attainments and served as a professor of surgery at the Harvard and Tufts Medical Schools. In World War I, he volunteered for theUS Army Medical Corps and became the director of surgery at Evacuation Hospital 30/ On his return, he opened a small practice on Beacon Street, near Kenmore Square, which developed into the Lahey Clinic we know today.
