Nov 11, 2016 Happy Hour / Meet and Greet Friday 1700 Sarasota Vineyard 1528 Main Street












Happy Hour / Meet and Greet 
 Friday November 11, 2016

At The O Club of the Day

Sarasota Vineyard
1528 Main Street
Sarasota Florida

1700 to 1900

No cost except for what you eat or drink - No Reservations. Spouses and friends are encouraged to attend.
Hope you can join us at the Happy Hour.

New Parking Deck 93 paces from rear entrance of the O'Club. Go through the parking lot and alley. Or you can go via State Street to Lemon Ave to Main St.


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Marine Corps Birthday MacDill Air Force Base





U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant General Joseph Osterman, deputy commander, U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) cuts a cake at the 241st Marine Corps Birthday Cake Cutting Celebration on MacDill Air Force Base.

Formal commemoration of the birthday of the Marine Corps began on 10 November 1921. That particular date was chosen because on that day the Second Continental Congress resolved in 1775 to raise two battalions of Continental Marines.

Throughout the world on 10 November, U.S. Marines celebrate the birth of their Corps -- the most loyal, most feared, most revered, and most professional fighting force the world has ever known.

(Photos by Tom Gagnier)

___________________________________________

Very nice Marine Corps Birthday celebration at MacDill Air Force Base put on by CentCom and SoCom at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa today.  They had a cake cutting ceremony at 10:00 am on Nov 9 for all the Marines. The Commandant's message is read, then they bring out the cake.  

Centcom (US Central Command) centcom.mil is a principle fighting Command of the US. They are in charge of Central Asia - Iraq and Afghanistan and surrounding areas. So the best and the brightest are here. It is commanded by a 4 Star - usually an Army or Marine General.

SoCom Special Operations Command. This is the Command of all the special forces - the Navy Seals, Delta Force, Marines Raiders, etc  socom.mil/default.aspx 

So the two top war fighting commands in the US are in Tampa. All the Marines from the two commands were there. Looking good. The Marines now wear their blue trousers with red stripe and the khaki shirt for formal occasions - short of the full dress blues.

The cake cutting ceremony cuts the cake with a sword, and involves giving the youngest and oldest Marines there a piece of cake. The oldest Marine was a retired guy working for Centcom - he was born in 1957.  Made me feel a bit old.

Semper Fi

Craig Hullinger, Marine





Another Birthday Celebration, this time in Sarasota on Nov 10, 2016.  Above, from right to left: Ron and Linda Wozniak, Craig Hullinger, Byron and Janet Hill.

The crowd was a bit older in Sarasota.  Woz and Craig were among the oldest Marines at CentCom. We were among the younger at Sarasota.

The oldest Marine was on Iwo Jima and was 96 years old. The youngest was 19.

Semper Fi




A father and son team at the Sarastoa Birthday event.



























Vietnam Casualties

Vietnam War Casualties By Branch of Service


http://www.americanwarlibrary.com/vietnam/vwc18.htm

Vietnam War Casualties By Branch of Service



The U.S. Marine Corps in the Vietnam War
USMC FS PhotoThe U.S. Marine Corps provided ground, air, supply, and logistic support in the Vietnam War for over two decades as part of III Marine Amphibious Force. Initially in Vietnam as advisors, the Marines forces grew with the need to protect the key airbase at Da Nang. After the Gulf of Tonkin incident, more troops arrived and the Marines began to engage in the counterinsurgency effort with small-scale pacification units. Combined Action Platoons – comprised of U.S. Marines and Vietnamese soldiers – were a novel concept that the Marines brought.
By 1966, there were nearly 70,000 Marines in Vietnam carrying out large scale ground operations against the Viet Cong. In addition to ground combat, the Marines Corps provided air support from helicopter squadrons and fixed-wing aircrafts striking targets in South and North Vietnam. In 1967, the Army leadership in Saigon advocated that the Marines concentrate their efforts on large unit search and destroy operations. The Marines’ mission was split, with fighting against the North Vietnamese Army along the demilitarized zone (DMZ) toward the north, and a counterinsurgency operation waged against the Viet Cong in the villages in the south.
In the north, the Marines engaged in heavy fighting between Khe Sanh in the West and Leatherneck Square in the Eastern DMZ. They also began to create the McNamara line, a series of strong points, sensors and obstacles meant to detect communist forces crossing the DMZ. The North Vietnamese focused much of their firepower on destroying the McNamara line in its early stages, resulting in many conflicts, most notably Con Thien. The McNamara line ultimately failed to materialize, but the Marines were largely successful in stemming the flow of communist forces across the DMZ, although at a large price. 3,461 Marines were killed in action in 1967 and another 25,525 were wounded. Despite the fewer numbers, it was clear that more troops would not guarantee more success.
The year 1968 proved to be a watershed for the Marines in Vietnam. The January 31 Tet Offensive – the massive offensive the North Vietnamese launched against South Vietnam in 105 cities on the Tet Lunar Year – was largely repulsed by U.S. Marines and South Vietnamese forces. This was not the case at Hue, a city where Marines fought for 26 days before expelling the North Vietnamese. The Marines also defended Khe Sanh in a 77 day siege, under fire by as many as 1000 shells per day, until the U.S. Army’s 1st Cavalry Division broke the siege. 
After footage of these bloody battles was aired on television and with no clear end in sight by 1969, much of the American public support for the war eroded. President Nixon began to bring troops home. Few Marines units were involved in the U.S. military actions in Cambodia or Laos, and while 1st Marine Division fought in major engagements around Da Nang, 3d Marine Division was heading back to base at Okinawa. By 1971, the 1st Division and 3d Marine Aircraft Wing departed for the United States and Japan.  
Marine advisors, fire support personnel, and air units fought during the 1972 Easter Offensive supporting the Vietnamese Marine Corps. A peace treaty was signed in Paris in January 1973. The U.S. agreed to withdraw all of its forces from Vietnam and in turn the North Vietnamese returned its U.S. prisoners of war, 26 of whom were Marines. In 1975, Marines led Operations Eagle Pull and Frequent Wind to evacuate the American embassies in Phnom Penh and Saigon. Immediately after saving hundreds of American lives in the embassy evacuations, President Ford ordered the Marines to rescue the crew of the USS Mayaguez, which had been taken by the Khmer Rouge. A joint task force completed the mission and recaptured the ship, but not without Marine and U.S. Air Force casualties.
The Vietnam War was costly to the U.S. Marine Corps. From 1965 to 1975, nearly 500,000 Marines served in Southeast Asia. Of these, more than 13,000 were killed and 88,000 wounded, nearly a third of all American causalities sustained during the war.
Source: United States Marine Corps History Division





marzone.com/7thMarines/usmc_cas_stats.pdf

Oct 10 Happy Hour

Happy Hour / Meet and Greet 
 Friday October 14, 2016

At The O Club of the Day

Sarasota Vineyard
1528 Main Street
Sarasota Florida

1700 to 1900

No cost except for what you eat or drink - No Reservations. Spouses and friends are encouraged to attend.

Hope you can join us at our MOAA Happy Hour.














Click for More Photos


You can hear us 5 by 5 on our MOAA Sarasota Radio Nets (Social Media) 

Blog------------------sarasotamoaa.us

Facebook-----------facebook.com/Sarasota.moaa

LinkedIn-------------linkedin.com/in/sarasotamoaa

Twitter---------------twitter.com/Sarasotamoaa 

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Email-------_--------sarasotamoaa@gmail.com  





October Breeze



Dear Member

Attached is the October 2016 issue of the MOAS monthly newsletter, The Sarasota Breeze, as well as a separate Program/Menu/Reservation Form for you to use when making your reservation for the October Luncheon on October 21st at Michael’s on East. Our October speakers will be Ashley Moore of the LifeLink Foundation and MOAS member Willie Oler. The program outline is on Page 1 of the newsletter.

Please note that the Giving Partner Challenge Campaign starts this Tuesday (Sep 20) at Noon and runs thru Noon on Wednesday. Time is SHORT!!!! so please go online to

https://givingpartnerchallenge.org/npo/sarasota-military-officers-scholarship-fund-inc

and make your contribution to our Sarasota Military Officers Scholarship Fund. Your donation (up to $100) will be doubled (if you donated during the program last year) or tripled by the Patterson Foundation (if you didn’t donate last year). This is how to make your dollars multiply!!!!

Upcoming events to put on your calendar:

14 October - Meet & Greet (see newsletter Page 11)

11 November - Sarasota Veterans Day Parade

13 November – A Tribute to America’s Veterans @3:00PM & 7:30PM, Riverview PAC

14 November - A Tribute to America’s Veterans @ 7:30PM Neel Performing Arts Center

Looking forward to seeing you all at the luncheon

As usual, we hope you enjoy this issue—and ask that you let us know if you have any suggestions for future issues.


Thank you
Len Friedlander
Editor

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