December 2000 President's Corner

Bob Bush '65, USNAAA Atlanta Chapter President

I recently had reason to visit the web page of Georgia Senator Max Cleland and found, centered on his Home Page, the following, written years ago by an anonymous soldier:

"In times of war, and not before, God and the soldier men adore; but in times of peace, with all things righted, God is forgotten and the soldier slighted."

We have seen plenty of evidence of that of late. On November 17 RADM John R. “Jack” Fisher, USN (Ret), a graduate of the Class of ’47 and current National President of the Navy League of the United States, spoke at our regular monthly luncheon. Much of his presentation outlined the disturbing reductions that have occurred in our defense budgets and our military forces and equipment over the past 10 years.

Since the dissolution of the former Soviet Union it appears that many in our government are under the illusion that all the “bad guys” have gone away. How regrettably untrue that is. We learn that China, now less threatened by a weakened Russia to the north, has 13 U.S. cities targeted with ICBM’s, North Korea has built significant numbers of cruise missile sites, and while we have substantially reduced the number of our attack submarines, sister ships of the sunken Russian submarine Kirsch continue to do routine patrols off both of our coasts. In the meantime, according to Jack Fisher, our defense budget has been reduced from 8% of GNP in 1989 to less than 3% today.

Equally disturbing to me are the reports coming out of Florida of the mass disqualifications of absentee ballots in the recent national elections, most of them reportedly the ballots of service men and women - volunteers all - serving on ships and foreign shores. Plenty has been written already, by authors far more eloquent than I, decrying the disenfranchisement of our soldiers and sailors, so I’ll not repeat that outcry. I will say, however, that I have registered my concern with both Senators Cleland and Miller, as well as with Congresswoman McKinney. I will include in my December notes any response that I get from any of them.

But there is GOOD NEWS on the local front. As you are all aware, your Association is governed by a Board of Trustees. Until this year, 12 trustees on that board represented each of the twelve largest chapters, and the Atlanta Chapter consistently fell into that category.

This year the rules changed, and only the nine largest chapters are automatically entitled to a trustee slot. Unfortunately for us, in the 1999 year-end count, Atlanta finished in 10^th place, meaning that when Paul Hurst’s term expires in May 2001, so will our automatic trustee slot.

However (and this is the good part), three slots are to be filled by “other chapters” as determined by competition in several categories including membership growth at the local and national levels, candidate recruiting activities and Blue and Gold coordination, local and regional chapter events and other community activities. I am most pleased to announce that the Atlanta Chapter was selected this year as one of the three additional chapters to be represented on the board.

I am very proud of the Chapter, its local board members and the many volunteers whose work resulted in this recognition. However, I hastily add that along with this honor comes a responsibility to continue to work in support of the Association and the Academy. Additionally, this is a temporary reprieve from losing our trustee slot because after this new term expires, we will be ineligible to compete for one of those three seats for the subsequent two periods. Therefore, if we want to have a trustee beyond 2002 we need to continue to actively seek new members.

As we approach the end of the year we have lots of Chapter activities to enjoy. First is the “big game” on Saturday at T.J.’s, followed by this year’s Christmas Party at Mike and Susan Lores’ on December 10. Our regular luncheon meeting will be held on the 15^th at Brookhaven Jocks & Jills and will feature Atlanta Councilman Jim Maddox as our speaker, and on Friday, December 22 is the combined Service Academies Christmas Ball, this year sponsored by the Air Force Academy Alumni.

I hope to see each of you at some event before the end of the year, but if I miss you, my best wishes for a Happy Holidays and many blessings in the New Year.