May 2003 President's Corner

Bob Schultz '71, USNAAA Atlanta Chapter President

First, I am proud to report that Navy once again prevailed on the field of battle (the golf course), and for the fifth year in a row has won the annual Army-Navy Golf Classic that was just held on Friday, May 2^nd. Our record now stands at six wins out of seven meetings. Please see the complete write up on the event by event coordinator Will Wood ’66, elsewhere in the Chapter May newsletter or on this Chapter web site.

Our next big event, the nationally renown Atlanta Chapter LobserFest, is now scheduled for Sunday, June 8^th, at Red Top Mountain. See the two-page LobsterFest flier and reservation form in the Chapter May newsletter, or on this Chapter web site. This will be the Chapter’s 29^th Annual LobsterFest! I think that must be a record of some sort for most longstanding Chapter event nationwide! I’m laying down the challenge. What other Chapter can beat that?

The Board of Trustees and Chapter Presidents meetings were just held on May 1^st and 2^nd in Annapolis. Chapter Trustee Bill Rentz ’55, and I will relay information from those meetings to you in the coming weeks.

As I wrote this column last month, I was at home with a bad cold watching live TV coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom. I was fortunate enough to witness the toppling of a large statue of Saddam Hussein that stood in Firdos Square outside of the Palestine Hotel in downtown Baghdad just as it happened. The destruction of the statue was a joint effort by a throng of excited Iraqi citizens and U.S. armed forces operating a Hercules recovery vehicle. It was a piece of history that I will never forget. I could not have been more proud of our service men and women, their dedication to duty, and their sustained and exceptional performance in combat.

If you didn’t get a lump in your throat, or a great feeling of pride swelling up in your chest when you watched the triumphant return of our seven POWs, then you just haven’t been paying attention. Come around!

We have now also started to see some of the troops who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom come home to the cheers of their families and loved ones. Many of them came home to new babies that were born while they were away. What a great sight to see.

God bless America, and God bless our troops defending freedom around the world.

Bob Schultz ‘71