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April, 2017 Volume 84, Issue 4

Harold Baggenstoss Post 1260

From the Commander

BY BRUCE MALTERUD

Brothers & Sisters,

We are having our April meeting on the 4th at the Bemidji Eagles Club rooms at 7:00 pm. Please come as many of you that can make it. We are having nominations of officers for the coming year and we need your support and vote for your candidate. Elections will take place May and the newly elected officers will take their positions on the 11th of June after the new state commander takes his position.

We had a great turn out in East Grand Forks for the 9th District meeting of the Veterans of Foreign Wars it was well attended. Our next will be held in Dilworth April 29th & 30th which is Loyalty Days.

Congress Passed Legislation Honoring Vietnam War Veterans. The House of Representatives passed a bill which would amend the flag code to include National Vietnam War Veterans Day on the list of days that Americans should fly the U.S. flag. March 29 of each year is the designated day. The bill, which cleared the Senate in Feb-ruary, now goes to the President’s desk for signature.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. and its Auxiliary proudly announced the national winner of its annual Voice of Democracy youth scholarship competition, 2017 VFW Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. Enacted in 1947, the 2016-17 Voice of Democracy program’s theme asked students to describe “My Responsibility to America.” The first-place winner, Savannah Wittman, sponsored by VFW Post 12118 and its Auxiliary in Copperopolis, Calif., received an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., where she was presented with the T.C. Selman Memorial Scholarship award in the amount of $30,000.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Adjutant’s Corner .................. 2

Veteran Service Officer .......... 3

Chaplain’s Corner .................. 4

Spot Light On ......................... 5

Veteran’s Employment Rep ... 5

Post Auxiliary ......................... 6

Activities Last Month ............. 7

Points of Contact ................... 7

SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST

April 29th—Dilworth Loyalty

Days

VETERANS OF F OREIGN WARS

Mark your calendars! Next meeting is Tuesday, April 4th!!!

ADJUTANT’S CORNER

NOTICE: VFW website: www.vfwpost1260.org. All up-dated information is available concerning our local VFW Post #1260 as well as our state and national infor-mation. VFW Post #1260 Meeting Date: Tuesday April 4th at 7:00 pm at the Ea-gles Club.

1. April 1— April Fools’ Day. 2. April 9— Fall of Bataan (1942). 3. April 10 –Bataan Death March (1942). 4. April 14 – Good Friday. 5. April 16 – Easter Sunday. 6. April 18 – Doolittle Raid (1942). 7. April 19-22 – Poppy Card Sales. 8. April 22 – Earth Day. 9. April 29-30- Loyalty Days – Dilworth Post. 10. April 29 – Arbor Day. 11. April 30 – Vietnam War Ended (1975). April Meeting- nominations for Officers for the Years 2017-2018. Bring another veteran to our meeting. Harold Baggenstoss VFW Post #1260 P.O. Box 1271 Bemidji, MN 56619 VFW Post Adjutant ckap-phan@paulbunyan.net 218-243-3060

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY

April 15, 1912 - In the icy

waters off Newfoundland,

the luxury liner Titanic with

2,224 persons on board sank

at 2:27 a.m. after striking an

iceberg just before midnight.

Over 1,500 persons drowned

while 700 were rescued by

the liner Carpathia which

arrived about two hours

after Titanic went down.

April 18, 1775 -

The Midnight Ride of Paul

Revere and William Dawes

occurred as the two men

rode out of Boston about 10

p.m. to warn patriots at Lex-

ington and Concord of the

approaching British

2

Well for now be safe and stay off the ice as it is shifting away from the shore lines. Just over a month we will be out in the catching fish and being nice and warm, I hope. On the lighter side; Dumb men jokes, Q. How do men get exercise at the beach? A. By sucking in their stomachs every time they see a bikini. Q. How do women define a 50/50 relationship? A. We cook/they eat; We clean/they dirty;We iron/they wrinkle. Q. How are men like noodles? A. They are always in hot water, they lack taste, and they need dough. Your Commander Bruce Malterud

BY SCOTTY ALLISON

UPDATE ON THE NORTHERN MINNESOTA VETERANS HOME The push continues to have a Veterans Home built in Bemidji. With strong support from local Minnesota Repre-sentatives Matt Bliss and Matt Grossell and Senators Paul Utke and Justin Eichorn, there is renewed effort to make this a reality. Representatives Grossell (District 2A) and Bliss (District 5A) are co-authors with Representatives Tim Miller and John Poston of HF 1109 which is a bill to appropriate bonding money to design, construct, furnish and equip Veter-ans Homes both in Montevideo and Bemidji. The funding request for Bemidji is in the amount of $10 million. If approved, operation of this facility would not begin before July 1, 2018. The companion bill in the Senate is SF 1089 which also calls for allocating funds to build Veterans Homes in Monte-video and Bemidji. Senators Utke (District 02) and Eichorn (District 05) are co-authors of this bill along with Sena-tors Andrew Lang and Bruce Anderson. On February 20, contingents from Montevideo and Bemidji testified in St. Paul in front of the Veterans Affairs Divi-sion Committee in the House about the need for additional Veterans Homes in our state. Both groups did a good job explaining their positions, and the bill was referred back to the Committee on State Government Finance with strong support. So why build two homes? Representative Miller put it best when he stated “If we pit one region versus another lawmakers will be forced to make a choice over where to build a veterans home, and the reality is both areas truly need it,” Miller said. “Combining both bills into one eliminates regional politics and promotes what’s most im-portant – our veterans.” The main idea behind locating a Veterans Home in Bemidji is to provide continuum of care, including skilled nursing care, to Minnesota Veterans. As it will be located in Bemidji, it will specifically address the needs of Northern Min-nesota’s Veterans. As a cohort, Northern Minnesota veterans are geographically isolated from the state’s existing Veterans Homes and are underserved in this large sixteen county region which includes Beltrami, Cass, Clearwater, Crow Wing, Hubbard, Itasca, Kittson, Koochiching, Lake of the Woods, Mahnomen, Marshall, Norman, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake, and Roseau. There are approximately 27,658 veterans living in this area. There are 3404 veterans living in Beltrami County and if you include the nine surrounding counties that number jumps to 18,155 veterans. Bemidji is the right location for a new Veterans Home for a lot of reasons but one of them is certainly the high concentration of veterans around the city. One of the main reasons to build additional Veterans Homes in Minnesota now is because of the long wait times to get into current facilities. This wait time will only increase as Minnesota veterans continue to age. Right now, 77.2% of the veterans living in the 16 counties listed above are over age 55. In the 2011 American Community Sur-vey, 50% of the veterans in Northern Minnesota were over age 65; this has now increased to 55.1%. Simply put the health care needs for these older Veterans is increasing rapidly especially for Vietnam War Veterans. The Northern Minnesota Veterans Home Task Force will continue its work in having a Veterans Home placed in Be-midji. Thank-you to our current legislators for their support and from everybody out there we need your continued help to make this happen. Remember 20 March 2017 is Veteran’s Day on the Hill. We hope to have a good showing in Saint Paul and if you can make it your presence would be greatly appreciated.

VETERANS SERVICE OFFICER

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CHAPLAIN’S CORNER

Greetings Fellow Veterans/Friends,

(Lent Prayer) O God, by the exam-

ple of Your Son, our Savior Jesus

Christ, You have taught us the

greatness of true humility, and now

have called us to watch with Him in

His suffering. Help us to take the towel and basin and in humbleness

of spirit to wash the feet of those who most need our ministry. Give

us the graciousness to serve one another in all lowliness and thus

fulfill the law of love on the Name of Your Servant, even Jesus Christ

our Lord. Amen.

(Palm Sunday Prayer) Almighty God, Source of all life, by whose

power our Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead; we praise

You, we give You thanks for this great victory over sin and death.

The resurrection of Your Son, our Savior, has opened to us the door

of abundant and everlasting life. Our despair is changed to triumph,

our fears to hope. We are grateful. Accept our thanks, O Lord, and

may we prove our gratitude by selfless service in behalf of all those

who need our love and care. May we show them the Risen Christ in

all we do. In His living Name we pray. Amen.

(Easter Prayer) Almighty God, Source of all life, by whose power our

Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead; we praise You, we give

You thanks for this great victory over sin and death. The resurrection

of Your Son, our Savior, has opened to us the door of abundant and

everlasting life. Our despair is changed to triumph, our fears to

hope. We are grateful. Accept our thanks, O Lord, and may we prove

our gratitude by selfless service in behalf of all those who need our

love and care. May we show them the Risen Christ in all we do. In

His living Name we pray. Amen.

The VFW Chaplains Handbook

OUR SACRIFICE

Conflict Casualties

American Revolution 50,000

Northwest Indian War 1,881

War of 1812 20,000

Mexican American War 17,435

Civil War—Union 646,392

Civil War—Confederate ~524,000

Dakota War of 1862 263

Spanish-American War 4,068

Philippine-American War 7,126

World War I 320,518

World War II 1,076,245

Korean War 128,650

Vietnam War 211,454

Afghanistan War 23,625

Iraq War 37,052

NOTE: There are other smaller con-

flicts not listed where service members

sacrificed their lives

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HOT OFF THE PRESS

Associated Press | 31 Mar 2017 | by Robert Burns

Mattis Says North Korea Has 'Got to Be Stopped' LONDON — North Korea must be stopped on its path toward being able to threaten the Unit-ed States with nuclear attack, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday in a stark expression of America's top national security concern at the moment. He emphasized diplo-matic means of changing Pyongyang's "reckless" agenda. On his first visit to Britain as Pentagon chief, Mattis also took rhetorical jabs at Russia and said America's priority in Syria is defeating the Islamic State group rather than bring-ing down President Bashar As-sad. At a joint news conference with his British counterpart, Michael Fallon, Mattis was reminded by a reporter that as commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East several years ago, he consid-ered Iran to be the biggest threat to U.S. interests. Asked how he would deal with Iran as secretary of defense, Mattis called Tehran a problem but quickly pivoted to condemning North Korea and described the isolated, communist country as the more immediate threat. www.military.com

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SPOT LIGHT ON….

Agence France Presse | 2 Apr 2017 | by Carlos Hamann A U.S. Army sergeant crouches in a water-filled trench on the Western

Front in France during World War I. (US Army photo) When America entered World War I, a century ago this week, the Eu-ropean powers were bogged down in a grinding trench war that had killed millions and ravaged the European continent. Swinging its industrial might and vast manpower behind France and Britain against Germany and its allies on April 6, 1917, the United States tipped the balance of the conflict and marked its own emer-gence as a global power. "World War I was clearly the turning point for developing a new global role for the United States, ushering in a century of international en-gagement to promote democracy," said Jennifer Keene, a World War I expert at Chapman University in California. Americans had been keenly following the war ever since it broke out in August 1914, showing broad support for neutrality. But public opinion changed with the May 1915 sinking of the Lusita-nia. The British ocean liner was en route from New York to Liverpool when a German submarine torpedoed it off the coast of Ireland, killing 1,201 passengers, including 128 Americans. "It seems inconceivable that we should refrain from taking action on this manner, for we owe it not only to humanity but to our own nation-al self-respect," former president Teddy Roosevelt, an influential pro-allied hawk, told the New York Tribune at the time.

Jobs currently available: Stop in or visit our website to learn more about the positions available and to apply. jobs.mdu.com

Training Available. Knife River Materials Northern Minnesota Division 4101 Bemidji Ave N Bemidji, MN 56601

VETERANS EMPLOYMENT REP-

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY

April 18, 1942 - The first

air raid on mainland Japan

during World War II oc-

curred as General James

Doolittle led a squadron of

B-25 bombers taking

off from the carrier Hornet

to bomb Tokyo and three

other cities. Damage was

minimal, but the raid

boosted Allied morale fol-

lowing years of unchecked

Japanese military advanc-

es.

April 19, 1775 - At dawn in

Massachusetts, about 70

armed militiamen stood

face to face on Lexington

Green with a British ad-

vance guard unit. An unor-

dered 'shot heard around

the world' began

the American Revolution.

A volley of British rifle fire

was followed by a charge

with bayonets leaving eight

Americans dead and ten

wounded.

April finds us out looking for signs of spring. We search, and look, and yearn for just one sprig of green. It will cheer us so much to find it. But there is another color that will be coming out this month. It is the red of our VFW poppies. In April we begin assembling and distributing the Poppy Cards to area businesses. We hope they will show their pride and appreciation for our veterans by supporting us financially, and by displaying the Poppy Card in their place of business.

In May we go as individual VFW and Auxiliary members to vari-ous businesses in the area and offer poppies to people for a do-nation. It is wonderful to see most people’s reaction to our table of poppies. Many get out of their car with a smile on their face, and start to try to find their wallet, or purse, or pocket so they can donate some funds. It is also heartening to see young chil-dren learn about the meaning of the poppies. They wear their new poppy proudly (or shyly), but they wear it. Be sure to make the most of this opportunity coming up in the next month or two. Get out and help us distribute poppies, and wear your own pop-py proudly. We are counting on you to be a part of this fund raiser and annual celebration of something that has been going on for many years. In March we completed another group of 35 towel buddies for our veterans. These will be distributed throughout the month of April. At that point, we will take a break from making those kits for the time being. Most likely we will not begin that project again until fall when it begins to get cold, and we worry about our veterans who are not able to keep clean, and warm, and dry. Hope you will be there in the fall to help us get going again. All of the officers from our local VFW Auxiliary wish you and your family a blessed Easter season. Remember to make time for family and friends, and especially remember our veterans and their families during this time. Send a card to a vet overseas, or take a card to a veteran in the local nursing homes. Do whatev-er you can to make sure they know how much we appreciate them. Best Regards, Margaret Booge President, VFW Auxiliary 1260

POST AUXILIARY

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Post 1260 Quartermas-ter, CSM(R) Kelly Booge, participated in the Be-midji High School Junior ROTC military ball in March. Kelly gave out the VFW Senior JROTC Medal to Cadet Chris

Acevedo and the VFW Junior JROTC Medal to Cadet Ethan Knowlton for their positive attitude towards the program, out-standing military bearing and conduct, patriotism, personal attributes, and growth potential.

ACTIVITIES THIS MONTH

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POINTS OF CONTACT Commander Bruce Malterud 218-766-3898 bmjm@paulbunyan.net

Adjutant Clare Kapphahn 218-243-3060 ckapphan@paulbunyan.net

Quartermaster Kelly Booge 218-308-1171 kelbooge@paulbunyan.net

Sr. Vice Commander Dave Christianson 218-244-3381 davebecky66@gmail.com

Jr. Vice Commander Dr. Jason Dixon

Surgeon Bruce Skipton 218-760-1130 bskipton@att.net

Chaplain Charlie Brown 218-751-4293

Asst Chaplain Jerry Wraa 218-776-3949 jlwraa@gvtel.com

Veterans Service Officer Scotty Allison 218-333-4178 campbell.allison@co.beltrami.mn.us

Vet Employment Rep Vacant

Vet Center Shari Kosobuski 218-722-8654 shari.kosobuski@va.gov

Post Auxiliary President Margarete Booge 218-751-3258 kelbooge@paulbunyan.net Post Auxiliary Treasurer Janie Malterud 218-854-7499 bmjm@paulbunyan.net

DAV Chapter #7 Thomas Annonson 218-251-3025 torgor@lightspeed.net

Support Numbers

Education: http://www.mymilitaryeducation.org

Health Care: 1-877-222-8387

Suicide Prev. Hotline: 1-800-273-8255

Fargo VA: 1-800-410-9723

Help Line: 1-855-VET-TALK

VA Community Outpatient Clinic-Bemidji: 218-755-6360

OUR DAILY COMMITTMENT Hours served last month: 155 41 members volunteered last month Current Members: 258 2017 TAPS Paul Arneson Christopher Siler Harold Qvern

HAROLD BAGGENSTOSS

POST 1260

The purpose is fraternal, patri-

otic, historical, and education-

al; to preserve and strengthen

comradeship among its mem-

bers; to assist worthy com-

rades; to perpetuate the

memory and history of our

dead, and to assist their widows

and orphans; to maintain rue

allegiance to the Government

of the United States of America,

and fidelity to its Constitution

and laws; to foster true patriot-

ism; to maintain and extend

the institutions of American

freedom, and to preserve and

defend the United States from

all her enemies, whomsoever.

WHAT THE VFW DOES FOR THE COMMUNITY

Youth activities, Voice of Democracy & Youth Essay

Patriotic Activities

Aid to Schools & Churches

Membership

Help to obtain benefits

Legislative Service

Buddy Poppy Promotion

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE

PAID MAILED FROM ZIP CODE 56601 PERMIT NO. 3

Harold Baggenstoss

VFW Post #1260

P.O. Box 1271 Bemidji, MN 56619

Phone: 218) 243 3060

E-mail: ckapphan@paulbunyan.net