VP Dave Shaheen ran the meeting for President Bob Spatola who had a work committment.
Herb Gauch, Rotary Foundation area 10 chairmen thanked us for exceeding our Foundation donation goals for the past few years. Last month was polio awareness month. Kenn Van Dieren is our Club's Foundation chair and has been doing a great job. Herb thanks us for having some sustaining members. Goal for district this year is that all 2311 members of District 7120 donate $100. Foundation does great work around the world and needs to be supported in order to continue doing so.
See events section of bulletin for a list of all upcoming events and speakers.
Eastern Cities Dinner this year is the same night as the Christmas baskets event on Dec. 6th.
Disk Butler reported that no prospective members showed up for the last meeting at his house. Too bad. Plan for next new member meeting in mid-January or February. It is always a nice evening so please promote it among prospective members.
Dom Fantauzzo: If you haven't gotten your money for tickets that are out, please call customers and confirm. Some may have not gotten it in the mail. This Saturday start time for prep work is around 8am in the kitchen and 9am for those working in the cafeteria. Sunday kitchen staff shoud report at 9am and 11am for all others. Bob Scheidt will cook eggs on Saturday morning to start a new tradition that he will continue forever! So far, ticket money is about equal to last year so we are in better shape.
Bob Scheidt: there is no program for our 11/22 meeting so we will go to Remington on Merchants road for our dinner meeting.
Terri Bastuk is on the District Governor nominating committee. The committee recently elected Linda Kohl to be District Governor in 2021. Linda is currently Area 10 Assistant Governor and member of Penfield Club.
Kenn Van Dieren spoke about his military experience during the Vietnam War. Kenn was a HALO (high altitude low opening) parachutist. He would jump from airplanes at 20,000 feet altitude and not open chute until 1500-1000 feet altitude. This was a low profile way to fly over enemy territory without detection and drop personnel and materials into very difficult targets. Before being assigned to this duty, he spent time in basic training and trained as a 71N transportation specialist. He was a military mover! But this did not last long. He ended up volunteering for being a parachutist and it was difficult to be accepted because he was an only son. He went to Fort Benning, Georgia to go to jump school. They had to jump out the second level floor which was about 10 feet because it was similar to landing in a parachute. C130 was their plane. His group practiced jumping off platforms and learned how to fold a parachute and learned to NEVER use a chute you did not pack. Always had a reserve chute during practice. Training started at 1000 feet and worked up to 20,000 feet. It is very quiet while falling before employing chute. Over 10,000 feet altitude, oxygen is required to survive.
Overall, Kenn did 18 combat jumps and for those he did not carry a reserve chute because they had to carry so many supplies and ammunition. It is a big jolt to the body when the parachute opens after such a long free fall. Because of the harness, it hurt in crotch and sometimes broke collar bones. Breaking ankles on landing was also a problem. He was stationed in Bangkok. His mission was to attack difficult to reach targets. There were 22 men in his unit and, sadly, 16 did not come back. After landing and setting off his explosives, he would have to walk back out from enemy territory across the DMZ. He had to engage in enemy fire on the way out more than once. Kenn did 72 jumps overall including practice and just before 73, he said this was enough. He was there for 6 and one-half months. Quite an experience that once again shows how Veterans like Kenn have sacrificed and suffered for our freedom.
As an aside, Kenn told of how the term "Geronimo" came to be used by parachutists. The term came from 1940 time frame. Before the day of the first jump, the parachutist got drunk and went to see a movie called Geronimo. This gave him the idea to yell it when they jumped.
Multiple contributions for: Pasta Dinner and Prince of Pasta Dom Fantauzzo's and Marilyn's hard work, Kenn Van Dieren's program, Polio, John Mendick,Sr. Anniversary, Ray Holla’s Mom's health, Marine Corp birthday, Peter Kelderhouse retirement, and Terri Bastuk on the mend.
Dom Fantauzzo: everybody's good health; Doug Decker: free dinner for osu barely beating PENN STATE UNIVERSITY; Terri Bastuk: in NYC in hospital with mom and Mom thought she was missing pasta dinner; Lee Steinfeldt: lots of house troubles; Tom Kosanke: Colleen athlete of month in September; Jim Kozlowski : golf at Pebble Beach; Peter Mendick: John Mendick who slipped in the bathroom and hurt his knee; Peter Kelderhouse: retiring from management job after 42 years, and selling RPO tickets until end of month; John Mendick: for our veterans, Dad’s 7th anniversary of passing; Dave Shaheen: Canandaigua Inn at the lake for district leadership meeting last Saturday; Bob Spatola: Dave Shaheen for covering for him, and Tom Kosanke back in country.