In this edition of the Hubcap: Vera's View, It Happened Last Meeting, Zoom Video Recording, Club Announcements and News
Thursday at the Rotary Club of Arlington, Texas:
Chris McMurrough, UTA Robotics Professor
Making Robots See and Think
Vera's View
Rotary International has twenty-six goals for participating clubs to achieve each year. The categories of those goals are: Enhance Participant Engagement, Increase Our Impact, Expand Our Reach, and Increase Our Ability to Adapt [Login at Rotary Central to see our club's progress. -JPK]. We increased our engagement last Saturday at the District Assembly with 20 club members participating. We look forward to the enhancement their learning will bring to our club.
While I could not attend the district meeting, I had the privilege of hosting eighty girls and mentors at the Sky Ranch Retreat Center in Van, Texas this weekend. The Daughters of Deborah mentoring group theme for the two-day retreat was Integrity 101. While visiting with one of the senior girls, I was asked if Rotary had a club for young people. This young lady has a heart for community service. I informed her that we have a Rotaract club at UTA but she plans to attend college in Nebraska. While I could not speak for where she is going, it lifted my hope for Rotary’s future that a young person is interested in joining the ranks of those who serve our community.
Every member can be a part of expanding our club’s reach by inviting someone you know to come visit our club as a potential member. You can reach out to youth ages twelve to eighteen and invite them to be a part of the newly forming Interact club. We know that Rotary is beneficial to our community. Let’s do our part to keep it growing.
Did It Happen Last Thursday?
by Benjamin Harris
President Vera McKissic rang the meeting to order and welcomed all those present.Karina Cassell led us in the Prayer & Pledge. We then sang “God Bless America.”
Past-President Barry Bondurant greeted visiting Rotarians and guests. When asking if there were visiting Rotarians it thundered. Barry commented that we know God is “up there.” Is God a Rotarian? [Yes. And He attends every meeting. -JPK]
Announcements:
Our club is sending 20 Rotarians to the District Assembly.
Our club is sponsoring a community Interact Club. We need 12 youths to form the club. Get your grandkids to come!
Susie McAlister announced our annual Rotary school awards. Our club has presented the awards since 1952. We need more people to sign up. It’s wonderful, sign up!!
LeeAnn Chenoweth Lawson announced the May 3 & 10 Timeless Concerts featuring French music. As a thank-you for the success of the February fundraiser, LeaAnn is offering club members and guests the $15 student rate for these two concerts.
The O’Donnells—or maybe just one of them, I didn’t look up to see who was standing at the microphone [It was Mike: photo below. -JPK]—announced the amazing success of the first year of Shakespeare Live. They had over 1,500 people attend the performances. An impressive number, especially since one performance was (unfortunately) cancelled!
Joy Bates, Webb School Committee Chair, announced the activities our club is participating in for Teacher Appreciation week at Webb. We need to write posters and thank you notes. [Did you receive the email about this? If not, please update your email address in ClubRunner. -JPK]
Chat Bates, Fund Development Chair, announced that all of the funds from Dancing With the Arlington Stars are officially in. Our club raised over $240,000!!
Mac Martin approached to lead us all in song. Mac mentioned that we may make song suggestions. Mac suggested that we make those suggestions to Don Mebus. Apparently, Don knows all songs. I would like to suggest Whistling Gypsy, Black Velvet Band, Over the Hills and Far Away, Spanish Ladies, Mary Mac. We sang Texas Our Texas - our state song since 1929.
President Vera filled in for Sally with birthdays and anniversaries. The only birthday was Coy’s Garrett's: he must’ve been out celebrating!
The General presented a History of the Tuskegee Airmen, focusing on three individual pilots. All members of unit were black, including supporting airmen. This includes nurses, mechanics, lawyers, staff, pilots. The unit included both fighters and bombers. Elenor Roosevelt was instrumental in getting the unit started after visiting the airfield in Tuskegee, Alabama.
Today there is a national historical site in Tuskegee. The General encouraged us all to visit as the site has a very interactive museum. the unit trained 992 pilots, of whom 450 went into combat overseas. Today, only one of those pilots is still alive [George Hardy, according to Wikipedia. -JPK].
The unit included four B-25 "Mitchell" squadrons and four fighter squadrons. The fighter squadrons fought in North Africa, the Sicily campaign, and then Italy. The Leader of Tuskegee was Benjamin O. Davis Jr. He and his father were both Army officers. At one point between WWI and WWII, both Sr. and Jr. [First African-American admitted to West Point, and shunned during his entire term. -JPK] were the only two black pilots in the Army Air Corp. Needless to say, race relations were terrible in those times. The military is actively seeking to correct the errors of its past.
The Tuskegee Airmen are most known for escorting bombers. Their most famous mission was an escort of bombers all the way to Berlin. During this mission, the Tuskegee Airmen, flying the "Red Tail" P-51 Mustang fighters, shot down three German jets.
Gen. Johnson then highlighted the following Tuskegee Airmen: Gen. Daniel "Chappie" James, the first black four star gen in the United States Air Force; Brig. Gen. Charles McGee, who flew 409 combat missions across 3 wars; and “Marvelous” Mal Whitfield, B-52 rear who didn’t deploy because war ended before the bomber squadrons shipped to pacific. Mal was a great athlete competing in the NCAA and Olympics. Mal became a goodwill ambassador for US Olympics and helped African athletes. It is credited in part to Mal that the Kenyans today are known as such fearsome runners.
The Tuskegee Airmen lost only 25 bombers. This was the lowest loss ratio of any fighter escort group in the European theater. The Tuskegee Airmen were commonly requested to fly escort by various bomber groups. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis never returned to West Point. However, a new barracks at the Academy bears his name.
The film “Red Tails” made a brought significant attention and understanding to the contributions of Tuskegee. George Lucas financed the film himself. In addition to the film, a documentary was made by Lucas titled Double Victory, the idea that the Tuskegee Airmen would defeat the Germans and defeat prejudice at home.
During questions, Barry Bondurant shared that his uncle served on a bomber in Europe in the Army Air Corp during WWII. Barry’s uncle shared that the men in his unit always liked to see the Red Tail fighters while on bombing missions because it meant they had the best chance of surviving. After his lecture, Vera thanked Brig. Gen Johnson and presented a book for him to sign which we will donate to the Webb Elementary school library.
Dan Blumberg made a pun of Latin
The laughter in the room it did flatten
Vera, normally a boss,
Was at a total loss,
While Dan marched back to his seat like Patton.
Vera read the quote of the week, thanked everyone for attending. Vera then led us in the Four Way Test and adjourned the meeting.
Prost Y’all!
Miss last week's meeting? Click HERE & use this pass code: ygY@1C1?
Hal Thurow, Benjamin Harris Sign Up as Graduation Speakers
Val Gibson, Rick Jenkins
Mike & Lou Ann O'Donnell, Kris Landrith, Richard Urso, Brian Anderson
Brig. Gen. Leon Johnson (Retired), Remembering the Tuskegee Airmen
Brig. Gen. Leon Johnson (Retired), Tuskegee Airmen Congressional Gold Medal
Jason Shelton, UTA Colleague of Jim Quick, Q&A
President Vera Presents Webb Elementary Library Book
Four Way Test
"Anything that is theoretically possible will be achieved in practice, no matter what the technical difficulties are, if it is desired greatly enough."
