Anchorage Assembly: Military and Veterans Affairs Commission May 5, 2025

One. All right, let's start off with the Pledge of Allegiance. Okay, do that.

Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right, you want to go ahead? You can go ahead and do that. Oh yes, so everyone, I would like to introduce Diana. She is our new front desk receptionist at the mayor's office and will be taking over staffing duties for me while they give me more work to do. So yeah, say, why are you going on vacation?

Oh, I wish. Yes, Diane has been here in the municipality before with HR, and we are happy that she is here with us, and so we'll transition, Mr. Chair, on communications to her, you know, for the next month until she's ready to take it all on her own.

All right, let's, uh, go ahead and do the roll call.

Roll call.

Just call the names. Just say the name. Uh, David Foley. Here. Eleanor Lawson.

She is excused. Elle Mills-Paul. Here. Amel Eguada. Olivia Freeman.

Here.

And I'm here.

All right.

All right. We have got 5 members, 1 on the— 4 here, 1 on the phone. So that gives us a quorum.

All right. Do the— have the last minute meeting minutes. Did everybody get a chance to read the minutes? And that, that were sent out to everybody?

Yes. So the, uh, how do I state that again?

We have a, uh, we need a motion. I know, I thought that won't be done. I do have a motion to accept the minutes. Motion for minutes acceptance. Do I have a second?

Port? I'll second. All right, and any amendments? All right, then by unanimous consent, the minutes pass. It's that wording thing.

Unanimous. Yeah, well, but we didn't ask for a vote yet, so—. Well, you don't—. Well, that's what we do. We did by unanimous consent.

Everybody approves, then it's unanimous consent, right? Okay, any amendments? But I didn't hear where, you know, the vote was. Is there any objection or something? Did I miss that, or—.

No, no, he asked that. Are there any objections? Any objections? Oh no, he said amendments, because there's also a discussion. Is there any— okay, is there any objections to the minutes?

All right, then, by unanimous consent, they're passed. Okay, thank you. So I was looking for the proper— yeah, trying to get you guys to get me to Right, to do this somewhat right. Oh, it's— yes, we are— it's what we call the Roberts light. So it's the Roberts rules, but it's just— oh yes, I'm Robert Super Light, extra, extra light.

Yes, different ways you can do it, and we're kind of lax on it. Yes, you follow the different types of—. And also, just for information, apparently with Open Meetings Act, for if there are people online, that you're supposed to take a voice vote instead of having a unanimous consent, but that could be probably with us to the light version. But just so we know, in case, okay, uh, we have to do that, it just takes more time to like have everybody's— equals you basically do a roll call, so you get everybody's voice vote, okay, recorded and online. Yeah, but Don't need that.

Cool. Um, where do we have— and because this is Olivia's first meeting, right? I know it's your first official meeting, right, Olivia? Yeah, you attended last week, which is great, but yeah, so for— I don't know if you want to include an official intro, the role. Yeah, I guess we should because we didn't do it because we, we, we talked about it but we didn't do it last time.

Yeah, because we had a lot to go through, so Yeah, so officially now, you should go ahead and tell us about yourself and military service and that, and then we're going to tell you about us. Oh, great. My name is Olivia Freeman. I ran for office decades ago. I believe that we have, as we the people, have way more stuff than anyone knows about.

So when I was asked to look into becoming a member of this group, I said, if there was a place that you could affect change, this sounds like it. It may be a little one, but maybe that might be just the one that somebody needs. So my military experiences, 10 years in the operating room, I sold really big software for countries and really, you know, Deutsche Banks and those kind of people. And then I tried to retire, I didn't, and I wound up in HR. I had a hospital of my own of 1,000 people and that kind of thing.

And now I'm really retired. I really am. And so I have a nonprofit and all I do is help nonprofits do their work because they just need help. So this is one of those kind of services that I like to bring to other people because you guys have so much stuff that people, I'm sure you want to get out to them. So I'm here to help in any way I can to certainly recruit for our organization, but also to be a voice however you want us to be out there.

I would like to be part of that. So thank you for inviting me. So you said you were a nurse, so you were in the hospital itself all the time? Yeah. Or in a mashroom?

Mashroom? Oh, yes. Well, if you go way back, when I joined the military was 1973. And a couple years later, I was in the operating room. I was attached to a MASH unit, the 383rd MASH unit.

And it was the best years of my life, as they say. It really was. I learned everything that I really am today, I really did learn then. I refined it, but the military, those 10 years, never, it will never be, it's the best learning experience I could possibly have had.

Awesome. So to reaffirm, were you in the Army? Yes. Okay, I'm glad you made it. And I was, uh, I was— I grew up in Michigan and I was in Boy Scouts until I was 18, and then I joined the Air Force 1965.

Okay, you're not—. I am.

And I spent 20 years. I went to Spain, 2 tours in Spain, got married there. Nice. Tour of Elmendorf, North Dakota, tour of the Pentagon. And I was in communications, telecommunications, the first 13 years.

And the last 7 years I was in communication management, which that I really enjoyed because I had a window and I had a desk. 'Cause before that it was all secured, underground sometimes, so that was fantastic. Then after I retired, I'm here. I'm an APD reserves officer, I'm community council, do food runs for the homebound. I just keep on volunteering.

I love it. I have two kids, one Florida, one in Eagle River. All right. My name is Robert Yell and my history is I was in the Air Force for 4 years. I joined in 1988.

I was in as an air traffic controller, but I washed out because it was so difficult. And then I went into supply because the air traffic control, they're going to train you on military and civilian at the same time. So you have to learn both. And it's—. There's a high washout rate.

So I went into supply at that point and served with the 343rd Supply Squadron up in Eielson, and that— off the rest of my term there. And then, uh, after that I joined the Navy, and I was there for 8 years. I was with the NAVAC unit as an IT specialist, which is a cross-rate for a radioman. So I did that for 8 years. Um, right now I'm working for Anchor Rides as a driver.

I'm a paratransit instructor as well, so I train new drivers on how to drive, and if I don't feel that they're capable of doing the job or they're going to be endangering, you know, our passengers, I won't let them pass. So it's very dangerous out there. Anything could happen. People could fall out of their wheelchair or fall backwards. And hurt themselves.

So you gotta be very cautious with safety. And, um, that's about it.

Hey, I'm David Foley. I, uh, spent my time in the Army Airborne Infantry, and that did 12 years in the active Army. Got out, uh, decided to join the National— stay in the National Guard, get my retirement. Did 17 years there. Yeah, I, uh, been, uh, Germany, up here twice, Japan, Panama, South America, and Iraq.

Yeah, over my time in the military. And now I do IT, use my GI Bill to stop hurting my back.

Smart man, smart man.

Wanna go to Amal? Yeah, Amal, you wanna give Olivia a little bit about yourself, please? Yeah, hi. Hi, Olivia. I joined the Army back in 2000.

I did 10 years of active duty in the infantry. I served with 3rd Ranger Battalion for about 2 years and then the rest of the time up here in Alaska with 425. So I did 4 deployments to Afghanistan and 1 to Iraq. Then I got out and I still currently work for the Army as a civilian. That's about it.

You still do what, please? What's that? What did you say you still do? I still work for the Army as a civilian. Ah, as a civilian.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah. All right. Any questions, Sandy? I do. Someone said— you said South America, David, it's like you— but you couldn't tell us where.

I got that. And someone said it was about safety. It was Robert.

Are you able to train the— you said you train people to drive. They need drivers, correct. And people need drivers. Correct. Okay, all right.

I just want to make sure because that's one of the things that military people are looking for transitioning kind of things. Sure. So I just want to make sure that that's something we can We're all sorry. Okay, thank you. It's a 2-week training course, 1 week in the classroom, then 1 week driving.

Okay, excellent. Thank you. Oh, we could—. 20 Years with the city. Yeah, right, 20 years with the city.

Kyle, did you want to say anything to Olivia or to anybody? I'm Kyle. I'm at JBear Public Affairs. I'm sorry, I don't have a working camera. I I haven't got cleared for that, ironically.

I am civilian. My husband and I are both civilian DOD employees, and I have been a DOD employee for the past 3 years, but I just joined Public Affairs in November.

Why did you join the Commission?

Yeah, so the lieutenant that was in our section, I know he started going before we got here, or before I got here, and he's now in a different section in our office. And so I was like, well, I mean, I'm happy to take it on, especially because we do coordinate, um, our section coordinates the events where the base commander and our honor guard, our security forces trucks, everybody goes out into the community. So it just would make sense for us to be part of it versus just coordinating these events through email. It's nice to be able to talk about it and everything. She's a— Kyle is our one of our military representatives.

Mm-hmm. And that she's from— she's our military representative from JBAB, and she's also trying to help us to where we can get maybe someone from the National Guard or the Coast Guard and try to get them where they attend our meetings too. That gives us— points to communicate back and forth with the military organizations. Yeah, so we, I mean, we are JBRRR Public Affairs, but there is, you know, the other branches and other units that do have like execs or smaller public affairs offices that it's good for them to join because yes, we do take in all the information and we're happy to pass it down, but it is important that they all are involved, um, but we are Joint Base, um, Public Affairs, so everything would come through us. And I've been trying to reach out to them, um, and I've sent them the invite for Marie.

It's just a matter of I can't, you know, hold their hand and make them attend, um, but I can keep pushing them. So I can be my guest.

Yeah, you're in. Thank you very much, Kyle. That's exactly what I was looking for. I know that there is a joint thing. I've just been found— I've just found the connection to Fort Richardson.

I know I've been here for 3, 5 years, whatever, but I have, and I realize that you're right. These are not coordinated efforts for some reason. So if you're going to be that point person, You are my— except for you, Diane, you are my new best friend. So thank you very much for giving— I knew there was a person and you're it. Thank you.

Yes. Yeah. So that will be us. Like the Army, the 11th Airborne, they do have their own public affairs. They're a much smaller office.

They only have maybe 3 people in there, but everything definitely should come through us and then we can push it down as necessary or to the correct branch or unit or whatnot. Um, but they— them specifically, they do have a PA, and I would love for them to join because there's a lot of stuff going on that we don't know about because they run stuff up at Wainwright and everything too in Greeley. So, um, just trying to get them to be involved. Yep. Okay, thank you so much.

All right, thank you, Kyle. All right then, um, we don't have any guests Lessons. All right, so committees, which is the main, probably the main thing we've got today. So in the committees, 11th Air Force, Ellen is, as we said, is on her way to a cruise and there's nothing really to talk about. She is going to coordinate, um, one of the meetings coming up for us to at least start the meeting, if not the other thing, to go over there so she can show everybody what it is and what we're doing.

Yes. Um, maybe the mayor would like to join us when we do that so that she can see exactly what we're talking about, right, with what is going on with it. Yes, you want to give a brief, um, history on that for—. Well, she—. We did, we did last meeting, she was online on that one.

And, uh, getting— I think has to be more important if I, if I, along with getting them to the other people, because I didn't send them out anyway. And that is getting out copies of all the stuff, because it's, it's a lot. That we, that we've got together. And I just got to find all the different emails and stuff. And I thought I saved it all in a folder.

It might be. I looked online. I've been, I've been, yeah, going crazy just trying to get stuff for Memorial Day together and keeping this stuff going. Because understand, I do this, we do this one, and I'm involved in 2 other Memorial Day ceremonies for that weekend. And that's so for other organizations.

Outstanding. Outstanding. That's what you want to do is give the busy work to somebody that's busy. Yeah. I got a question.

Had the 11th Air Force Command ever been approached regarding the memorial and see if they want— they're interested in doing whatever they can, if they want to at all, you know? Yes. There were emails, and we started looking at this, we found emails where, um, a prior member of the commission back before COVID was communicating with 2 or 3 of the top NCOs in the Air Force, and they were working and devising a plan to move the whole thing onto JBARR.

COVID hit, all of those NCOs are gone, everything has changed, that person is gone. The last thing that I heard from another is the one Joy that used to be a member of the commission, she said that she brought up to them and they don't want anything to do with it. They don't have the money to try to move the thing over there. Now that's been a while ago though. I would like to, I would like to, uh, uh, go with Ellen, or, you know, I want to probably say Ellen too.

Yeah. Over and talk to the, uh, to the commander. I like to approach from the top and they can assign whoever they want to with anybody, uh, if that's all right, uh, because I think we need to retouch because different people change, you know, commanders change and different, different views. I'm all for it. Like I said, our, our job with it is to find out information on options so we can take those options and present them to the mayor, right?

And, and that— so, uh, because we have a new mayor, we have a lot of new leadership on base. If you, if you want, if you and Ellen want to go over and talk to them and see what you can— maybe Olivia would like to join you guys, um, and with talking to the people over there and that, but however you guys want to do it. If you— if we can find them to have interest in it, and then we can get them communicating straight with the mayor's office, because if we do it and then the mayor likes it, we can hook them up with the mayor, and then we can step back out of it, and then we've done our job. We've given the options for it. And I got some pictures about, uh, I think you put them on shared drive, didn't you?

Picture? No, I didn't put on a share drive yet. Okay, but there's, uh, a lot of good pictures of the memorial up there. I went down there and took photos. And so, uh, I don't know, you want to explain the share drive to Olivia?

We, we have— she, she knows what the share drive is, and we— I talked about out there. Now I'm gonna put her on it and I'll send her the link. Thank you. Uh, yeah, but there were a lot of good pictures. Yeah, thank you.

I'm trying to remember, I might have put some of that stuff from that we got from the Merrill Field and that on there. I'll have to look. It's a step up. That's okay. Everyone, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but there's also a message from Kyle as well right there on the chat.

It says, I'm happy to bring this—. I just didn't want to interrupt, so I just threw it on the chat there. Okay, it was on chat. Yeah, we can definitely bring this up because obviously, you know, people change out every few years and whatnot. So I'm happy to bring it up if I just can have— I've been, you know, paying attention to the last few months, but just a little more background and exactly what is needed.

I can bring it up to the new commander for sure. And Kyle, I've met her a couple of times. She's a fantastic lady. Boy. And if you want one of us or whomever to go over with you so you have some background and more information, that'd be okay.

You know, she's gonna be the— she's the guest speaker at her memorial. Yeah, I was gonna say that too. Yeah, but there's a lot of things going on there. Yeah. So, oh yeah, yeah.

But she's, she's open. She's just great, a great person. Good, excellent. Yeah, well, and there again, if she shows any— if we talk to her, she shows any interest, when Helen gets back and we set up the, the time that we're all going to go over and meet over there, if the mayor wants to go and if the The Colonel wants to go, she might not even know that that's back there. Yeah, right.

Yeah, no, that's not a problem. If you just want to, um, send me just a little something, um, I'm also going to loop Joy in, um, the Joy that you were talking about, Joy Boston, because she knows a lot about that and she works directly with Colonel Mabbitt and, um, can help me with that too. Briefer on it.

Okay.

All right, all right. Memorial Day, um, so things are invitations. I've seen that the— I, I, I haven't heard anything back from any of the senators, the representative, but I was at the un— I was at the unattended, uh, burial last week, last Wednesday, and all three of their military representatives were there. Oh nice. And that— so, uh, Greg said that he'll look for it.

He hasn't seen the invitation yet, but, um, he's pretty sure that they— that Lisa Murkowski is going to Fairbanks for Memorial Day, so she won't be here. Um, the, the representative for Senator Stevens said that he is going to be in the Kenai for Memorial Day. Um, down in Kenai and Soldotna and that area. Yeah, for their ceremony. Um, the representative for, uh, Representative Bagich wasn't sure, and he was going to go and look for the invitation, see if they've gotten the invitation.

So I have to try to get a hold of him and see what they've got. Okay. And I haven't heard anything. I haven't. I don't know if you guys have heard anything from the governor.

No. Yeah, that's— that's where in that email for the to RSVP. Yeah, yeah. So I haven't heard from them, so later on this week I will, uh, get a hold of Governor's office and I'll double-check with the baggage— with the baggage office. Perfect.

Um, from you, is the mayor going to be there to do the— she has the welcome. Yeah. I believe— I know she had vacation planned right before that, so, but I think she's rescheduled it, so I believe we're good.

I don't see it yet, but I know it's on the hopper for her. Okay. I'll confirm with you.

But now the offices, they will— I have Senator Stevens, I Senator Sullivan, I didn't get a confirmation on. For McCasky's office, Craig will probably be there to speak on behalf, like, like last year. Oh wait, Nick Begich, the congressman, will be in D.C. and unable to attend. Okay. Yeah.

Does he mention about a representative or anything? Did not.

You want us to request one? Just ask him. It's just asking, uh, will the— I'd rather know than not plan for it. Not saying, you know, was here to speak on his behalf.

Yeah, and we also sent out, uh, the general invitations. To the state legislators so they know, and if they want to come, uh, that's not for being a speaker, that's just if they want to come so that they all get invitations. Uh, we don't— we have the one side that we kind of save for VIPs, uh, and with the setup for those that want to do— we have the— we set up in front of the flagpoles and then the two the two pads that come off of each side. The one side is usually saved for like VIPs, military leaders that show up, legislators that show up, and then it gets filled in with anybody that wants to fill in. The front couple rows are for family members or aides and that for any of our guests that come, like the mayor, the governor, Uh, and the, the other side is predominantly is, is supposed to be saved for handicapped veterans, uh, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, uh, veterans that are older, handicapped.

And that way it's chairs, it's up close, and of course other people can fill in on that as we're going through. And then we have the whole center walkway, that's anybody that can sit there. And then, um, and so we have those. Uh, I will— do you want me to send— got the— I got a type up. I got—.

I got to finish the letters for the neighborhoods. All right. The— do you want me— because I know you said that you wanted to take those out again this year? I'll go ahead and add that up. Yeah, yeah, maybe one or two people.

Do you want me to send them to Diana Marie and—. Anna Marie, Marie and Diana. Yeah, I said Diana and Marie, and that I'm including both of them right now until the— so she says I'm not coming no more. Um, you want me to send it to them Let them print them out and then you come by here and pick them up. All right, we have to come here anyway.

All right, why you writing it down? You know, it'd be nice maybe if, uh, when you at the Memorial Day, uh, you give a kadoo to the mayor staff for helping out and also recognize us because I don't remember that being last year. Oh yeah, good, by name. Yeah, kind of putting the thing on, you know. Mhm, nice.

Get Sheila some recognition there. Me? Don't worry, you're in, you're in the, you're in the brochure. I'm not saying me, you're in the brochure. Yeah, people don't read that.

Yeah, they could. Okay, I'll, I'll, I'll mention that. Great idea. Yeah, yeah. And it's also handicapped people because they're— you don't see something, not always— it doesn't always mean they're not handicapped.

It's probably the military, you know. So we have to be cognizant of that too. Yeah, well, we're very loose. I mean, like last year, we're very loose on— because we're putting like 30, 40, 50 chairs out there, and there's not that many walk up. A lot of them come up with their own walkers or whatever they want to sit in, and so they do that in the grass over there.

But they're there, and if they get filled up and there's some 20-year-old or 10-year-old kids sitting in them, you need to get up and let this person sit down. Yeah, but they need to be handicapped too, so we got to be—. Those chairs are for handicapped veterans first. Okay, better. All right, then after that, everybody else can fill in the chairs.

And after they really weren't— they really weren't filled last year. Yeah, yeah, people and I will also contact, uh, Elva Gray Jackson and Gray, uh, what do you call it, the Anchorage legislative staff, because I know pretty much all of them, and, uh, just make sure that they did get the notes too.

And last year Elva said she didn't hear about it, but I'm sure there was something happened down there. You know, they didn't—. Oh, we sent up the letters, we sent up the invitations. They go from the mayor's office, they go down, and then all we can do is, uh, I'll recontact, make sure they know. Yeah, but you know, they, uh— I hate to be the hardcore, you know, we do it every year at the same time, the same place, every year.

How about the parking situation? Did they— they're gonna have reserved parking at all? I think we mentioned that. We have, we have parking that's down that, that one side on 10th Avenue. All the parking over there is reserved for VIPs and handicapped.

Okay, good. And that—. Yeah, I have a question on that. I know the laptop the congressional delegation, the letter says you're reserving a spot for them, but for everybody else, I'm sending them to General Assembly members. Do you—.

No. We cannot include that. Okay. No, we only—. Yeah.

If we, especially being that with the senators and that coming, if we get, because we have the Colonel is doing, she has a VIP, If one of the generals, you know, or one of the top colonels, if they respond back and start asking if we have VIP parking, we can give them a spot. Sure, you know, we'll give a general a spot. Okay. Uh, you know, the legislators, not so much because there's a bunch of them and they all— then they all— it becomes a thing. Uh, if somebody really starts griping really big, then we can but they haven't in the past.

But if, uh, but we really handicap— but then if we're sitting there and parking spots are empty, but yeah, they're usually not. Okay.

And so I could ask about the band. I tried the high school, the UAA, the civilian bands, and basically they're not active during this time period, so that's kind of a no, no help there. Yeah. So you had something you were trying to follow? The, uh, the, um, the band that gets together for the Honor Flight Homecoming, I talked with them.

We sat back at the homecoming, we talked about it. He talked to the members. He couldn't get the enough people to volunteer and say yes, they do it. But then again, he's hardcore about the fact that they don't have the books for a 5-piece, so he'd have to have a lot more to be able to do the music right. And I'm like, well, then you— we have to put you off in the grass off the side somewhere because you wouldn't fit.

You're more than a 5-piece, you wouldn't fit up on the memorial area. And he didn't have enough people to do it, so he was a no-go either. So we will be playing music off of the sound system. And that, and get my son working on that.

And that it's a whole lot easier when all I got to do is get my son to control the microphones. And now, uh, with this, so it's going to be a little bit different, but we've done it before, long before the municipality took over the, the, uh, meeting, the memorial. And that I did it for the, the guy that used to do it, my old our old system. I'd set it up up there and did it. So, sure, we can do it again.

Absolutely. Do we have a budget for this, for this event? Not really, no. We have, we have, we turn in— there's certain things that we can do, sure, and we turn that in ahead of time. I let Marie know, you know, we're going to have these, and so that they budget it through the mayor's office, right?

You're saying— okay, I just want to know if we had one of our— and that's fine, that's fine, just good to know. Right, yeah. I think next year we might go ahead and, in case it's gonna be like this every year, we might go ahead and, uh, let you know now to start looking at to, uh, go ahead and contract in a person to run sound and music. Yeah, and the music, um, only because I don't mind doing it. Oh yeah, it's not, it's not that hard, right?

It's just that still Well, it's just that I'm not here to do it. My son's gonna do it because I, uh, we get there, we get started, the ceremony starts around 9:30. Yeah, we're going 10 o'clock, around 10 o'clock, a little bit after, I leave. I have to go over to, uh, the cemetery because I'm the MC over there. Oh my goodness.

That's why I was thinking, contracting sound and music is a better idea in the long run, simply because it's, you know, buy local, it's the mayor's office. Who would not like to say, well, I did that for the mayor's office? We did it, we did it one year. Good. Yeah, I just— but see, I have my own.

I, I do that on the side. I do sound, run sound for bands, uh, do karaoke, do other things. And that— I, I just hate paying somebody to come and do it when I got the sound system to do it. It's just, I, then I have When it's running the microphones, it's easy. When it's not, then I have to ask my son to give up being able to ride the motorcycle and join everybody else.

Yeah, he's got to sit up there and run the music and everything. I would just rather—. Absolutely, I see it. Yes, I'm going to do it. It gets great idea because I get nervous about it because it's my name on the stuff running it, and, and, uh, I've already enough things to worry about on Memorial Day than I'll have to—.

I'll calendar that. Maybe because the budget process starts around September for the municipal budget, and so it won't hurt to have a prepared commission request so that the mayor can include that in her budget. And then maybe it might also be nice to have a representative from the commission to speak like to the assembly because eventually they approved that on asking for that. I mean, I imagine it will not— it won't be much, but I think it would also be helpful because during those budget hearings it's public, people can see what it's going for, you know, where the money is going that you're requesting. So I'll calendar that when we get there so that you can plan for it, and by then we probably have dates on when we'll need that, when the public hearing would be, and so you all can prepare to do that.

Okay. But if I could add to it, oh, 12:40, um, for the budget that we have, we do have porta-potties, right, that we're paying traffic control? Is that something? Yeah, yeah, you should be— I was on the email when I got back. No, I wasn't sure.

Just, they, they're very— oh yeah, sometimes they're very slow on the shop. Sometimes they're a little slow on getting the—. Okay, but it's like the traffic, the APD, that usually they don't ask us to pay, but sometimes we get a bill. We'll get a bill. So the ones that the mayor's office—.

Right now, Kathleen, Kathleen is usually pretty good at processing with our piece to process the, uh, the, uh, traffic. Well, they— she processes also the, um because there's other pieces that we use that normally somebody would have to pay for, and she processes the paperwork to null and void those. So the ones that we're always stuck with at the end— shaman, that's an exterior, we have to pay that. The porta-potties, and we almost always get a bill from the police department, right? And now with more people on the board, maybe for next year You can delegate all that and share the load.

Oh yeah, yep, yeah. The only reason—. Advertising, invitations. Yeah, I believe in that. Yeah, the only, the only reason we didn't this year, there was— oh, we, we were sitting back at the beginning of the year with, uh, yeah, 5, 6 people.

One person was leaving, uh, so we weren't gonna— we were looking at possibly not having a quorum for 3 years. And so I said, I'll start working on it, and people jumped in and helped. You know, Al helped out with this, and the other person helped out with that. And, you know, whoever, whoever was there and could do something would do it. And that's been going— we've been getting it done.

Thank you. Yes, that's a lot of work. Usually one person ends up with the bulk of the work, so thank you for doing all that. That becomes anytime you could not be available, or any one of us. So yeah, if, if you start making sure that probably Eleanor, since she's vice chair right now, and somebody that knows all these different ins and outs, because there's a lot of information.

Yeah, on Ellen's— Ellen's been working with me on it. Yeah, so she got the Youth Corps and, uh, yeah, but I mean, everything, all the different knots and ties and where everything tied in together, uh, because you could some reason have to leave tomorrow, you know, and we, we have to fill in. Yeah, that is one of the things I'm going to work on. We get past this and then, then I'm going to start working on putting together a thing that put online of these are the things we have to go through. And that— all right, um, the programs.

I will get you guys the programs so we can get those printed out. I'm just kind of waiting for a final answer on— because part of the programs is a schedule of events, and that is really hard if we don't know for sure who's going to be speaking from the senators and the congressmen. We need a week. Yeah, just a week to get that printed. But I'll, I'll update that, then I'll send you guys that.

And that's just printed two sides and unfolded. You can do that.

Thank you. We already talked about the band. Yeah, I will be sending out an email. I have to get a hold of the, the person from Parks and Recs that I usually coordinate with. He's already called me and we've talked.

We're going to set a date to meet at the Memorial. That's just to look it over, what kind of shape it is. Last year it was good because somebody had drove a vehicle up under and dumped their oil or something, and it was like big stain, and they had to go up and power wash the whole thing. Uh, the year before, we got up there and found the top half of the Fallen Warriors— some of the top half of the rifle had been broken off and was gone. Luckily it was sitting in an evidence room and that we were able to get it back.

And it wasn't there for Memorial Day, but that year they got a guy that does bronze and he reinforced it and welded it all back together and it was all fixed up. But we make sure the electrical outlets that are needed are hot and just the general layout of the place. So anybody that wants to come out there, so that way we can spend time and kind of visually on the ground, this is here, that is there, this is what we're going to do over here, so everybody kind of gets it. We will also be inviting the chaplain representative from the color guard and/or honor guard, and that, and Kyle had mentioned she might like to be there too. And so everybody is invited to that.

They come in there so we can just kind of, we just kind of go over, this is what's going to happen, this is where things have been, and this is how things are going to go. I'll, I will have a, this week I'm going to have a tentative, uh, sequence of events and that, because I have to get to Kyle for the Colonel, and I will send that out to everybody too just so you have a, a starting place of what how things are going to go. And, uh, I'm also working on updating the, uh, play-by-play for the MC so that he can start working with that. Another thing, it's if I don't know who's coming, I can't really get that center portion done. Exactly.

Who's the MC? Say, the, the Master Sergeant Schultz, same person from last year. Oh, I see. Yeah, he, he did it last year. And he said that he loved it and he wants to be a part of it.

And I said, okay, you know, yes, you're hired. When I started this, and it's not a bad idea, when I first came to the Commission, we were very big on getting a speaker for— and we still do this, trying to get a speaker from the different branches. Every year, you know, we haven't had one from here for a while. Let's try to get someone over. Let's try to get this.

Okay, we got a speaker from the Air Force. Let's try to get a chaplain from one of the other services. You know, let's try to get an MC from one of the other services. Mm-hmm. Well, that's fine, but it's hard to do sometimes.

And when you have a person who likes to MC, and he's a member of the military and is very good at it. Why change it every year, right? You know, maybe if you got a year I'm really busy, okay, then we'll, we'll find some— then we'll start fishing around for someone else. It's nice to have some different people, but I don't think it always has to be one of the topics. It's just hard, especially this year.

I wasn't about to try to fight that. We went through it last year. We got a great chaplain from the Coast Guard, but it took a little bit and Ellen finally, you know, fought her way that she got one from them. But—. And the chaplains are multiple denominations anyway, and a lot of them swap over branches, so yeah.

Well, the ones on J-PER, they all work together and they come out of the same office. Exactly. Pretty much. Which is nice. So when you coordinate with the PNR, and then you'll let us know when you're going to meet there so we can—.

Yeah. All join up. Yeah, once we set— as soon as we set a date and time, I will send it out to everybody. And that—. Thank you.

And actually, I live so close that there is one blue and white airplane that comes by. I wave at them from my balcony, okay? So I have pictures, and when you want to do that, I'm happy to to support you and do what you need. Awesome. Okay.

Okay. And Kyle, Kyle, shout out to Kyle. Kyle has been such a help on this with having her in this position. I mean, the minute we started talking about the chaplain, she's like, "I got those." She goes, "Just send the requests. You want me to go ahead and add that to the request that I already did for everything else?" And I said, "Yeah, okay." And that's, it was nice.

I mean, I told everybody, back before Mayor Bronson's administration took over, the commission did everything, okay? We did everything. We did, we did the printing, we did the all the advertising, going to radio stations, everything, everything that needed to be done, we did it. The mayor's office wasn't interested in being part of it. Mayor Bronson's team said, hey, we can do this, we can be part of this, we can do this for you, we can do that for you.

We have people that already do advertising. We can, you know, we can help do all this stuff. And it'd be team up. And Marie has been fantastic, and the current mayor's administration of carrying that on and helping and keeping things going. And on top of that, keeping me straight, because then I came over to this position.

I like being just like, you know, give me something to do. Yeah, that's right. But so I thank everybody, everybody that helps out and throws in and, and on this commission and the friends and the people that come to the commission and help. It makes it a whole lot easier. It's a lot easier now with the mayor's office assistants and with Kyle.

And her assistance with the Tabor has made it so much easier and so much, just everything clicks better. Well, that's great because so you all can focus on the external-facing work of really bringing the concerns of the military and veterans in Anchorage. Yep, 100%. And advising the assembly and the mayor on what those concerns are. And yeah, doing that really other work.

Does anybody have any questions for me on coming up with things that maybe you haven't heard me bring up or mention and you need to ask about?

Only 3 weeks away. Yeah, next meeting you get to talk on the success of the event. Yes. And planning for the next year. Start planning on the stuff that, that we really should need to be doing for starting in the summer, right?

Um, we got Flag Day coming up. I know the, uh, the base has got their annual military appreciation barbecue that'll be coming up sometime in June or July.

There's some other stuff. All right, I'll be But as I, as I remember stuff or stuff comes up, I will be sending out emails to people now, a lot of emails here and there to let everybody know what's going on and what we need. All right. Should I put an upcoming events? Memorial Day, Flag Day, June 14th, Independence Day, Fourth of July.

Does anybody have anything else that they know is coming up That it would be something that would be, uh, intricate or be for the commission.

Uh, there's— isn't Flag Day when they, when the, uh, VFW post have their, their— they, they do an invite for us to go there and watch them raise the flag? And they have—. Yeah, the American Legion Post 1. Okay, Post 1. Because last year, did you talk to anybody?

Because last year, really I didn't think it was really that great. I heard it's changed. Changed? Yeah, it's not like what it used to be. Well, I mean, like to see, because I happen to have it.

My post lives on top of them, so if there's anything you want me to communicate to them that you'd like to have—. No, no, um, it's just, let's face it, there's, uh, Post 1 has traditionally done it. Years ago, the commission was kind of, uh, integrated with them for the Flag Day ceremony, but it's kind of all changed over the years, and now they don't even do it in the afternoon. It used to be done like at lunchtime. It started around lunchtime and then went throughout the afternoon.

It was a barbecue and all this stuff. Oh, now at Post 1, you mean? Yeah. Okay, gotcha. Now they've changed it.

They do an evening, but, but, you know, Post 28 does it, AMVETS Post 2 does it. There's a lot of the posts that have Flag Day ceremonies. Yes. And that they do the different things. I think it's more of just letting everybody know that they're out there, that it is Flag Day.

I mean, the important things of Flag Day is Flag Day. If you're flying a flag at your house or location, traditionally, if you're a person like me that you change your flag out every year, traditionally people do it right before Flag Day or the morning of Flag Day, and then they take their old flag over to one of the veterans organizations so that it can be, uh, burned with the rest of them. A lot of people do that. Can I ask you what the commission— because as a constituent, one of the things that has really peeved me off for decades is Flag Day. Why?

Because civilians have no concept of what that means. So what I've always wondered, and this is why you guys may boot me off next month, but this is why, because whose job can it be to remind through the new— through the— what is it, television? How to do it. Because you'll see a lot of new flags now, upside down, inside out. Oh my God.

And we love them for doing it. But can we— that wouldn't that be a great thing for given to you by the beautiful Commission, go to da da da and see how to really do your flag and have a nice day. I'm glad when people display the flag. The ones that fly it upside down, they're doing it on purpose. And I'd much rather, I'd much rather do something else to it.

That's a distress signal. Granted, yes, yes. It's a distress signal or it's a— Or it's a sign of disrespect. Correct. But I'm not— that's not what I'm saying though.

I'm saying the ones who have them just, um, put the wrong way. Yes. And so I just— I love them, but no one's ever told them. They've never heard on TV. They have a job for you.

We got a web— we got a Facebook page. Okay. Oh wow. We have a Facebook page and Sam Oh, was in charge of running the—. Really?

He was running the, uh, the big book. And I, with everything else that I fall a little shy of actually getting out there and checking that—. Do you need a social media person? We need a social media person. And you know, then we, we could— because you're right, you're absolutely right.

I would love it. The first thing that popped in mind is we could actually take and off of our page we could rotate different things that we put out there, like what is Flag Day, what is the proper way to display the flag, you know, uh, all kinds of different— we could go through all kinds of things like that. Um, and we could also be more involved with, uh, finding out from Diana and Marie, um, What's the—. What's the—. What's the municipality— what's the municipality's got coming— has coming up?

Oh yeah, they would love to invite the military and yes, the veterans community to, uh, like when they have job fairs and that. And we find out that they were a few days before. Diana and I have already had that conversation and we've already said exactly that, that I need to know everything you know, so I can communicate it to our community. Fantastic. And you know, my big complaint is that on the news I see where the military had a function the same day or before, and I didn't know anything about it.

Correct. Yeah. Speaking of the military, it's my pleasure. All right, speaking of the military stuff, Kyle, do you, uh, happen to know when they're planning on doing the barbecue, the annual barbecue? It's in the chat group.

Oh, she's already put it there. Yeah, I heard you mention it. I didn't want to interrupt you, so I put it in the chat. It's on June 6th, um, from 11:00 to 15:00. Um, it's going to be at Buckner Fitness Center field.

So, um, weather doesn't matter on the weather, it's still going to happen. Um, so dress warm if it's rainy or windy or whatnot. Um, there will be some, uh, live music, live entertainment. Food, of course, some fun games, bounce houses, all the good stuff. So hope you guys can join us for that.

Now do you see why I said you're going to be my new best friend, Kyle? Yeah, thank you. And that's an excellent— that's an excellent follow-on to some information I have here. JBEHR has a JBEHR Connect calendar, which has all the stuff on it. And, uh, for instance, 6th January, 11:00 to 15:00, Buckner, the Boffield Military Appreciation Picnic.

And the day before that is the now Cordley CAC Community Action Council, is on 5th May, 5 May, at 15:30 at Warrior Zone. Where the Warrior Zone? Is that on Fort Ridge? Does anybody know? Yes, it's just, uh, past Buckner Fitness Center next to the fire station over there.

Yeah, the, the Warrior Zone is the building that used to be the NCO Club. It's the, the downstairs. You go around to the, the side that's towards the signal. I don't go over in Fort Ridge unless I have to. You know what, I'm serious.

Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about. Is it by headquarters or by the library? It's just a little ways from the headquarters. And now there's got a training— it's a training center now. It used to be the NCO club.

But you know where Buckner Fitness Center— you know the field behind Buckner Fitness Center where the military appreciation is? Yeah, it's in that open field and that, uh, some of the sports Fields. It's right behind Buckner Fieldhouse. Okay, right across the street from that is the fire station, right on the corner on the road that goes up in front of the headquarters. All right, right next to that, there's a big parking lot that goes— that's around the, uh, side of the fire department, around this big building.

And if you look at that building as you're facing it from the road, on the left-hand, the corner, the bottom, you'll see a thing that says Warrior Zone. And there's a little, uh, little door that goes down into it right there on the side. Great. Okay. Yeah, and there's a marquee outside right where you would turn that, um, says Warrior Zone Community Center.

The nice thing about Warrior Zone, it is one of the places on base that you can find them on Google Maps, so that is very nice.

So I will give— I'll give the secretary the, the link to the, uh, JBER Connect calendar and has everything on there. So it's a really good source. And give it to Livia too, that way she can put a link to that on the Facebook page. Great.

And some other things coming up, let me see now. They got the Juneteenth, PACAP Family Day, JBER— yeah, but that for June, they got Everything's on there. Great. Awesome. So June 6th, it's gonna be on a Friday this year.

That's good. It's much better on a Friday than the middle of the week. Oh, good. Yeah, and we're on time, Mr. Chair.

I know we gotta go. All right, all right. So that's those things. We have, uh, nothing— anything for good of the Commission? Anybody have anything for good of the Commission?

I have one thing. Welcome, Olivia, to the commission. Thank you very much. Face up. Anybody else?

All right, next min— next meeting, 2 June. That's the first Monday, the 2nd of June. And don't forget the 1st of June, that's my birthday. Oh, happy birthday! Not yet.

No, I'll wait. Okay. All right, I motion adjournment. Is it Do I have a second? Second.

All right, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Everybody hands raised? You good, Amal?

Yes. Yes. All right, sir, thank you. You in the Navy now?

Yes, I have one too. Oh yes, absolutely, I certainly will. But this is great. Oh yes, it.