Anchorage Assembly: Military and Veterans Affairs Commission August 4, 2025

For which it stands, nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Got a little lag.

There he is. How you doing today, sir? Not bad.

All right, so we go and do roll call. Sure, let's go ahead and do roll call. Uh, David Foley. Eleanor Lawson. Here.

Rob Riel. I'm here. Almas Elsbaw. Amal Alquada. He's out of state.

Absent. Olivia Freeman. Here. Robert Terrell. So we do have 5 members present.

We did create a quorum today. Start the meeting. All right, all right. Let's see, um, last minute meetings, last meeting minutes. And did everybody have a chance to go over them?

Does anybody have any problems with them?

Motion to approve the minutes. A second? All right, and we have a first and second, and no, uh, things over. Thunder unanimous consent. All right, the agenda.

Does anybody have a chance to go over the agenda that I sent out? Does anybody have any problems?

I have a couple comments.

Under the attendance roster, we've been missing Diana as a, uh, in that group there, and she's actually a member. She's a representative of the community. Yeah, so my thinking is it should be done with them advisors down that area down there.

And last, I thought, I think Melvin, the Second Lieutenant, was going to be a representative on a board. Was that just a one-time meeting last month, you know, or? We invited him, and, but he's out of state for a couple, he said he'd be out, he's going to be gone for a little bit. And then he's coming back, and he never said whether he'd be able to commit to coming all the time or not. So he, uh, if he attends—.

Yeah. Okay. And the last thing I have, I had a little confusion on myself, but I emailed you, help me out there.

The—. There is no Air Force Well, there used to be an Air Force Association, but now it's the Air Force Space Command Association. So technically there's no Air Force Association. I did some research on that. The Alaska Airmen Association is the one at the airport with the Lake Hood, that area there.

That's the Alaska Air Force. Airmen Association. So I'm kind of confused at the technology, at the technical name. I've got a, I've got an email string from, from them where they were going back and forth. They both refer to the organization he's part of, and like he said, they've only got like 4 or 5 members.

And that, but they're also, uh, not only are they that part of that association, but they're also the, uh, holders under that name of the use agreement for the ground that the memorials are. And I asked the question to them, clarifying is yes, there is actually the, uh, how did they word it, it's the Air Force Association Monaghan Chapter 103. And that's the, the local chapter. And then in their emails they talk about that and they refer back and forth. I don't know how the AFA can help.

I don't know none of that AFA. And so, but that is what they said. They've only got like 4 or 5 members, but that's what they call themselves. And my follow-on question to that is, do you know or anybody know what they are? 501, A nonprofit.

Um, that has an effect. I don't think, I don't think they are our committee as part of Grand Lodge. I don't know, I don't know for sure. I don't know for sure. Um, but I don't think the other— because I said that again, there's only 4 or 5 of them.

The lieutenant is trying to build the chapter and make it bigger, and that, and that's one of the things he was, uh was involved in is trying to get the word out there to get more people to join. I tried contacting him a few times, no response. So, Lieutenant, yeah, Lieutenant, I think that's all I have. Just, I guess in that case, it's basically the diner should be telling her advisors. No, she's not really a representative advisor either.

She is our representative from the muni. She's like And that, yeah, but, uh, I have— if you guys want, we've always just put their name up there, the community people on the bottom of the attendance, but I can move it if you guys prefer on the rest of them.

You want a motion on that, or just a motion? I want to set— well, if the— I'll put a motion if you want me to. Okay.

To accept the agenda or not? I'll put a motion for the first—. The amendment. Well, we have to approve the, uh, agenda first. I'm looking for the approval of the agenda.

Second that. And then my amendment would be to move Diana down to representative. Good. The executive female wants to do that.

Any questions? All right, all in favor of the agenda?

Aye. Aye. All right, anybody opposed? All right, let's go on.

We don't have any guests, we just have our one of our advisors from the Military and Veterans Affairs Office.

And we have, we actually have Angela Laflamme.

And I, Angela, I have told them I'm totally having a Monday right now.

I know you're with the state. Who are you with again? Yeah, absolutely. Angela Laflamme. I'm special assistant to Major General Saxe.

Here at the Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. They knew from the same place, that's right. Can you say that again, please?

Uh, of course. Uh, uh, Angela Laflamme. I'm the special assistant to Major General Sachs at the Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

She's the personal assistant for Jeffrey's boss. Thank you. That's where I was going with that.

Thank you for that.

All right, committee reports.

Let's, uh, the, um, go ahead and I'll let you guys take it over on the start off with the, uh, the Merrill Field grand opening, please, what we got going on with that.

You're the chair. I'm going to pass it on to Olivia, or I can— because she— want me to read it? Whatever you like, pick out whatever makes you happy. That's— you've got it. She has made a pretty amazing report here.

It's kind of lengthy. I'm trying to find the good parts.

Like I said, it's pretty lengthy. She's made out— it's a structured— here's a project— structured project management breakdown for Eleanor Lawson's presentation using standard work breakdown structures and agile principles. I think there's a one-pager at the end. Oh, at the end? Yes, there's a one-pager.

Really goes into detail.

Can I give you a brief of the brief? Yes. Okay. All right. Please.

Um, the Merrill Field reopening can be a signature move in Earl's bigger picture. He doesn't have the time to be here or be bothered with it, but he does have an address book with everybody in it. That being said, if we do this with everybody else's energy, we just have to sit back and manage it. So that becomes a much easier process because we also have assets to move without moving money around. And I think that's a very smart way for us to do this.

So what she has is a kind of rundown of all the people who could— who would be so happy to be part of this. That's what you have is the list of people and their activity as the timeline goes along, because we've already established that it's going to be 18 months, which puts us at a really good date. Because when was it inaugurated? October 6th. Perfect timing.

So if we can get everybody automatically to say, what can I do? Here's what we need. Do what you want, what makes you happy, because that's what they'll do happily. They will get the best out of them, not the lowest bid. That's what you have.

Enough said.

This is just so lengthy, but I— she did put this together and it's pretty darn interesting. All it is is just a reasonable comparison. Can we get a copy of this sent out to everybody? After it was approved. I didn't want to do that until I gave it to my chair.

It's— it's—. Yes, we have first to approve it and until we see it. No worries, no worries. I—. If you want it, yes sir, absolutely, Chair.

I'm the chair. Do you have a hard copy now? I do not. Do you have a hard copy of it?

No, I can't print it. It won't print. Well, okay. I tried to make that do that, but, uh, I don't know why. But besides that, all my English Um, I do.

I'm sorry. Oh, you do? You got copies? Okay, I believe so. Yeah, structured workout.

Yeah, with the pictures. Yeah. Oh, there's a couple copies here. Oh, you know, there's iterations. That's what it is.

Okay, that's the last iteration. So this would be official? It is not official. It's what I sent her. She will bless it and make it official.

I just didn't want to, you know what I'm saying? I didn't want to put something out before somebody else saw it. Maybe you could make copies and email to everybody. So maybe, maybe I'm— oh yes, yes, yes, she'll— I'm sorry, like I said, I— y'all have seen the movie Coneheads, okay? I'm Dave Spade, she is the Conehead guy.

So I don't do anything until it's been looked at, approved, and blessed. So I'll show— I'll make it, but she blesses it, and then y'all do what you want with it.

Okay, so while she's printing that off, then let's go ahead and talk about the assisting the Air Force Association with grant requests. Okay, that's on here too.

One of our main questions on that was the 501 And you kind of answered that one. Well, halfway. I don't think they are, but it doesn't mean they could be wrong. Yeah, I've been trying to hold up Isaac to find out. I've even called Jay, and Jay does not respond back to me.

So trying to find that out because that might determine as far as then as how the map would be distributed first. I don't remember, I don't remember what he said when he said he'd be getting back. Who's Isaac, please? Isaac's a lieutenant. No, no.

Oh, Lieutenant. Okay. Yeah, thank you.

Well, I wouldn't suspect actually that would be a, um, the, the probably the most pragmatic way to actually do the research on that is to pick a date where they had to be a 501, like at their inauguration. See, I told you, you saw me turn it off. Um, so what we have to do— what we can do— excuse me, not have to do— what we can do as a down and dirty, go to that date and see if they turned anything in, because they would have to turn in a 990 of some sort to prove that they were that year in order to be whatever they're going to be. So one down and dirty. One date, even if they have one, it'll be filed.

If they don't, they weren't, and it's as simple as that. And really, that's one of the questions on the form. It is. Yeah, because it changes, it changes, uh, I believe that— I think you kind of explained it when we were talking about, uh, depending on what kind of entity they are depends on how they can apply, what, how much they can get, probably stuff like that. That's— yeah, that's— we have to have a lieutenant to do it, you know, because—.

Why? Well, because he knows whether it's a 510. No, no, no, that's what I just said. We can do that down and dirty right here. I'm gonna go look all my little stuff up because that's what I'm looking for.

If they've done it, if they've been enough, if they've been a 501, That's the requirement, is to file a 990 for that year. So in what year was it, 2001, when they were— when they became a thing, when it was inaugurated the first time? I have no idea. Okay, I think it was 2001. All right, anyway, before the— before the next meeting, I'll have that for you.

Is that— I don't know. So we got—. We got some questions about the organization. We would have to find out enough I know when, you know, we know when the memorial was put up, that's that when they were— they were already a group before that. Okay.

And that's because they spent a year and a half, 2 years of them really getting the thing built and everything and getting the money in that. They were already a part of the 11th Air Force Association, their association, and some of them are part of the Air Force Sergeants Association. And they, you know, but they got the use agreement under the Air Force Association name.

Anyway, well, that's easy. Like I said, that's an email thing. Thank you very much.

All right, so yeah, we just keep working on that then.

Yes. So you got a thing here with the initial budget is, uh, $100,000 seed grant. It's Phase 1. Uh, we put out some cost estimate notes, uh, structural assessment, uh, for safety, legal compliance, $15,000. UAA student contracts, multi-department, $30,000.

That's for design, finance, media, etc. Uh, event planning and promotion, $20,000. Marketing, printing, and outreach. Temporary LLC formation and legal, $5,000. Contract access and operations.

Site safety and immediate repairs, $20,000. $10,000 Prioritized needs from report and contingency $10,000 buffer for unexpected issues. So yeah, well, that kind of rounds things up. Uh, one of the things that the three of us did, we went out to take a look at some of the things that needed fixing, um, sooner than later. And I took a bunch of pictures.

Yes, okay, sent you those pictures. I'm trying to send everybody some pictures of that, uh, mainly in order for just, just to be safe for folks to just drive, walk in there with a wheelchair or crutches. Uh, it needs fixing around the center the roundabout, the lights that are in the ground, the bricks that are holding up this whole thing, and the wall, the back part of the wall itself, just some structural repair. And those are the more immediate things before we might even get started with anything else.

Well, Earl over at that thing has already been working on the ground around the back of the, the piece. Oh yeah, yeah, and fix that stuff up. And the front— now there is the, the light canister that is sticking up slightly, but that's been that way for 8—. For—. Well, the one's not— the one that's sticking up is a definite trip hazard, but it's been that way for like 7, 8 years.

Um, and that same, the same way, sitting on it, it's got to be fixed. Uh, and I thought, I think that Earl was, had, was having plans for that next year. I don't know for sure, as if he had people over there. But this is okay. So we're talking about, these are the things that you guys think that we need to get those done before you can have the grand opening?

Did you put in there about the street signs?

Yes. Wayfinding and street signs. 15Th and—. Yes, that was great. That was great.

Make it with every— after signs that led to the robot. And that might be something that they could even start— the city could start now planning on that because that might— I don't know if it takes time or not. That's what I thought too. Yeah. The The one thing that'd be good with this is because our announcement, the next point in our recommendation that we talked about was that for the municipality representatives of the mayor's office, Parks and Rec, Merrill Field, the Air Force Association, and possibly also the someone from the city council to get together to start discussing a way forward with the memorial as far as upkeep, maintenance, and, you know, everything else.

And that, that's, that was our recommendation too. And that's what I wrote. I'm going to read that. That's what I had passed out. So this would be something great if they have that meeting that, uh, that can be taken to that group when they meet and say, and this is what we found so far.

And you see what it said.

But let me know if there's anything that you'd like to delete, add, you know, it doesn't look right, this isn't blah blah blah. This is not in stone. I am a very thick-skinned person. I will not blush if you say, are you insane, we can't say that. Just let me know and we'll fix it.

Okay. Yes, I am, but we've already established this, right? That's all getting covered up. He's already supposed to be working on—. I'm in IT—.

Getting his people to— the boxes he put around the flag. So are you. Yeah, he got rid of all the trees back there. They're going to landscape the whole thing, right? And cover up—.

Never meet—. So they can cover this up.

I'm so sorry, we're having a side meeting over here about—. He's already had this whole thing paid. The committee meeting, we have been meeting about this and we're trying to come up with some recommendations for you. So there's a lot in here, but this is not what we want to do. We will probably do maybe a quarter of what's actually doing.

Does that make sense? Well, that's great. I, I think that's great, uh, just, um, because what if we have to come up with money, uh, for them? We don't have any money. We don't.

I know we don't have any. We don't. We don't. And that wasn't part of—. That's where— that's where—.

Right, that's not our job in this. That's not our lane. That's where the grant comes in, correct?

Jeffrey over here. We have friends. So Jeffrey, think of Jeffrey as a list of friends. He's at the top of the list. Well, you would think, well, I'm sitting next to him for no reason at all.

Work the room, right? So that's a starting point. Yeah.

The VA, I mean the Veterans Association. Yes. And he's working with— Yes. That's the starting point. He's got our clout.

He gets us into these things. Get that ball rolling. Yes. And have funds available. Uh-huh.

Now I realize it's not going to be $100,000, but being nice, if we can get that much from you. But we know that's not going to happen. But actually, actually, that would not be the best way forward, wouldn't you agree, Dave? Just to go and get one check from one guy, you know, because then we're missing the community piece of this, bringing all the veteran groups to say no one is invisible. Well, they're not going to do it without a plan because all of, all of those organizations that we're talking about, they all put up money and fronted money when this thing was built and put out there the first time, and it wasn't, wasn't kept up.

So nobody's going to sit back and come in and start throwing money at it from the organizations until they there is a bona fide plan of how is it going to be maintained and kept this time. But that's what you're coming up with, that representative list. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's where the— that's where that, that group—.

That group—. That's why we're—. We're—. That's why we are recommending to the mayor that, that the mayor's office gets this group of people together to discuss it. You know, hey, We're working— the Parks and Rec does not have the money.

No, to fix that. Correct, correct. But could it be added to their budget to down the road to make it another one of the memorials that they maintain, keep clean, that kind of thing? So we're saying pass it off. If we can get the grant to get it started.

Yes. For some of the initial stuff, then that makes it a little bit better for them. Palatable. Go on. Merrill Field, you know, Earl has already said as long as he's there, he's already got deals and things worked in where they help to maintain it now.

And he's going every time, if he has electricians over there, and he can sit back and say, can I get you guys over for just a little more, go over and fix these, these light canisters in the ground? They'll do it. He can get them over there and do that. Boom. He's already got people that are working on the, the bottom of the wall to do a wood, a wood face at the bottom of the wall to cover up that, that whole piece down there.

I don't know if he's done it yet or if they've started or what their time schedule, but it's all built around what he already has his people doing and when he can get people to do it. They've already dug up all the trees and everything that's growing up back behind it and that, and took that mound out. They still have to finish landscaping it down because he said he's going to make sure all he's doing is going to cover up those concrete pieces on the end, the one that I stepped up onto and slid and messed my leg up. Yes, right now he's working on that.

Yeah, little things that kind of send you off on a tangent. So there's little things that he's got going on and he's doing, uh, here and there, but it's all done at his schedule and his people, what they're doing. And so it's right now with that air— with the airplane that happened, there's probably absolutely nothing happening, nothing in the plans for a little bit. So that's taken care of. That's fine though.

That just means that we have to get our act together while he's over there doing that. So you tell us what you want us to do of that list of stuff that we can do. Like you're saying that you want a marketing plan, because that's really what you're asking for, because that's not in there. This was just to fix the thing. So what you're really saying is before you get this group together, you've got to have a plan.

So they—. They're just going to make a plan? Oh, that's the— that's the— that's the people from the municipality who have everything to do with the municipality keeping that monument there and keeping it good. Parks and Rec take care of all the parks, recreation places, and, and, and everything else. They don't take care of that because it is— does not belong to the muni.

But if the muni is going to keep it, if it's going to stay there, then they need to come up with a plan. Merrill Fields already is already involved. Um, but they're part of it. And the, uh, then of course having— because they are the people that's on the youth agreement— a representative from the, uh, the Air Force Association, and that local chapter. And then some people say when they're doing this they need to have someone from the city council there.

Some people say they don't. That's why I put them by I saw that in your list. Yeah, this is the way—. Yeah, you mentioned the use agreement a lot. Is that a— is that a document that's been filed somewhere?

Yes. Uh, no, nowhere. You'd have to ask Earl. No worries. Earl's the one that told us that in that meeting last month.

Okay. When we were there, and that's why he's got— got them involved. That's how we got a hold of them, because he— there was a document with them listed as a use agreement, and he searched and found, and he finally found somebody who was still a member of that association. That's because they really can't do anything with that without getting their approval. I just wanted to make sure, like I said, what is our lane?

I just wanted to understand what to bring you, what kind of stuff to lay out, like little birdlings or catling birds on the table. What kind of birds do you like? That's all. This has grown. When we got done with the meeting last time, it was, you know, hey, we're going to plan a party.

That's right. Oh, we're gonna pick a date and cut a ribbon and have some flags and say, like, 26th, 2026. That's you. 2026? Yeah, October 6th, because that's the original date.

I mean, I hope I'm still— oh, I think I gotta renew.

I think so. Of course, I believe so. Yeah, so it's, uh, anyway, talk about that.

But anyway, this is where we are at.

You got anything to add? No, my— I think covered it. My main thing is that the city be— maybe they can start working on the road signs. Right. Yes.

Yeah. And the sooner they start on it, or the sooner we put the word out, maybe the sooner they'll have them made. They'll be ready. We're talking about the Glen Highway, having— making sure, you know, make a left-hand turn to head over to 15th. And then they go to 15th.

Yeah. And then, then on 15th, that whole intersection there. Having signs there. Do you know what we're talking about? Well, okay, that, you know, where Lake Old runs into the airport, 15th there.

I've been here 45 years and I wasn't aware of this monument. Neither was the Wing Commander, Sonamath. So we're thinking if we had— there were signs up there from all directions, highway, saying, hey, here's the Bedford Airport Memorial. And then that would make people aware of it, and maybe they would start visiting it and just make it more aware. But that's what the city needed to put the signage up there.

So we lost Angela. Has the request been sent to—. No, no, that's part of our plan. Okay, that's what we need to, uh, so—. Oh, trust me, we'll give it to you.

Traffic. You guys could take and put together, um, the requests of where, you know, the signs and what you want them to say, and, or what you would like them to say, or that, and that, and the locations you, you think about you'd want them. Then we can sit back and we can submit and put that into the mayor's office.

The mayor, I would think, like I said, I know I'm saying this wrong, could care less. What she wants to hear is the traffic, somebody from traffic, because it's their signs. Park and Rec will have everybody's Section 2579, whatever that they got. Let them bless it because they said, this is what we want, this is what we think, and here's the why. What I'm saying is make it easy for them to say yes.

Make it easy for her to say yes. If we've got to send her and they eventually— but if we say, here's what we sent to traffic, so they blessed it. Here's what the signage people at States, where whoever does that They blessed it. Madam Mayor, may you please bless this, and then we'll move on with that. And our plan has been blessed because you're going to be blessing a lot of stuff.

Yeah, but I'm not going to overwhelm you with it. But nobody's going to bless anything until they— until they are told who's paying for it. Yeah, that's that part. That's the mayor. Come to the mayor.

That's why— that's why I'm new. I'm new. That's why everything we do And the recommendation, most time we submit to the mayor's office. Um, the only time we go there, if we're sending something that's, that's totally has nothing to do with money or finances or anything. Ah, like when somebody comes up, like we've had two instances in the past where, uh, somebody approached the commission and said, you know, the Miss Valley's got this, uh, the Veterans Memorial out here and the flag.

And this person who was a KIA in World War I is not on the monument. Here's all the documentation that proves, and there's some, there's some guidelines. You have to be able to prove that they were a citizen of Alaska. You have to prove that they were KIA. And that, um, one of them You know Jack Henry Post?

Yeah. One. Yes. Okay, Jack Henry, as of last year, is now on the wall. He was put on the wall, uh, 2 months ago, 3 months ago.

All right, because it was brought to this— it was brought to this commission. But when we did it, we got all of the thing— we all agreed, understood that the, that the, uh, proof was viable. We took up and made a recommendation Right, to the Parks and Rec Commission. Okay, we took a copy of that, gave it to the mayor's office, but we sent that one straight over to them because they're the ones that decide. We looked at the evidence, we gave them a copy of the evidence, and we gave them our recommendation, and they voted on it from their person.

But we sent a copy to the mayor's office also so they knew what we were doing. Was this one of the issues that we did because— we did because we could, and we could because there was no money involved? Is that what you're saying? Gotcha. Yeah, so the things that require money and things, of course, as it should, because people do need to look at their checklist and make sure and, you know, vet their information.

It was the first one we were a little confused when we were going through because we had never done that before. And so we're trying because we had a second one afterward, and that one only took 3 months, 4 months, right? Depends on how it was in the process. It's all about the process, and that's why I'm sorry, I'm very interested in the process, so I don't— so I stay in my lane. Our job is primarily as advisor to the mayor, recommendations to the mayor on issues.

I just want to bring people enough stuff So when they look at it, they can decide. They don't have to go and do their own damn research. If they want, that's fine. If that— go ahead. But so at that high level, she should be making— she should know that I've got my ducks in a row.

But yeah, so they want to go back and if you guys can write up a thing on that to where—. Where the money comes from? No, of the signs, where, where you would like to have signs. You know, to show the way. And, uh, you know, you can even put it as, uh, you know, the dream list and the— okay, at a minimum.

Sure. If you want, however you guys want to—. That's— I love to do— I love that. Yes, pick one. And, uh, that way we can turn it in and they can work on it.

Maybe, right? Let them—. Exactly, give them as much information as— that's—. I can do that. Okay.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Because you know what, if this whole thing falls apart at least if we can get signed up there, that directs people to the memorial. Yeah, there's a lot of people don't know where it's at. Oh my God, it's unbelievable.

The, uh, just, just for you, for a little, because he told you where the memorial is at, but this is a memorial that was put up 24 years ago, uh, an organization that is no longer together It's called the 11th Air Force Association out of Colorado. They come up here and they just started fundraising. They got with some of the local— the Sergeant's Association, the Air Force Association— and they got these people, and they got a bunch of people to volunteer, donate money. They got the city through Merrill Field to donate land., and they built this memorial and had a grand opening. It's for— to commemorate the 11th Air Force.

It's on the back side of Merrill Field because that's where the very first 11th Air Force headquarters was at when they— when they were stood up here. And, uh, and it's the 11th Air Force and something Canadian. I wish we had the second part of it. An American's Home from Siberia Memorial, and it commemorates both things. Lots of these military soldiers, sailors, what have you, were imprisoned in this one.

Yeah, and it spans from World War II to the '50s and '70s. So yeah, it's quite the historical And nobody really knows anything about it. But it was a pretty big deal when they opened it up. There was a lot of people there. But the only plan for the future was the Air Force Association or the Sergeants Association, one of the two or both of them together, was going to go over and maintain it, keep it clean.

There was two big flower pots and they would plant flowers and it worked really great. Until they all PCS'd, moved out of state, or passed away. And the city, except for using— doing a use agreement and letting them do it on the property, had nothing involved with it. So the thing's not— the thing has got some cracks in that, but it's not falling apart. The ASBIL You can see this thing goes down.

The flagpoles go all the way down to hard rock, and they got huge concrete blocks underneath them. Same thing underneath the thing. But the problem is, is that the face of it, there's some couple pretty good-sized cracks in it. And it just— it just— then the earthquake, the ground fell, and so it's like the ground around it is like 2 feet lower than what it was. And the road was messed up, but Merrill Field has got the lights fixed.

They have repaved and redid the road and the circle around it, and they're doing some other stuff, fixing it up and cleaning it up. But now it's just finding out a way forward. It was also built on the dump that used to be the city dump, and you know how the ground is. Yeah, the city dump, you know, once the run dirt over it, level it out, and they figure out next time. Then they put this, and the bad signs will show.

Has everybody had a chance to read this? It takes a while. Oh, that? Yeah. Has everybody had a chance to read this?

Does anybody have any problems with it? I didn't know exactly the proper way to start it off with. I just, you know, Mayor LaFrance, And that looks— that'll be acceptable, then we'll leave it. If not, we'll move on to something else. Hey there, how you doing?

Hi, did you come to sit in on the Military and Veterans Affairs Commission? No, there's something at 1 o'clock. Okay, we'll be done and out of here by then. Oh, okay, well, I'll just lurk around the back. No problem, you're more than welcome to sit down.

Certainly. We're going to be making a motion. So either this— no, no, with that we're going to all digest. Digest it. Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, let's look at that and then get her to email it out to all of us too.

On budgets. Okay, so back to— does anybody, does anybody have any problems with the way it's written, the way it is?

I'm good with it. Thank you, boss. All right, so you have a motion to accept? I have a motion we accept the military veterans Affairs letter to the mayor asking for recommendation for the memorial in question. Do we have a second?

Second. Okay, does anybody have any oppose? Anybody opposed? No. I demand unanimous consent.

It's approved. Approved. All right, sure. I want to thank Olivia now, uh, for painted that with me. It was interesting going back and checking out the South, looking at the monument.

And from a different perspective, all of us putting in two cents, learning something. You know, we always have an issue with burning out a group. We'll burn out this one and we'll burn out that one. But really, if we ask them, I just want you to do this thing right here, if you can just tangle parking for that one day, you know, they'll do it. So anyway, thank you very much for that.

All right, well, I like that. Those way forward. All right, um, upcoming events. Got the—. Still got the Reader's Theater coming up on the 23rd of August at 2 PM.

What is that? At the museum, at the Veterans Museum, there's a, uh, how did— I was hoping Bob was going to be here today. How do you describe that? It's, uh, building the Alcan Towers. Yeah, yeah.

Wasn't it kind of emphasizing on the units that were actually up here? The 25th Engineers? Yeah, the 25th Engineers that were up here building those And all the Black soldiers that were involved. I thought they had the son of one of the guys. Ooh, that'd be nice.

I thought he said— Oh, that would be cool. Maybe I'm misremembering, but I thought the son of one of the engineers who worked on it was—. It's quite historical. Yeah. Yeah.

Over at the hospital, they've got a whole bunch of things.

Are using a sort of picture stuff like this. I think they got a room, they got a room in the museum right now set up to, or part of a room set up to dedicate it to that because they have the reading theater coming up.

I put this on here so you guys know if, uh, the 11th Airborne Division is doing a change of command ceremony this Thursday, 13 to 1400. So if any of you guys are interested in going to that, get a hold of the PA, uh, the PA office. And, uh, I mean, it's open to the public, but if you want them to send you an invitation or get on their— get on the PA's mailing list for different functions like this. You just contact them and tell them who you are and you'd like to be notified when they're having different functions like change of command ceremonies. And I'm sorry, who's this?

Public Affairs. I saw it on— I saw it. I did see it. He sent it to us as an email. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, the Public Affairs are the main people with that. That's just like, uh, if you're not on the mailing list for the unaccompanied burials. It is the last Wednesday of every month when— if they have one. And if you get a hold— if you call up the cemetery, it's not unaccompanied though. If it is, yeah, somebody who they know.

It's not like the one that had last week. That one last week was the the one for—. That was a lot of family. Holy cow. There's only 4 last Wednesday, last—.

Or the one on—. A week ago, last Tuesday. Tuesday. Yeah, that was for the guy that was, uh, I think he was in the Guard. No, Navy guy.

There's one for a Navy, uh, sailor, and, uh, he passed away. But, uh, we, we all thought it needed. Most of them, anybody there. So 4 of us went.

Yeah, no, the, um, they do, uh, the last Wednesday of every month at 2 o'clock, um, usually around 2, 2:30. I didn't see that. They have the unaccompanied, uh, burial. I mean, any, any military, any veteran military member that doesn't have family or friends up here to take them and do stuff, they, they do that. One time we had like 4 or 5 because they were, they were built up for a couple real cold years.

And, but they, uh, the, um, the one crematory downtown does a, uh, They do the— they, uh, go ahead and cremate them and they bring it up and they do the ceremony and put them out there. Well, this gentleman was in the coffin.

Like I said, there was one today, uh, but it was going to be at noon, I mean at 1 o'clock, and I wasn't there. I'm sorry, did you say that's generally Elmendorf? It's at the Fort Ridge Cemetery. Thank you. All right, thank you.

Yeah. And FYI, uh, there's a JBEHR Connect icon that you get on and tell you all the events for both Elmhurst and Port Jefferson. But I depend on that one.

Does anybody have anything else that's coming up over the next month or so? I just want to find out what they're going to be doing, the Pow Wow Me a Day, what they're going to be doing for Pow Wow Me a Day. What is that? It's a— it changes. It's in September.

Um, the—. In the past it has been for as much as having a great big ceremony in one of the hangars all in conjunction with what they do.

They have a fitness run and some other stuff all the way down to not doing anything at all. One time we did it, they did a little small ceremony in one of the hangars that's also set up as a gym, and they did their fitness run and they were doing fitness stuff inside there before and after the ceremony. So They did a ruck march. So they do different things. What are they commemorating?

Palmyra Day. What are they commemorating? Prisoners of War, Missing in Action people. And it's called? Palmyra Day.

Oh, POW. Thank you. Thank you. I'm so sorry. I've been writing P-A-L-M-E-A.

I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Okay. Never mind. He's from New Jersey.

Oh, is that right? All right, thank you, Mia's got it. But it's usually like the second or third, uh, got it, weekend in, uh, okay, or like, like I usually say, Thursday or Friday in September. Okay, yeah, these are kinds of things we have to go to, but some, but sometimes they don't do anything, and so, and it's finding out what they're doing because it's a unit that gets put in charge of it It's never the same unit. They don't have all the contact stuff, so it's like, it's great that we got Kyle that comes in and they find out.

Okay. All right, um, anybody got anything for good of the commission?

Well, I don't think I want to thank all of you for the hard work you guys do for all the different things that we do and the different points of view that come in and give us a little bit more, uh, sometimes make things a little bit longer in the meeting, but it makes it better because before, you know, when I first came in, everybody was in the same mind thing. It's like, okay, we're out of here, but nothing was ever getting done. So this is great. Thank you, guys. Well, I'm glad that we've got a mission now.

The 11th Air Force has a good mission, something for us to actually do, give back, make right. So, do you know a new commander coming in? I don't think we're all aware of that change of command, right? Family for the new commanders on Thursday. Yeah, $1,300.

That's the 11th Airborne. Yeah, Army. Yeah, sorry, 11th Airborne Division. This is the 11th Air Force Memorial. Just so you know, this is Army.

That's—. Yeah, we have the, uh, we have the 11th Air Force and the 11th Airborne, and the 11th Air Force is the memorial. Okay, I was Well, there's the 11th Air Force Memorial, but the Air Force here on J-Bear is also the 11th Air Force. It was redesignated back to the 11th Air Force after the memorial was put up. Yeah, that's how I should do it.

Yes, I'm so sorry. We're the smart ones to get out of the not perfectly good Hello. Right, right. All right, next meeting, next meeting. I'm thinking though, without the Air Force and all the airplanes, those Airborne guys really would be ground pounders, right?

We know that, but we don't break newbies. Well, no, we won't tell them. So the next meeting, um, the first is on a Monday, but that's a holiday. So the next meeting should be the 8th of September. September 1st is a holiday.

What's something? Labor Day. Labor Day. Oh, you don't work anymore, so you don't know what's going on, right? We don't.

That's it. Every day is Labor Day to me. Fine. Check, please. You got that right.

Yeah. So it's going to be the 8th? Yes. Okay. That's right.

All right, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. A second? Second. All in favor?

Aye. We are adjourned. You be kind. Thank you, Diane.

Feel better. Thank you.