R. GLENN LOONEY
Sorenson, who signed up the majority
of the Nimitz Council’s more than 130
charter members, served on Adm.
Nimitz’s staff during World War II.
ALBERT BEIN
Flanked by the Nimitz Council’s new board of directors and officers, Looney
addresses the charter ceremony gathering of about 100 people.
needed for a council to receive its
charter. The Nimitz Council signed
on enough people for it to be considered a “mid-sized” council.
At the same time the members
were being recruited, an 11-member
board of directors was assembled, as
was a slate of officers, who were
ready to take the reins when the
council received its charter.
“We are able to now relax and
more or less sleep when the wind
blows,” said Sorenson, referring to
a story he told at the chartering
ceremony about a farmhand who
did such a good job of preparing
the farm ahead of a big storm that
he was able to sleep when the wind
blew. “Glenn Looney and I, and
others, have put together a slate of
officers for the new council we are
so confident in, that we can turn it
over to them.”
C. Frank McGill is the first president of the Nimitz Council. Among
the board members is another World
War II veteran, Robert M. Sinks, who
served as part of the Sino-American
Cooperative Organization, a joint
military effort where several thousand U.S. Sailors and Marines trained
and fought with Chinese Nationalist
troops in China, often behind the
lines of Japanese-controlled territory.
During the ceremony, attended by
about 100 guests, National President
J. Michael McGrath awarded the
Fleet Admiral Nimitz Council its
charter and welcomed it to the Navy
League’s family of councils. He also
swore in the council’s new officers
and directors.
Also attending, or participating in,
the chartering ceremony were Donald B. “Bull” Walker and Jack R. Ritter Jr., president and vice president of
legislative affairs, respectively, of the
Lone Star Region. Ritter served as
part of the council’s Founder’s Committee and conducted the election of
officers and directors at the ceremony. The Fredericksburg High School
NJROTC unit paraded the colors.
“I am very proud to say, with this
new addition, we are now 263 councils strong across the United States
and around the world,” McGrath
said in his remarks at the charter
ceremony. “I don’t need to tell this
group about the giant shadow
Chester Nimitz cast over the naval
history of this great nation.
“This remarkable leader rose from
humble beginnings to the highest
ranks of military service. As a
wartime commander, he had no
equal: one of very few five-star admirals in our history, Medal of Honor
recipient, mastermind of the military
campaign in the Pacific to defeat
Japan and this nation’s representative
on the deck of the battleship
Missouri to receive the Japanese surrender to end World War II.
“Then he did a little ‘hitch’ as
chief of naval operations. Not too
bad for a Texas boy from a landlocked town, a couple of hundred
miles from the sea, but that’s because
Adm. Nimitz was a man who saw
greatness beyond his immediate surroundings. This great American
patriot, described as ‘a man of cheerful yesterdays and confident tomorrows,’ firmly believed that ‘being a
part of the Navy is honorable and
soul-satisfying work,’ and maintained that conviction to his death.
“That is why to have a Navy
League council named in his honor
is not only a great tribute to his life
and his hometown, but also an
appropriate extension of his abid-
ALBERT BEIN
Members of the Fredericksburg High
School Navy Junior Reserve
Officers Training Corps unit present
the colors at the start of the Nimitz
Council chartering ceremony.
