son City Council, presented a photo
of the submarine to Skelton at the
ceremony. Skelton was the principal
speaker during the commissioning
ceremony for Missouri July 31.
The council members commended Skelton for his outstanding leadership and wished him
“Fair Winds and Following Seas”
during his retirement.
Skelton began his congressional
service in 1977 and served on the
House Armed Services Committee
for more than 30 years. He was
committee chairman from January
2007 until this past January. He was
defeated in the November election
by Republican Vicky Hartzler.
Skelton’s knowledge of military
issues, personnel strengths and appropriations were second to no one
in Congress, said St. Louis Council
member Mike Nolan. He enthusiastically promoted educational opportunities, particularly for Reserve
Officers Training Corps (ROTC)
cadets, Naval Academy Midshipmen
and sea service junior officers.
Broward County Teams
With Operation Homefront
For Marine Care Packages
The Broward County, Fla., Council
has teamed up with Operation
Homefront chapters in Florida and
Missouri to augment care package
deliveries to Marine Corps units in
Afghanistan.
For the past four years, Broward
County has conducted a program to
raise funds to purchase selected personal care articles for packaging and
forwarding via the U.S. Postal Service
to five Marine companies deployed in
Helmand Province, according to
council President George L. Reeves.
Directors Al and Shelly Stein have
spearheaded the effort, and via new
and used book sales, and donations
from council members and friends,
have forwarded more than 500 packages to Marine leadership, who in
SAMUEL BUSHMAN
Navy Leaguers from three Missouri councils participated in a ceremony Feb.
20 to honor former U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton for his support of the sea services.
From the left are St. Louis Council member Mike Nolan; Doyle Wilhite, president, Midwest Region; Larry Lyons, president, Central Midwest Area; Jan and
Bob Eade; Skelton; Jim Erlinger, chairman of the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps
Advisory Committee; Robert Fredrickson, past president, St. Louis Council;
Tom Schmitz; and Leslie, Ruth and Dick Kallemeier.
turn distribute throughout their units
as needed.
The program has proven to be
so popular that when word spread
among neighboring Marine units,
more requests for packages were
made to the Broward County
Council than it had the capacity to
fund. Including postage, each
package costs $100.
The council contacted Simone
Velasquez Hoover, president of
Operation Homefront Florida, for
assistance, offering to provide
the Marine addresses and pay the
required postage for additional
packages if Operation Homefront
could supply them, according
to Reeves.
Operation Homefront is a nonprofit organization that formed in
2002 to provide emergency financial
and other assistance to the families
of service members and wounded
warriors. Based in San Antonio,
Texas, it has 23 chapters serving 32
states, according to its website.
Hoover advised Broward
County council officials that
Operation Homefront Missouri,
under the leadership of chapter
President Jon Jerome, had a warehouse with about 1,000 packages
destined for deployed military. The
groups agreed to cooperate whereby Broward County will send
funds for postage on a programmed basis and Operation
Homefront will mail the packages
to the addresses the council will
provide, according to Reeves.
The council and Operation
Homefront have worked together
in the past with the Dollar Tree
program for back-to-school supplies and holiday gifts for military
families.
Broward Navy Days
Honors Giambrone
Broward, Fla., Navy Days, a nonprofit corporation that supports the
nation’s sea services, recognized
Joseph Giambrone, president of the
