August, 2002 Newsletter

One of the first things we did was to begin direct interaction by the Council’s Board of Directors with the various Marine units active in the state.  You would be surprised at the scope of the activities and number of active duty Marines located at units throughout the state.  These units consist of the many sub-stations of the Recruiting Station, the two reserve centers at Oklahoma City and Broken Arrow, the Marine Corps instructors and students at Vance Air Force Base, the three Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps units at Bixby, Sapulpa, and Grant High School in Oklahoma City, the Marines with the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps unit at the University of Oklahoma, and the Marine instructors and students at Fort Sill.  The Council asked each of these units to identify their top three requirements of support that would best assist them in the achievement of their missions.  Next, we touched base with the many Marine Corps organizations that already existed in an attempt to identify how they were currently supporting the various Marine activities in their areas.

The Marine Corps League is clearly the largest organization with six detachments spread across the state.  In addition to their many other activities they actively support the Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps Units at Bixby, Sapulpa, and Grant High School in OKC.  They also provide assistance to the USMC reserve units in Broken Arrow and OKC.  Additionally, their OKC detachment has for many years provided support to the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps Unit at OU.  Other USMC organizations with existing support relationships include the two chapters of the Women Marines Association (Tulsa & OKC) that support the three junior ROTC units and both reserve centers, and the Chosin Few who support the Veterans Center in Norman, as well as, the NROTC unit at OU.

While the breadth of these ongoing support efforts varies, we found that there are no existing direct support relationships with the Recruiting Station Marines (responsible for Oklahoma, southern Kansas, and parts of Arkansas), although the Tulsa WMA and the MCL Detachment in Tulsa work with the local sub-stations.  There were also no existing support efforts for the Marine Detachment at Fort Sill or the contingent of Marine instructors and students at Vance AFB.  The Council will work with the existing relationships where they exist or will deal directly with those units lacking such a relationship. 

In order to achieve that end, the Council has authorized the expenditure of $3750 to support Marine activities for the remaining portion of the fiscal year (through April 2003).  At present we are working through each of the units requirements to determine how we can best fulfill them.  One of the most important issues that we want to ensure our members are aware of is that in many cases the Council can best help with in-kind types of support; in other words, access to land for training, monitoring Toys for Tots drop off sites, and incentive awards such as football or basketball tickets, access to lake or vacation homes and the like, that would free up money for other support activities.  We would appreciate your assistance if you can help in any of these areas, so please contact us for more information.    

With the specific requirements of the units and the support relationships identified we hope to work closely with the other Marine organizations to ensure we answer as many needs as possible.   We intend to update you in our next newsletter with some of the specific accomplishments.

In addition to the support of Marine activities within the state, another stated mission of the Council is to assist in the continuation of the Corps values and the tradition and lore of the Corps.  Accordingly, the Council has scheduled the luncheon for the 227^th Marine Corps Birthday on November 15^th at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Oklahoma City.  Our Guest of Honor will be the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps – Sergeant Major Alford L. McMichael.  We are really looking forward to having a large attendance at this luncheon and have scheduled an hour-long reception prior to the meal so that you can meet and visit with the Sergeant Major.  He will have a photographer with him so if you are lucky maybe you can get a picture to boot.  We have also arranged for a static display of World War II uniforms and memorabilia for viewing, which we believe will complement our Traditions and Lore portion of the program.  We hope you can make the luncheon this year. 

Finally, the Council sincerely desires to reflect a statewide support base and is looking at the possibility of holding our annual meeting in Tulsa during the month of May.  Our intent would be to invite a guest speaker in who would visit with us during the reception and then conduct our annual meeting.  This would also serve as a recruiting tool to bring in additional supporters to our mailing list. 

We believe that we are making good progress in coordinating and supporting Marine activities in the state, as reflected in our charter documents.  Without your support however, we would be unable to financially back any of the efforts I talked about earlier.  The Board members would like to thank each and every one of you for your unselfish support of our efforts.  If you have any questions, please contact us or check out our web site at www.oklahomamarines.org.  See you at the luncheon.

Semper Fidelis,  

Phil E. Hughes

President