Terry Nobles Squadron of Corvallis Post #91

Terry Nobles SAL Squadron of Corvallis Post #91

Conducts their monthly meeting

6:00 pm, Tuesday, 16 January 2018

at the Corvallis High School Library

To begin to organize the squadron

Corvallis American Legion Post #91's Consolidated Post Report

Background - The Consolidated Post Report (CPR) shows the many ways Corvallis Post #91 is making a difference in the community, state and nation. This year we are going to post our data on this website. The CPR year runs from June 1st to May 31st. Some of the data will be left blank until the event actually happens or until the closing date of May 31st. So lets begin.

Information as of 10 January 2018

Post Information

Membership for Post #91 is 130.

Veterans Affairs

Number of cases handled by Post Service Officer -

Amount of emergency aid given to veterans from Post funds - $

Total volunteer hours recorded at VA Hospitals -

Contributions to VA Voluntary Service Programs -

Post has a Veterans Affairs Voluntary Service (VAVS) coordinator -

Number of VAVS volunteers -

National Security

Number of donated pints of blood -

Number of blood donors -

Number of ROTC medals presented by Post -

Post has a National Security chairman -

Post has a Crime Prevention / Protection Program -

Participates in Homeland Security or Disaster Relief program -

Post has a POW / MIA chairman -

Public Relations

Post has an active Public Relations chairman -

Post produces a Post publication -

Post produces a website -

Number of annual community events Post participates in -

Participated in a 9/11 Community Commemoration Event -

Number of social media accounts -

Number of times Post was mentioned on radio -

Number of times Post was mentioned on TV -

Number of times Post was mentioned on cable access TV -

Number of times Post was mentioned in newspaper stories -

Number of times Post was mentioned in Letters to the Editor -

Americanism

Boys State Number of Boys Sponsored -

Boys State Cost -

2018 Corvallis Post #91 Oratorical Contest

Corvallis American Legion Post #91

Conducts their Post Oratorical Contest for High School students from Corvallis High School and Victor High School

3:45 pm, Tuesday, 6 February 2018

Corvallis High School Library

For more information call post oratorical chairman Fred Upchurch at 369-1150

Foreign Relations Committee Report on Russia

TRYING TO UNDERSTAND RUSSIA

 China is clearly wants to become the largest economy in the world, trying to push the United States influence back to Hawaii while still trading with us and developing the “Silk Road” through to Europe.

Russia attempts to rebuild its sphere of dominance, with a population of 143 million, predicted to drop to 135 million in 30 years, a pale shadow of the former Soviet Union and 1/10th the population of China and a failed economy partially based on oil. There are at least 120 ethnic groups, speaking forty languages.

Winston Churchill regarded the Soviet Union as “an enigma” and even now, most of us poorly understand what is going on. Some background may be useful:

HISTORY: Evidence of humans began about 40,000 years ago, and the last of the Neanderthal people lasted until about 29,000 years ago. Greeks mention a series of contacts with various tribes in what is now eastern Russia, with the emergence of early Slavs before 900 AD. The traditional beginning of Russian history is 862 A.D. the first united Slavic state, founded in 882. The state adopted Christianity from the Byzantine Empire in 988, beginning with the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures for the next millennium. Swedish Vikings invaded in the 900’s, to govern, but mainly to trade. Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated as a state because of Mongol invasions in 1237–1240 and the deaths of about half the population of Rus'. After the 13th century, Moscow became a cultural center and by the 18th century, the Tsardom had become a huge Empire stretching from the Polish border eastward to the Pacific Ocean. Expansion in the western direction sharpened Russia's awareness of its separation from much of the rest of Europe and led to international connections and importation of knowledge after visits by Peter the Great. Successive regimes of the 19th century responded to peasant revolts with fierce suppression. Serfdom was ended in 1861, but peasants still fared poorly. In following decades there were efforts to reform, with the State Duma and Constitution of 1906, which attempted to open and liberalize the economy and political system, but the tsars refused to relinquish autocratic rule or share their power.

The  1917 Revolution was triggered by a combination of economic breakdown, war-weariness, and discontent with the autocratic system of government, and it first brought a coalition of liberals and moderate socialists to power, but their failed policies led to seizure of power by the Bolsheviks on 25 October 1917. Between 1922 and 1991, the history of Russia is really an ideologically based state like the old Russian Empire.  The approach to the building of socialism, however, varied over different periods in Soviet history, from the mixed economy and diverse society and culture of the 1920s to the command economy and repressions, including starvation of 5 million peasants under Joseph Stalin, followed by 20 million dead during World War II. From its first years, government in the Soviet Union was based on the one-party rule of the Communists, as the Bolsheviks called themselves, beginning in March 1918.

By the mid-1980s, with the weaknesses of its economic and political structures becoming acute, Mikhail Gorbachev embarked on major reforms, which led to the overthrow of the Communist party and the breakup of the USSR, leaving Russia again on its own and marking the start of the Russian Federation begun in January 1992 as the legal successor to the USSR. Russia retained its nuclear arsenal but lost its superpower status. Scrapping socialist central planning and state ownership of property of the socialist era, new leaders, led by President Vladimir Putin, took political and economic power after 2000. This led to a perverse form of capitalism which created very wealthy Oligarchs and Mafia power. Putin engaged in an energetic foreign policy, seizing Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, which led to severe economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union, and repercussions of spying and internet attacks.

Present-day Russia seethes under the shadow of losing almost all of its satellite republics, some of which have joined NATO, the threat of Islam for more than a thousand years, and a feeling of being humiliated as a nation, like the Chinese. While there are occasional protests, anyone countering Putin is most likely to end up in jail, exiled, or dead. As high as 80% of the population feels like “We need STRONG leader,” as I heard many times. With no history or experience of citizen-based governance and democracy which arose in Britain and Scandinavia after the middle ages, average Russians hope to live under disciplined rule, which might be stable and consistent. Somehow, most citizens must realize they are existing in a hollow empire, but the same love of “Mother Russia” which got them through World War II is deeply built into their souls.  Russia has a well-developed art, music, literature and scientific history, excelling in some sectors and failing in others. Ironically, the US must depend on Russia for space launches, and with some suspicion on each side, we still find ways to cooperate against common enemies, such as Islamic jihad, with Chechins as the worst, blowing up schools and theaters, and planning attacks here and in Russia.

Assignments into the Soviet Union before the fall of Communism and afterwards into Russian, including Siberia, the Eastern Bloc and Central Asia give me some glimpses of what we are facing: -Such as: “living in Soviet Union was like being in the Army all your life, we were told where to live, we pretended to work, they pretended to pay us, and we stood in line for every service and a little bit of food or supplies for life.”

As communism fell apart, there was a rush to loot whatever anyone could grab. Managers and party members grabbed cars, trucks, machinery and goods, while well placed friends of high officials seized what we would call corporate assets, quickly becoming billionaires, unless they fell out of grace and lost everything. While the collective farm managers made off with the newest combines, trucks and tractors, the poorest stable hands ended up with an old manure fork and a five dollar a month pension. We worked in the ensuing chaos to try to teach business planning, which would get the combine owner, tractor driver, grain drill owner and farm supply sergeant sitting on barrels of aging diesel fuel, to put a working farm back together again. Land cannot be bought, and can only be leased with favorable bribes to some three-piece suit (still a Communist) bureaucrat in the land office. Progress halted, and as we saw rusty cranes and unfinished buildings, even Russians couldn’t tell if it was a structure going up or being torn down.

Being the first, (and probably only) American to get onto Russian Army bases, it was a revelation to see bored, cynical draftees in moldy barracks, surrounded by litter and inoperable equipment and subsisting on gruel, tea, vegetables and horse meat. The defeat in Afghanistan and conflicts in Chechnya left a PSTD cloud, with some military still strong and other parts a hollow shell. The pushback in Ukraine and Baltic states, adventures in Syria and attitude toward China are all part of an effort to re-assert former Soviet power and respect from the world. Corruption has been part of the system forever, with jealousy, under-the-table dealing, favoritism and a semi-criminal economy meaning that rules change, there is little consistency and a gloomy attitude about each person’s future. Where we often leave our homes unlocked, Russian village gates, farm and garage doors are locked, even going from bedroom to kitchen entails constant locking and unlocking.  Anything left outside could be like a car we saw parked at the curb, and later, when leaving the theater ,saw it flat on the cobblestones, with tires, mirrors and engine gone. Shipments of any kind require an armed guard in the boxcar or warehouse, or there is nothing left.

When working with a farmer who was trying to open a vegetable market in Sverdlofsk, the first visitors were Mafia “heavies”, who looked around, and asked: “You like your children come home from school alive?”. The farmer nodded. “You like your store not be fire-bombed?”, he nodded again. “We take care of it for first 15% of all your sales.” These are the same toughs who get first service at a restaurant and leave without paying. But the layers of bureaucrats who issue permits also require a bribe at each level.

With leadership and rule centered on Putin, as with Kim Jong Un in North Korea, there is little the world can do, except keep watch to see who shows up, and a new direction when the present dictators are gone.

January 2018 Regular Membership Meeting

***The monthly meeting will take place on Tuesday, January 16th, 2018!!!!!

Corvallis American Legion Post #91's Membership

Will conduct their monthly meeting

7 pm, Tuesday, January 16, 2018

At the Corvallis High School Library

This month's guest speaker is Maria Cole.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-cole-8565255

Maria is a champion of the 1st amendment. She was the subject of an article published in the Missoulian:

http://missoulian.com/news/local/controversial-columnist-panned-by-journalism-dean-to-speak-at-university/article_c138b144-ad2a-5b6d-b8cd-27f776477534.html

We will also conduct our initiation ceremony for 23 new Post #91 members and 6 new Sons of the American Legion members.

The Agenda will be published soon

Recruiter Pie Competition Updated

We welcome the Post #91 commander Scott Turner to the competition. 

As you can see Ike Slaughter has pulled into the lead.

6 months to go!