Senior Commander in Charge of Vice Larry Lieber (right) gets the raffle going before the February 20 meeting: "Anybody wanna buy a ticket?" An Auxiliary member (yellow sweater) offers raffle tickets to new Post 304 member Jim Stoll.

The Crowd Starts to Gather. Jr. Vice Commander Fred Gaines greets guests Paul Gates and his wife, Sr. Vice Commander Larry Lieber (back in brown shirt), Judge Advocate Joe Sims (?) (back in blue shirt), and new member Dennis Eckie.

Some of the members and guests at the February 20 General Meeting; l-r: Pete Popham, Guest Paul Gates, new member Dennis Eckie, F.D. Smith, and Mike Kettmann.

Our Post 304 Friend, Pete Popham, looks like he's handicapping the next race. Could it be? February 20, 2006, at General Membership meeting.

Jr. Vice Commander Gaines presents the guest speaker with a Certificate of Appreciation from Post 304 at the February 20, 2006 meeting. Guest Speaker Leo T. Carlton, Jr. is Fifth District Chaplain and is a veteran of the Korean Conflict. Chaplain Carlton is an Atlanta native, attending Bolton, GA Elementary, West Fulton High. U of GA - Atlanta and Georgia State University. He has been an American Legionnaire for 44 years and has served six years as Fifth District Chaplain.

Sr. Vice Commander Lieber thanks guest speaker, Fifth District Chaplain Leo Carlton, Jr. for his inspirational speech at the Post 304 December, 2006 meeting.

The Winner!! Post 304's Entrant

Andrew Jones!

To all in attendance, Andrew's main U.S. Constitution speech and his extemporaneous speech on the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution were exemplary. We believe he will go far in the next Area and Department Oratorical Contests. Come out and support him at the Area Contest on March 4, 2006, at the Avondale Estates Post in Decatur. You'll be glad you heard it.

The Commander introduces the Second Place Winner. And, finally ...

The District Commander, introducing the District Oratorical Contest Third Place winner ...

Oratorical Contest Chairman Acree, Alicia, who sang the National Anthem, and Bruce Wood, Chief Judge for the Contest.

The Four Contestants and the Five Judges

The Four District Oratorical Contest Participants
Post 304 Candidate, Andrew Jones, is second from left.

District Oratorical Contest Chairman Buddy Acree

issues his charge to the

Speech Contest attendees

Notable Legionnaires, including our own Judge Advocate Joe Sims (right), eagerly await the Oratoracle Contest in Powder Springs.

Commander Bob Titshaw and Jr. Vice-Commander Fred Gaines anxiously awaiting the start of the District Oratorical Contest on Saturday morning, February 18, 2006 at Post 294 in Powder Springs.

A Real Tribute to WWII Veterans 'til Now

The elderly parking lot attendant wasn't in a good mood! Neither was Sam Bierstock. It was around 1 a.m., and Bierstock, a Delray Beach, FL eye doctor, business consultant, corporate speaker and musician, was bone tired after appearing at an event. He pulled up in his car, and the parking attendant began to speak. "I took two bullets for this country and look what I'm doing," he said bitterly.

At first, Bierstock didn't know what to say to the World War II veteran. But he rolled down his window and told the man, "Really, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you."

Then the old soldier began to cry.

"That really got to me," Bierstock says.

Cut to today. Bierstock, 58, and John Melnick, 54, of Pompano Beach and a member of Bierstock's band, Dr. Sam and the Managed Care Band, have written a song inspired by that old soldier in the airport parking lot. The mournful "Before You Go" does more than salute those who fought in WWII. It encourages people to go out of their way to thank the aging warriors before they die.

"If we had lost that particular war, our whole way of life would have been shot," says Bierstock, who plays harmonica. "The WW II soldiers are now dying at the rate of about 2,000 every day. I thought we needed to thank them."

The song is striking a chord. Within four days of Bierstock placing it on the Web http://www.beforeyougo.us , the song and accompanying photo essay have bounced around nine countries, producing tears and heartfelt thanks from veterans, their sons and daughters and grandchildren.

"It made me cry," wrote one veteran's son. Another sent an e-mail saying that only after his father consumed several glasses of wine would he discuss "the unspeakable horrors" he and other soldiers had witnessed in places such as Anzio, Iwo Jima, Bataan and Omaha Beach. "I can never thank them enough," the son wrote. "Thank you for thinking about them."

Bierstock and Melnick thought about shipping it off to a professional singer, maybe a Lee Greenwood type, but because time was running out for so many veterans, they decided it was best to release it quickly, for free, on the Web. They've sent the song to Sen. John McCain and others in Washington. Already they have been invited to perform it in Houston for a Veterans Day tribute - this after just a few days on the Web. They hope every veteran in America gets a chance to hear it.

God Bless EVERY veteran and THANK YOU to those of you veterans who may receive this !

Click the link below to hear the song and see the pictures and then share it and send it to everyone you know! If you can't click on it to make it work, copy and paste it onto your webserver's url address. It's worth it! :

http://www.managedmusic.com/beforeyougo.html

Legion Leader Blasts U.N. Report on GITMO

INDIANAPOLIS, February 13, 2006 -

National Commander Thomas L. Bock visits a detention cell at Camp Delta. The commander toured Guantanamo Bay Feb. 6-9 and met with the troops working there.
The leader of the nation's largest veterans organization blasted a new U.N. report calling for the closing of the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay as “incredibly inaccurate.”

A draft of the report that has not yet been released was reviewed by the Los Angeles Times. The paper said that the report concludes that violent force-feeding of hunger strikers, incidents of excessive violence used in transporting prisoners, and combinations of interrogation techniques “must be assessed as amounting to torture.”

“That’s not the Guantanamo Bay that I saw,” American Legion National Commander Thomas L. Bock said. Bock led a delegation of Legionnaires to Guantanamo Bay Feb. 6-9.

“We visited the detention centers at Camp Delta and toured the cells. We visited the medical clinics. We talked to the guards and ate the same food the detainees ate,” Bock said. “Their medical care is state-of-the-art, superior to what’s given to our veterans I might add, and as far as the food goes, well, I recommend the steak and eggs.”

“When detainees engage in a hunger strike,” Bock said, “each of them is placed in a hospital under full medical supervision. When I visited last week, only four detainees were refusing food and they were tube fed (enteral feeding). A nation that values life cannot sit back and watch people starve to death,” Bock said.

He pointed out that all detainees are offered 4,200 calories per day of culturally appropriate meals.

“The United States may be the only country whose captured enemy-combatants gain weight during their detention,” he said. “The members of Joint Task Force Guantanamo are absolute professionals. One guard had feces hurled on him just moments before we arrived. He calmly showered, changed his uniform and returned to work. The abuse at Guantanamo is coming from the detainees and it’s aimed at our military.”

The U.N. report relied heavily on accounts given by detainees, detainee attorneys and their families. The accounts are consistent with an al Qaeda training manual that first surfaced in Manchester, England, and instructs extremists to claim torture and mistreatment during detention by “infidels.”

The U.N. Commission on Human Rights includes Cuba, China, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and other nations not known for their compassionate treatment of prisoners.

“These accusations are a slap in the face to every dedicated military professional fighting the war on terror,” Bock said. “The U.N. researchers should have talked with survivors of the Hanoi Hilton, the German Stalags, North Korean prisons, or Japanese prison camps during those wars to understand the real definition of maltreatment. I have seen it with my own eyes -- the treatment given to these men who have vowed to destroy America is far better than what’s given to inmates at virtually any U.S. prison in America. It far exceeds the standards set forth by the Geneva Convention.”

Commander Titshaw, the Comedian!

Commander Titshaw gets a laugh from Timers Burdette and Daniel when he says that he may have been at the first Legion Oratorical Contest in 1938. Come on out to Powder Springs on February 18th for the District Oratorical Contest and support our entry. You'll be glad you did.

(Photo by Fred Gaines)

Commander Titshaw Gives Instructions to the Audience and Speech Contestant

The Post 304 Oratorical Contest was held on Saturday morning, February 4, 2006, at the Eastside Baptist Church in Marietta. Although we had only one contestant, what a contestant he was! His demeanor and speech delivery was outstanding and his knowledge of the US Constitution and the Amendments thereto was excellent. All of the attendees expressed pride in our representative for the District, State and National Oratorical competitions. We have a winner!

An Auguste Panel of Legionnaires

Here are several of the attendees at the Post 304 Oratorical Speech Contest: Tom Stenzel, Fred Gaines, Larry Leiber and Larry Asbill. Stenzel and Asbill were judges for the contest. All offered constructive criticism to the winner after the contest.

Post 304 Oratorical Contest Winner

And we have a winner! He is a local high school senior. For obvious reasons, we don't want to reveal his identity until after he wins the District and State competitions. All of the attendees felt that he has an excellent chance of advancing in the next several competitions. Wish you all could have been there - you would be proud of our entry!