Page 2 - DFCS News Magazine Spring 2014

We are well into the New Year with several significant changes to the organization. Bill Bradfield stepped down as the Chairman of the Board due to term limits and, the BOD elected Bruce Huffman, as his relief. Bruce brings a broad background in aviation to the table and has the vision to continue our move forward. Two Direc- tors also stepped down. Bob Krone provided eight years of dedicated service including seven long
and productive years as Secretary. Jim Champlin served three years as a National Director, but his most significant accomplishment for the Society happened prior to his service on the DFCS National BOD. Jim was the driving force behind the beautiful DFC Memorial at March Field Air Museum in Riverside, CA. We are thankful for these men’s service and will miss them.
The DFCS membership elected three new Directors - Lewis Watt, Jim Wilhite and Randy Zahn, as well as re-electing four incumbent Direc- tors to a three year term - Terry Sullivan, Joe Geary, Larry Liss and Al Major. We believe this Board is very motivated and has the expertise to raise the DFC Society to new heights, but we still have room for two more Directors and would welcome any member willing to join us. After the new Board was formally installed, the slate of officers was elected. As mentioned previously, Bruce Huffman is now the Chair- man, I am the President, John Appel is the Executive Vice President and VP for Chapter Development, Terry Sullivan is the Secretary, and Tony Ventura is the Treasurer. I wish to take this opportunity to per- sonally thank everyone for volunteering and working for the benefit of the Society.
The Board also voted on new Operating Procedures to compliment the new Bylaws. I thank all of our members who voted for the Directors and, especially those who took the time to vote for the new Bylaws. The Bylaws needed a significant updating, and I am pleased to report 29% of our active members voted. The result was 786 “yes’s” with 1 “no”. The new Bylaws and Operating Procedures are now on our web- site.
I’d like to bring up one more time the subject of our beautiful and very compelling book “On Heroic Wings: Stories of the Distinguished Flying Cross”. Although less than a third of our members have purchased the book, we are still hopeful sales will pick up once members see it and realize what a great gift it makes. Please consider adding this book to your collection or donating a copy to your local library, Aviation Muse- um, or ROTC/JROTC unit.
The contract negotiations with 45 North Communications to produce a documentary about the Distinguished Flying Cross and its recipients is moving forward but; we hit a speed bump (not a road block) in ob- taining the funding to produce it. We are now working on a couple of other opportunities to get this back on track and are optimistic about the great opportunity of utilizing this venue to educate the public, reach more members, and sell more books.
I firmly believe the future of the DFC Society is bright, and we need the support of you, our members. We need you to take advantage of op- portunities to tell people about our organization and try to recruit new members to ensure our Society thrives. We have managed to get articles in various magazines, but the most effective way to recruit is to have one-on-one conversations with people. You might have to follow up as people frequently agree to join and take an application form but, never get around to sending it in. That has happened many times with me but, by following up with them, they frequently join (sometimes just to stop me from bugging them) but it works. Please do your part to get our message out.
DFCS 2014 CONVENTION - DATES TO REMEMBER September 21-25, 2014
Sheraton Sand Key Resort, Clearwater Beach, Fl
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This year, we will be honoring our members who fought in Korea, “The Forgotten War”. I hope you will join us as it should be a great event with all the details in this issue.
The DFCS Scholarship Committee had a very tough time selecting five winners from the many outstanding candidates.
A $1,000 check was sent to each winner’s college/university in De- cember 2013 to be applied to the Spring 2014 semester. The five winners are highlighted in this issue. As always, there were several deserving students who were well qualified but, lack of funding pre- cluded awarding them a scholarship. We would like to increase the number and size of the scholarships but, we need your help to do this. We are looking into initiating a fundraising campaign to sup- port our goals of awarding more scholarships to our deserving stu- dents.
In closing, I would like to thank you for your past support and hope you will continue to support the DFC Society, as we move forward.
Chuck Sweeney President & CEO
On January 18th it was my honor to step into
my new role as your Chairman. The Board
of Directors saw fit to place special trust and faith
in my ability to lead your organization following
the conclusion of Bill Bradfield’s term limit. As I
undertake my new responsibilities with a great
deal of pride and personal dedication, I am hum-
bled by the thoughts that not only do we now find
ourselves as the custodians of our own personal historical legacies but the legacies of such aviation hallmarks as Charles Lindbergh, James Doolittle, James Lovell, George H.W. Bush, Bob Hoover, Joe Foss, Patrick Brady, Leo Thorsness, Paul Tibbets, Gene Cernan, Fred Ferguson, Bruce Crandall and a host of others who have done such amazing things with their flying machines. Each of our current members has a story to tell and a legacy to preserve but our mem- bership only represents about 2% of the 350,000 Distinguished Flying Crosses awarded from WWII to now.
One of our goals is to grow our membership by 300 in the coming year. My challenge to you, our members, is to reach out to that old friend you haven’t talked to in a while, that stood beside you on that hot dusty street, on a ship’s deck wearing your Class A uniform, or in a general formation, following your return from destinations far away, who was awarded their own DFC at the same ceremony with you, and encourage them to dig through those fading citations and join the DFC Society and share in the camaraderie and fellowship among our membership.
Bill Bradfield handed me an organization that is well organized, financially sound, and poised to move forward on a host of fronts. We are pursuing corporate sponsorships for both our upcoming convention and our documentary on the DFC; we are in contact with The Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation to support their Character Development Program (CDP) that educates youth on the values of character, and we are raising our visibility through a wide spectrum of media initiatives. None of these things would have been possible without the wise leadership and hard work that Bill Brad- field gave this Society everyday he served as its Chair. I am person- ally grateful for his guidance and for the organization he helped to shape. All of us owe him our thanks and respect for the accomplish- ments we share.
Bruce Huffman
Chairman of The Distinguished Flying Cross Society