We were greeted with a slide show of our veterans – their recruiting pictures and pictures from their time in the service, and a current one. They all still look wonderful!
President Rosemarie called the meeting to order and stepped aside for Michael Field’s very thoughtful inspiration. He examined what “Thank you for your service” really means to the citizens who volunteer to keep us safe. He listed their sacrifices, culminating with loss of their rights to question their orders. He ended with “Unlike our familiar Rotary motto, “Service Above Self’, for the American service members it’s “Service AS Self”.
Dave Keosaian gave us the history of George M. Cohan’s famous “Over There” and Deanna Relyea pounded out a heart thumping accompaniment as we sang the WWI song. Dave then told us about the sweeter “White Cliffs of Dover” and we tuned up for that WWII promise.
President Rosemarie thanked the people who make the meeting run smoothly and introduced guests. Leo Shedden’s birthday congratulations were laced with thanks for his sprinting home to get videos of Art Holst’s reading of “Freedom Isn’t Free” capping the first Stories of Service in 2015.
Don Deatrick reported on the phenomenal success of the year’s Hire MI Vet, which was held on November 5 at WCC. This is a consortium of six organizations that work with veterans, invited employers and resource providers that prepare veterans and their families to participate in a job fair. This year 35 employers, 15 resource providers, 21 Rotarian volunteers, and 8 other volunteers teamed up. Their efforts resulted in 5 follow-up interviews and 14 job offers that day. In the five years of the program 89 jobs have been filled, putting more than $2,000,000 in the pockets of Michigan veterans.
Marcia Lane announced that nominations are open for the Robert S. Northrup Humanitarian Award. This award was created by our member Rob Northrup and honors any member of the community who has worked to further humanitarian goals. More information about eligibility and the nomination form are posted on our website. Nominations are due December 18, 2019.
The Satellite Club will meet on Tuesday, November 19 from 6:00 – 7:30pm at the Pretzel Bell. The group is making fleece blankets for cancer patients as well as with meeting people interested in learning what Rotary does and thinking of joining. The group is open to members and non-members so feel free to drop in for an evening of useful fun. Contact Norma Sarkar for more information: nsarkar@umich.edu.
Lauren Heinonen is looking for volunteers to help with the final 5K event for Girls on the Run. Helpers are needed – indoors – to organize the runners as they work on crafts, register and leave for a 5K run, walk, hop, skip trip around the St. Joseph Mercy Campus. The run begins at the Ellen Thompson Women’s Health Center at 6:45am (coffee will be plenteous) and the event will be wrapped up by 11:00am. Contact Lauren to join the fun: heinonen.lauren@gmail.com.
Notes from the Program
Don Deatrick introduced the speaker, our member Karl Edelmann. Karl is a commander of the 514th Aeromedical Staging Squadron at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. His charge is to coordinate the stabilization and transport of wounded warriors from entering the En Route Patient Staging System to the Aeromedical Evacuation System, which includes the Critical Care Transport Team, to final care in Europe or stateside.
Karl began his remarks telling us that the survival rate for a wounded soldier was 25% in the Civil War and not much better in WWI. By WWII the need for forward care had been recognized and implemented so the survival rate was 68%. The use of helicopters in Vietnam allowed the rate to rise to 75% and today the survival rate is 92 – 98%. Today soldiers are trained to stop bleeding and stabilize a wounded comrade immediately. Aid stations are mobile and are much closer to combat locations. Because of these early interventions, many soldiers are able to quickly return to active duty.
The aeromedical teams are made of of active, inactive and reserve servicemen and women. They are dedicated and committed to getting the wounded excellent medical care and home as soon as possible. These people are hard to recruit, have long training periods and retrain and recertify frequently. They are all volunteers. These deployments are hard on families.
Karl showed a video of how corpsmen configure and reconfigure C-130s to turn a cargo ship into a flying hospital. He said the people who do this lifesaving work consider it an honor and a privilege. To quote him, “We did it for what is inside”.
The meeting closed with the video of Art Holst reading “Freedom Isn’t Free.” President Rosemarie quoted Art’s closing words: “Every right begets a corresponding duty.”
