Auxiliary News
Hello Ladies:
I would like to thank everyone who helped out at the January breakfast. If you haven't paid your dues for 2012, please do so as soon as possible. I hope everyone who attended the Christmas Party at Michael's enjoyed themselves. The Auxiliary will be serving breakfast on Sunday, February 12th. The menu consists of:
Eggs, Biscuits & Gravy, Sausage, Bacon, Potatoes, Pancakes, Toast, & Juice.
Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 14th at 7:00 p.m. Please join us. Mark your calendars for the Annual Corned Beef & Cabbage dinner which will be held on Saturday, March 3rd. Volunteers will be needed for this event. If you are interested in helping out, please call Jan Pauly at (815) 398-4548.
Auxiliary President Barb Hornbeck
Dear Legion family members:
I would like to bring to your attention Senate Bill S.1460, and House Bill HR 3767 which if they are passed would award a Congressional Gold Medal to the First Special Service Force (FSSF). The FSSF was the very first special forces unit ever assembled and trained. Our modern day Special Forces and Navy Seals owe their lineage to this very unit. It was put together in 1942 at the request of Winston Churchill with the thought to be dropped behind German lines into winter conditions to destroy power stations and fuel depots. This unit was the most highly trained fighting force of WWII. They were trained as paratroopers, mountain climbing, skiing, winter warfare, hand to hand martial arts combat, demolitions, amphibious assault, and use of enemy weaponry. They were also unique because they were made up of half Americans and half Canadians, but outfitted and trained by the US.
Their first mission was to spearhead the invasion of the Aleutian islands in August 1943 to drive the Japanese out. Next they were sent to Italy where they captured a mountain near Cassino in 2 hours that had held up the 5th Army for weeks. After fighting in the mountains for 2 more months during the winter of Dec 1943-Jan 1944 they were sent to Anzio in Feb 1944 where they pushed back the Germans for the next 3 months with nightly patrols and earned their nickname "The Devils Brigade". When the push was made into Rome, they again spearheaded the assault and were the first unit into Rome, the first unit to liberate an Axis capital on June 4, 1944.
As if this were not enough, the unit again was the spearhead of the invasion into France's southern coast in August 1944. They then proceeded to push the Germans back across southern France eastward back into the Alps mountains until Dec 1944. The unit suffered 30 percent KIA and 130 percent casualty rate. There are approximately 200 veterans of this unit remaining today. We would like to honor them with this special medal for a very special unit.
I would like to ask that you contact our congressmen and ask them to support these bills S.1460 in the Senate and House bill H.R 3767. The web site is http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s1460/show.
To send a letter to a Representative in the House the address is http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3767/show.
I have a personal interest in this unit as it was the unit that my father was in during WWII. I thank you for your support of this.
Kindest Regards, Bob Schober