Cherry Point Marine Tells of Iraq Progress

The Newport Rotary Club Program for January 26, 2009 was presented by Lt. Col. Robert D. Curtis of the VMU-2 Night Owls UAV Squadron. 

The Night Owls are one of two squadrons flying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the Marine Corps. As a result, the squadron is the most deployed in the Corps, being forward deployed 7 months for every 5 month stateside. 

Lt. Col. Curtis told the group of his four deployments, three in Iraq and one in forward staging offshore the Africa coast with the 2nd MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit). The Iraq deployments showed an amazing progress over the time he was there. He was on the ground in Bagdad and Tikrit, flew Helicopters the second deployment, and oversaw UAVs in his most recent deployment. He supported humanitarian efforts in Kenya during his MEU deployment.

It was during this last deployment that he related a significant change in the social and political environment in Iraq. The US strategy of developing the people's trust has slowly worked, and they now want to control their own destiny. The Marine Corps is working toward that goal by supporting Iraqi border protection and development of their police force and military. He commended the maturity and patriotism of the young Marines under his command. 

Click here for an article on the VMU-2 Nightowls. 

Report from The Phoenix Presidential Membership Conference

Newport Rotarian, Past District Governor Bevin Wall was a recent Presenter at the Rotary Presidential Membership Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. 

The Presidential Conference, Called by RI President D.K. Lee of Korea, is one of two in the United States and one of twelve worldwide during 2008-09. President Lee address the group at the beginning of the Conference.

The Conference, which included primarily Rotarians from the Western and Midwestern North America, boasted a registration of almost 500 Rotarians. The focus of the conference was on Club-level Rotarians developing action steps to implement in their own Rotary clubs.

PDG Wall, as Regional RI Membership Coordinator, facilitated several sessions, including sessions on New Generations Clubs, Membership Best Practices, Club Strategic Planning, and Why is Retention so Difficult. Newport Rotarian Pam Wall also attended the Conference. 

For more information, including the keynote presentation slides, visit The Phoenix PMC website.     

SKILLS - USA

January 12, 2009

Member Joe Garner brought us a wonderfully gifted young man to speak to us about

SKILLS - USA (VICA). Stephen Lupton is a Newport resident and a junior at West Carteret High School.

VICA started back in the 1920's, offering young people the opportunity to learn trade skills such as welding, carpentry, masonry, and more. In the 1960's, they held their first Olympics and the young people were challenged in the same trade skills. In 1998, VICA changed it's name to SKILLS - USA and added new components to it's agendas with public speaking, Leadership , poster contests, and elections. The membership has grown to more than 300,000 members. One of the biggest sponsors of SKILLS - USA is Lowe's, having contributed over $1,000,000.

Stephen has been to the National Convention ,and there he was elected by his peers, delegates to the convention, to be the North Carolina State President.

SKILLS - USA has a tie in with Rotary as they have adopted the 4 Way Test as part of their creed.

Thank you to Stephen's Mentor, Mr. Whitfield, for bringing this young man so far, and we wish Stephen all the best in all of his endeavors.

January 5, 2009

Our program came to us compliments of Member Maher Saikali, who informed our members about the high cost of socialized medicine.

He was recently in Canada because two of his family members were in the hospital. Two different hospitals as a matter of fact. One hospital was reletivily new, opened inthe 1970's, the other was opened in the 1900's. There is out of date equipment and the patient bathrooms are shared by all and located in the hallways. Doctors are located in basements and you could sit as long as 12 hours or more waiting to see someone. A person has no choice as to where they go or who they see. Many die before treatment as the system will let many pass as not important enough to be seen. According to the government, everyone has the right and is entitled to health care, but it is not necessarily given, nor is it altogether free. In addition to the high cost of poor medical treatment, families still must pay anywhere from $50 to $100 for a visit.

All diagnosis stands as given, and there are no second opinions. Physicians are salary capped and good ones leave and relocate to America or other profitable areas. Most physicians coming in are from third world countries, which creates a language barrier and lack of proper training. They are overworked and soon are gone to more profitable circumstances. There is only one doctor per ward who is available at any given time.

Quality medical cannot be given free. There is no free. The cost to our families would be too great to give up our freedom of choice when it come to our medical care. As for me I would rather pay for good treatment with new equipment, new techniques, and caring professionals.

Happy New Year!!

2009...Gonna Be Just Fine!

Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others…s/he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of resistance.~ Robert Kennedy