American Legion [Frank E. Booma Post 6 - Portsmouth, New Hampshire]

On my return from San Diego, I am very pleased and I want to thank all the volunteers who helped refinish the bar, dance floor and painted the Grille area. The plaque inlays were perfectly placed as to depict a line formation of military honor, to include the post family logos. “A Job Well Done.” May starts our wind-up for upcoming events, starting with the annual memorial service held at Post 69 in Somersworth. The service will start promptly at 1900 hours on Friday, May 7, 2010. This event is to pay tribute to our fellow comrades who have been called by our Supreme Commander in the past year. If you never attended this ceremony, I highly recommend it. Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 9, 2010, look for the festivities under the Grille Stewards message. The next project for the Post is to paint the upstairs hall, if you are interested in helping the project will start Sunday, May 16, 2010 at 1200. Then on Friday, May 28, 2010 at 1000 the Central Veteran’s Counsel, with other various veteran organizations and City Council will be honoring the Burial-at-Sea held at Prescott Part. Portsmouth Middle School Band will be in attendance playing our National Anthem. Moving onto Monday, May 31, 2010 at 1000 the Post Color Guard will present the colors of our nation at a memorial service in the USS Albacore Park. After a small break the Memorial Day parade will start at 1:00 p.m. The parade will step off from Citizens Bank parking lot, proceeding towards downtown turning onto Congress Street, turning onto Middle Street and turning again onto Richards Avenue, to finish inside South Cemetery at the Civil War Monument. To close the parade we will march from South Cemetery to city hall located on Junkins Ave. The Sons-of-the-American-Legion will be hosting a B-B-Q after the parade also held in the City Hall parking lot, please consider volunteering with them. I want to remind everyone that not only during this time of year but at any time you can pick up a grave marker flag from the Post. As a second reminder, while I’m on the subject of flags, if you have a tattered flag that needs to be retired, bring it to the Post for our ceremonial Flag Day to be held on Sunday, June 13, 2010. I don’t have a confirmed date yet but this is of great interest, the Central Veteran’s Counsel and Portsmouth City Hall are working together to move the memorial markers that are currently placed at the corner of Middle Road (Route 33) and Peverly Hill Road to the POW Memorial park across from City Hall. As soon as I receive a confirmation date you will be the second to know. It is my sad duty to report that Ed Shea (8 year member), Merton Wilder (19 year member), William (Bill) Phelps (26 year member) and Arthur MacDonald have been called by our Supreme Commander, may their souls go marching on. As a tribute to our past comrades in memoriam Carlton “Charlie” Cassidy (37 year member) passed one year ago this month.

It is with great regret I must report the passing of Ed Shea, Merton Wilder, Bill Phelps and Arthur MacDonald. May they rest in peace. I want to let all our WWII and Korean veterans know about the Veterans Diploma Program at the Portsmouth High School. This is open to veterans, of either war, who left Portsmouth High School to enlist or were drafted into the service and did not complete their high school education. You must apply to the Superintendent of Schools Edward McDonough at 603-431-5080. You will be required to meet briefly with a Veterans Diploma Committee go share your experiences of leaving high school and joining the military. If you qualify, you will receive your graduation certification at the next ceremony in June. You must request this prior to June 1, 2010.

I want to once again announce to our WWII Veterans that Honor Flight New England is in the process of accepting applications for their flights to Washington, D.C. This is free of charge to any WWII Veteran but it is on a first come first served basis. You may download an application at www.honorflightnewengland.org or you may contact me on my cell phone at 207-252-7532 or at the Post at 603-436-7575.

I want to thank everyone that came out to vote at our elections on April 15th. I want to thank you also for reelecting me to this position so that I may serve you for another year. The results of the elections were: If there was write ins I am not giving the total numbers but only the person receiving the highest total of write ins for a position that had no candidate.

Commander -

Sr Vice Commander -

Jr Vice Commander -

Adjutant -

Finance Officer –

Service Officer -

Asst Service Officer -

Frank Desper

John Moulton

Jim Minot

Richard “Brooksie” Brooks

Steve "Kubby" Katsanos

Donald Poisson

A. "Butch" LaFrenier

Chaplain -

Historian -

Sergeant-at-Arms -

Judge Advocate

Audit Committee -

George McCall

Merton "Skip" Mobbs

Dan Yoder –

George McCall

Eugene Bragg

James Bailey –

Jim Minot (Write in)

The Memorial Day parade will be on Monday, May 31, 2010. It will step off at 1:00 pm from Parrot Avenue. Please attempt to march with us that day. Let's have a good turnout from our members. The Burial at Sea will be at Prescott Park on Friday, May 28, 2010 at 10:00 pm.

There will be a Delegates meeting on Tuesday May 18, 2010 at 6:30 pm in the upstairs hall. All Post, Auxiliary and Squadron delegates need to attend.

Our membership is presently at 568 for 89.31% for 2010. If you know of anyone not paid for 2010 please have them contact me or send in their dues. I have had a lot of questions about key cards lately, we are changing them but this has not been done yet and probably will not be until around the end of May. I will keep you informed. Respectfully,

Our next Fish Fry will be Friday, May 7, 2010 from 4-7 p.m. Thank you for your loyalty and please continue to support us.

I would like to congratulate Josh Ableman as Senior Vice , Darius Marchand as Junior Vice, Nate Young as Chaplain, Drew Hogan as Historian and Jim Stewart as Sergeant-At-Arms. We had a tie for Adjutant and Finance Officer. We will be having a special election on Wednesday, May 19, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. for Adjutant and Finance Officer. Please try to attend to vote. Also, if you are interest in helping out dong Surf & Turf, we have it the 2nd Saturday of every moth. I am looking forward on working with all of my officers. Hopefully we will have a great year. Remember Wednesday, May 19^th, 2010 at 6 p.m. I hope to se ea good turnout.

I would especially like to wish the new officers of S.A.L. Grant Bergeron, Josh Ableman, Darius Marchand, Nate Young, Drew Hogan and Jim Stewart I wish them a good year. There will be a special nominations and elections at our next meeting on Wednesday, May 19, 2010 at 6:00 pm for the positions of Adjutant and Finance officer which need to be filled. If you can not make the meeting and would like to be nominated, please leave a letter of intent at the post home. I would like to thank all the people who helped me with my job over the past few years for all their support and help it was greatly appreciated. Don't forget Memorial Day is coming up come out and march with the Legion Family and show your support for our veterans. There will be food served for all who participate. There will be a reading of our new By- Laws at the next meeting.

SURF & TURF SCHEDULE	BAND SCHEDULE
May 1st– Post	May 1st – Black Brook
May 8th – S.A.L.	May 8th – Allen Roux
May 15th – Unit	May 14th – Karaoke with DJ Darlene
May 22nd – Color Guard	May 15th – Karrie & The Rock Fish
May 29^th - Grille	May 21st - Karaoke with DJ Darlene
	May 22nd – Dirty McCurdy
	May 29th – KJT Band

Hello and welcome to May. Wow! We have a busy month ahead w/some awesome new bands for your entertainment, so get ready to come in and be blown away! We are now doing karaoke twice a month as requested by popular demand. Darlene will be doing some contest as well as other fun so bring your singing voice or just come in to be entertained. We have a couple new bands this month Karrie and the Rock Fish are fantastic as well as KJT Band also known as Smokehouse, so come check them out. You won’t be disappointed. We will be having our Mother’s Day brunch buffet, Sunday, May 9, 2010from 11 am to 1 pm free to all members and their guest w/ entertainment by George McCall. We will be serving mimosa specials as well as bloody marys. Bring your mom and enjoy the afternoon. Our year is going to be filled w/ some great fun and entertainment. Where else can you go to hear live entertainment on the seacoast area and enjoy your post too? Hope to see you here. We also have a designated driver on Saturday evenings free to members and their guest. She will bring you home within a 5 mile radius, so leave your vehicle or get dropped off. We'll get you home safe. See you in June.

Ladies – If you know anyone who has not paid their dues, PLEASE ask them to send them in. We need only seven (7) more for 100%. Members who have not paid are not receiving a bulletin, so its “word of mouth”. Pretty soon the 2010-2011 cards will be available. It was voted last Fall to increase the dues starting with the 2010-2011 year to Seniors - $20.00, Juniors - $10.00 and New Members - $25.00.

We just had the Installation of Officers on the 22nd of April. The following Officers will assume Office after the parade at Department Convention in Lincoln N.H. on June 27, 2010:President - Sheila Brooks; 1st Vice President - Viola Levesque; 2nd Vice President will be decided at the May meeting of the Unit; Secretary and

Treasurer - Karyl Horn; Historian - Trudy Huff (accepted as a write in); Chaplain - Lorraine Gordon and Sergeant-At-Arms - Sue Williams. I am sure that it will be a great year as was the previous year. The Auxiliary is currently holding a fund-raiser so as to be able to send packages to the members of the 157th Security Forces that are currently in the Mid East. Hopefully I will soon have the list of the names of the men in harms way. Please stop in and purchase some tickets. They are one ticket for $1.00 or 6 tickets for $5.00. There are six prizes to be won. Two porcelain dolls made by Rose Calderara, a 18 hole round of golf for 4 with carts at Pease Golf Course, a gift card to The Common Man, a gift certificate to Hebert's Fish market and two Harley Davidson Shirts from Seacoast Harley Davidson of North Hampton. The drawing will be on Saturday, May 8, 2010 at 8:00 PM. There will be a delegates meeting on the 18th of May at 6:30 PM. I ask that all delegates be in attendance if possible. Information on where we will be staying at Convention and more will be disseminated. The next Unit meeting will be on Thursday, May 13, 2010 (the second Thursday of the month) at 7:00PM. Additional information is at the Grille.