Presidents Report May 2025
May Presidents report
With the help of John Lowden, he and I installed the new generator in the Mobile Museum and discovered an anomaly with the carbon monoxide shut down system. I have been consulting with the Manufacturer hoping to solve the issue of shutting off, meanwhile we have our old generator as a standby to complete the events we have planned.
As a follow up on the Marine Corps Uniform mannequin. Ron Hathaway and I completed the dressing of Marine Major William Max to display at American Legion Post 79 on High St. We went to Uniform Sales at the BX and purchased all the ribbons and emblems needed to be correct. We will set up a date to meet with Stephanie Owens, daughter of Major Max, and John Lowden, Commander of Post 79 to finalize details. As we worked our way through the process of making the mannequin look like Marine Max, we made sure he looks really sharp and ready for inspection. We will be hosting Stephanie and her family soon so they all can see how proud we are to honor the Major and share his story.
Recently Nelson Mellitz was invited to speak at the retired Officer Association luncheon on Joint Base. He introduced the AFHM and allowed me to speak about our mission. Several of our members attended in support of Nelson who presented a history of his Military service and career.
On May 10, we attended the Military Appreciation Day at the Bordentown Armory with our Mobile Museum in support of DMAVA. I saw old friends and spoke to many attendees about our display and upcoming events. Sandy, Marvel and I supported the AFHM on the first trailer event of the year.
On May 13, we worked with Joint Base MDL Historians to present a full day of presentations about World War II. Many of our members were in attendance for the informative sessions. We presented an hour of our Greatest Generation videos, ending with the video of “My America”. There was great round of applause for George San Roman for his writing and production of the video.
I dropped off the $500 worth of candy we purchased for the candy drop at Joint Base for the “Power in the Pines” Air show. The candy was distributed to the local school children attending from the local schools on Friday. This was done in honor of the Berlin air lift they have studied in history class.
On May 17, we had a large group of AFHM members at the Roebling Steel Street Fair. We parked right at the entrance gate and had many visitors as they walked in and out. We now carry a small BBQ grille and cooked hot dogs for all of our members in attendance. It made the event enjoyable. We kicked off the sale of 50/50 tickets for the year, lots of opportunity to sell and get the pot over the $6,000 we gave away last year.
The golf outing is June 25, we need golf foursomes, hole sponsors and door prizes. Please reach out to your family, friends and the businesses you frequent. The golf outing flyer is available on our web site; you can sign up on-line, feel free to print it out and share it.
The Jeeps on the Waterfront event is scheduled for June 7th, on the Burlington waterfront. It is always a well-attended event, and we hope to see a good turn out to support the Mobile Museum.
Thank you,
Bryan Branson
President AFHM
