We will have our next Chapter dinner on September 9th. Our guest speakers will be 2 young officers from the 34th Infantry Division. In May of 2024, the US completed an 1,800-foot-long floating platform to get aid to the Gaza strip. The Minnesota based 34th Infantry Division was deployed to Kuwait at that time, and was one of the organization’s tasked to provide security on the floating platform. Our September speakers were tasked to command that effort. The presentation will provide their experiences leading that effort. It will be an informative evening.

Our next newsletter will contain the ballot to elect MOAA Board of Director officers for 2026 and 2027. We need members who are willing to step up and serve. There are several openings that need to be filled and I would appreciate hearing from members who are willing to serve. The board meets 10 times per year, 5 meetings in person and 5 meetings via Zoom. 3 of the in-person meetings are in conjunction with the Chapter meetings. Please contact me if you are interested. My email is bgrettim@gmail.com or call me at (612)281-4276.

This past winter the Board agreed to an initiative to provide more military-related news to our membership. Our newsletter is phenomenal, nationally-recognized, and, coming from the work of editor Russ Jowers. Our idea was to add one more communication tool to supplement the others.

Starting in November we began posting, under board member Casey Mahon’s guidance,  military-related videos on our website that we felt would provide more relevant and important “big picture” communication, available at any time. We are posting informational videos to provide you with MOAA, DoD, DAV and VA videos, among others.

In July, we offered a fantastic PBS documentary entitled Cold War Secrets of Northern Minnesota.  For August, we offered a video from the viewpoint of a writer who covered a unit in Afghanistan and how events unfolded that changed his life forever about the quality of men and women of our Armed Forces. You will find these at mcmoaa.org, under News and Events, Videos. If you have not done so already, I highly recommend watching The True Story Behind Leaders Eat Last video.

I hope to see you at our September Chapter meeting. Thank you for your continued membership in MCMOAA and MOAA.

Tim Kennedy