The Koran Iron Horse
Sep 2009
Published by Voiture Locale 1588, Grande du Louisiana
5401 Highway 527, Haughton, LA 71037 # 318-987-0052
Carl A. Barr, L'Editeur
carlbarr@bellsouth.net
Chef de Gare Richard LaDue
Voyageurs,
First of all I must say that I am sorry that I was not able to be there for the Wreck on Saturday. I want to thank Grand Chef Terry Sharp and Harold Burson for attending and for the help that they gave. I must also say thanks Don Schreiber for all his usual support. A warm and sincere thanks goes out to all the Voyageurs who participated in the Wreck, both the formal rites and the tricks. We welcome our new 1588 Voyageurs, Steve & Amy Chesney. Voitures 137 and 224 each have two new Voyageurs also.
We have come to a standstill in membership renewal. Those who have not paid please do so now. Next event is coming on October 24th; we have our fund raiser celebration and drawing. Guys, please help sell the more than 100 remaining tickets. We have not held anything in so long to bring money into the Voiture and this is really a good one to help fill our coffers. We want to be able to finish the train and work on setting up our side of the barn into a meeting room. So please help; I know and you know that we have some great talent here that we should be using for the betterment of our Voiture. Well, once again please get your dues in. Thank You and may God bless each of you.
DickVoiture 1588 Officers for 2010
Chef de Gare Dick LaDue
Chef de Train Paul Strange
Chef de Train Larry Aytes
Correspondant John DeMoss
Avocat Burt Pitts
Conducteur Jesse Morrison
Sous Conducteur Jack Steransky
Garde de la Porte Paul Roland
Lampiste Donnie Glasgow
Commissaire Intendant Hank Kwiatkowski
Medicin Chuck Rodgers
Commis Voyageur Billy Campbell
Aumonier/L’Editeur Carl A. Barr
Cheminot James Brumley
Cheminot Kathleen Gray
Cheminot Robert Zirkle
This page was last updated: October 1, 2009
We began publishing these Medal of Honor citations in the May 2002 Issue. The citations are selected at random and quoted from the official web site of the US Department of Defense.
From L'Editeur's Notebook L’Editeur Carl A. Barr
The Print Version of this Newsletter is the recipient of the
Thomas W. Fay, Jr.
Award -- 2005
Best Publication by a Voiture Locale for FY 2005
John W. Emerson Award
2001 and 2007
Best Publication by a Voiture Locale without advertising
PDF version of Newsletters
(including this one)
MEDAL OF HONOR
Posthumous Award
NELSON V. BRITTIN
Sergeant First Class, U. S. Army
Company I, 19th Infantry Regiment
Korean War – 7 March 1951
Citation: Sfc. Brittin, a member of Company I, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action. Volunteering to lead his squad up a hill, with meager cover against murderous fire from the enemy, he ordered his squad to give him support and, in the face of withering fire and bursting shells, he tossed a grenade at the nearest enemy position. On returning to his squad, he was knocked down and wounded by an enemy grenade.
Refusing medical attention, he replenished his supply of grenades and returned, hurling grenades into hostile positions and shooting the enemy as they fled. When his weapon jammed, he leaped without hesitation into a foxhole and killed the occupants with his bayonet and the butt of his rifle. He continued to wipe out foxholes and, noting that his squad had been pinned down, he rushed to the rear of a machine gun position, threw a grenade into the nest, and ran around to its front, where he killed all three occupants with his rifle. Less than 100 yards up the hill, his squad again came under vicious fire from another camouflaged, sandbagged, machine gun nest well-flanked by supporting riflemen. Sfc. Brittin again charged this new position in an aggressive endeavor to silence this remaining obstacle and ran direct into a burst of automatic fire which killed him instantly.
In his sustained and driving action, he had killed twenty enemy soldiers and destroyed four automatic weapons. The conspicuous courage, consummate valor, and noble self-sacrifice displayed by Sfc. Brittin enabled his inspired company to attain its objective and reflect the highest glory on himself and the heroic traditions of the military service.
Several of our 1588 Voyageurs are experiencing moderate to severe health problems, all are at home . We list by name only those of whom we are aware.
Odis Whittington, Lucky Darrow, Bob Vercher,
Bob Vernon, Jimmy Rodgers, Hank Gann, Paul Strange
Cheminot / Promenade
Voiture 1588
1800 on the 4th Wednesday
Calvin Kain Ceremony
Voiture 1588
21 June 2008
Chef de Gare Richard LaDue
Correspondant John DeMoss
Membership numbers are posted on this web page:
http://fortyandeight.org/membership.htm
MEMBERSHIP STATUS Posted on 24 Sep 2009
Louisiana is 8th in Nationale with 59.88% of quota--479 of 800
Voiture 1588 is 14th in Grande at 43.40% of quota--23 of 53
If your membership is not yet paid for 2010, please send your check for $25.00 to my attention at:
Koran Post 388, 5401 Highway 527, Haughton, LA 71037
Grand Commissaire Intendant Ed Grow has been hospitalized, diagnosed with colon cancer. Ed & Sharon will appreciate your prayer support.
WASHINGTON (AFRNS) -- The National Call for Photos, a campaign to gather images of the more than 58,000 men and women whose names are on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, was launched recently at a Newseum event here hosted by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and FedEx Office. FedEx Office will use its locations across the country to help in gathering photos.
If you have a photo of a friend whose name is on the Wall, see your local FedEx representative to submit the photo. The Memorial will eventually open an Education Center at the Wall and will use the photos for an exhibit in that center.
Statistics on the Vietnam War show 47,378 hostile deaths and 10,800 non-hostile deaths. The oldest KIA was 62 years. 61% of KIA were 21 years or younger; five KIA were 16 years old.
The bulk of our American Legion and 40 & 8 membership is composed of Vietnam War Veterans, the youngest of whom is about 54 years old.
Wreck at Voiture 1588
26 September 2009
We were privileged to have Grand Chef de Gare Terry Sharp here to obligate the PGs. Voyageur Terry also brought two PGs for his own Voiture 224 in Covington, Dave Rice and Terry Charrier.
Voiture 137 brought their train and gave a brief cross country tour for five of the six PGs. Terry Charrier uses a wheelchair and was unable to participate. We made a run through Camp Joy and Rodgers Marina. Our driver was Voyageur Sonny Pearson. Other Voyageurs on the ride were Ray Gollmitzer, 137; Jim Canada, 137; Carl A. Barr, 1588; Jack Steransky, 1588.
PGs Sam Watkins and Sam Woodall are for Voiture 137; PGs Steve & Amy Chesney are for Voiture 1588. Husband & wife teams wrecked together are a rarity, but there have been others—Voiture 137’s Bert & Denise Winkler were wrecked in January 2008.
More Photos from the Wreck are posted below.
Six Voyageur Portraits
Terry Charrier
Dave Rice
Sam Watkins
Sam Woodall
Amy Chesney
Steve Chesney
