Chapter 78 Officers for 2006:

President Ramon Rodriguez
Vice President Richard Simonian
Asst. Vice President Jim Duffy
Secretary Robert Foley
Asst. Secretary Frank Lilly
Treasurer Terry Cagnolatti
Asst. Treasurer Brad Welker
Sgt-at-Arms Art Dolick

Chapter 78 Secretary RC Foley presents well known and popular USMC Gunnery Sergeant, R. Lee Ermy, "The Gunny" with an Honorary Member of the Chapter certificate. Robert had a chance to meet and talk with the Gunny during the annual "Weekend of Heroes" Convention, held over the weekend of June 10, 2006.The convention is held by several manufacturers of one sixth scale related action figures and equipment as a tribute to heroes and veterans of the US Armed Forces Part of the convention is a contest where contributors submit action figures in 1/6th scale depicting various military genres and periods. Robert created and submitted a SF HALO pilot flaring a Ram-air canopy in preparation for landing. Other action figures shown on display are a collection of uniform sets and equipment used by members of the Army Special Forces. Robert also presented Richard Simonian (vice president) with a 1/6th scale SF figure outfitted with the uniform, rank, name tag (Simonian) and equipment of the time when Richard was assigned to the 10 th SFG(ABN) in the early 1950's.

Ramon Rodriguez (president) and Jim Duffy (asst. vice president) attended the SFA convention in Fayetteville , N.C. For Jim Duffy it was a memorable event meeting up with Greg Biela and Bob Cerniak after 36 years when all were assigned to Detachment A-109 Thuong Duc, Vietnam . Additionally, as a result contact was established with other team mates David M. Cook, John N. Wiegner, Ernie J.Russi and Renard H. Marable. Likewise, contact was made with Joe Marzucco, Charlie Inot, John Conrad and Ed Valentine who were assigned to A-109 during different periods. An A-109 reunion is anticipated at the SFA convention 2007 in Oklahoma City .

Chapter 78 member Jack Eckles provided a very informative presentation at the July Chapter 78 meeting. LTC (then Major) Jack Eckles was assigned as the commander of B Company, 448 th Civil Affairs Battalion, 351 st Civil Affairs Command and mobilized to Iraq from June, 2005 until May, 2006.The Company's assigned area was Eastern Baghdad (everything east of the Tigris river), to include Sadr City. This Area of Operation (AO) comprised nearly 3,000 sq/km of land and was occupied by over 5 million Iraqi citizens. As Civil Affairs soldiers, their mission was to conduct infrastructure and reconstruction efforts in the AO in addition to Humanitarian Assistance (HA). This consisted of over 200 projects valued at over $400million.These projects ranged from simple trash collection and clearing to major sewer, water and electrical projects. With respect to HA, they managed over 10 tons of food stocks, which included everything from rice and beans to cooking oil, noodles, crackers, canned meats, vegetables and cheese. They distributed over 10,000 gallons of bottled water, hundreds of toys, thousands of stuffed animals, and thousands of school supplies. In addition to their own missions, they were responsible for supporting first, the 2 BDE, 4 th ID then the 4 th BDE (506 th RCT) of the 101 st ABN DIV. In this roll they would assist the maneuver unit in “Combat Mitigation” operations, following in behind them after a take down or cordon and search operation. This usually included handing out HA supplies and asking the locals questions about their situation in their area. Often times they would be able to obtain some passive intelligence about local thugs or insurgence for the intel types to develop. In all, the company conducted over 2,000 missions in the year assigned in Iraq . For such a small and active unit, they accomplished much for Iraq and its people. Though the company lost 2 soldiers (SGT's Regina Reali and Cheyenne (Christopher) Willy – 23 Dec 05) they were remarkably lucky that it was not worse. LTC Eckles certainly credits the men and women of B Company, 448 th CA and their professionalism and dedication to duty. As a commander, he stated he could not have asked for a better group of soldiers to lead. We commend and thank LTC Eckles and members of his command for there service.

Please review Chapter 78's expanded and newly updated website and sign our guestbook at www.specialforces78.com .

Robert Foley (sscretary) presents “Gunny” R. Lee Ermy with an Honorary Member of the Chapter certificate.

Display of 1/6 scale collection of Special Forces uniform sets and equipment by Robert Foley (secretary)

Robert Foley(secretary) presents Richard Simonian(vice president) with a 1/6 scale SF figure.

Jim Duffy (asst. vice president) meets up with Greg Biela and Bob Cerniak 36 years after all were assigned to A-109 Thuong Duc, Vietnam

Chapter Member LTC Jack Eckles provided a power point presentation of his recent year's tour in Iraq