Tappahannock Rotary Club Christmas Dinner

Tom Saville


Gordon & Hilda Fletcher

 
Bill & Mel Reavis, and Anne Neuman

 
Mel Reavis, Anne and Tommy Neuman

Photos by Bob Jump
 

Emerson Hughes becomes a Paul Harris Fellow!

Congratulations to Emerson  "Em" Hughes who becomes part of the illustrious band of Paul Harris Fellows, and helping move the club towards 100% membership of PHF members - Tommy Neuman does the honors!

New Paul Harris Fellow - Cacky Taylor

Cacky Taylor becomes part of the honorary group of Rotarians who is now a Paul Harris Fellow, and helping move the club towards 100% membership of PHF members - Norman Wood, Club President has the honor to make the award!

Phillipe de Abreau gets the Rotary message from John Gregory!

John Gregory inducts Philippe de Abreu into the Tappahannock Rotary Club - John does all the inductions with a distinctive style - he makes sure you remember the key points!! Welcome Philippe - owner of the Automobile Service on Airport Road - specialist in foreign car servicing!
 

Program: Chesapeake Bay Oysters

 

Tom Madren provided our speaker, Chris Davis, who is involved in oyster replenishment of our Chesapeake Bay. He provided a wonderful, informative and thought provoking program.

If one went back to the days of Capt John Smith and his visit to our area one would have noticed that there was no erosion damage done to the bay and rivers and one could see 30 feet into the water clearly. Oysters were in abundance back then and served as great food for the native Americans. Oysters eat algae and that keeps our waters clean and pure. In John Smith's time, the local oysters were 12 inches in size and were divided in thirds to eat. By 1850, watermen had begun to over harvest oysters and we never recovered from that loss. Oyster population is about 1% of what it was in the 1800's. The main problems are over harvesting and soil erosion from farms.

We now are building new reefs for oysters to flourish once again. For awhile we toyed with Japanese oysters hoping they would take hold in our waters but that project has been abandoned. We are now trying to make new reefs for our oysters. To have a clean Bay and rivers, we need oysters. Man took them out, now we must put them back. This is something we can do even in our own area of the Rappahannock River. Chris Davis is to be congratulated for his efforts and for a very inspiring program. This Rotarian left with a desire to try to build a reef on his river area.

Rotary Club 2012-13 Out-performs the District!

Rotary Foundation Awards for his excellent club presidency leadership 2012-13, John Lewis receives two banners: 100% sustaining member club and 100% member participation in the $100 per capita club! Some clubs in our region won one or other of these two awards but Tappahannock was one of the very few who won both!

Norman Wood Program on Intelligence Collection

Norman Wood, President of the Tappahannock Rotary Club, was also the program speaker for Thursday, December 5th.  He gave his own speaker introduction and then put on his jacket to transition to the speaker role!  Lt. Gen. C. Norman Wood, USAF (Ret.) experience encompasses senior management positions in the government, military, industry, and the not-for-profit fields, primarily in national security and intelligence. 
 
He started his military career as a master navigator and electronic warfare officer with 3,400 flying hours mainly on RB-47's.  He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1964 as an EW in the RB-47, and has 1,000 combat flying hours from the Vietnam Conflict.  He was a SAC crewmember in both the RB-47 and the RC-135.  Moving on to his Headquarters assignments at the Strategic Air Command (SAC), and the Air Staff.  After attending the National War College, he was the SAC Intelligence Wing Commander, and the Executive Director of the President�s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board at the White House in the first Reagan Administration.
 
His General Officer assignments include Commander, Air Force Intelligence Service [1 Star] ,  J-2 (Director of Intelligence), US European Command [2 Star], head of Air Force Intelligence [2 Star], and Director of the Intelligence Community Staff [3 Star]. He retired from the Air Force in June 1992, and took a job as senior vice president and general manager of BDM Federal.  There, he was responsible for national security and technology applications programs, resources, and marketing with the focus on the intelligence community. 
General Wood became President and CEO of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA), International in April 1996.  AFCEA is a global enterprise with more than 30,000 members, more than 1,000 corporate sponsors, and 143 chapters located in 32 nations.  He was also the publisher of SIGNAL Magazine, the journal for communications, electronics, intelligence, and information systems professionals with approximately 130,000 readers in 82 nations.  He retired on 1 October 2001.

Norman Wood's presentation covered his career highlights in the intelligence collection field and he concluded his evening with a discussion on the Snowden leaks case and it's detrimental impact on our intelligences service capabilities.  Here is shown with Rotary District AGM Bill Croxton and Past President John Lewis.

Salvation Army Collection at Walmart

Saturday you were welcomed to Walmart by the sound of tinkling bells - outstanding cold weather duty performed by Chuck Gilchrist and Doc Franks - another successful Rotary Christmas activity to raise funds for the needy. Also helping out on Saturday were Rotarians Joanne Ruffa, John Gregory, Carla Stearns and Joe Johnston