Our Needs Are Being Met: I've got to give a big thank you to a few folks.  Doris and Cliff Conley of Cuyahoga Falls worked very hard for Ohio Chapter 2 this past month.  Doris and Cliff, knowing that Ohio Chapter 2 enjoys making visitations to the Wade Park and Brecksville VA centers, gathered up a ton of items for our veterans' ditty bags.  Doris and Cliff gave us bags of books, puzzles, toys of all kinds, socks and the whole shebang.  Thanks again to Doris and Cliff Conley for all you've done for our veterans.  A big thank you also goes to Mr. Lenny Nester, Officer for the Gram Road Giant Eagle for giving so much to help Doris and Cliff gather the items for the needs of our veterans serviced by Ohio Chapter 2.  Thank you again Mr. Nester for caring about our area's disabled, hospitalized, and homeless veterans.

Harley Davidson Raffle is On: As a member of Ohio Chapter 2, I know our members are out there selling those tickets for a chance on that Harley Davidson DYNA FXD.  If you get turned down on an offer to buy a ticket, please remind your potential donor of our web site address just in case your donor changes their mind and wants to buy a chance on this fine ride.  All the instructions on how to buy a ticket through our web site are detailed on the Harley Davidson DYNA FXD web site page.  The link to get to the Harley Davidson DYNA FXD page is at the top of our "Home Page."  So let's get those tickets sold so we can have an early drawing.

Don't Forget Our Advertising Opportunities: While you're selling tickets on the Harley, remember to ask your donor if they would like to advertise on our Thunder Trailer.  The cost to advertise is very reasonable and, as you all will recall, President Fankhauser is devoting a lot of time to ensure that the Thunder Trailer gets into all of our localized parades.  Click here for more information on our Thunder Trailer advertising.

Serving Our Country - Chaplain Ed Needs Your Help: Our Chaplain, Ed Rouse, needs your help to keep our web site current.  If you know of any of our relatives serving overseas, make sure you call Ed and give him the details of the deployment.  We will place the deployment information on our "Serving Our Country" page.  Please give Ed all of your details - soldier's name, nickname too, deployment address, branch of service, rank, and get some pictures too!  Nothing like some good pictures to honor our loved ones serving our great country.  If you have some good stories about your soldier, lay it on thick, so they will know we're thinking of them.  Our service personnel have computers too - so let's get their stories on our site so everyone can keep up with them.

Do You Know of Any Prayer Requests?  Also, please remember that if you have any prayer requests, please call Ed so he can get your requests on to our "Prayer List" Page.  Not having anything to put on our Prayer List Page is a good thing meaning that everyone is doing ok.  However, we do know of members and loved ones who can use our prayer support - so let us know so we can include them in our talks with our Lord and Savior.  Prayer does work on all kinds of problems as well as opportunities.

POW/MIA Radio: If you get a chance, listen to the POW/MIA Radio on Sunday nights between the hours of 5 till 8 pm Eastern time.  The radio program is hosted by Rod Utech.  Click here for more details.

My bike is primed and ready to go to D.C. for our Rolling Thunder® XXI protest rally.  So get ready to ride and ride safe for sure.

Your Humble Servant,

Danny Griffin
Web Master
Rolling Thunder® Ohio Ch. 2

Ms. Gina Chon is our Hero too:  Gina Chon, Cincinnati, has written an article which is shown on the front page of The Wall Street Journal.  I encourage each of you to read Ms. Chon's article since the article is dedicated to our missing POW/MIAs in Iraq.  You can read Ms. Chon's article by clicking this link to our Matt Maupin Page.  When you get through reading the article, please e-mail Ms. Chon at gina.chon@wsj.com and thank her for her coverage of our POW/MIA issues.  You can't get better coverage for our POW/MIA issues than the front page of The Wall Street Journal.  Thanks again, Ms. Chon, for all you're doing for our POW/MIAs.

Calendar Changes:  Make sure you check our Events Calendar (click here to see Calendar) as we've made many changes to our schedule.

Adopted POW/MIA:  You've probably also noticed by now that our Editor's Dispatch Page has now passed into our history book since we no longer issue a monthly, hardcopy newsletter.  On the Editor's Dispatch Page, we always paid homage to Our Hero - John Leighton "Robbie" Robertson, Col., U.S. Air Force, who was shot down over North Vietnam on September 16, 1966.  Col. Robertson is Rolling Thunder® Ohio Chapter 2's adopted POW/MIA.  Our former newsletter, entitled "The Robertson's Release," was named after Col. Robertson.  To continue to honor the memory of Our Hero, Col. Robbie Robertson, the Ohio Chapter 2 Board of Directors and our membership unanimously elected to have our Ohio Chapter 2 web site dedicated to his memory.  Our web site now shows reference to Col. Robertson on both our Welcome Page and our Home Page.  Click the following link to see more specific information on our adopted POW/MIA hero - Col. Robertson:  Click here to go to our page dedicated to Col. Robertson.

Chapter Notary Public Named:  Congratulations goes to member Scott Hamilton for successfully obtaining his Notary Public license.  Scott volunteer to be Ohio Chapter 2's official Notary Public.  With Scott's help, our new member application process will finish quickly.  Thanks again Scott for all you do.

As Summer is getting closer, please remember all of our POW/MIAs - ride safe for those who can't.

Your Humble Servant,

Danny Griffin
Web Master
Rolling Thunder® Ohio Ch. 2

Hope each and everyone of you have a wonderful, eventful and faithful very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year too!

As we reach this memorable time of the year, please remember all of our troops; particularly our troops that are serving overseas in very dangerous locations.  Please pray for their continued safety and comfort; pray for the Lord to give them great courage and spirit to defend our great country and our families.  We owe them everything.

Please pray for Staff Sgt. Keith "Matt" Maupin.  Matt is a hostage in Iraq and still unaccounted for.  Don't forget to pray for Matt's father, Keith, and his mother, Carolyn.  The Maupin family resides in Batavia, Ohio, so they are a big part of us.  Click here to go to Matt's Page.  Please also pray for all of our POW / MIAs as well as our National Rolling Thunder® members who do so much to ensure that our government accounts for our loved ones.

Also please remember all of those who are less fortunate than ourselves - our hospitalized, homeless and disabled veterans.  Please pray for their successful recovery and comfort.  Pray for their families who are without their loved ones during this special time of the year.

Don't forget to pray for our Leaders of Ohio Chapter 2 who give so much of their time and effort for our veterans.  Our Chapter is blessed to have men and women of heart and courage.  This past December 16th visitation to our Wade Park VA Medical Center is a testament to such heart and courage.  Led by our fearless leaders, President Bob "Gorilla" Fankhauser and Vice President Ty Geiser, our Chapter 2 team braved some of the worst weather of the year to play Santa Claus to our hospitalized vets and even gave our vets a big pizza party (30 large pizzas is a lot of pizza).

Thanks to Gorilla, Ty and all those to were able and willing to brave the weather to treat our vets to some Christmas gifts and pizza.  Job well done and worthy of much praise.

Your Humble Servant,

Danny Griffin
Web Master
Rolling Thunder® Ohio Ch. 2

Dinner / Dance held on November 10, 2007 - Congratulations to Darlene Fankhauser and her Activities, Events and Fundraising Committee members for another successful Early Christmas Party (Dinner/Dance fundraiser).  We had some good food, a generous "silent auction" for both adults and children, and even had Santa Claus drop in out of the blue to visit with all the children.  Santa had plenty of presents to go around as well.

Darlene held this event at the Polish American Club, Akron, Ohio.  A big thanks goes to the management team at the Polish American Club for allowing Rolling Thunder® Ohio Chapter 2 to use their facilities.

Judy Willgues worked the cash box and raked in a ton of useful money from the attendance donations and the "silent auction."

I have good information that tells me that Darlene did all of the cooking for this event.  Another good job Darlene. Thanks for all you do.

Elections Are Now Over - September 2007 - Ohio Chapter 2 is blessed with so many volunteers who are willing and able to serve. 

Our new Directors for the ensuing years are:

• Kevin Ivey (Kevin is also our Chapter 2 Photographer),
• Harold Murray (our gracious Gold Star Father),
• Judy Willgues (our past Chapter Secretary) and
• Jim Myers coming on board as our Alternate Board Member (Jim also serves as our Sergeant of Arms).

We are fortunate to have two new officers as well - all volunteered.  Coming on board as our new Secretary is Gloria Ivey.  Also, we have a new Treasurer, Edna Troyer.  Both Gloria and Edna are relatively new Ohio Chapter 2 members and really jumped in to help our Chapter and our veterans.  Thanks much for volunteering your time.

Congratulations to our newly elected Board Members and Officers.  We're all looking forward to working with you on our POW/MIA issues.

Just for your information, pictures are now posted on our web site of our new leaders.  Click here to go to Our Leaders Page.

A big thank you again goes to Dave and Cyndy Noaker for orchestrating our 2007 elections.  Dave and Cyndy are experts at election activities and handle this responsibility each and every year.  Thanks Dave and Cyndy for making sure our elections go smoothly and in concert with National election requirements.

The Thunder Truck is no more - Sad News - with great remorse, I must report to the world that our leaders sold our renowned Thunder Truck this month.  The Thunder Truck was a real, down-to-earth POW/MIA remembrance symbol to the Akron and surrounding areas.  The Thunder Truck will be missed.  The decision to sell the Thunder Truck was a wise one considering this famous symbol was showing some serious aging and needed a lot of work to keep going down those open roads.  The vehicle insurance and tag costs were high as well.  So long to our beloved Thunder Truck.

Many thanks must be given to Dick Hummel and Jim White for the time and effort these two dedicated members put into our Thunder Truck.  Both members allowed the Thunder Truck to be stored on their lots.  For the past several years, you may recall, the Thunder Truck sat proudly displayed in Dick Hummel's front yard for everyone to see.  Thanks again guys for a great run.

If you want to give your final homage to the Thunder Truck, click here to go to our Thunder Truck Page and say your goodbyes.

The Thunder Trailer - Good News - our leaders made a significant down payment on an 18 foot, tandem axle trailer to replace the Thunder Truck.  The trailer will be decked out just like the Thunder Truck - showing our Ohio POW/MIAs as well as our advertisers and supporters.  The Thunder Trailer is on order.  As soon as the Thunder Trailer arrives, the "wrapping" (homage to our POW/MIAs) will begin - CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS TO HAPPEN.  Our President, Bob "Gorilla" Fankhauser, pledges to take the Thunder Trailer to every parade in Northeast Ohio.  So for all of you who have hauling trucks, get ready as President Gorilla will be calling you soon.  As soon as we get some pictures of our finished Thunder Trailer, we'll post them on this web site.

Hope you all had a Great Veteran's Day.

Your Humble Servant,

Danny Griffin
Web Master
Rolling Thunder® Ohio Ch. 2

Rolling Thunder® 20^th Anniversary – Run to The Wall:  Wow, what a turnout from Ohio Chapter 2 for the Run to The Wall.  Our entourage included seventeen bikes/trikes, a few cars/trucks with over twenty members making the annual pilgrimage to D.C. called Run to The Wall.  The weather was outstanding.  This year’s Run to The Wall is the best yet as far as I can remember as we had more members making the run (more members = more fun) and the best weather I’ve ever seen in the past thirteen years.  Also good news is that no one got lost on the way to or on the way back from D.C.  Under the tutorship of Senior Road Captain Woodie Henry, along with designated Road Captains Ty Geiser and Doug Wiser, we all stayed pretty well together and beat out the traffic – excepting a couple of traffic jams causing somewhat of a five mile backup on the interstate (one burned out SUV and one case of major construction).

We also had a good turnout from Chapter 2 for Friday night’s Vigil at The Wall.  Several new members attended the Vigil for the first time.  I personally want to thank all of the Ohio Chapter 2 members who went with me to the Vigil to honor our Heroes whose names we see each and every year on The Wall.  Thanks guys for all your support for those names on The Wall and their families.

Rolling Thunder® National did us a big favor while we were at the Vigil.  One of our new members (known as ET to all of her friends) is fairly short and could not see over the crowd.  Moreover, we had four or five of our members surround ET to keep her from being trampled.  Low and behold, a RT National member saw the commotion of ET being surrounded and came over and escorted ET to the center of the Vigil festivities so that she could see everything that was taking place.  ET got some first class treatment and some first class seats – wish she had a camera at the time.  Thank you National Rolling Thunder® for taking care of our comrade.  More good news – no one got lost going to or coming from the Vigil.

Where is Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin – Army responds – as you all know, we’ve been attempting to get some current news from the DOD, DPMO, and the U.S. Army on the whereabouts of our Hometown Hero, Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin.  We haven’t had any news (of any kind) in quite some time.  Even the Cincinnati.com web site hasn’t had any information since April 2005.  I guess we’ve done all we can as we’ve moved toward the end of the political food chain.  The DPMO finally responded but gave us the normal excuses for not being willing to share information.  The DPMO did give us the name of a U.S. Army contact person.  We contacted the U.S. Army and the Army personnel responded in the same manner as the DPMO – everything is hush, hush except for communicating with the Maupin family.  Both the DPMO and the U.S. Army assure us that the Maupin family is being kept apprised of any and all efforts to find their son, Staff Sgt. Maupin.  We hope and pray that the DPMO and the U.S. Army are not deceiving us nor the Maupin family.

Uplifting news concerning Matt - while on the way to tour the White House, Vickie (wife) and I met a young lady on the subway.  The young lady said she was from Batavia, Ohio, and went to high-school with Matt Maupin.  The young lady said that there was some good news about Matt but just wouldn’t disclose the good news.  Yes, I begged her for the good news but my begging did no good.  The young lady simply said to talk to the Maupin family – soooooo, I made a mental note of this “potentially good news” and planned to ask Keith or Carolyn Maupin about the good news at the Rolling Thunder National meeting on Saturday night.  Rats, the Maupin family was not in attendance this year at the National meeting.  I guess my next step is to write the Maupins and tell them the story told to us by the young lady on the subway.  I’ll send copies of the DPMO and the U.S. Army correspondence to the Maupins and ask the Maupins if they are truly being kept apprised of all government efforts to find their son – our Hero.  I’ll keep you posted.

Missouri POW found alive in Laos - Ecstatic, Shocking News:  For those of you who did not attend the Rolling Thunder National meeting Saturday night, you missed some truly shocking GREAT NEWS.  The Laotian delegation present at the meeting took the podium and announced that their personnel found a Vietnam War POW alive and being held captive in a cave in Laos.  The Laotian delegation representative announced that the POW is from Missouri.  The POW from Missouri is unknown at this time since the Laotian representative chose not to reveal the POW’s name.  The Laotian representative stated that all pertinent information pertaining to the POW was turned over to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (e.g., dog tags, etc.).  All Rolling Thunder Ohio Chapter 2 members are requested to keep your eyes and ears open as to current news of this POW from Missouri.

Hopefully, the CIA will react to this good news and information pronto.  I wish I could have been smarter and asked the Laotian delegation the date they gave this POW/MIA information to the CIA.  Let's all pray that the CIA will act quickly toward bringing our Missouri POW back home.  And better yet, lets all plan to go meet him when he comes home.

A heart felt big “THANK YOU” goes out from each of us to all the members of the Laotian delegation.  Great job – thank you much for helping bring our soldiers home.

White House Tour – a lot of thanks goes to our Ohio Chapter 2 Vice President Ty Geiser for getting us booked into a tour of the White House.  Ty went beyond the call of duty by taking the time to get over twenty members approved to tour the White House.  Security screening was definitely tight – we all got to make the tour.  The White House was a joy to go through.  Very colorful with tons of history.  If you haven’t made the tour of this “National Shrine,” you’ve got to find time to do so before you pass on.  Thanks again Ty for all you do for us and our veterans.

Airport Tour – I’ve never been to the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport which can be seen from our hotel room window in Crystal City.  This year, however, due to a malfunction in our Senior Road Captain’s Garmen GPS unit, we got to go through and/or around the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport THREE TIMES.  On the third trip around the airport, I convinced myself that the D.C. SWAT team was being called out to arrest all of us who were in the airport procession – we were actually trying to get to the Fort Washington Harley Davidson Dealership when we began to experience the effects/affects of a malfunctioning Garmen GPS unit.  We did eventually reach the HD dealership (without the use of the Garmen GPS unit) and needed to refill our tanks before we headed back to the hotel.  Thanks to all Chapter 2 members who made this airport tour a memorable experience.  We all had a good laugh as soon as we got away from the D.C. Airport Police.

Laying of the Ohio Chapter 2 POW/MIA Wreath at The Wall: again, Ohio Chapter 2 had a great turnout for the placing of our Chapter 2 Wreath at The Wall.  Darlene Fankhauser, Chapter 2 Board Member and Events Coordinator, ensured that the wreath arrived safely at The Wall.  Thanks Darlene for taking good care of our Chapter 2 wreath honoring our fallen veterans. 

President Bob “Gorilla” Fankhauser and Vice President Ty Geiser positioned the wreath in a strategic location in front of The Wall for everyone to see and enjoy.  Great job guys and gals.  Thanks again to all those members who assisted in the presentation of our Chapter 2 wreath.

For those of you who have never made the pilgrimage to The Wall, you might find of interest the fact that our Chapter 2 wreath will eventually be collected by the Park Rangers and taken to a humongous warehouse along with all the other artifacts and memorabilia left at the wall.  I believe that President Fankhauser visited this warehouse at one time.  Ask him the next time you see him and he can probably tell you how long the Park Rangers will be keeping our wreaths.

History made – Woodie walks:  as you all know, I’ve taken a lot of bike trips with Woodie – long trips too.  On each trip, Woodie always pulled his trailer behind his bike so he could lug his electric scooter around.  He hardly ever walked anywhere and was always riding the electric scooter – which incidentally was killing my back each and every time I helped him get the electric scooter out of the trailer – what comes out has to go back in eventually – for a double whammy on my back.  This year’s Run to The Wall was different – Woodie didn’t take his trailer so there was no electric scooter either.  Woodie walked the entire time we were at The Wall; thus, making history for sure.  Congratulations Woodie – keep up the exercise regimen – it’s working for sure.

"AN ENOURMOUS CRIME" - Don't forget to buy your copy of AN ENORMOUS CRIME; The Definitive Account of American POWs Abandoned in Southeast Asia, written by Former Congressman Bill Hendon and Beth Stewart.  This is a must read for any person who really cares about POW/MIA issues and wants to be informed on our government's efforts (or the lack thereof) to account for our soldiers held as POW or missing in action.  The book AN ENORMOUS CRIME is about one thing - and one thing only: living US POWs still held against their will by the North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao - and covered-up by a corrupt government in Washington, DC.  Click here for more information on the book An Enormous Crime OR go to the Enormous Crime web site: www.enormouscrime.com.  The book is in all major bookstores now.

Web Site Input.  As always, I would greatly appreciate any an all input on the web site.  If you see any goofs, please let me know ASAP.

Your Humble Servant,

Danny Griffin
Web Master
Rolling Thunder® Ohio Ch. 2
 

Hope this dispatch finds everyone in good health and good spirits.  At least the weather is beginning to improve and riding season is upon us for sure. 

I’ve been in Dacula, Georgia, for the past few weeks.  The weather is great here.  Motorbikes everywhere – makes a guy feel good to finally hear some real thunder for a change.

Web Site Getting There.  The Ohio Chapter 2 web site is slowly coming back to full speed.  I finally got some new pictures posted of Sgt. Jeremy Murray’s Medal of Remembrance Ceremony.  I hope everyone finds the pictures acceptable.  Kevin Ivy, our Ohio Chapter 2 photographer, took a ton of pictures, however, due to space and time restrictions, I only posted a few.  If you have other pictures of the Medal of Remembrance Ceremony that you think would be preferred over the ones shown, send your pictures to me and I will make sure your pictures get posted.

There are a few more event pictures in my possession that I will try to post as soon as I get the time.

New Chapter 2 State Logo Patch.  I hope you noticed our web site’s new Welcome Page.  The yellow POW/MIA logo is now replaced with our new Ohio Chapter 2 State Logo Patch.  Don’t worry, the POW/MIA logo is incorporated into our Chapter Patch (see below). 

I hope each of you takes the time to congratulate and thank our Chapter Vice President, Ty Geiser, for his talent and efforts toward making this Chapter 2 State Logo Patch possible.  A lot of thought, imagination and work with our National Chapter (on Ty’s part) made this Chapter Patch possible.  Great job Ty – job well done – and we’re all proud of your efforts and our new Patch.

Note: make sure you talk to Ty Geiser about the proper placement of the Patch on your vest

 

Web Site Input.  As always, I would greatly appreciate any an all input on the web site.  If you see any goofs, please let me know ASAP.

Your Humble Servant,

Danny Griffin
Web Master
Rolling Thunder® Ohio Ch. 2
 

Help Protect "The Wall."  Hope each of you took a good look at the Welcome Page of our Chapter 2 web site (the first page you see when you go to our site - www.rollingthunderohio2.org).  At the bottom portion of the Welcome Page, there is information, provided by our Ty Geiser, Vice President of Chapter 2, concerning the need for Chapter 2 members and friends to go  to Washington D.C. on March 17th to HELP PROTECT "THE WALL" FROM PROTESTORS WHO ARE PRONE TO DEFACE "THE WALL."

Rolling Thunder® National also posted a request for everyone to attend the March 17th "Cindy Sheehan - Hanoi Jane" styled protest event.  Artie Muller, Founder of Rolling Thunder®, also requests that all members wear their Rolling Thunder® vests and patches to this event (www.rollingthunder1.com).

2007 War-Vets Balloon Launch.  On our Calendar of Events Page, we've added information on how you can help the "War-Veterans" with their 2007 National POW/MIA Balloon Launch scheduled for Memorial Day - May 28, 2007.  The "War-Veterans" have the largest POW/MIA balloon launch in the world.  Click here to read about this event and see pictures of last year's event: www.war-veterans.org.  Make a cash donation if you can to help with the costs of the launch.

New Member and Patched Member Pictures.  Our new Chapter Photographer, Kevin Ivey, will soon be providing pictures of our new members and patched members.  We're behind on getting the pictures up and displayed and, hopefully, will be caught up soon.  We apologize for not having the pictures up at this time.

Where is Staff Sgt. Keith "Matt" Maupin?  We're doing our best to get the DPMO (Defense Prisoner of War / Missing Personnel Office) to give us information on the whereabouts and safety of our Hometown Hero - Staff Sgt. Maupin.  This seems to be a futile effort as the DPMO claims that they only give information to the U.S. Army and the Maupin family.  The DPMO, obviously, doesn't care to inform the public of their efforts to leave no soldier behind.  If any of you can help us out with the DPMO, please contact any of our Chapter 2 officers.  Any help whatsoever will be greatly appreciated. 

The frustration of communicating with our government / military officials is growing.  I can only imagine the agony the Maupin family is going though - they have their son to worry about compounded by having to rely on government officials to provide them with information.  I really hope that our efforts with the DPMO will not be akin to talking to a brick wall.  We, more than likely, will be expressing our opinions to the President of the United States in the near future?

We're not giving up - we're now asking the DPMO to give us some contact with the U.S. Army who may be willing to share information on the whereabouts and safety of Staff Sgt. Maupin.  We're posting all of our efforts on our Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin HERO Page - so take a look.  If the the DPMO continues to refuse to provide us with information on Staff Sgt. Maupin, we will contact President Bush to see if he cares enough to share information with us.

Web Site Input.  As always, I would greatly appreciate any an all input on the web site.  If you see any goofs, please let me know ASAP.

Your Humble Servant,

Danny Griffin
Web Master
Rolling Thunder® Ohio Ch. 2

To all Chapter Members and visitors

I’m writing this dispatch primarily to thank those Chapter 2 members and relatives of members who helped keep our web site up and running during my one year absence as your Web Master.

I personally thank our former COB Randy Schrader for his efforts in doing his best to keep our Web Site updated, particularly considering he did so with very little help from anyone.  Thank you Randy for your efforts.

I deeply and gratefully thank Ms. Tara Flannigan, daughter of Chapter 2 member Kevin Ivy, for all of her time and creative efforts.  Tara took over the web site from Randy Schrader when Randy's computer died.  As most of you know, by looking at our web site, Tara began a complete re-write of the site.  Tara took the time to create a totally new, fresh, crisp looking web site for Rolling Thunder® Ohio Chapter 2.  Tara used a Cadillac web site application called Dream Weaver to create Chapter 2’s new web site look.  Very nice, professional job.  Thank you Tara.

Unfortunately for Chapter 2, Tara became extremely busy in 2006 – she has very demanding Kent State University classes, she’s a military reservist (thank you for your service Tara) and she’s working her way through school.  Due to Tara’s busy schedule, President Fankhauser asked that I take back the web site and do what I could to keep the site up and running.

Unfortunately again for Chapter 2, your humble Web Master does not know how to use Dream Weaver – I only know how to use Microsoft’s Front Page web application (a second class application compared to Dream Weaver).  Since I only know Front Page, I had to abandon Tara’s new styled web site and return to the old web site.  Sorry!  My apologies to Tara for having to abandon her work.  Sorry again!

I have worked diligently getting the old site, running under the Front Page application, reasonably up to date as follows:

• I’ve added a new picture of Gorilla on our Welcome Page – click on Gorilla’s picture to check him out.
• I’ve added some new pictures of our Officers and Directors – hope everyone likes the pictures that I added – if not, send me some new ones pronto.
• I’ve changed the old web site banner for a new look - I couldn’t match Tara’s picture of The Wall but did find a grayed out image of The Wall). 
  
  The banner now has two “hot spots.”  Hot spots are areas that you can float your mouse cursor over and then click to return to our web site’s Home Page.
   
• I’ve updated our “New Information Added This Month” frame.
• I’ve updated our Matt Maupin Hero page with as much information that I could find.  Particularly interesting is the way the WikipediA encyclopedia works – take a look at Matt’s Biography and click on any of the blue underlined words and you will see what I mean.
• I took Tara’s page covering our tribute to Sgt. Jeremy Murray and added Tara’s page to our “Member’s Corner.”
• I’ve started our 2007 calendar but the calendar is still “In Process.”
• I’ve created a new page for our Al Keck, our new Ohio State Director – this page is still under construction.
• Our President, Vice President and Chairman of the Board Dispatches have been inputted with current information from our officers.
• I’ve added Ed Rouse, our Assistant Chaplain to our Chaplain’s Dispatch page.
• I’ve added our 2006 TV raffle winners to our Raffle Winners page.
• The old web site still has a page dedicated to one of our former members, Spc. David Bangson.  I will be keeping this page on the site as David has had quite an experience in Iraq and has made friends with some very interesting people along the way.  Check out Spc. David Bangson.
• On our Find Chapter 2 Page, I changed the mapping program to use Yahoo’s mapping application since Yahoo’s maps seem to load and run faster than Microsoft’s mapping application.
• I’ve updated our Chapter Locator Page to match the Ohio chapters shown on National’s web site.

I would greatly appreciate any an all input on the web site.  If you see any goofs, please let me know ASAP.  Thanks to Ty Geiser for the goofs he’s already caught.

Your Humble Servant,

Danny Griffin
Web Master
Rolling Thunder® Ohio Ch. 2

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.