Dear Council Members,

I could not be more pleased with the success of our organization for 2011. We excelled in all of our mission areas. We helped educate the public on the good of the Sea Services. We supported our Youth Programs.  And, we took care of our folks in uniform. Every event we had was well planned, well executed and financially successful. As a leader, you can’t ask for any more than that. I want thank all our member volunteers, our Corporate Sponsors and all the local Commands for their help in achieving our goals. Please allow me to recap the year and to look forward to 2012.

The Awards of Excellence and annual meeting in January could not have been better planned and executed. Dick Kallemeier and his team did a marvelous job. Corporate support from Jacobs Engineering and Bommarito Automotive allowed us to provide dinner for all our awardees, their families, their supervisors and guests. The quality of the awardees was awesome and our guest speaker, Rear Adm. Kate Gregory, was inspirational. The Heart of St. Charles Banquet Room provided a wonderful meal with bountiful amounts of liquid refreshment. Jan 14, 2012, we will again be at the same venue. Dick will have the lead with Bryan Bergjans from Chase Bank learning the ropes for 2013.

The Naval Command College Dinner in March was an unprecedented success. Tom Schmitz and his team really out-did themselves. We had a guest list of nearly 200, and former Sen. Kit Bond did an outstanding job as our guest speaker. Corporate support from The Boeing Company, Innoventor, Webster University, Marcone and DRS allowed us to have a wonderful reception and dinner and stay in the black. The MAC downtown venue was literally an “international favorite” with the foreign Naval Students.  Next year’s event will be Monday, March 26, with Tom Minogue, CEO of Thompson Coburn in the lead.

The Centennial of Naval Aviation/Battle of Midway Celebration was held at the Planetarium in Forest Park on June 4. The venue was outstanding and we filled the room with more than 200 guests. Vice Adm. Dave Architzel, Commander, Naval Air Systems Command, was our guest speaker. Vice Adm. (Ret.) Mike Bowman, former Air Boss and Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek, Deputy Commander at U.S. Transportation Command were also in attendance.  We were again blessed with a lot of much-needed corporate support. The Boeing Company, A/B InBev, Marcone, TriRinse, Webster University, Daugherty, Innoventor, Enterprise, Monsanto and the St. Louis Science Center purchased corporate tables. In 2012, we will celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the War of 1812, and are looking for ideas on how we can commemorate this event.

This year’s Cardinal Recruit Company was held on Sept. 2. We enlisted 64 new Sailors, took care of our Recruiters and met our goal of signing up 25 new Navy League members at that single event. No date set for 2012 yet.

September 9th was our Annual Navy League Golf Tournament at Scott AFB.  Mel Burkhart and his team did a masterful job. We had more than one hundred golfers and a beautiful day at Cardinal Creek. Corporate support made the day, with A/B In-Bev and  Drury Hotels as major tournament sponsors, along with Boeing, Marcone, TriRinse, Monsanto and Enterprise. Jay Randolph Jr. led our auction and our participants were more than generous. The final outcome was a financial success that will enable us to increase our support in 2012. September 13, 2012, is our tentative date for next year with Huck Oberlin and Ralph Wiechert as tournament co-chairmen.

Our  2011 Navy Birthday Ball was held downtown at the Renaissance Grand Hotel. The guest speaker was retired Marine turned actor Dale Dye. He has been in some 47 movies and proved to be very entertaining. Great dance music was provided by the Spectrum Band . We had a great crowd, great food and great entertainment. Thanks again to Ralph Wiechert and his Navy League team with a huge amount of help coming from Chief Cotton and  the TRANSCOM Navy element. Thanks yet again to A/B Inbev, Boeing, Webster University, Monsanto, Edward Jones, Drury Hotels, Dougherty and TriRinse for their Corporate Support.  We are looking forward to Oct. 13, 2012, back at the Ball Park Hilton. Ball Chairman RDML (Ret.) Lee Metcalf has invited Adm. Sandy Wenefield, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, as our guest speaker.

At the recent National Navy League Convention, we were recognized as having the Best Website and Best PR program of any large council. Congratulations to Garrett Kasper, Dick Kallemeier and our whole Navy League team for those awards! From not having a Website in 2010 to winning the award for best large council Website is a huge accomplishment!

Special thanks to Mike and Tina Kleckner for their Naval Aviation Centennial Wine Collection, provided at both the Centennial event and the Navy Ball.

Stay tuned to www.navyleague-stlouis.org for details of our 2012 schedule.  Also, you may view and download images of past events in the “Vulture’s Row” section. This has been a banner year for this council of the Navy League, and I am very proud and grateful for everyone’s hard work.  I look forward to 2012, with many more outstanding accomplishments ahead of us!

Sincerely,

Rear Adm. Dan Kloeppel, USN (Ret.)

President, St. Louis Navy League