I have spoken with some of our under the weather cadets and I thought I would update you on their conditions.
James L. O'Leary - CMA - '68/'69 - Southington, CT
In order to bring you up to date on Jim, I must first give you a little medical history on Jim. Jim had an automobile accident back in 1989 which broke his neck and after numerous painful surgeries it has been a long slow downhill slide. In 1993 he was diagnosed with a non-cancerous brain tumor that paralysed the right side of his face and took 8 years and a dozen operations to finally get it all out. Then all of a sudden a couple years ago his neck started giving him problems again, he had a C4-T2 posterior cervical fusion recently that he said hasn't been that much fun this summer. For those of you who don't know,thats 6 vertebra in the back of the neck. I hope that you will send you thoughts and prayers to Jim, I know that he would love to hear from you.
Robert Asire - CMA - '64/'65/'66 - Murrells Inlet, SC
For those of you that don't know Robert, he has been on a donor list for a double lung transplant, I spoke with him a few weeks ago and he is back in Murrells Inlet and is no longer on the donor list. Robert is now breathing with his two new lungs, swallowing about 64 pills a day, but he sounds like he feels great. I also spoke with him today to get an update and he was headed to Duke for his 1st checkup since the surgery, he will then go up to his home in Virginia since he has not been there in almost a year. Robert is doing great by I know that he would still hearing from his cadet friends.
Salem Van Every III - CMA - '62/'63/'64/'65 - Vilas, NC
Got a facebook message from Salem yesterday, if you have been following his saga on facebook or this website he has not had a very pleasent summer either, back before the reunion he went into the hospital in Georgetown SC for a hip replacement. After being discharged and traveling back home to his new house in the mountains of NC, Months later He is still in bed, being turned every two hours to keep from getting bed sores.he has an appointment with his Veroligst, and Surgeon on Thursday 13th Oct to aspirate his left hip to check if "MRSA" ( Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is a bacterial infection that is highly resistant to some antibiotics. If it is still present, there's a good chance his surgery may be back on his plate... He is taking about 43 pills a day, I can not imagine, he says that he looks a little different now, he is down to a 35" waist and sporting 153 lbs. Salem is pretty much wheel chair bound, he has had a device put on his truck that will lift his wheel chair up on to a keeper in his truck so that he can travel to the doctors as necessary. I hope that you have someone driving you Salem. I will try to keep you updated on our old CMA friend. Be sure to send him your prayers and good wishes.
Joseph (Bordie) McCloskey - CMA - '63/'64 - Charlotte, NC.
Just got off the phone with Bordie and he sounds in good spirits, incase some of you did not get the word on Bordie last time, he has been suffering with his diabetes and renal failure for some time now, he recently had a "Fistula" installed in his arm which has helped with his 3 times a week (7:00 AM - 11:00 AM) dialisys that he must endure. He also working hard to get on the kidney transplant list. He says that he is really improving with this dialysis and is looking forward to our 50th Anniversary Reunion in Myrtle Beach. please send Bordie and email and let him know that we are all thinking about him and hope that he has a speedy recovery and good luck getting on that organ transplant list.
Just a reminder that you can go to these cadets classmates profile and send them and email and let them know that we are all thinking about them.
Disappointed
I was not going to write this tonight but I have spent most of the day getting out emails and working on websites for you and others. I am not mad and I have no intention of quitting on you guys. But I want to let some of you know that I am very disappointed in you. I spend a lot of time and effort on this website, the newsletters and my relationship with each of you. I do so because of my love for Carolina Military Academy and the CMA cadets and faculty.
I spent a lot of time working on the last newsletter in July, it was about the CMA Memorial Award of Excellence, How to build a Memorial Fund to handle the passing of our cadets, The CMA Advisory Board to help our board of directors with some of the decisions that we must make. I thought that those were important subjects that needed to be discussed. But your know what................ I only heard from 2 people that I requested help from. It has always been my goal to grow the membership in this alumni association but I have always said that I can not do that alone. In the newsletter that I am speaking of I asked for help to put together 1 or 2 regional reunion this year, but from the responce that I got, that ain't going to happen.
I fully intend to carry out my term as vice-president and then president of this association, I will work and plan the reunions as usually but I am saying again that I can not do it all myself. If none of you volunteer to help make this upcoming reunion a success, how does that make me feel. Has anyone asked yourself what if something happens to Randy? The last newsletter was trying to say we need help, we need other cadets that can and are willing to step in an take over in case something happens to one of us. In order to do that we must have a plan in place. And not talking about it and "Keeping It Simple Stupid" is not a plan. I have tried to show strong leadership even though I am not really the leader. Without a leader things will go down hill in a hurry. I really think that losing Ken O'Leary and John Myers after last years reunion set off bells ringing in my head concerning our own mortality.
As I have said before if none of you voice your opinion or show your willingness to help in the way this association is run, we are headed on a bad course for the future. When that occurs none of your will be able to complain or say a word about how things are run. It's your choice, pitch in or take pot luck.
Thank You
Randy Jennings
Carolina Military Academy
An Alumni Association
July 2011 Newsletter
THE GUIDON
Volume 3 Maxton, North Carolina Oct 2011 (Quarterly) Number 16
The President Corner
Mike (Bart) Davis - President
Davism@rcgov.us
803-695-1349
Hello Everyone
We are sorry that we have taken so long to produce a new newsletter, Randy & I have been very busy in the months since the reunion. I know that is no excuse but we will try to do better in the future.
You board of directors have worked out the procedures for nominating and electing the next recipient of the CMA Memorial Award of Excellence. Click on the yellow button below to go to the Award Information page. If you have any problems please contact Randy Jennings at rjennings2553@ gmail.com.
We will start making our plan for the Reunion of the 50th Anniversary of the founding of Carolina Military in the near future and we will be calling on you to help us with the plans. This is an important milestone in the history of CMA and we want it to be remembered by all who attend. We also want everyone to be at the reunion. We saw a lot of new faces at the Maxton Regional reunion that we have not seen at the Annual Reunion. Let's try to make this 50th anniversary Reunion one that everyone makes an attempt to attend. If you do not know the date, it is -
May 4,5,6, 2012
at Myrtle Beach SC
Thats All Folks!
Cadets Health Update
Randy Jennings - Vice President
rjennings2553@gmail.com
843-450-5800
