I am David Cockerel. I am running for the position of Commander of William Clinton Story Post No. 342 on Wednesday, 20 June 2018 at the Post Election meeting at the Freeport Memorial Library at 7:00 pm.
I have served as First Vice Commander for the
last two years and as Second Vice Commander under Past Commander Paul Nehrich
and on the Membership Committee under Past Commander Robert Pachas.
I have broken time as a member of the
American Legion, in 2005 I served as an Instructor at Boys State.
I have actively recruited, processed and
administered the membership duties of this Post. I have also served on many subcommittees and
produced administration for the purpose of receiving grants and the proper
oversight of Legion assets by direction.
I have also supported the Commander and other Vice Commanders in the
execution of their duties. I am also a
Graduate of the American Legion Extension Institute having been acknowledged
and certified by the National Commander Denise Rohan.
It is my assessment that the Post has strayed
from the Four Pillars of the American Legion, that is Veterans Affairs and
Rehabilitation, National Security, Americanism also Children and Youth. The Post needs to get back to the things that
have made us a hallmark of leadership in the Village of Freeport and again
ground ourselves as American Legionnaires.
American
Legion Positions Held
1st
Vice Commander 2013, 2015-2018
2nd
Vice Commander 2011-2013
Membership
Committee Member 2005
Boys State Instructor
2005
Duties and Obligations
Created, organized, designed, maintain, edit and
distribute Online, Paper and Social Media. Created a website for the William
Clinton Story Post along with a Facebook page with affiliations to multiple
civic groups. Created “GoFundMe” page to
receive donated funds. Currently maintaining sites by screening, editing and
adding content under American Legion guidelines. Created videos distributed on YouTube also
video and photo editing for all Post events to include Veterans and Memorial
Day.
First Vice Commander Duties
Membership Committee Chairman effecting the
following actions: 1) Set objectives for Membership (recruitment of new
members), contacted old and new members during membership campaign, setup
publicity for membership using social media.
Work with Treasurer, other Vice Commanders and Committee Chairman to effect
membership administration.
2) I
setup and published administration for Grants with Civic and Local Government
administrations. As a Building Committee
Member published Scope Of Operations manual for distribution to State Senate,
used by other Vice Commanders for Building Committee administration.
Ceremonial Duties
Veterans Committee Chairman 2014 and 2016.
Coordinated, organized and staged Veterans Day Observation also
published program selecting and editing photographs, doing video editing for
video presentations and coordinating with caterer for refreshments and
beverages.
Memorial
Day Committee Chairman 2016, Village Of Freeport Memorial Day Parade.
Organized, advised, coordinated and executed a parade and Memorial Day
Observance involving over 50 religious and civic organizations not including
the Police Department, Fire Department and Sheriff's Department.
Pearl
Harbor Day Memorial Committee Chairman 2017. Coordinated, organized, setup and staged Pearl
Harbor Day Observance arranging for video with Newsday, photo and video editing
and multimedia presentation for Gerald Barbosa with the Freeport Memorial
Library. Also overseen publishing of event with the Freeport Leader.
Military Background
Sergeant, USMC. Military Police
Supervisor attended United States Army Military Police Academy, Ft. McClellan,
Alabama and United States Air Force Security Police Supervisors Course,
Lackland AFB, Lackland, Texas.
Member of ARMVAL ( a Joint Operational Test and Evaluation of
Advanced Anti-Armor Vehicles from May 1981 – December 1981) A Joint Test
Directorate with both Marine Corps and Army Staff members has been established
at MCDEC, Quantico, Va., that did plan and execute an instrumented series of small-unit battles
at Ft. Hunter-Liggett outside Jolon, CA. Utilizing FMFPac personnel and
equipment, a number of specially designed vehicles and a 1986 tactical
scenario, the test was conducted during the summer of 1981. This Task Force did
create and test the M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank. Served as a Military Police Watch
Supervisor with the 1st FSSG at Camp Pendelton, Camp Hansen (Kin Kin Cho), Japan and Operation Bear Hunt in Korea. Received a Commendation from the Secretary Of
The Navy along with Naval Commendation Medal.
American
Legion Extension Institute
Graduate
of the American Legion Extension Institute in October 2017 certificate awarded
by National Commander Denise Rohan.