Post Officer Candidacy Report

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

1^st Vice Commander 2013, 2015-2018

2^nd 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.