Board of Aldermen 11-10-2020 Page 5
President Wilshire
After Responses to the Remarks of the Mayor, we will take up the Veterans on our Board under “Recognition
Period”, how’s that?
RESPONSE TO REMARKS OF THE MAYOR - None
RECOGNITION PERIOD
President Wilshire
| am going to call on Alderman Cleaver to start us off. Alderman Cleaver would you care to share with us?
Alderman Cleaver
Thank you very much Thank you, Mr. Mayor and thank you, Madam President. Yes, | want to wish all the
Veterans, all of our Veterans a very happy and healthy Veterans Day tomorrow. The bottom line is we
don’t recognize and support our Veterans as much as we should. This is a good time to thank them and
recognize their service, all services, all eras, all people and so | hope everybody has a good Veterans Day.
| might also say | am a US Marine, and that | enlisted in 1965. As such | wanted to say that the US Marine
Corp birthday is today, November 10". This is not a highly recognized holiday outside the Marine Corp, but
it is very important to us. This is the 245" Anniversary, 1775. So to all of my fellow Marines throughout the
area, congratulations, and happy birthday.
| served in the Marine Corp Air Wing, not in the Infantry, but in the Air Wing and | was involved in fighter
squadron training operations. | went to basic training, of course, as we all did and weapons training and so
on and so forth. The School in Jacksonville, Naval Air Station, and subsequently served in Beaufort Marine
Corp Air Station, the Yuma Marine Corp Air Station in Arizona and Roosevelt Roads Naval Air Station in
Puerto Rico, as well as Naval Air Facility Andrews Air Force Base which is now called Joint Base Andrews.
| learned a lot, it helped me to qualify to be an air traffic controller when | got out, so | joined the FAA and
was an air traffic controller in Pittsburg and Boston Logan. And so it was a good experience for me in that
regard. | am going to also say that my dad was a US Navy Veteran during World War II, he fought in the
Pacific and in the Pacific War Zone there was a long mail delay between the War Zone and the East Coast.
So my parents referred to me before and after my birth as the Skipper, so that’s where | got the name Skip.
That’s about it for me, on to Mr. Dowd and Mr. Jette.
President Wilshire
Well thank you for your service, Alderman Cleaver or Skip, Skipper. Thank you. Alderman Dowd.
Alderman Dowd
| joined the Navy in 1968 after graduating from St. A’s. It was the Vietnam War at the time. | originally was
an enlisted person and went through Submarine Training and was Special Projects Electronic Technician
on the USS Halibut SSN587 and was qualified in nuclear submarines. While on the submarine, | was
selected for Officer Candidate School and went to OCS in Newport, Rhode Island. | served on the USS
McCloy DE1038 as Electronics Material Officer, Electronics Warfare Officer and Legal Officer. | did
graduate from the Naval Justice School. | am qualified in nuclear submarines and Surface Warfare Officer
and | worked in the Defense Industry for over 35 years.
So | would also like to thank all of our Veterans. | had taken a few of my friends that are Marines to the
birthplace of the Marine Corp in Philadelphia. They were very excited about seeing that particular spot. So
again congratulations to all of our Veterans and hope that we honor them as they should be honored.
