Pilot for a Day - Professional Loadmaster Association

Page 8
NW Chapter Memorial Day Reverence.
Back Row: L to R: Harley Nelson, George Radovich, Wayne
McFarland, Warren Riches, Dave Bartley -- Front Row: L to R:
Al Hanson, Wally Johnson, TK Davis, Bill Cannon.
We placed flags at Fir Lane and Mountain View cemeteries.
A prayer was said at each cemetery as well as a reading
of the names of our fallen. We all enjoyed breakfast together
at Copperfields in Tacoma after the memorial. Total of
20 people attended.
Walt Baade, National Secretary
THE LOADER
Chapter Reports Continued
Denali Chapter group photo of those attending our first Professional Loadmaster Association
meeting held 20 April 01 in Anchorage Alaska. Newly elected Chapter President Mark Sprenger
(left center) presents newly elected Vice President Mark Stamm with a special certificate
recognizing him as the National PLA’s 1,000th member.
Volume 4 Issue 2
Denali Chapter
Anchorage, AK
Summer greetings to all
loadmasters from the members of
the PLA’s newest chapter. Denali,
meaning “The Great One”
seemed appropriate for a chapter
name and we think it is a great
place to be a loadmaster. We
jumped from a handful of members
to about sixty by my count
now and it looks like we have
some room to grow. We are looking
at ways to thaw igloos in the
winter and track loaders down on
the rivers in the summer so we
have enough members to keep
the chapter going.
We held our elections over
at Kulis ANG base where the
PLA’s 1,000th member, Mark
Stamm, was elected as our vicepresident.
You can read up on
Mark in another article (see page 1) here in The Loader. Made for a pretty neat way to kick off the chapter by presenting Mark with the
1,000th member certificate and gave us all a good reason to enjoy a toast or two.
Arrangements were made for Mark Lewis, West Coast V.P., to come up to Anchorage and present us with our charter. As luck
would have it, Mark Lewis, Dan “Howdy” Hay (we let flight engineers
come play with us on occasion), and I had time to do some
deep-sea fishing out in Seward’s Resurrection Bay. We had great
weather, calm seas, and were hardly bothered at all by the very
few fish that came by to impale themselves on our hooks. Saturday
night Dave Bivens hosted a loadmaster, promotion, and charter
presentation cookout at his house and Mark Lewis did us the
honor of presenting the Denali Chapter its charter into the PLA.
Thanks for coming up Mark,it was a great pleasure having you
here and you did a super job.
Congratulations are in order for all new TSgt and MSgt Loadmasters.
It was a pretty good promotion cycle for the loads up
here and we have a fair share of smiling faces. Our five new TSgt
selects are Dave Bivens, Jeff Begley, Jinx Bell, Jerry Rotton, and
Dave Walker. Our two MSgt selects are Greg Naatz and Jerome
Thomas. Again, congratulations to all new selects.
The weekend of June 23rd will be the Alaskan loadmaster
campout up at Montana creek. Dave Chitwood has ten acres of
dirt up that way and has volunteered to make it a parking lot for
loaders that weekend. Free grub Saturday night compliments of
the 517 AS loadmaster section and Montana Creek is going to be
overflowing with king salmon. At least its banks will be full of loaders
attempting to pull their kings outta the creek and onto the barbecue.
We are hoping to make this an annual event so mark it on
your calendars and bring the four-wheel drive. Dave’s place is a
few miles back in the woods.
Thanks to everyone who helped get the Denali Chapter off
the ground. I especially want to thank Walt Baade and Shem Miller
for all their support in helping us getting started off on the right foot.
Fellas, I really appreciate that, Thanks!
Mark R. Sprenger, President