Marines, FMF Corpsmen, and Associate Members

Greetings from the Department of North Carolina Marine Corps League. It is my honor and pleasure to serve as your Commandant this year and I thank you for the opportunity and assure you the Department Staff will do everything in its power to continue it's mission and attain the goals set last year and this year to enable the Department of North Carolina to be a premiere Department in the National Marine Corps League.

Our primary Goal continues to be Communication and it is our desire that the Marine Corps League will have a presence in every community in this great State. The message we carry is tantamount to our success as a Veterans organization and our message, simply put, is service to God, Country and our Beloved Corps. We are privileged to be Marines and through our actions as Marine Corps League Members we are given the opportunity to give back what has been given to us. We give by being servants to our brothers in arms and our communities and families, and this service, by its nature, is selfless, it will not work any other way. Thank you for your selfless service this past year. You are to be commended. The Goals for the Department are listed on the Department Web Site and I encourage all to review these and help your Department reach these this coming year.

We have re-designed the Districts across the state and added one more District, for a total of ten, in the Mid West portion of the state. Your District Vice Commandants represent the Department in their Districts and we encourage the use of the chain of command in all matters concerning the League. Please check the Department Web Site for the location of your District and the name of your District Vice Commandant. All Department Staff officers including District

Vice Commandants are on the Department Web site. Our state is divided into two major Areas; NC West and NC East, Senior Vice Commandant John Grindel is responsible for NC West and Junior Vice Commandant Wally Darling is responsible for NC East. I want to welcome Don White from the LCpl Alan Lam Detachment as the new Department Historian and Trish Winsett as the new Department Public Relations Officer, Trish is also the Managing Editor of our North Carolina News Center located at NCMCL.NET. Your entire Staff of Officers from last year with few exceptions has agreed to serve with us another year and I commend all of them for a job well done.

The 2009 Department of North Carolina Convention held in Burlington June 12 through the 14th was superb and by far one of the best conventions I have been privileged to attend since I have been in the Marine Corps League. I commend Commandant Mark Grimley and the convention committee from the LCpl Alan D. Lam Detachment #1209 for their efforts and the hard work put forth to make the convention a resounding success. I have not heard anything but praise for a job well done. The hospitality room was well staffed and always full of life and esprit de corps; the meeting room was set up in a very professional manner and certainly enabled our business meetings to run on schedule and with ease. The Banquet hall provided adequate seating for all and provided an atmosphere of congeniality, ceremony and celebration second to none. Thank you Detachment 1209 for a task well done, you have set the bar for years to come. An after action report is being prepared by the committee for the Tar Heel Detachment who will host the convention next year.

Congratulations to our Marine of the Year Hank "Doc" Kaczmarek and our Woman of the Year Trina Avery. The Capt Jeb Seagle and the Table Rock Detachments can be proud of these members for their selfless service and devotion to duty. Congratulations also to Past Department Commandant Peter T. Meletis on receiving the "God and Country" award and for receiving the Distinguished Citizen's Gold award. This award is from the National Commandant and is a first for a Department Past Commandant.

Our speaker Major General Tom Wilkerson, USMC (Ret), a Marine Aviator with quite a record of service to our Corps and Country, made us all feel proud and certainly gave us reason to feel good about being Marines. I haven't seen an Air Force bumper sticker yet. His talk was enthusiastic, entertaining and filled with moments of delight as he shared his experiences with us. General Wilkerson is a Marine Corps League member by the way and certainly deserves our thanks and respect.

Our Convention was well attended by our Detachments across the state; there was not an empty seat at the banquet or in the meeting rooms. I wish to thank all who attended and I look forward to seeing many of you at the up-coming Staff meetings. I am proud to be your Commandant and I believe we have an excellent Staff of Officers to serve you this coming year. We will succeed in our Mission and we will reach our Goals; the Department of North Carolina is setting the pace for the Marine Corps League and it is through your efforts and actions and not just what we say. Thank you and Simper Fidelis,

Dennis A Brockland

Commandant

Department of North Carolina

Marine Corps League