We anticipate several guests this week. If you are bringing anyone, please email Chuck at chakoe@aol.com so he can let the club know.
Congressman Van Taylor
A seventh generation Texan, Van Taylor is a family man, businessman, and decorated Iraq War Veteran. Growing up, Van earned his Eagle Scout from the future President George Bush.
After high school, Van attended Harvard College from which he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in history. After graduating college, Van volunteered to serve his county and received a commission in the United States Marine Corps.
He attended The Basic School, Infantry Officer Course, and graduated first in his class from Sniper Employment Officer Course. He completed Intelligence School as the Marine Honor Graduate and commanded First Marine Regiment’s Reconnaissance Platoon in Camp Pendleton, CA. After completing that assignment, he served as an intelligence officer for an artillery battalion. Van earned the Navy Achievement Medal for devising a quantitative combat power analysis system.
Van Taylor joined the Marine Corps Reserves to continue serving his country while earning his MBA at Harvard Business School. He served in Fourth Civil Affairs Group, graduating from the John F. Kennedy School of Special Warfare at Ft. Bragg, NC. He joined 4th Reconnaissance Battalion as a platoon commander for Charlie Company.
On September 11, 2001, Van was serving his final day at the 4th Civil Affairs Group at the Anacostia Naval Annex. He was supposed to have lunch at the Pentagon that day, but instead watched smoke rise from across the Potomac River as the Pentagon burned from the 9-11 terrorist attack.
That day, Van swore to always serve and make a difference.
Two years after September 11, Van deployed to Iraq where he fought with 2nd Force Reconnaissance Company. While deployed, Van led the first platoon into Iraq for his brigade and a mission that rescued 31 wounded Marines during the pitched Battle of An Nasiriyah. For his service in Iraq, the Marine Corps awarded Captain Taylor the Combat Action Ribbon, Presidential Unit Citation, and the Navy Commendation Medal with “V” for valor.
Van and his wife, Anne, married after his return from Iraq and are the proud parents of three young girls: Laura, Helen, and Susie.
From April 2010 to January 2015, Van Taylor represented District 66 in the Texas House of Representatives. From January 13, 2015 – January 3, 2019, Taylor served as a Member of the Texas Senate, representing the Eighth Senate District of Texas. On January 3, 2019, Van Taylor was sworn in as a Member of the United States Congress, representing Texas Third Congressional District.
Congressman Van Taylor is proud to serve on two influential House Committees in the 116th Congress: the Committee on Homeland Security, specifically, the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Innovation (CIPI) and the Subcommittee on Oversight, Management and Accountability (OMA) and the House Committee on Education, where he serves on the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education and the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions.
Today, Van, his wife, and their three daughters reside in Plano near the land Van’s great-grandfather farmed during the Great Depression.
Please make note of the following!
Flags for the July 4th holiday will go Tuesday, July 2nd so make plans to help out. Prepare to be at the shed at 4:00PM as the flags will start going out. We are ahead of where we were last year and appreciate all the help we have gotten so far this year.
The next Board Meeting will be July 25th at 7pm.
Want to thank all those who served on the board last year and for all they did to help the club accomplish many great things this past year. Looking forward to the upcoming year as the new board was sworn in this past Sunday.
If you have announcements that need to be included in the bulletin, please email to Scott. sdgrigg@hotmail.com
We celebrate American Independence Day on the Fourth of July every year. We think of July 4, 1776, as a day that represents the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation.
But July 4, 1776 wasn't the day that the Continental Congress decided to declare independence (they did that on July 2, 1776).
It wasn’t the day we started the American Revolution either (that had happened back in April 1775).
And it wasn't the day Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence (that was in June 1776). Or the date on which the Declaration was delivered to Great Britain (that didn't happen until November 1776). Or the date it was signed (that was August 2, 1776).
So what did happen on July 4, 1776?
The Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. They'd been working on it for a couple of days after the draft was submitted on July 2nd and finally agreed on all of the edits and changes.
July 4, 1776, became the date that was included on the Declaration of Independence, and the fancy handwritten copy that was signed in August (the copy now displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.) It’s also the date that was printed on the Dunlap Broadsides, the original printed copies of the Declaration that were circulated throughout the new nation. So when people thought of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 was the date they remembered.
