McNeill Elected Senior VP at NLUS Winter Meeting

Fanning Calls for "New Sense of Urgency" As Navy League Finishes Centennial Year; SecNav Awards to Peterman, Lockwood; Board Approves Building Plans, 2003 Budget

The election of a new senior vice president, approval by the Navy League Board of Directors of a "forward-looking" NLUS budget for fiscal/calendar 2003, the presentation of Secretary of the Navy Meritorious Public Service Awards to two Navy League national directors, and a bullish report on the status of the League's new Headquarters Building--all were among the highlights of the Navy League's 2002 Winter Meeting, 1-3 November at the Marriott Crystal Gateway Hotel in Arlington, Va.

Sheila M. McNeill, a life member of the Navy League from Brunswick, Ga., was elected senior vice president at the 2 November Board of Directors Meeting and is expected to succeed current National President Timothy O. Fanning at the end of next year's NLUS National Convention (18-22 June 2003 at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu, Hawaii).

McNeill, the first woman to be elected senior vice president in the Navy League's 100-year history, is a long-time national director who also has served at various times as president of the Camden-Kings Bay Council, as Georgia State President, as Region President for the South Atlantic Coast Region, and, most recently, as the League's National Vice President for Legislative Affairs.

Approval of the budget proposed for fiscal/calendar 2003, said National President Fanning, "solidifies the Navy League's financial position and puts us in good position to continue and expand our programs of support for the sea services." In an era of "major uncertainty" caused by the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, Fanning said, "all of the nation's armed services need the support of the Navy League and other defense-oriented organizations more than ever before

"Today," he continued, "relatively few Americans have ever served in any of the armed services, and there are now fewer members of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate with naval or military experience than at any time since prior to World War II. This means we must carry out our educational programs of support for the sea services with a new sense of urgency. We also must continue to recruit new members for the Navy League itself and groom them for future positions of leadership in our organization."

Demolition of the League's former Headquarters Building (at 2300 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, Va.), Fanning said, will start "in the very near future." The next major milestone on the construction schedule, he said, will be a formal groundbreaking "sometime next spring."

The new building, which is expected to be completed sometime in late 2004, Fanning said, "will provide a steady stream of revenue for many years and decades to come and will give the Navy League the resources needed not only to continue but to substantially expand its sea-service support programs."

Another highlight of the Winter Meeting was the presence of Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark, guest of honor and principal speaker at the 2 November dinner honoring the League's new senior vice president. Clark presented Secretary of the Navy Meritorious Public Service Awards to John W. Lockwood, a national director from the Northwest Region, and to Kristina D. Peterman, a national director from the Mid-Atlantic Region, "in recognition of their distinguished achievements on behalf of the nation's sea services."

Clark also extended his personal congratulations to Fanning and McNeill and thanked them for their "many years of outstanding support for our Navy, particularly the fine young men and women on active duty today both aboard ships and at shore stations around the world." He said the work done by NLUS councils throughout the United States, "and overseas as well," and the personal efforts of individual Navy Leaguers to assist Navy families, "has made my job much, much easier--and I know I speak for my Marine Corps and Coast Guard counterparts as well."

Clark said the everyday working cooperation between and among the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard "is the best it has ever been in our nation's history." He saluted the Winter Meeting attendees for their own efforts on behalf of the sea services, and asked for "an even greater effort in the years ahead." JDH