Union City Rotary Club - Weekly Bulletin & News

Today, let’s welcome back one of our own, as Congressman John Tanner is in town on a recess from his seat in Washington and takes a familiar position as a Friday Rotary Speaker.

John has represented Tennessee’s 8th District in Congress since 1989, and is in his 11th term at that position. He has represented his district well in the past 20 years, and some of the results are really showing up around here in the past couple of months. He has been instrumental in the development of projects such as, I-69, Cates Landing, our Regional Airport expansion and the project he has worked tirelessly on for a lot o f years, A New Spillway at Reelfoot Lake, which is finally becoming a reality and construction has begun.

John is a lifelong resident of Union City, graduating from Union City High School in 1962, earned his Bachelor’s Degree from U.T. Knoxville in 1966, playing on a basketball scholarship, and earned a law degree from the University of Tennessee School of Law in 1968. He served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy from 1968-1972, and entered the Tennessee Army National Guard in 1972, retiring in 2000 with the rank of Colonel. He is one of few Members of Congress to have served on the Board of Visitors for the U.S. Naval Academy, the U.S. Air force Academy and the U.S. Military Academy.

Besides being a member and founder of the well known and conservative "Blue Dogs" in Congress, he was appointed to the the Ways and Means Committee in 1997, where he now chairs the Social Security Subcommittee, he also serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

He and his wife Betty Ann have two children, Elizabeth Tanner Atkins and John Portis Tanner, and four grandchildren. He is a Past President of Union City Rotary and a Paul Harris Fellow.

Next week, "it’s Football Time in Tennessee", and U.T. Martin Head Football Coach Jason Simpson will be on hand to give us a preview of the 2009 Skyhawk Squad.

Jason has been very successful in just three seasons at UTM, compiling a 16-7 record and has one OVC championship, and coming within a field goal of a second championship this past season. He has led the Skyhawks to the Football Championship Subdivision postseason for the first time in school history, and his teams have been ranked among the top 25 in the nation each year of his tenure.

Simpson and the Skyhawks finished the 2008 campaign with an 8-4 overall record and a 6-2 OVC worksheet. The team received votes in both the FCS Coaches Poll and the Sports Network Poll, and was ranked 25th in the nation in the final Sports Media Entertainment (SME) Network poll.

Along with wins, Simpson led the Shyhawks to national rankings for the first time since 1989 and top 10 statistical rankings in pass efficiency defense (2), total defense (6), pass defense (7). The team was 12th in rushing offense while Running Back Don Chapman was ranked No. 9 in rushing offense (128.36 yards per game), while Jessie "Juice" Burton was the Sports Network’s third best kick returner, and was ranked 7th in the nation, with returns averaging (26.2 yards per return.

Last week, Colonel Baxter Swift, of the U.S. Air Force paid Union City Rotary a visit and left us well informed of the duties the Air Force has in Iraq.

Col. Swift was stationed in Balad from July of 08 until July of 09. He said that area was a very small part of the region, consisting of about the same geometrical area of Union City, and having around 25-30 thousand people crowded into it. The area is very important to the armed forces there he said, because the strategic operations based at the Air Base in Balad are vital to all command posts in Iraq, in that they run all sorts of military operations from that base, for instance the base provides air protection for ground troops, evacquates the dead and wounded, runs reconn missions among just a few objectives carried on at the Air Field. He also said that the runway is always under repair because of the type of surface and the soil base it is built on. He also said there were an average of 1,000 take-offs and landings on the strip each day.

He said the weather is very critical to the air operations there, as you could look up an any time and see a sand storm approaching, and all air operations have to be delayed until it blows over. Also he said you never knew when you were going to be fired upon when taking off or landing. Col. Swift said when he arrived at Balad, there were three F16 Squadrons, now they are down to two and will have only one in just a short time.

He went into some of the duties he had while there and some of the missions he flew, saying that the F16, which he flies, had the capability of putting a bomb through the window of a house from three miles away. He said that the F16 was first used in the late 50’s and it still plays a large roll in all Air Force operations.

In a question answer portion of the program, he said "as far as the operations of the U.S. in Iraq, in his opinion we were doing the right thing over there", and when asked what the Iraq people thought of us being there, he said, also in his opinion, "they are ready for us to leave" he said.

Coming Attraction

Sept. 04 - UTM Football Head Coach, Jason Simpson

Sept. 11 - Jacob Cross and Rotary Travel Group-Tentative

Sept. 18 - UCHS Head Football Coach, Darren Bowling - Tentative

Welcome New Members

Bruce Brown

Kofi Nuako

Birthdays

According to records, there were no Union City Rotarians born this week.

Anniversaries

Aug. 28 - Kirk and Sharon Stone

Aug. 30 - Leland and Tajuana Davis

Aug. 31 - Al and Michelle Creswell

Sept. 01 - Bob and Brenda Cartwright

It’s Football Time in Tennessee!!!

Tonight

Union City - Open

So. Fulton @ West Carroll

Obion Co. Central @ Byhalia, MS

UT Martin opens Thurs. Sept. 3 hosting Iowa Wesleyan

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