Navy League of Key West President Abe Conn joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the league.
Memorial Day celebrations are always important to the Navy League.
Conn said, “We lead it off every year, and it’s such an important day, and everybody always says thanks for your service, and we all appreciate that, of course, but it’s an important day to remember those who made that ultimate sacrifice, and we started off real early at 9 o’clock I was humbled and honored as the president to be out there, and we had the skipper of the naval base, he was our speaker, along with the chaplain and standing room only out there, and we get there day before we, we put all the flags out at the main memorial plot there, and a lot of people don’t realize that we have not only American sailors but we have a couple foreign sailors there also, and it kind of throws people off, because, like, how come we have Confederate flags there, but they’re not, they’re actually British flags, and so, lot of history there, and you can always figure out the story with the battleship Maine, and why we have so many folks buried there, but it’s definitely a humbling experience, and it was definitely honored. Then we moved over to Bayview Park, where they do the thing from Monroe County Veterans Affairs, and it’s just a very, very important day, and a day that we should all remember those that couldn’t be with us anymore.”
Beyond commemorative events, there was a recent visit by local civic leaders and veterans organizations to the Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF South), a highly specialized command headquartered in Key West.
Conn said, “Basically what all those fancy letters mean is when you talk about joint and interagency, it’s not just army or navy or military, it’s led by Admiral Randall. He’s a one-star admiral from the Coast Guard, and he and his crew out there, and they’re monitoring and helping out with any kind of illegal activities that may happen down in this area of responsibility. I worked there for about my final two years in the military, and it’s a pretty fascinating place. They’re not the guys that are blowing up boats and all that kind of stuff that happens somewhere else. This is more of an intelligence thing. Or, as myself, I was a DEA agent back before I retired. I would feed this information to those guys, and they would have real-world assets out there, Coast Guard boats that would go ahead and hunt for these big drug smuggling things. So you may read in the paper this amount of cocaine or this amount of drugs was found, maybe locally, but these guys were getting it in the metric tons, and just fascinating group, they opened up their doors to a lot of the local civic organizations, so us military affairs committee and the VFW, so there’s probably about 50 people that they brought through there, and just to get an education and show everybody, look, this is how we do it. This is what we do on the non-classified side, but very, very interesting. And these are all things people can do if they join some of these organizations out there, whether it be Navy League or any of the myriad of organizations out there, get involved in the community, and you can definitely go ahead and go on these field trips with us. We have one coming up to the search and rescue folks out at the base. There’s just things that are pretty cool that the average person doesn’t get to go to that if you get involved in the community, you definitely can go see some of these things, and it’s not hard, it’s not expensive, and you can be part of the Navy League family.”
The Navy League recently welcomed sailors aboard the USS Cooperstown during the vessel’s visit to Key West. The ship, named after the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, features extensive baseball-themed memorabilia throughout the vessel.
Conn said, “I know I’ve seen a lot of the stuff on Facebook. No, they’re not here because of Cuba, this or that. They’re here for a site visit, a little R and R for their crew. They’re taking on a bunch of food, they’re taking on a bunch of fuel, giving the guys and gals a couple days to relax in Key West, and we’re showing them the sites, and teaching them, but they were very nice. They invited the Navy League again onto the ship, and it’s a really great, great thing. If you never had a chance to go, we all met and then we had some bands that are our Navy liaison folks were able to help us out with over on the base, and we from there got to go on the ship, and the ship is just loaded with awesome and cool baseball memorabilia efforts for its namesake, Cooperstown, and again something that the average person might not have been able to do, but you get involved with these organizations like Navy League, and we do have a meeting coming up tonight. Before anybody spends that whopping $50 to join us, if you want to come down and see what a meeting is like tonight our guest speaker is James Carey from Veterans Affairs, and he’s going to talk about a lot of the different benefits that you get or that we’re eligible for as a veteran, so just come on down to the Sigsbee Community Center on Sigsbee at 6 o’clock and see what it’s about. You’re more than welcome to join us. It’s free, you don’t have to pay anything, and come say hi.”
The organization also continues its longstanding support of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Fast Response Cutter program. Every newly commissioned Fast Response Cutter undergoes training and evaluation in Key West before deploying to its permanent homeport.
Next week, Navy League volunteers will participate in ceremonies marking the Coast Guard’s acceptance of the cutter USCGC Jeffrey Palazzo, named in honor of a New York City firefighter and Coast Guard reservist who was killed during the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Conn said, “We go down with the Navy League, and we provide donuts and coffee and things like that, and we get on the ship with them, and we actually watch the Coast Guard, the commander of that boat will sign a paper taking possession from the shipbuilder to the Coast Guard, and it’s a pretty meaningful, pretty, pretty meaningful event. So, it’s really cool to watch.”
The Navy League of Key West supports active-duty military personnel, veterans, Coast Guard members, and their families through advocacy, education, recognition programs, and community engagement initiatives throughout the Florida Keys.
For more information, click here: https://navyleaguekeywest.org/