The Pennsylvania Commandery-MOFW
610-457-0003
ALL PENNSYLVANIA COMMANDERY EVENTS REQUIRE COAT & TIE (uniform or mufti) with EQUIVALENT ATTIRE for LADIES. We occasionally have black-tie events.
THE PA COMMANDERY ENCOURAGES ATTENDEES TO BE FULLY VACCINATED AND BOOSTED.
FUTURE EVENTS:
Wednesday, December 18 at 6:00 p.m.: Annual Joint Christmas Party with Radnor Hunt Veterans at Radnor Hunt. Cocktails at 6:00 p.m., dinner at 7:00 p.m. Black Tie with Decorations or Mess Dress strongly encouraged.
Wednesday, January 8, 2025 at 11:30 a.m.: Speaker-Luncheon at the Philadelphia Club with Commander John D. Hooper, USCG (ret.) He is a Naval/Defense Analyst, Naval Historian, and Adjunct Professor, U.S. Naval War College. He is also Commander of the Hampton Roads Virginia Commandery of the Naval Order of the United States. More details to follow.
RECENT EVENTS:
2024:
Wednesday, November 13, at 11:30 a.m.: Speaker-Luncheon with our new Pennsylvania Companion, COL Allen D. Barall, a retired Military Intelligence officer, whose active duty assignments included Afghanistan, Bosnia, Germany, and the Republic of Georgia, addressed us on Afghanistan.
Thursday, October 10, at 11:30 a.m.: Speaker- Luncheon at the Philadelphia Club with History Professor Steven Sidebotham from the University of Delaware, whose topic was "Unforgettable Memories of WWII from Those Who Were There." The lecture presented brief video clips of interviews of seven WWII veterans who served in the Pacific, Mediterranean, and European Theaters of Operations as well as the Russian Front. Our speaker introduced and discussed the clips, chosen from amongst the hundreds that he and his wife, Mary have done.
Saturday, August 17, at 10:00 a.m.: The Pennsylvania Veterans' Museum in Media, PA.: There was a private guided tour and a brief talk by a veteran on his experiences in the military. We then had lunch, at a nearby restaurant.
Thursday, July 18, 2024 at 5:30 p.m.: Annual Joint Dinner with the Radnor Hunt Veterans at Radnor Hunt. $55/person. Cash bar. We had a brief address by Collie Turner, Founder and CEO of Heroic Gardens, which helps veterans.
Wednesday, June 12, 2024 at 11:30 a.m.: Speaker luncheon at the Philadelphia Club with William F. Forbes on his great uncle, Francis Coxe Forbes, who served with the Flying Tigers during WWII.
Wednesday, April 24, 2024 at 11:30 a.m.: Speaker-luncheon at the Philadelphia Club with CWO3 Greg Van Horn, who served in the mechanized infantry and later as a helicopter pilot during combat and peacetime engagements in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Wednesday, March 20, 2024 at 11:30 a.m.: Speaker-Luncheon at the Philadelphia Club with Robert Morris, talking about his recent biography of his ancestor, Robert Morris - Inside the American Revolution.
Wednesday, January 10, 2024 at 11:30 a.m.: Speaker-Luncheon with brief annual meeting at the Philadelphia Club. CAPT Kate Higgins Bloom, USCG, (a Coast Guard Academy and Harvard graduate) – Commander, US Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay and Captain of the Port – addressed us on “The fascinating Developments in the Fast-Changing Arctic Region.” and the integration of the Coast Guard's littoral combat vessels with the Navy and other U.S. and Allied forces. The Captain commands some 815 active duty, reserve and civilian personnel and some 2,100 Auxiliarists. Her command covers PA, NJ, and DE and in particular the busy commercial ports of Philadelphia, Camden and Wilmington. From the coastline, her area of responsibility extends some 200 nautical miles out into the Atlantic Ocean. She oversees a marine system that contributes over $88 billion annually to the US economy.
2023:
Wednesday, December 6, 2023 at 6:00 p.m.: Annual Joint Christmas Dinner with Radnor Hunt Veterans at Radnor Hunt. Black-tie with Decorations (uniform or mufti) strongly encouraged. Cocktails at 6:00 p.m. (cash/signature bar); buffet Dinner at 7:00 p.m.
Thursday, October 26, 2023 at 11:30 a.m.: Speaker-Luncheon at the Philadelphia Club. Captain Tom Elsasser, USN (Ret.), author of Spy in the Sky gave a submariner’s view of guarding the North Atlantic during the Cold War.
Thursday, September 28, 2023 at 11:30 a.m.: Speaker-Luncheon at the Philadelphia Club. Professor Stephen Medvec talked about Polish history from the late 18th Century to the present and how it affects the NATO alliance and the current war in Ukraine.
Thursday, June 29, 2023: Annual Joint Dinner with Radnor Hunt Veterans at Radnor Hunt.
Thursday, April 20, 2023 at 11:30 a.m.: Speaker Luncheon at the Philadelphia Club: LT Ned Miltko, a Navy Flight Officer, on "Hunting for Red October—A Daily Mission." He spoke about his experiences during the Cold War, tracking Soviet submarines from a base in Iceland and gave us a brief history of Iceland Icelanders.
Monday, March 20 at 11:30 a.m.: Speaker luncheon at the Philadelphia Club. Mihn (Max) Nguyen told us about his harrowing escape from Communist Viet-Nam at the age of 12.
Tuesday, January 17 at 11:30 a.m.: Speaker-Luncheon at the Philadelphia Club with brief Annual Meeting. CPT Eric Guenther on: The PA National Guard deployment to Bosnia in 2002 and 2003 as a response to the 9/11 terrorists attacks, but more broadly about how 9/11 changed the role of the part-time weekend warrior to that of the true citizen soldier.
2022:
Wednesday, December 7, 2022 at 6:00 p.m.: Annual Christmas Party at Corinthian Yacht Club. It was a Black-Tie dinner, and several of our members wore their mess blues and dress blues.
Wednesday, November 9, 2022, at 11:30 a.m.: Speaker-Luncheon at the Philadelphia Club Andie Waskie, Ph.D., retired history Associate Professor at Temple University, on Philadelphia and Philadelphians in World War I.
Wednesday, October 5, 2022, at 11:30 a.m.: Speaker-Luncheon at the Philadelphia Club; retired Army pilot and military historian, Ralph Corsi, on “The Doolittle Raid over Tokyo: A Suicide Mission That Worked.”
Thursday, August 25, 2022 at 5:30 p.m.: Annual Joint Dinner with Radnor Hunt Veterans at Radnor Hunt
Tuesday, March 22, at 11:30 a.m.: Speaker-Luncheon at the Philadelphia Club; Stephen E. Medvec, Ph.D, Professor of Political Science at Holy Family University, on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. There was a brief Annual Meeting; the regular January Annual Meeting had been cancelled because of the Omicron flare-up.
Wednesday, April 20, at 11:30 a.m.: Speaker-Luncheon at the Philadelphia Club; Thomas Garvey on being in the Special Forces with the Montagnards in Viet-Nam. He is the author of Many Beaucoup Magics and My Secret Apartment [at Veterans Stadium].
Wednesday, May 11, at 11:30 a.m.: Speaker Luncheon at the Philadelphia Club; Past PA Commander, COL Jack Thomas Tomarchio, a nationally recognized expert on international conflict and homeland security, spoke about the Russo-Ukrainian war and its implications for the West.
Thursday, August 25, at 5:30 p.m.: Annual Joint Event with Radnor Hunt Veterans at Radnor Hunt; buffet dinner.
2021:
Wednesday, February 24: Annual Meeting with Biennial Elections via Zoom. Incumbent officers were re-elected for a second two-year term because of disruptions caused by pandemic.
Wednesday, June 9: at Merion Cricket Club. Speaker-Lunch: 1LT Jeffrey Graham on “The War in Korea – an Overview”
Wednesday, April 21: at Merion Cricket Club. Speaker-lunch: M. Kelley Tillery, Esquire on his father's experience during WWII as a combat Marine and Japanese translator.
Thursday, August 26: at Radnor Hunt. Annual Joint Dinner with Radnor Hunt Veterans.
Thursday, November 11: at Philadelphia Club. Our Veterans Day/Armistice Day speaker was CWO-2 George Porter, a Scout Pilot in an armed observation helicopter (OH6A) as part of a Hunter-Killer team in the 7/17th Air Cavalry. Flying as low as 10 feet as a Hunter, he flew every day looking for the North Vietnamese Army. “When we met, there were usually some ‘heated exchanges’ that lasted until they retreated, hours
or days later. Then we would start all over again with the search.” He was followed by the two UH1 (Huey) gunships, composing the rest of his team.
Wednesday, December 15: at Merion Cricket Club. Annual Christmas Dinner.
We started the Roaring Twenties on January 22, 2020 at the Philadelphia Club with a brief Annual Meeting and Speaker- Luncheon. Past PA Commander and author, CPT Harry Carl Schaub talked about the “Rôle of Strategic Intelligence in U.S. Foreign Policy,” including Ambassador Robert Strauss-Hupé's view on "How we Lost China."
March 11, 2020, at the Philadelphia Club. PA Commander Alvan (Cappy) Markle IV, talked about Oleg Gordievsky, "The Spy Who Saved the West from Nuclear War." He believes him to be one of the world’s greatest spies. A KGB Colonel, turned counterspy, he provided Britain’s MI-6, with a treasure trove of intelligence, including the fact that the Russians had implemented Operation RYAN as a precursor to nuclear war. Commander Markle covered that history, some of Oleg’s other exploits, how he helped us to win the Cold War, and his harrowing escape effort from Russia once he had become suspect, through the betrayal by Aldrich Ames of the CIA.
Thursday, September 24, 2020, we held our delayed "Mid-Summer" joint dinner with the Radnor Hunt Veterans group at Radnor Hunt on the open-air porch, overlooking the beautiful RH grounds. We listened to an excellent talk by Beau Choate about the good work that the Berwyn Veterans do.
Tuesday, October 6, 2020, at Merion Cricket Club. Speaker Luncheon at which LTJG Richard Sperry, founder and CEO of the history website www.history500.com spoke about: "The War of 1812: A Narrow Escape from a National Collapse."
2019
Wednesday, January 16, 2019, at the Philadelphia Club. At the brief annual meeting, we elected new officers for a two year term. The speaker was LTC William Bonelli, a B-17 pilot during World War Two and career Air Force officer.
Friday, March 15, 2019, at the Philadelphia Club. Columbia Professor Lien-Hang T. Nguyen, Ph.D., spoke on “The Tet Offensive: New Insights from Hanoi's Archives”
Wednesday, April 24, 2019, at the Philadelphia Club "The Making of a Spy": Pennsylvania Companion, CDR William A. Wheatley, USN (RET), talked about the various avenues to becoming an intelligence officer as well as about his recently published novel, The Man Who Was Never There There was a book signing.
Saturday, May 25, 2019: The PA Commandery visited Fort Mifflin (Tour, History, and Picnic Box Lunch)
Wednesday, June 19, 2019, at the Philadelphia Club. Speaker-Luncheon: Erica Nuckles, Ph.D., spoke about the Braddock and Forbes Campaigns to Take Fort Duquesne during the French & Indian War, the North American Theatre of the Seven Years' War.
Thursday, August 8, 2019, Annual Summer Party at Radnor Hunt. This year we were joined by Radnor Hunt's newly formed Radnor Hunt Veterans, which added to the success of the event.
Wednesday, September 25, 2019, Speaker Luncheon at the Philadelphia Club: Past Commander LTC Alvan Markle III, and current Commander, CPT Alvan Markle IV, talked about WW II Operation Cobra, in which LTC Markle participated. as well as about their trip to Normandy on the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. LTC Markle corrected historians' mistaken account of a major friendly fire incident.
October 30, 2019: Speaker-Luncheon at the Philadelphia Club: French Navy Commander (Capitaine de Frégate) Jean-Loup Archawski spoke about our long-standing Alliance with France and his experiences during the Algerian rebellion.
December 14, 2019: Our Annual Christmas Party at Corinthian Yacht Club.
2018:
The Annual Meeting/Speaker luncheon was on Wednesday, 17 JAN. CPT Larry Liss, a highly decorated Army Air Cavalry pilot in Viet-Nam talked about some of his harrowing combat missions as well as his current mission: helping fund veterans' enterprises.
The Wednesday, 21 MAR 2018 Speaker-Luncheon was cancelled.
On Tuesday, 17 APR 2018, MAJ Mark Snell talked about "Trench Warfare on the Western Front, 1914-1918" and showed us artifacts.
On 6 JUN 2018, the luncheon was a D-Day Special, on "The Dogs of War," in which dog-handler, SP-4 Barry McKeon talked about his adventures in Viet-Nam as a scout-dog handler.
The Annual Summer Party on Thursday, August 2, 2018 at Radnor Hunt was a great success, and a good time was had by all.
The first luncheon was on Wednesday, 26 SEP. The speaker was 1LT Marsha Four, Combat Nurse in Viet-Nam. She gave an informative and moving talk on her experiences there and her subsequent nursing career and work with veterans.
The next luncheon was on Wednesday, 24 October; the speaker was PA Companion, CPT George Anderson, PhD, talking about why Communism and Socialism are Guaranteed to Fail, the title of his new book.
The Annual Christmas Party was on Saturday, 8 DEC at Corinthian Yacht Club. We feasted on roast suckling pig, peach cobblers, and ice cream sundaes.
Fall 2017:
The first luncheon was on TUESDAY, October 10, in which LTC Rafael Porrata-Doria, JD, gave a most enlightening and lively talk on “Cyber Warfare and the Law of War.”
The next speaker luncheon was on WEDNESDAY, November 8, in which Pearl Harbor survivor, Ed Kane, spoke about his experience.
We ended the year with a most successful Annual Christmas Party on SUNDAY, December 3, returning to Corinthian Yacht Club after using other venues for a few years. Corinthian did an outstanding job, and we returned there for the 2018 Christmas Party!
