The Wheel Las Vegas Rotary Club newsletter, January 22, 1981

• The WHEEL LAS VEGAS ROTARY CLUB D I S T R I C T 530 M A K E - U P DAYS AND P L A C E S MONDAY — Southwest — Port Tack WEDNESDAY — Boulder City — Railroad Pass TUESDAY — Henderson — Eldorado Club WEDNESDAY — Paradise — Showboat FRIDAY —North Las Vegas — Silver Nugget THURSDAY, J A N U A R Y 22, 1981 Preview Is Given As has been the custom over the past several years, the president of the Las Vegas Rotary club has pro-vided the members of the club with a preview of what can be expected of the new president when he takes over in the coming July. Such was the case last week when President Mike was unable to be present for the regular Thursday noon luncheon of the club. So it befell to Dom Aiken, the president-elect of the group, to preside over the regular session of the Las Vegas club. It was a highly successful meet-ing and Don ran it like an old vet-eran. The only thing was he either forgot or didn't feel it his preroga-tive to exact fines from the mem-bers. He doesn't, apparently, feel that the transition period is over and, like Ronald Reagan, has re-fused to dip his fingers into the pie which is being comcocted by Mike. It is reliably reported that Presi-dent Mike will return before the next session and everything will be back to normal. — Rl — Rotary At Inaugural The Las Vegas Rotary club was represented at the inaugural of President Ronald Reagan when Ash-ley Hall was present in Washington to witness the swearing in cere-monies. Leonard Fayle and his Ro-tary Ann also attended. Ashley, as you no doubt are aware, is US Senator Paul Laxalt's Las Vegas representative and, as Sen. Laxalt is one of the members of the inner circle of the new presi-dent's family, it was quite easy that he could get tickets for the affair. However, the ordinary folks had to scrounge all over the place to secure the pasteboards which would allow them to be close up at all of the events which were a part of the ceremonies. The local representative of the senator, while thrilled at the oppor-tunity of watching the inaugural of a Republican president, was some-what reticent to become a member of the vast throng which gathered for the event. — Rl — F16 Story Is Told The F16 airplane, which has been in operation at Nellis Air Force base since late last fall, was described to the Las Vegas Rotary club last Thursday by Col. James Glenn. Col. Glenn has been at Nellis since 1977 and has been the con-version manager since the first new plane arrived at Nellis. He started his program by show-ing a film of the capabilities of the new plane and gave a running com- (Continued on next page) mentary about it during the film showing. He said the Air Force was desirous of keeping the civilians abreast of what was happening in the Air Force with special emphasis in this area on Nellis Air Force base. He told his audience that the F16 is a superior, light-weight air-plane that had sufficient thrust to enable it to out-perform any plane now in the sky. The light weight of the plane also is an added factor, he said. It can out-turn and out-acceler-ate any plane in the skies today and gives the USA an edge in fighting in the air. It also gives the Air Force versatility, which has been some-what lacking in the past. It has digital control in an ad-vanced stage and a fire control sys-tem which is amazingly accurate. It can transfer from air to ground firing to air to air firing in split seconds. Col. Glenn claimed the F16 is "second to none as far as combat is concerned and gives the US a tremendous edge in aerial fighting." He also said that the cost of mainte-nance was far below that of any other plane in the sky. It has a short takeoff and greater acceleration than any of the modern day planes and, so far, its perform-ance has been excellent. There will be a total of 107 F 16s in operation when the program gets up full steam and there will be some increase in the Nellis population at that time. Marti Rud acted as program chairman for the day. — Rl — Birthday Table Full Last Thursday was the day set aside this month to recognize the members of the Las Vegas Rotary club whose birthdays happen in Jan-uary. There was quite a group in attendance, although some of those who were to be honored were not able to be present. The "dean" of the January group was "Tex" Blackman who has been a member of the club since 1933. Of course, he is a senior active in the club. "Tex" was born in 1898 and comes close to being the senior member of the club. Those whose birthdays fall in January include: Blackman, Don Brown, John Beville, Mike Cole, Don Aiken, Jim Gamett, Harley L. Har-mon, Doyle Jordan, Joe Hollis, Fred Lewis and, Frank Mitrani, Dr. Wilbur Sylves-ter, Scotty Thursby, Scott Wallace, John Yoxen, Martell Rud, Mike Kroplin, Jerry Lee and Primo Mori. Cole, Harmon, Hollis, Thursby, Wallace and Kroplin were not pres-ent for the ceremony and that is expected to bring forth the usual fine plus a punitive one. — Rl — MX Missile On Program The Las Vegas Rotary club today will be given an inside look at what the impact of the M X missile might be when County Commissioner Bob Broadbent addresses the club. Broadbent, through his position on the commission, has been quite close to all of the negotiations with the Air Force and will tell the Ro-tarians about what they can expect if the missile program is carried out in the next two years. There has been much pro and con regarding the establishment of the missile plan, especially as regards the effect it might have on the water supply for the entire valley. Promises have been made but there are those who are not completely satisfied with the pledges. The program, if carried to its con-clusion, will put a great burden on the schools, the various utilities and other segments of life as it is lived in Las Vegas and the citizens of this area are entitled to know what is in store if the missiles do go in. The club has heard the Air Force views on the installation and now it is expected Broadbent will be able to answer the citizens' demand for more knowledge to questions which have been bothering them for some time.