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Buenos Dias from San Antonio and the Alamo Chapter. The Alamo Chapter of the Professional Loadmaster Association is made up from Loadmasters
of the C-5 Reserve Wing at Lackland Air Force Base, to include some retired reserve loadmasters from San Antonio Texas and the south central Texas area.
We also have retired active duty members as well as some active commercial airline cargo loadmasters. The Alamo Chapters highest priority is to increase our
membership. We currently have over 80 members. From its inception in June 2008, the chapter was established, by-laws were written, members were found from
around the area and was certified as a chapter by the National President in October 2008. The Alamo Chapter was given the privilege to host the 2010 PLA
“Gathering of Loads” convention. We had a great time putting on the convention, visiting with old friends and making new ones. We have received many gracious
comments and thanks for putting on the convention; we appreciate all your kind words. Our wish is that you support the 2012 Gathering of Loads convention as well
as you supported ours and make it an even better convention.
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The Alamo Chapter continues to keep busy and spread the word about the Professional Loadmaster Association (PLA). Hector Leyva and
Bill Weeper represented our chapter at the Lackland Airfest on November 7, 2010. They set up a display table with our chapter banner and two display boards that described
what a Loadmaster is all about and photographs of what they do on different military aircraft. The other display board described the PLA organization, showed a map of all
of the chapters around the country and information about the Alamo Chapter. The boards also had photographs of four Loadmaster heroes’ John Levitow, Charlie Shaub, Manson
Grubbs and Ralph Bemis. To round out the board, four photographs of the 2010 Gathering of Loads convention were displayed along with the PLA’s written history.
On April 10, 2011 the Alamo Chapter put on the chapters first golf tournament at the Alsatian Golf Club in Castroville Texas. Besides some Alamo Chapter Loadmasters, a lot of retired
Police Officers played in the tournament. Andy Vaquera and David Scandalito did an amazing job of getting 60 players for the tournament. The tournament started with sign in, then
a lunch of hamburgers, chips, water and tea. Teams were assigned and carts manned. The tournament was a best ball scramble and had a shotgun start. Norma Vaquera drove the
refreshment cart along with others from her church group. The number 12 hole was a Hole In One with a prize of a 2011 Chevrolet Camaro provided by Wommack Chevrolet of Castroville
Texas. It took about 5 hours to complete the tournament. The team winners were Willie Gonzales, Willie Gonzales Jr., John Romero, and Frank Gonzales. After the announcement of
the winners there was a raffle and many prizes were given out. To say this was a successful day is an understatement.
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