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Club 56 hosts first combined services meeting

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Dennis L. Sloan
  • Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Public Affairs
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  Club 56 held its first combined services meeting Jan. 20 at the First Term Airman's Center here, which was comprised of E-5 and E-6 servicemembers from the Air Force, Army and Navy.

Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst is the first base to combine E-5 and E-6 clubs and is also inviting members of the Coast Guard and Marine Corps to join the club.

"This is a new venture and something that has not been done before stateside," said Club 56 President Air Force Staff Sgt. Katrena Anderson. "We have nothing else to be compared to fortunately, this means that our possibilities are limitless. Although we are a private organization, we will continue to conduct ourselves as professionals and evolve as our organization grows."

The first meeting laid the groundwork for all the services to meet in person and plan future endeavors for the club. The meeting opened doors of communication and established points of contact from the different services.

Along with establishing communication among the different services, the meeting featured senior enlisted members giving their perspective and experience as well as defining the importance of the club. Senior Master Sgt. Troy Coville, 6th Airlift Squadron superintendent, spoke about diversity and how important it is to not forget that it exists and should not be ignored.

"With the recent repeal of the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, I wanted to get back to the basics on how to deal with diversity and how important it is to work together rather than letting differences break us apart," said Coville. "We all share the same mission of protecting the United States of America and that is the most important part of it all."

The overall goal of Club 56 is to internalize their core values, network and produce the most knowledgeable efficient junior NCO structure the Department of Defense has to offer.
"The U.S. military relies upon its junior non-commissioned-officers so much," said Coville. "These are the men and women that are right on the teetering point as future leaders and also the grassroots supervisors tasked with the job of molding and refining our young servicemembers so they can be good future leaders. This club brings these integral servicemembers together and discusses how they can help give back to the military in the fullest way possible."

Meetings will be held every third Thursday of the month at the FTAC, building 2610, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. All NCO's are welcome to come and contribute to the club. For more information on Club 56 or to join, call Staff Sgt. Katrena Anderson at 754-9057 or e-mail katrena.anderson@mcguire.af.mil.