David Stanard
It was a Veterans Day theme at the Resurrection Church November 4 Men’s Breakfast. Those in attendance who have served were recognized and the group was honored to have as a visitor and special guest, retired Brigadier General and Tucson resident, Wendell Fenn. General Fenn, now age 95, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1940 at age 18. Two years later he had risen to the rank of Master Sergeant and in early 1944 he graduated from Officer Candidate School. Then, as a fairly new Second Lieutenant, he served as a member of the 101st Airborne glider troops and on June 5, 1944, one day before D-Day, he glided into Normandy as an early wave of the Allied invasion of Western Europe. From there he fought his way through the European theatre, was at the Battle of the Bulge and picked up two Purple Hearts along the way. He retired in 1982 after 42 years of service.
Bringing the General to the breakfast, and the speaker for the day, was retired U.S. Army Colonel George Gluski. A heroic figure in his own right, Colonel Gluski has logged over 1100 combat hours in a multitude of aircraft. He is highly decorated, having been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, two Bronze Stars and 43 Air Medals. Among his many assignments in a career that spanned 35 years was as the commander of the 1/285th Attack Battalion (AH-64 Apache) and the Western ARNG Aviation Training Site located at the Pinal Airpark in Marana and Deputy Assistant Commander for the Army Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Rucker, Alabama. Before retiring and relocating to Oro Valley in 2005, he served as Aviation and Safety Division Chief with the Army National Guard in Washington D.C.
The Resurrection Church Men’s Breakfasts are held the first Saturday of the month, the months of October through May, at the main campus in Oro Valley. Four of the five members of the Breakfast’s Steering Committee are SaddleBrooke residents and, generally, about one-third of those attending the breakfasts are from SaddleBrooke.
There is always a program and on deck for January 6 will be former U-2 pilot and SaddleBrooke resident, retired Lieutenant Colonel Jack Stebe.
Resurrection Church at SaddleBrooke holds it all-denominational Sunday worship services at 8:30 and 10:00 a.m. in the Vermilion Room at the SaddleBrooke One Clubhouse. All are welcome.