Lt. Col. Mark Schwartz holds the Certificate of Appreciation presented by Col. McMillen.
Deborah McGeehan
The Catalina Mountain Chapter (CMC) of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) held its recent meeting on Jan. 17 at SaddleBrooke Ranch. The meeting began with a business session presided over by CMC’s president, retired Col. Kurt McMillen, U.S. Army, during which members were updated on the chapter’s current activities.
Our speaker was retired Lt. Col. Mark Schwartz, U.S. Air Force, who completed 1,550 flying hours in the F-4 Phantom. His active-duty and reserve career spanned from 1973 to 1998. During his service, he was embedded in army units for Close Air Support duty. Mark completed a bachelor’s in political science from Ohio State and a master’s in history/World War II studies from Arizona State. His civilian career included over 30 years in the aerospace industry, including aircraft companies like Northrup and Lockheed. He directs the SaddleBrooke World War II Roundtable, lectures for and is a board member for the SaddleBrooke Great Decisions Chapter, and teaches SaddleBrooke ILR (Institute for Learning in Retirement) courses. Mark has been a SaddleBrooke resident for 11 years and has lectured at the Pima Air Museum and taught courses at Utah State’s Summer Citizen Program.
Col. Schwartz addressed the future of NATO, which is a growing interest for the United States and Europe. He talked about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and how it has rekindled the Cold War as no other hostile act has since the war in Korea. The U.S. and EU/NATO nations have aided Ukraine in resisting for four years and inflicted nearly one million casualties. Despite this, any sort of peace agreement evades the U.S., the EU, and NATO. Putin still demands all-or-nothing terms, but the most dramatic revelation came recently with President Trump’s National Security Strategy (NSS). Col. Schwartz talked about how the EU and NATO will have to adapt if the NSS is implemented as written and how Ukraine may fare as the war drags on.
The next regular meeting of CMC will be on Saturday, Feb. 21, at SaddleBrooke Ranch. The speaker will be Dr. Bill Myers who retired as a colonel in 2016 after 28 years in the Army, mostly in the reserves, with three combat tours. He has a special interest in World War II numismatics. Dr. Myers will give a presentation on “Money, Money, Money.” It is about the German operation to counterfeit British notes and the U.S. counterfeiting Japanese Invasion Money for the Philippines.
If you are a former or present officer of the uniformed services interested in joining our organization, please contact Membership Chair, retired Lt. Col. Donald Timian, U.S. Army, by email at dontimian@hotmail.com or by telephone at 571-216-3679.
The membership of CMC encompasses the areas of Catalina, Oracle, parts of Marana and Oro Valley, SaddleBrooke, SaddleBrooke Ranch, San Manuel, Sun City, and parts of Superstition Mountains. For additional information, please visit our website at catalinamountainsmoaa.org.