Commanders Message
As I sit here on my computer, I would like to reflect back on our season. We started the new year off as the 48th Va. Inf. Co. D, on Dec. 1st 2002 with a new Officer and a couple of new NCO's. This was in the making in October, 2002 The members of the company seen very excited and were ready to start the year as the 48th Va. Inf. Co.D
The first thing I had to do as Captain was to select a 1st Sgt. After looking at the rank and file I selected Aaron Stine as my new 1st Sgt. This was based off of his knowledge and experience. In Nov. of 2002 , 1st Sgt Stine and I attended the annual ANV convention which is held every year in Fredericksburg, Va. The meeting started at 9:00am and was over around 3:00pm. We came away from the meeting with the events that the Division voted on for maximum effort events and other information that we needed to past down to the company level. On Saturday night it was time to sit down and get to the task at hand. The first order of business was to look at the company strength and decide what if any NCO's were needed.. We already had a company clerk and a ordnance corporal but felt we needed a field corporal, so we went through the list of names and decided to promote private Dave Zielinski to the rank of corporal. This would be done at our company meeting which we were going to have in December, 2002. The next task at hand which was the hardest was to set down the company by-laws as every company should have them.This was very time consuming and took us into the wee hours of the night. After a lot of disagreements and discussions we came up with a set of by-laws which we both felt comfortable with, and thus the 48th Virginia was officially on its way. The next stage was to present ourselves as the 48th Va. Inf. Co.D at the Battalion Meeting which was being held in Jan. 2003 at Ft. Mifflin. 1st Sgt. Stine and I attended the meeting in which representatives from the 4th Texas, 9th Va., 33rd Va., Col. Johnson and his staff were present. Companies not in attendance were the 63rd Va. We presented ourselves as a new company. A vote was taken by those in attendance and we were welcomed into the First Battalion ANV by Col. Johnson and everyone present. At this time we were now officially the 48th Va. Inf. Co. D 1st Battalion ANV. The meeting went well and we voted on maximum effort events for the Battalion. When we got back from the meeting was time to have our company meeting and vote on the events that we as a company wanted to go to.
Our company meeting was held at Bonnie Condrans house. At this time Dave Zielinski was promoted to the rank of corporal and our events were voted on. It was decided by the company that one event per month would be a maximum effort event, also the by-laws were voted in and we started our own checking account.
Our first event for the year was a Battalion Drill being held at Ft. Mifflin in April. We had ten members in attendance. Everyone there had a great time and are looking forward to going in 2004. Next was Neshamiy State Park. In order to get ready for the event we planned on having two winter drills to which both were cancel led out due to weather. The year was starting out bad but I had high hopes that things would get better. We had 15 sign up for Neshaminy but due to the weather forecast of rain we only had 6 members attend. The rain came Friday night and Sat. And Sun. Were both nice. Our next event was Hanover School. Again we ended up with only 5 members of the company present. The rest of the year went about the same with low numbers and events being rained out. To those members who attended I salute you. With out you we could not have done it. Even though the weather played a big part on attendance the year was not lost. We had good attendance at Gettysburg and Cedar Creek. We are expanding and have picked up 9 new recruits. We are now getting recognized for who we are and not who we were. With your support we can make the 48th Va. Inf. One of the best companies out there but in order to do so I need everyone to commit to coming out to events. As I have always said in the past and I will say it again. "It is not how good the officer is that makes the company but how good the company is that makes the officer". I am only as good as the men under me and without you there is no company.
We will soon be getting together to go over events for next year and I hope to see each and every one of you. You are always missed around the campfire when you are not there. May everyone have a safe and happy holiday.
Your Humble Servant
Capt. Bob Cressler
