General Paul Funk II speaks at MOAA monthly meeting

By PAMELA GRANT

Cove Leader-Press

Military officers, both active duty and retired, enjoyed good food and good company at the monthly meeting held by Central Texas Military Officers Association of America (MOAA).

This  month’s meeting was held Friday afternoon at the Shilo Inn in Killeen and featured special guest speaker, Lieutenant General Paul E. Funk II. 

The MOAA is an association of military officers and is open to officers in all of the uniformed services, both active duty and retired. They consider themselves a leadership group for Central Texas, and they seek to defend and represent the interests of military officers (active duty and retired) and their families. The 501c3 organization also offers scholarships for $1,000 and $1,500 to high school students.

“We want to make our group the premier leadership group for the officers in the area to help all of the military,” said Aaron Zook, the Central Texas MOAA president. “We consider ourselves to be very socially minded. We try to help out others…We’re here to benefit the community, and we’re here to benefit the military. We’re happy to be here.”

After the meal, Zook and other MOAA members spoke about the group and some of their accomplishments. Afterwards, guest speaker LTG Funk spoke.

LTG Funk is the 60th Commanding General of III Armored Corps and Fort Hood, Texas. He commands four combat divisions, a sustainment command, a cavalry regiment, a fires brigade, and multiple enabler units that add up to approximately 100,000 soldiers in five installations across five states. Funk has been deployed five times and led soldiers in combat in several operations including Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Inherent Resolve. 

LTG Funk talked about the resiliency of the men and women who serve our country and how important it is that they know that people care about them.

“They fight for each other, they fight for their families, and they serve to be part of something bigger than themselves,” said LTG Funk. “This uniform means two things across the globe—hope and fear. Fear for our enemies, and hope for the downtrodden and those that need our assistance. It’s as simple as that.”

He talked about doing what’s right and becoming good members of their communities. LTG Funk also thanked the Vietnam veterans for paving the ways for current soldiers, for everything that they did to make things better for future generations.

“We’re immensely appreciative of everything this country does for us. It gives us the right equipment, the right funding, the right care, and more importantly just says thank you,” said LTG Funk. “So, for those Vietnam vets…thank you for your service. We owe you a debt of gratitude we’ll never be able to repay…Those lessons that you learned the hard way, we took to heart and made sure that they didn’t happen to us.”