Fellow Missileers:
This last year has been very busy and mostly productive for AAFM. There is so much going on that I thought an end of year report to the membership would be a good idea in addition to the newsletter that will hit your inbox right after the new year. Here is a recap of our 2025 activities:
Board Elections: We sent out a call for nominations to the membership. While we received one letter of interest for a future position, no one stated an interest for this upcoming election. Since all four board members have asked for a chance to continue on the board, AAFM President Mark Silliman and I decided not to convene a nomination committee. We’ll still send out a ballot in January to support the reelection of Anita Feugate Opperman, Mark Silliman, Don Alston, and Monte Watts for another term.
Silent Sentinel Book Sales: A little more than a year ago we published Silent Sentinels Minuteman Artwork Revealed. The good news is that we have sold enough books to recover our investment. The “bad” news is that we still have just over 600 books left to sell and sales are averaging about 10 a month. I’m still looking for ways to get the word out and plan to bring a large number of books to Minot in August 2026 for our National meeting. I keep encouraging officer members to buy a book for their ROTC detachment and members to buy a copy for their local library.
Membership: I’m baffled on how we can still be stuck at 1840 members! How do we move forward? This year 91 memberships lapsed without renewal (not counting ones archived for passing). Of the 91, at least 15 are active duty. I sent personal emails to each of the 91 and got a couple to respond so far (two yes and two no for renewal). We need each of you to help us grow. Have you crosschecked your contacts with our membership list? I know we can do better.
Scholarships: We did better with the Fall 2025 scholarships than the Spring with a total of 5 awards. More on the winners in the Spring newsletter. My thanks to the committee for working the process twice each year.
Donations: We received several donations this year sufficient enough to fund the scholarship program. I know we all get bombarded with request for support (just $11 a month can….). Our only support to continue our efforts to retain our nuclear missile heritage is through dues, donations, and corporate sponsorships so your donations are always appreciated. For members that are facing a required distribution from their IRA, remember that you can make a pretax IRA RMD contribution to AAFM as a non-profit. We’ll put your donation to good use!
Museum Grants: Request for funds were down this year. The committee awarded two grants to Quebec 01 and the Hill AFB Museum for a total of $ 4,500.
Newsletter: I hope the direction we took last year with the newsletter is meeting your expectations but I am always open to new ideas and inputs….and of course your contributions. Due to a couple of lengthy articles, we have decided to place a 1,200-word limit on all submissions. We are always looking for good content, both past and present! What will you write about?
Newsletter editor: Our newsletter editor, Mark Nemish, has picked up more work in his post AF life and as a result needs to turn over the newsletter editor role in 2026. Mark will train his replacement—volunteers need to have some word document skills and a little creative imagination to put the puzzle together. If you are interested, please let me know.
Hall of Fame: Would you believe we have over 45 nominations for the upcoming class and a list of another 48 potential nominations banked for future consideration? I’m really impressed with the work Linda Aldrich has done along with the dedicated writing of Mark Silliman. If you have been following this closely, you know our goal is to ensure the early pioneers are recognized so our first 2-3 classes will number about 20-22. By the third or fourth induction we will reduce the numbers to something around 10-12 per class. I can’t wait to see what the committee does with the list! The review and selection process starts in January with announcements in early March.
Hall of Fame Showcase: The plans to have a showcase exhibit for our Hall of Fame in the Museum of the Air Force and the SAC Museum has not gone as planned but we are not giving up. With the help of our website consultant, Miriam Neel, who worked with the AF Museum to construct a displayable software program, we have the software ready to go but nowhere to show it. Mark Silliman is working with the AF Museum—it seems they might be holding off until the new missiles to space exhibit is finalized in a few years. We want them to put up the video display now. The SAC Museum has undergone a change in leadership and right now haven’t committed to the display. We’ll continue to push both. We talked about this being more of a “virtual Hall” so we have reached out to other missile museums such as Oscar Zero in ND, Oscar 01 in WY and the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site in SD to see if they have space for our video display. More on that in the months to come.
Sponsorship support: We will be reaching out to our corporate partners to seek sponsorship for 2026 in early January. If your company is interested in providing a sponsorship, please let me know.
National Meeting 2026: Registration is open for our National Meeting planned for 5-9 August 2026 at the Clarion Hotel in Minot, ND. I’ll be working hard over the next few months to firm up the speakers and will keep you posted. Most importantly, we’ll be honoring the second class of the Air Force Missileer Hall of Fame! You can find information on the hotel and meeting registration on the front page of our web site.
Titan II Memorial: Hopefully you followed the events that followed SrA David Livingston’s inclusion into our Hall of Fame. A young high school student in Damascus AR started a project to commemorate events surrounding the Damascus Titan II explosion. The recognition began with the unveiling of a street sign for Livingston earlier this year and will end with a state historic marker revealed this coming September. More details on the event will follow in the spring.
Every day I think of something else I should be doing to improve AAFM! If you have any ideas on what we should be doing better I would love to hear from you.
Wishing you and your family the Happiest of New Years and the continued success of our Association!
Sincerely,
Jim
James F. Warner
Executive Director
