Date Published: 05/06/2026
MAY LEADERSHIP/SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS DINNER
The biggest Chapter meeting of the year is Thursday, May 21, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. at the Oasis Country Club, on Casbah and East Hovley in Palm Desert. This is our JROTC Leadership and Scholarship Awards evening. We will be giving out $12,000 worth of scholarships this year to four lucky seniors from LaQuinta High School Air Force JRTOC and Desert Hot Springs High School United States Marine Corps JROTC. Each scholarship awardee will receive a $3,000 scholarship from the Coachella Valley Chapter of MOAA. These scholarships are the CW4 Robert Ramirez, COL Samson, Hunter Lopez and CPT John and Celeste Schleimer Scholarships. The Chapter will also award two junior high school JROTC cadets from each high school with a leadership award.
This year the event has a major change. We are having our function in the early evening at 5:30 p.m., to allow all parents an opportunity to attend and see their child either get an award, scholarship or perform the Presentation of Colors or the Missing Man Table Ceremony.
We have a terrific buffet menu of pulled pork with BBQ sauce, grilled Bratwurst Sausages, BBQ chicken, potato salad, pasta salad, cole slaw, baked beans, rollls, dessert, ice tea or lemonade to drink. The no-host bar will be open. The cost is only $45 a person. Please email LTC Alan Tibbetts at
Dress is business attire.
SUMMER MEETINGS
The Coachella Valley Chapter of MOAA goes dark between June through October. However, the Chapter members who remain in the desert enjoy meeting once a month. Last year, they met at Burgers and Beer in the small meeting room which is located in the LaQuinta Costco shopping area. Members order off the menu and receive a Veterans discount. This worked out well, so it has been re-scheduled there for this summer on the third Thursday of each month:
Thursday, June 18, 2026
Thursday, July 16, 2026
Thursday, August 20, 2026
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Each month, a reminder will be sent out to Chapter members.
OCTOBER MEETING - PALM SPRINGS AIR MUSEUM
The first meeting of the year is Thursday, October 15, 2026. The Palm Springs Air Museum has invited our Chapter to the Museum to have our meeting at their facility. The guest speaker will be the PS Air Museum Director, Fred Bell. Then after the meeting, two of our Chapter members, LTC Alan Tibbetts and MAJ Pete Fleury will give us a tour of the museum. More information will be sent out this summer.
MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE TOUR - OCTOBER 22, 2026
EXCITING NEWS! The March Air Force Reserve Base Tour and the March Field Museum has been rescheduled for Thursday, October 22, 2026. The cost is $95 a person to include transportation to and from the Sams Club in Palm Desert, tour of the base, lunch and admission into March Field Museum. For those that would like to just meet the bus at March AFRB, the cost for lunch and museum will be $50. Look for further details soon, but mark your calendar today.
MEMBER OF THE MONTH - COL KATHLEEN O’REGAN, USAF, (RET.)
Col Kathleen O’Regan, USAF, (Ret.) became a Chapter member in 2025. Last November, she was instrumental in raising over $6,000 for JROTC scholarships at our two local high schools through the Veterans Day Silent Auction held at Trilogy LaQuinta.
Kathleen attended Officers Training School at San Antonio, TX and received her commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in Feb 1981. During her 26 1/2 years in the Air Force she was stationed to nine locations that included Ballistic Missile Officers at Norton AFB, Systems Command at Andrews AFB, three assignments to Space and Missile Systems Center at LAAFB, SAF,AQ and AFPEO/Space at the Pentagon, and Space Command HQ’s at Peterson AFB, Colorado.
Her first ten years were spent in the Comptroller field as a budget officer, cost analyst and cost estimator reaching certified Level III in the Financial Management Acquisition Professional Development Program, the highest level of certification.
Kathleen then changed career fields and became an Acquisition Program Manager working as Chief Strategic Planning Officer performing studies and analyses for AF Systems Command to support weapons acquisitions totalling $34B per year as a Captain. She had three assignments at Space and Systems Center at LAAFB developing monthly and quarterly acquisition reports for senior Pentagon executives and ASD as a Captain; chief of Atlas Management Division as a Major; Chief of Defense Meteorlogical Satellite Program as a Lt. Col.; served as Deputy Director Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Program Operations, and Vice Commander of Launch and Range Systems Wings as a Colonel.
She was also Chief of Congressional Affairs for SAF/AQ at the Pentagon preparing the Secretary of the Air Force and senior Air Force Acquisition officers with presentations to defend AF RDT&E and procurement budgets to Congress as a Lt. Col.
At Space Command Hqs at Peterson AFB, she was the Chief of Spacelift Division responsible for leading a 22 person division in defining ops requirements for $24B in new space life vehicles and modernizing ranges at the Cape and Vandenberg AFB as a Colonel select.
Kathleen was a graduate of Air Command Staff College in Montgomery, AL and graduate of the Senior Acquisition Course at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in DC where she received a Masters of Science in National Resource Strategy June1999.
She retired as a Colonel in June 2007 and was awarded the Legion of Merit for her last assignments at the Space Missile Center covering the EELV program as Vice Wing Commander of Launch and Range.
MEMORIAL WEEKEND IN THE COACHELLA VALLEY MAY 23-25, 2026
REMEMBER AND HONOR
“Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it…. It flies with the last breath of each soldier who dies protecting it.”
Memorial Day is the of remembrance of those patriots who died while serving our country in the U.S. military. Here are some of the activities you might want to attend honoring those individuals,
1. Palm Springs Air Museum Flower Drop and Air Fair (May 25) Features a 1 p.m. ceremony with 5,000 red and white carnations dropped from a B-25 Bomber, plus flight exhibitions and music. It opens at 10:00 am.
2. Coachella Valley Public Library Cemetery District Ceremony (May 25) an annual ceremony with a 9 am flyover, wreath presentations, rifle volleys and choir performances in Coachella.
3. City of Indian Wells Memorial Day Ceremony (May 25): 9 am at the Indian Wells Golf Resort, featuring patriotic music and a flyover.
4. Cathedral City Memorial Day Luncheon (May 25) 12 pm at Cimarron Golf Resort honoring veterans and local leaders.
5. Forest Lawn Cathedral City Memorial Day Ceremony (May 25): 10 am - Morning ceremony held at 69-855 Ramon Road. The program will take place in the Chapel.
6. Desert Hot Springs Veterans Park, 9:00 am (May 25): Presentation of Colors by the DHSHS USMC JROTC
JUNE CALENDAR OF EVENTS
June 6 - D-Day
June 14 - Flag Day and US Army birthday (1775)
June 16 - CVC-MOAA Luncheon at Burgers and Beers
June 21 - Father’s Day
June 27 - National PTSD Awareness Day
VA RESOURCES
For any questions or requests, 1-800-698-2411
Veterans Crisis Line: 988 and press 1, chat, or text 838255
Vet Centers: 1-877-927-8387
Homeless Veteran Resources - 1-877-424-3838
THE ORIGINS OF ‘TAPS’ BY PHYLLIS SKIRVIN, PhD
The origins of “Taps”. The distinctive bugle melody played at U.S. military funerals and memorials and as a lights-out signal to soldiers at night, dates back to the American Civil War. “During the Peninsular Campaign in 1862, a soldier of Tidball’s Battery A of the 2nd Artillery was buried at a time when the battery occupied an advanced position concealed in the woods. It was unsafe to fire the customary three volleys over the grave, on account of proximity of the energy and it occurred to Captain Tidball that the sounding of “Taps” would be most appropriate ceremony that could be substituted.”
Dissatisfied with the standard bugle call employed by the Army to indicate to troops, it was time to go to sleep, and thinking the call should sound more melodious, Brigidier General Daniel Butterfield reworked an existing bugle call used to signal the end of the day. After he had his brigade bugler, Private Oliver Wilcox Norton to play it for the men. Buglers from other units became interested in the 24 note tune and it quickly spread throughout the Army and even caught on with the Confederates.
As for the name “Taps,” the most likely explanation is that it comes from the fact that prior to Butterfield’s bugle call, the lights-out call was followed by three drum beats, dubbed the “Drum taps” as well as “The Taps” and then simply “Taps.” When Butterfield’s call replace the drum beats, soldiers referred to it as “Taps,” Although this was an unofficial moniker, according to “Taps” historian and bugle expert Jari Villanueva. He notes that Butterfield’s bugle call was officially known as “Extinguish Lights” in American military manuals until 1891. Since that time, “Taps” also has been formally recognized part of U.S. military funerals.
Today at the Berkeley Plantation, the historic estate located at Harrison Landing, there’s a monument commemorating the originals of “Taps” at the site. Berkeley Plantation also happens to be the birthplace of Benjamin Harrison V, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and William Henry Harrison, the nation’s ninth president.
Many believe “Taps” is a song, but officially it is not. “Taps” is a bugle call which is a signal, not a song. After the Civil War, “Taps” became an official bugle call. Even though it’s a bugle signal, many started putting words to “Taps”. Below are words to “Taps”, not official, but popular
Day is done, gone the sun,
From the hills, from the lake, from the skies.
All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.
Go to sleep, peaceful sleep, may the soldier
Or sailor; God keep. On the land or the deep. Safe in sleep
Love, good night, must thou go,
When the day; and the night need thee so?
All is well. Spendthrift all to the rest.
Fades the light;
And aware goeth day;
And the stars shineth bright.
Fare thee well;
Day has gone, night is one.
Thanks and praise, for our days.
‘Neath the sun, ‘neath the stars, ‘neath the sky;
As we go, this we know, God is nigh.
It behooves us to remember those who have served and those who are still serving and the many sacrifices they and their families have been and are making. God Bless America!