Our annual Military Ball will resume this year again and is scheduled to be on 9 December 2021 at the FWB Yacht Club. The dinner menu will be similar to the last Ball in December 2019. At that time we charged our members and guests $55 per person. This year we may have to up the price slightly due to the rise in costs of food, but we are waiting for the manager of the Yacht Club to give us his best estimate first. We will start placing the ticket order form in the Defender in October. Just a reminder: the dress for the men at the Ball is Mess Dress (if it still fits), formal, tuxedo or business suit. For the ladies it is Gown or Cocktail Dress.

The Band at our Ball will be the Purple Monkey. They are led by Vanessa Bond and are composed of five mostly retired or active military people, including Vanessa who was a test engineer in the Test Wing at Eglin. She has agreed to perform for four hours from the start of the social hour, through dinner, and after dinner dancing. They play all types of music, some Christmas music, and also patriotic like “God Bless the USA”. A good fit for our crowd. Vanessa has requested that we tell her what kinds of music we desire, and they will make an attempt to learn these songs before the Ball. So if anyone has any specific songs they would like to hear that night, please let us know by emailing me (Karl Eschmann, phanfix@cox.net) or Dick Solt at richdulce@aol.com .