August 2025 Newsletter
Worthy SKs of OLOG Assembly 2449:
I am writing today with four pieces of Assembly news.
First, it is with a heavy heart that I report that SK Dick Wade passed peacefully away at home early this morning with his family nearby. Dick was a former Faithful Navigator of our Assembly, long time member our Assembly, and long time active member of Valle De Oro Council 9332 for many decades. I spoke to SK Paul Michael, the WGK of Council 9332, and he told me as soon as Dick's final arrangements are made, he plans to request a Honor Guard for the services. SKs in regalia, and without regalia, are all welcome to pay their final respects. I will be in touch with details.
Second, attached to this email please find our Assembly newsletter for the month of August.
Third, please mark our next Assembly get together on your calendars for Friday, Sept 12 at Santa Sophia parish. We will have Mass at 6:30pm, dinner at 7pm, and our business meeting around 730 or 745pm. Hope to see you and your family there.
Last, I will be sending an email out to the Assembly early next week regarding member dues, and where the Assembly stands. Please keep and eye out for that email.
In Liberty,
---
Timothy R. Snowball, ESQ.
Faithful Navigator
Our Lady of Guadalupe Assembly - 2449
Southern California District
St. Junipero Serra Province
Knights of Columbus Fourth Degree
Life Programs Director - Valle de Oro Council 9332
619-368-8237
[email protected]
5294507
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This message and any attachments may contain confidential, proprietary or legally privileged information and is intended only for the use of the addressee or addressees named above for its intended purpose. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, this message constitutes notice that any review, retransmission, distribution, copying or other use or taking any action in reliance on the information in this message and its attachments, is prohibited. If you receive this communication in error, please immediately advise the sender by reply e-mail and delete this message and its attachments from your system without keeping a copy. Unless expressly stated in this e-mail, nothing in this message may be construed as a digital or electronic signature. Thank you.
I am writing today with four pieces of Assembly news.
First, it is with a heavy heart that I report that SK Dick Wade passed peacefully away at home early this morning with his family nearby. Dick was a former Faithful Navigator of our Assembly, long time member our Assembly, and long time active member of Valle De Oro Council 9332 for many decades. I spoke to SK Paul Michael, the WGK of Council 9332, and he told me as soon as Dick's final arrangements are made, he plans to request a Honor Guard for the services. SKs in regalia, and without regalia, are all welcome to pay their final respects. I will be in touch with details.
Second, attached to this email please find our Assembly newsletter for the month of August.
Third, please mark our next Assembly get together on your calendars for Friday, Sept 12 at Santa Sophia parish. We will have Mass at 6:30pm, dinner at 7pm, and our business meeting around 730 or 745pm. Hope to see you and your family there.
Last, I will be sending an email out to the Assembly early next week regarding member dues, and where the Assembly stands. Please keep and eye out for that email.
In Liberty,
---
Timothy R. Snowball, ESQ.
Faithful Navigator
Our Lady of Guadalupe Assembly - 2449
Southern California District
St. Junipero Serra Province
Knights of Columbus Fourth Degree
Life Programs Director - Valle de Oro Council 9332
619-368-8237
[email protected]
5294507
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This message and any attachments may contain confidential, proprietary or legally privileged information and is intended only for the use of the addressee or addressees named above for its intended purpose. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, this message constitutes notice that any review, retransmission, distribution, copying or other use or taking any action in reliance on the information in this message and its attachments, is prohibited. If you receive this communication in error, please immediately advise the sender by reply e-mail and delete this message and its attachments from your system without keeping a copy. Unless expressly stated in this e-mail, nothing in this message may be construed as a digital or electronic signature. Thank you.
August 2025 – Assembly Newsletter Our Lady of Guadalupe Assembly Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus
Assembly get togethers are held on the second Friday of every month. 6:30pm Mass, followed by dinner, and an Assembly Business Meeting.
Ladies, kids, and guests welcome!
Message of the Faithful Navigator
Worthy Sir Knights and Ladies,
As this past month has reminded me, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” Eccles 3:1.
My wife Melly and I received the Sacrament of Matrimony earlier this month after being civilly married last year. For me, getting a piece of paper from the state was nothing compared to receiving God’s grace and blessing for our union, family, and future. Thanks to those of you who were able to make it to the Mass, and after to our home.
But, as the Scripture above reminds us, God works through all things. The good, and the bad.
Police have identified the suspect who they say opened fire outside of a church at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, killing two children and injuring 18 others, as 23-year-old Robin Westman.
An 8-year-old boy and 10-year-old girl were shot and killed when the gunman fired through the windows of a church at the Annunciation Catholic School on Wednesday morning, police said.
The shooter died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said.
In the wake of such a tragedy, we search for meaning and solace through our faith. We pray for the dead and injured, and we search our hearts for meaning for the motives and sins of the perpetrator.
While I don’t have the hubris to attempt to give meaning to such an act, I can say that events like this make the work of the Fourth Degree, whose original purpose was to demonstrate the Catholic embrace of American ideals, all the more important.
There will always be hate in the world, but as the Master counsels us:
“I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Matt 5:44-45
I recently finished a biography of Blessed Fr. Michael J. McGivney called “Parish Priest,” which I highly recommend. Our founder’s life stands as a reminder that when facing a challenge, the goal is not necessarily to seek to reduce the challenge, but instead to work hard to meet it.
In Liberty:
Tim Snowball, Faithful Navigator
[email protected]
Assembly get togethers are held on the second Friday of every month. 6:30pm Mass, followed by dinner, and an Assembly Business Meeting.
Ladies, kids, and guests welcome!
Message of the Faithful Navigator
Worthy Sir Knights and Ladies,
As this past month has reminded me, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” Eccles 3:1.
My wife Melly and I received the Sacrament of Matrimony earlier this month after being civilly married last year. For me, getting a piece of paper from the state was nothing compared to receiving God’s grace and blessing for our union, family, and future. Thanks to those of you who were able to make it to the Mass, and after to our home.
But, as the Scripture above reminds us, God works through all things. The good, and the bad.
Police have identified the suspect who they say opened fire outside of a church at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, killing two children and injuring 18 others, as 23-year-old Robin Westman.
An 8-year-old boy and 10-year-old girl were shot and killed when the gunman fired through the windows of a church at the Annunciation Catholic School on Wednesday morning, police said.
The shooter died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said.
In the wake of such a tragedy, we search for meaning and solace through our faith. We pray for the dead and injured, and we search our hearts for meaning for the motives and sins of the perpetrator.
While I don’t have the hubris to attempt to give meaning to such an act, I can say that events like this make the work of the Fourth Degree, whose original purpose was to demonstrate the Catholic embrace of American ideals, all the more important.
There will always be hate in the world, but as the Master counsels us:
“I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Matt 5:44-45
I recently finished a biography of Blessed Fr. Michael J. McGivney called “Parish Priest,” which I highly recommend. Our founder’s life stands as a reminder that when facing a challenge, the goal is not necessarily to seek to reduce the challenge, but instead to work hard to meet it.
In Liberty:
Tim Snowball, Faithful Navigator
[email protected]
Monthly moment in U.S. History...
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project was directed by Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that designed the bombs.
Because of the complexity of an implosion-style weapon, it was decided that, despite the waste of fissile material, a full-scale nuclear test was required. Oppenheimer codenamed it “Trinity. “For the actual test, the weapon, nicknamed “the gadget,” was hoisted to the top of a 100-foot steel tower, as detonation at that height would give a better indication of how the weapon would behave when dropped from a bomber.
At 5:30am on July 16, 1945, the gadget exploded with an energy equivalent of around 20 kilotons of TNT, leaving a crater of trinitite (radioactive glass) in the desert 250 feet wide. The shock wave was felt over 100 miles away, and the mushroom cloud reached 7.5 miles in height. It was heard as far away as El Paso, Texas, so Groves issued a cover story about an ammunition magazine explosion.
On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress of the 393d Bombardment Squadron, lifted off from North Field with “Little Boy” in its bomb bay. Hiroshima, the headquarters of the 2nd General Army and Fifth Division and a port of embarkation, was the primary target, The bomb detonated at an altitude of 1,750 feet with a blast that was later estimated to be the equivalent of 13 kilotons of TNT. An area of approximately 4.7 square miles was destroyed.
Japanese officials determined that 69% of Hiroshima's buildings were destroyed and another 6–7% damaged. Early estimates were that 66,000 people were killed and 69,000 injured; later re-estimations that included people ignored by previous methods, like Korean slave laborers and additional soldiers, concluded there might have been 140,000 dead from the attack by December 1945
On the morning of August 9, 1945, the Bockscar, a second B-29 piloted by the 393d Bombardment Squadron's commander, Major Charles W. Sweeney, lifted off with “Fat Man” on board. The Fat Man was dropped over Nagasaki’s industrial valley. The resulting explosion had a blast yield equivalent to 21 kilotons of TNT, roughly the same as the Trinity blast, but was confined to the Urakami Valley, and a major portion of the city, including the city center, was protected by the intervening hills.
About 44% of the city was destroyed, and estimates of casualties range from 40,000 to 80,000 people killed and at least 60,000 injured. Overall, an estimated 35,000–40,000 people were killed and 60,000 injured.
While Japan announced its surrender on August 15, 1945, the political and cultural impacts of the development of nuclear weapons were, and continue to be, profound.
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project was directed by Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that designed the bombs.
Because of the complexity of an implosion-style weapon, it was decided that, despite the waste of fissile material, a full-scale nuclear test was required. Oppenheimer codenamed it “Trinity. “For the actual test, the weapon, nicknamed “the gadget,” was hoisted to the top of a 100-foot steel tower, as detonation at that height would give a better indication of how the weapon would behave when dropped from a bomber.
At 5:30am on July 16, 1945, the gadget exploded with an energy equivalent of around 20 kilotons of TNT, leaving a crater of trinitite (radioactive glass) in the desert 250 feet wide. The shock wave was felt over 100 miles away, and the mushroom cloud reached 7.5 miles in height. It was heard as far away as El Paso, Texas, so Groves issued a cover story about an ammunition magazine explosion.
On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress of the 393d Bombardment Squadron, lifted off from North Field with “Little Boy” in its bomb bay. Hiroshima, the headquarters of the 2nd General Army and Fifth Division and a port of embarkation, was the primary target, The bomb detonated at an altitude of 1,750 feet with a blast that was later estimated to be the equivalent of 13 kilotons of TNT. An area of approximately 4.7 square miles was destroyed.
Japanese officials determined that 69% of Hiroshima's buildings were destroyed and another 6–7% damaged. Early estimates were that 66,000 people were killed and 69,000 injured; later re-estimations that included people ignored by previous methods, like Korean slave laborers and additional soldiers, concluded there might have been 140,000 dead from the attack by December 1945
On the morning of August 9, 1945, the Bockscar, a second B-29 piloted by the 393d Bombardment Squadron's commander, Major Charles W. Sweeney, lifted off with “Fat Man” on board. The Fat Man was dropped over Nagasaki’s industrial valley. The resulting explosion had a blast yield equivalent to 21 kilotons of TNT, roughly the same as the Trinity blast, but was confined to the Urakami Valley, and a major portion of the city, including the city center, was protected by the intervening hills.
About 44% of the city was destroyed, and estimates of casualties range from 40,000 to 80,000 people killed and at least 60,000 injured. Overall, an estimated 35,000–40,000 people were killed and 60,000 injured.
While Japan announced its surrender on August 15, 1945, the political and cultural impacts of the development of nuclear weapons were, and continue to be, profound.
Recent Honor Guard Call Outs
If you are part of the Honor Guard, I thank you for your time and commitment and hope to see you at call outs soon. If you are a member of our Assembly interested in participating, and don’t yet have regalia, please let me or our Worthy Faithful Color Corps Commander Dan know.
This was a Garden of Innocence to honor three babies murdered through the horrors of abortion. If you have never been to a ceremony here, I highly recommend it. It's an experience you won't soon forget.
If you are part of the Honor Guard, I thank you for your time and commitment and hope to see you at call outs soon. If you are a member of our Assembly interested in participating, and don’t yet have regalia, please let me or our Worthy Faithful Color Corps Commander Dan know.
This was a Garden of Innocence to honor three babies murdered through the horrors of abortion. If you have never been to a ceremony here, I highly recommend it. It's an experience you won't soon forget.
This was a call out for the rosary and funeral Mass of fellow Knight Dr. Richard Reimann at Santa Sophia Parish.
We also had a call out and honor guard training at our officer installation earlier this month. Thanks to those who were able to make it out
Another very special event and call out was the first annual Mass and Rosary held at Guardian Angels Parish to honor the birth our founder Fr. Michael J. McGivney
Finally, we had a call out and Mass with Bishop Pulido at St. Pius X for the St. Pius X Feast Day celebration.
Thanks to all the SKs who help make our Assembly honor guard one of the most active in San Diego.
Thanks to all the SKs who help make our Assembly honor guard one of the most active in San Diego.
Communications
If you are celebrating a birhtday or anniversary this month, please let our Worthy Faithful Captain Nick know and we will make sure you get a drink ticket for our next get together! Congratulations!
Birthdays:
o Steven K Johnson
o Edwin E Broadhurst o Minh Q Do
o David M Hedley
o Shawn P Reidy
o Joseph A Leos
o Richard L Seymour
o Robert G Wilson
o Robert L Guarnotta o John A Trent
o Ronald V Piatkiewicz o Edgar A Gamboa
o Dagmar Barletta
o Judith Coppola
o Phyllis Ciesielski
o Natalie Vandiver
• Anniversaries:
o The Casters
o The Donderos
o The Misseys
o The Raineys
o The Barbats
o The Martinezs
o The Roseharts
o The Powers
o The Eyers
o The Laycocks
o The Coppolas
o The Mendezs
o The Thorntons
Request for Prayer
From WFN Tim:
“My mom, Tish, has been battling kidney disease-related issues for the past year. Most recently, she has had to be rished to the ER twice in the last month alone.
As it was explained to me (by a nurse much more knowledgeable about mediciane than I will ever be), when the kidneys don’t function properly, calcium can build up in the blood and put additional stress on the heart. As a result, blood pressure can rise to dangerous levels, and strangely, the heart rate can plummet.
Add in several other issues, incluidng diabetes, and it has been a trying time for our family. Mom is back at home now, resting and trying several new medications. I hope is that she won’t have to go on dialisis.
Prayers for Mom’s swift and sustained recovery are much appreciated.
May God’s blessings continue to shine down upon you and yours, and us all. Thanks.
Birthdays:
o Steven K Johnson
o Edwin E Broadhurst o Minh Q Do
o David M Hedley
o Shawn P Reidy
o Joseph A Leos
o Richard L Seymour
o Robert G Wilson
o Robert L Guarnotta o John A Trent
o Ronald V Piatkiewicz o Edgar A Gamboa
o Dagmar Barletta
o Judith Coppola
o Phyllis Ciesielski
o Natalie Vandiver
• Anniversaries:
o The Casters
o The Donderos
o The Misseys
o The Raineys
o The Barbats
o The Martinezs
o The Roseharts
o The Powers
o The Eyers
o The Laycocks
o The Coppolas
o The Mendezs
o The Thorntons
Request for Prayer
From WFN Tim:
“My mom, Tish, has been battling kidney disease-related issues for the past year. Most recently, she has had to be rished to the ER twice in the last month alone.
As it was explained to me (by a nurse much more knowledgeable about mediciane than I will ever be), when the kidneys don’t function properly, calcium can build up in the blood and put additional stress on the heart. As a result, blood pressure can rise to dangerous levels, and strangely, the heart rate can plummet.
Add in several other issues, incluidng diabetes, and it has been a trying time for our family. Mom is back at home now, resting and trying several new medications. I hope is that she won’t have to go on dialisis.
Prayers for Mom’s swift and sustained recovery are much appreciated.
May God’s blessings continue to shine down upon you and yours, and us all. Thanks.
Assembly 2449 2025-2026 Officers & Program Directors
Officers:
• Faithful Navigator: Tim Snowball
• Faithful Captain: Nick Coppola
• Faithful Friar: Fr. Minh
• Faithful Admiral: Ed Dondero
• Faithful Trustee (3): Pat McGowan
• Faithful Trustee (2): Dan Plein
• Faithful Trustee (1): Mike Marmolejo
• Faithful Pilot: Dave Lewis
• Faithful Scribe: Bill Hayes
• Faithful Color Corps Commander: Dan Plein
• Faithful Purser: Tom McGuire
• Faithful Comptroller: Jarrod Belprez
• Faithful Inner Sentinel: Robert Yslas, Jr.
• Faithful Outer Sentinel: Michael Green
Program Directors:
• MCRD Program: Ed Dondero
• Veteran’s Affairs – Luigi Zoni
• Flag Committee – Patrick McGowan
• Pyx Program – Dan Plein
• Regalia Program – Patrick McGowan
Officers:
• Faithful Navigator: Tim Snowball
• Faithful Captain: Nick Coppola
• Faithful Friar: Fr. Minh
• Faithful Admiral: Ed Dondero
• Faithful Trustee (3): Pat McGowan
• Faithful Trustee (2): Dan Plein
• Faithful Trustee (1): Mike Marmolejo
• Faithful Pilot: Dave Lewis
• Faithful Scribe: Bill Hayes
• Faithful Color Corps Commander: Dan Plein
• Faithful Purser: Tom McGuire
• Faithful Comptroller: Jarrod Belprez
• Faithful Inner Sentinel: Robert Yslas, Jr.
• Faithful Outer Sentinel: Michael Green
Program Directors:
• MCRD Program: Ed Dondero
• Veteran’s Affairs – Luigi Zoni
• Flag Committee – Patrick McGowan
• Pyx Program – Dan Plein
• Regalia Program – Patrick McGowan
