The following letter, written by Mr. Clark King, owner and editor of the Ex-CBI Roundup, is scheduled to appear in the April 2008 issue of the magazine. In the February issue, Mr. King shared with his readers the state of the magazine and his intention to end the 61+ year run of the magazine with the July 2008 issue. (Click HERE to read the February 2008 letter.)
Since that time, there has been a groundswell of support for the magazine and it has been decided to attempt, through subscription renewals and donations, to continue the magazine for another year (through July 2009).
Below is Mr. King's letter that will appear in the April 2008 issue. Please address correspondence to the Roundup to:
Ex-CBI Roundup
35309 Lilac Lane
Winchester, CA 92596
Letter From the Editor- April 2008
During my time as your editor, there have been several themes running through many of the stories I have coordinated. The two that come immediately to mind are "The Forgotten Theater" and "CBI ingenuity". Since my piece entitled "Say It Ain't So" in the February issue, there has been a flurry of activity behind the scenes regarding the possible use of CBI ingenuity, at a time when it is sorely needed.
I knew my February message would set off some responses, and the CBI community surely did not disappoint me. I have received many messages of support, understanding, acceptance and encouragement, as well as thanks for continuing on with the Roundup this long. A number of you sent a nice check with your encouraging words, and I want to thank all of you who did that. What an amazing vote of encouragement and appreciation. Thank you all.
Then there have been a couple of gentlemen in the CBI community that simply didn't want to accept the inevitable. One in particular, Mr. Marty Oxenburg of Elkins Park, PA, has communicated with me and indicated that maybe we could try to break out some of that old CBI ingenuity in order to help the Roundup "soldier on" for awhile. Also offering encouragement in this regard would be Mr. Gary Goldblatt, like me, a concerned baby-boomer who wants to do whatever can be done to keep the Roundup going out each month to the Roundup community. Mr. Glenn Hensley also has been a "consultant" during these discussions, and has been one of my biggest supporters during my tenure with the magazine.
I told everyone in February that as far as I can forecast, the July 2008 issue would be the last one to fly into your mailboxes, and at the time I wrote that piece, that was what I believed to be the extent of what was possible. However, I never served in the CBI Theater, and therefore didn't have any firsthand knowledge of "CBI ingenuity". During recent discussions with Marty, Gary, and Glenn, perhaps we have hammered out a potential, at least partial solution to this situation. We know, we are confident, that the CBI community truly wants "their" magazine to continue, and truth be told, I want to continue as your editor.
Therefore, here is our tentative solution. The Roundup will continue to be published for one more year or for as long as sufficient operating funds are available; the annual subscription rate will increase by $5 to $30 and finally, we will for the first time encourage fund-raising and promotional activities. Marty is going to be the focal point of some active fundraising efforts on the Roundup's behalf. He is going to attempt to assemble a fundraising team and coordinate the team's active fundraising efforts. I must say that this has never been attempted in the history of the Roundup, other than perhaps my dad Dwight's efforts at flying all over the country and attending reunions to actively solicit new members to subscribe to the Roundup. Unique situations call for unique solutions, and as far as I can determine, this situation of so many CBI vets "going home" at the same time has never presented itself to any publication's subscriber base in the history of the publishing business. If anyone knows of such a precedent-please tell me. I'd love to know about it.
However, in another completely unprecedented move, the subscriptions will be "staggered", or "prorated", all to end at the same time, July 2009. That is, if you get a blue card in your Roundup in December of 2008, and you want to see the Roundup through to its conclusion, you can send in a check for $21, or $3 an issue for the remaining seven issues. It will be up to each subscriber to calculate his or her prorated amount and send that amount in. In this way, we will eliminate the situation where there will be anyone with remaining time on their subscription. That was my idea; maybe CBI ingenuity can rub off from father to son.
However, a caveat now. We do not know whether this will work or not. Fundraising efforts and normal subscriptions coming in may not be enough to bring us all the way through another year. Which reminds me of one of Dwight's lines when he offered lifetime subscriptions back in the 80's somewhere. He said, "Now, I don't know if that is for your lifetime, or mine." He was saying that you are taking your chances by becoming a "lifetimer", and when his lifetime was over- so was your subscription. From what I can see, you "lifetimers" all made out splendidly. I guess looking back, Dwight had no idea that we would be able to forge on as a group as we have these past 2 years. Well, I guess we fooled him, eh?
Our attempts at fundraising may get us down the road a few more months, or they may get us into July, 2009. We have looked closely at the mortality statistics of WWII veterans, and our feeling as a group is that another year of Roundup will simply be the outside of what is possible. And we want to attempt to get the Roundup there, as I love coordinating the Roundup every bit as much as you love receiving it, and it is our hope as a group that we can keep the China/Burma/India veteran's community connected through this magazine for one last "go-round". If we do, wonderful. If we can't, we can bask in the idea that we really, really tried.
So the bugle call is sounded once more. Not only does the Roundup's continued existence hinge upon your ability to dig down and subscribe one more time, or send a donation of some type, as a number of you already have (and thanks again), we also need approximately thirty more original Roundup stories in order to pull this bold plan off. Yes, I could recycle stories from the past, but that doesn't sound to me like a lot of fun, and I don't think many of you would be receptive to that either. No, we want to hear from real CBI veterans, perhaps those of you who haven't yet tried to send a story. And I know I can count on your "letters to the editor", as this is truly your forum for staying connected with one another.
The time is now. Don't wait. The sooner you send in your stories and that blue subscription renewal card with one last check, the better the chances are that we can all be together for one more year after July 2008. And if you get a call or email from Marty Oxenburg or one of his "helpers", don't be surprised.
There, that's our version of "CBI ingenuity". You CBI vets accomplished almost everything with practically nothing over in the Theater. Let's prove that we can all pull together and do it again. We certainly owe it to the legacy of the CBI Theater to try.
Mr. Clark King
April 2008
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