your views
Commanding Respect
Thank you, Military Officer, for your great history lesson on Army Command Sgt. Maj. Basil Plumley, especially his role in 1965 [“A Soldier Dies,” Pages of History, February 2013]. I was 14 years old, living just outside Fort Benning, Ga., and very aware of Vietnam as my father, Staff Sgt. William W. Black, was a mortar platoon sergeant with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam. While I didn’t know Command Sergeant Major Plumley, I knew that my dad had a tremendous respect for his fellow noncommissioned officers, and he instilled that respect in me. At my commissioning in 1972, he said, “Always listen to your sergeants.” I did. It worked.
— Col. William McKinney Black, USA (Ret) Malvern, Ark.
Gift Tax Omission
I am not a tax expert, but from reading IRS publications 950 and Instructions for IRS Form 709, it seems to me that you should add a qualification to the comments at tax issue No. 5 in February’s Military Officer [“8 Tax Issues to Watch”]. Specifically, any gift amount over $13,000, while eligible for taxation, may not actually be taxed. Gifts over the $13,000 threshold require reporting on form 709 but, unless current year gifts plus previous gifts during the donor’s lifetime total more than the Unified Credit amount ($5,120,000 for 2013), no taxes will be owed.
— Lt. Col. Bob Derr, USAF (Ret) Yukon, Okla.
Lt. Col. Shane Ostrom, USAF (Ret), CFP®, replies:
You are correct. It was an oversight on my part that I didn’t complete the story on the gift tax annual and lifetime exclusion. A person has a lifetime exclusion of $5.12 million in 2012 and $5.25 million in 2013. If you exceed the annual exclusion amount ($13,000 for 2012 or $14,000 for 2013), you can use your lifetime exclusion to not pay the gift tax. You still have to file for amounts over the annual exclusion, but payment is optional using the life-time exclusion. Exhausting the lifetime exclusion requires payment of gift tax.
Typhoon Tale
I read with interest the article “Weather Warriors” in the January issue. What most caught my eye was the mention of “Halsey’s Typhoon.” My father-in-law, Navy Lt. Cmdr. John H. “Jack” Stahle, experienced this typhoon as commander of the destroyer escort USS Waterman (DE-740). Interestingly, his brother-in-law Vincent P. “Vin” Finigan was his communications officer on the ship. This fierce storm battered the fleet for 36 hours.
A portion taken from the Waterman’s deck log read, “The ship rolled constantly over 45 degrees and at one time the inclinometer registered a roll of 63 degrees. However, this is not felt to be entirely accurate because of the pendulum movement of this type of inclinometer.” It was stated at the time that the amount of damage done to the American fleet by the typhoon was as much as they could have expected during a major encounter with the Japanese.
A few years back when I asked Vin Finigan whether he was scared during this typhoon, he stated he does not remember being scared, due to the fact that they were all very busy and too young to be scared.
— Col. Joseph L. Sigala, USA (Ret) Escondido, Calif.
For submission information, see page 6.
20 MILITARY OFFICER APRIL 2013
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