South East Region


“Hey Ya’ll!” Welcome to the South East Region!

Welcome to the South East Region (SER) of the Society of Air Force Nurses (SAFN).  The SER is the largest of the regions across the United States and our membership comes from four chapters in Florida (Space Coast, Tampa/St Pete, Jacksonville, Panhandle), South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama.  Florida has 57% of the SER membership (252) at 143, SC has 43, NC has 13, GA has 21 and AL has 13.  Our Chapter Coordinators are your points of contact in your areas of the SER, see their links at the homepage.

Florida:

  • Space Coast: Eileen Goretski
  • Panhandle: Marsha Cannon
  • Jacksonville: Conny Egan
  • Tampa/St Petersburg: Marsha Jordan

South Carolina: Donna Hudson

North Carolina: Ann Burns

Georgia: Rob Groves

Alabama: Kathy Wagner

Memorial Representative: Linda Stierle

Outreach Coordinator: Marsha Jordan

Regional Director:
Charlie Tupper

The past six years SER has been under the leadership of Frank Thornburg, as of the Nashville TN Convention, Frank passed the “stick” to Charles Tupper and Charlie was officially installed as SER Director at our Banquet on 27 August.  Our heartfelt thanks go out to Frank (and his wife Peggy for all her support) for all his efforts to build the SER and stay in contact with our membership over the years. Frank remains a member of the SER of SAFN, and we will certainly not be shy to reach out for advice and counsel.

As we look ahead to the next couple of years, we will keep our plans for “Christmas at the Biltmore” on hand for November 2022. A ton of hard work was done in preparation for the event which was supposed to have been in November 2020.  The Biltmore is a beautiful estate, gardens and vineyard and the membership will enjoy the lighting and decorations at the estate during the holiday season, Asheville NC is a charming community with lots of good restaurants, art museums and sights to see.

We also need to work on membership and sustainment of our current membership.  New member activity is essential for the longevity of the Society and there are many active duty, Guard, Reserve and retired or separated NC officers out there to connect within this region.  Additionally, our current members need to feel there is an advantage to sustaining membership.  The Society motto is “Still Caring…Still Sharing” and the Society is built on three pillars: Outreach, Memorial and Socializing. We need to keep track of our members and remember them when they are gone but we also need to celebrate the relationships we have made over the years.

Please feel free to reach out at southeastdirector@safn.org


Report on the Southeast Regional Meeting, 6 – 9 November 2022

The Southeast Regional meeting was held in beautiful Asheville, North Carolina 6 – 9 November 2022. Thirty-seven (37) members and guests were in attendance and enjoyed the location and the camaraderie of friends getting together to re-engage, to “share and care”.

The first day started with check-in at the Hospitality Room, followed by a nice icebreaker on the top floor of the hotel, overlooking the mountains and a beautiful sunset. The hotel staff were attentive and provided some amazing food selected by our planning committee. The Hospitality Room was available throughout the meeting with snacks, drinks, and a place to sit and talk.

The first full day started with a Trolley Tour of Asheville. We had a rather animated driver and tour guide that was very familiar with the history of the town and of the music of the area. He made the trip very interesting and it gave our members a visual layout of the town and places they really needed to go.

After a “lunch on your own”, the members boarded a bus to Biltmore Estate for dinner and a Christmas‑light tour of the Biltmore Estate. The grand old mansion (the castle!) was beautifully decorated and the tour went well. Lots of stairs and walking … good way to end the day.

Tuesday started with a SER Business Meeting that went through to about noon and was followed by a nice lunch before members headed out to Antler Hill for shopping, wine tasting, and more exploration of the Biltmore Estate.

Peggye Thornburg opened up the meeting with the National Anthem, followed by an invocation by Frank Thornburg.  SER Director, Charlie Tupper gave a “Welcome” presentation and a short slide show. Kay Fryman reported for SAFN National (for Kathy Reynolds) and Charlie followed with a Regional Report and discussed membership, sustaining the organization, and future meetings both National and Regional. Chapter coordinator reports by those present (Marsha Cannon, Eileen Goretski, Conny Egan, Donna Hudson were made and we reported on Chapters where the coordinators were not able to attend.

Charlie went on to sincerely thank the planning committee:  Carol Becker, Eileen Goretski, Cindylee Willard, Lenora McCall, and Cynthia Semones. These members planned and set up the original 2020 meeting with Frank Thornburg and then had to put it on hold for COVID. They all stood up and volunteered to come back and make it happen all over again. The team met several times by ZOOM and coordinated the hotel, travel, tours, dinners, food choices set up for meetings and decorations, and a really fun raffle with some great prizes for the members!

SER Members filled out an “End of Tour Report” for future meeting locations and the top choices include St Augustine FL, Pensacola FL, Myrtle Beach SC, (Tie) Charleston SC, Augusta GA, and Helen GA. A survey will go out to members for a final decision.  Overall comments for the meeting were positive with some great suggestions that will certainly be incorporated into the 2024 Regional Meeting.

If you weren’t able to attend…we missed you, but we certainly understand. It has been a rough few years for group meetings, but do work hard in your chapters to get together for lunch and continue to keep “sharing and caring” … it is what we do!

2024 Potential Meeting Sites:

St Augustine FL

Pensacola FL

Myrtle Beach SC

Charleston SC

Augusta GA, 

Helen GA



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