History
of the Bahia Patrol
This
Unit was organized as a precision drill team for the purpose of competing with
other Shrine Patrols. It marches in parades and performs escort duty for the
Potentate, Divan, and honored guests at Shrine functions.
Unit meetings are held at Julian’s Restaurant in Ormond Beach.
One
of Bahia’s original three Units in 1954, it met every Thursday at the Davis
Armory for drill practice. First
meeting and formation of the Unit was 7-15-54 attended by 42 Nobles of which
approximately 25 formed a branch of the Unit in Daytona Beach.
The Daytona Patrol branch held drills every Thursday night at Exposition
Park in Daytona - 1955 Captain was John Myers. In 1957, the Orlando and Daytona members began meeting in Sanford on the
2nd and 4th Mondays to practice drills as a unit.
In 1961, the Unit was meeting on the 4th Thursdays in the
Orlando area one month and the Daytona area the next.
Captain Sid Blair was elected President of the S.E.S.A. Patrol Association
for 1967-1968. In 1970, the Unit
seemed to have fallen into a state of apathy, and many members started dropping
out ultimately resulting in a re-organization of the Patrol in 1972.
The
1972 Potentate Bob Voegele appointed Col. T.W. Hilliard to take over the Patrol
and re-organize, re-vamp, and bring it up to full strength.
The effort started on May 17th with two members from the
former Patrol and by June 10th, the membership was 15.
The first new Captain was Col. T. W. Hilliard, and he named the new Unit
the Al-Laymoon Patrol which received its new charter on December 1, 1972, at its
Charter Party held at Julian’s Tropics. (In
Arabic, Al-Laymoon means The Citrus; since Bahia was in Florida’s citrus belt,
the name seemed appropriate.) In
1974, Potentate Tommy Tomlinson, during the Second Section of the Fall
Ceremonial held at Disney Worlds’s Contemporary Hotel, presented then interim
Captain Bruce Thomas with a new charter renaming the Unit the “Bahia
Patrol.”
Noble Bruce Thomas was President the Southeastern Shrine Patrol Associations in 1983, later was President of the Florida Shrine Patrol Association, and subsequently became Bahia’s Potentate in 1986.