: Tom F. and his First Lady had the room ready to
: go at the hotel. Not even the fire alarm
: slowed us down. That will be a whole other
: story.

Typical crewbum solution to the immediate situation. 20 guys sitting in a room, starting to eat, fire alarm bell starts clanging. Does any one of them go see if the solution is to put out the fire? No... the solution that occurs first to everyone in the room is to silence the bell. Problem solved. munch munch munch slurp slurp

: Getting to meet Dave Fogg and shake
: his hand was almost to much. Bob K. Shakey
: and Kraz was my moral support as I bounced
: around trying not to miss a beat. Shoofly
: and Pappy were great and the call from BT
: almost completed the evening. Being able to
: talk to Mark for the first time in person at
: times were to much to handle.

Amen, Ron. The VHCMA suite was a great way to hook up; anybody who hasn't gotten around to joining, take a look and c'mon in. Newsletters, directories, reunions, good folks, a thousand other reasons.

: It was only fitting to visit "The
: Wall" on Friday in the rain. It was a
: sobering experience and the rain just added
: to it.

I think we'd probably have been there in a blizzard or a typhoon.

: The afternoon was spent in our room
: trying to rid the city of their Miller Lite
: supply and fill in some of the blanks which
: all of us have. Mark, the time we spent
: together talking about Marty can never be
: replaced.

What a great day. Just laying back on our own and catching up, it was great.

: I'm sorry I missed saying good-by to Shoo and
: Pappy. Hope you had a good trip home. After
: our trip to Arlington we stopped to check
: out the Cav guys and have "A"
: beer. Stopping for "A" beer with
: Bob, Shakey and Kraz is the reason I
: remember why I don't drink. We made it
: through it and had a great time talking to
: many strangers that made us feel at home.

(You are a true professional, Ron. I knew you could handle it, and you did.)

There was a 36-yr-old Apache pilot who just happened to be sitting there with a pal of his. They were intending to leave a few minutes after we arrived. When the conversation started, the two of them decided to stay, and they did, for as long as we did.

: The Cav dinner is beyond any words that I can
: write. All I can say is it was something
: very special and you had to be there.

The four of us joined Larry Gwin and his wife at the Ia Drang survivors' dinner on Saturday night. It is a unique experience that we were privileged to be invited to share with them. That men like them return our respect for their service in kind is a real honor.

: My wife wants to thank everyone for me keeping
: her up untill 2:00 am this morning with all
: of my stories. We both had to get up at 5:30
: to get to work. She also wants to know why
: all of my stories start with the phrase,
: "This ain't no
: S--t, or "You won't believe this,
: but". Heard too many good war stories
: this weekend to get that out of my head.
: All I can say is we have to do this again. It
: might take me untill the end of the month to
: recover and catch up on the sleep I lost but
: it was well worth it.

And our time at Arlington National Cemetery was amazing, also.

The whole thing, the places, the people, the experiences, would restore your faith in our people and our country.

: Thanks guys! This was the welcome home I never
: got 35 years ago.

: Ron

It was one heck of a few days. I never figured, 35 years ago, that there was any chance we'd ever get hooked up again, anywhere, let alone for a few days in DC like this. Wow.

Thanks,
Bob