Reunion in July

05/28/10 1201 hours

Guys-

Our reunion’s less than two months away — it’s time to start getting ready for some serious re-connecting and remembering.

I know I’m not alone in feeling my wind knocked out by Smitty’s death last month, but as many of you have said, he would have wanted us to carry on. So I’m coming to San Antonio to share a toast with you to Smitty and our other brothers who fell in battle or have died since. But I’m also planning to party hearty with you guys. Who knows when our next chance will be?

Since my last message I’ve talked with several people. Maynard Sinclair’s doing better and really looking forward to the reunion. His daughter Samantha (soon to be a dentist) will accompany him. She’s giving up a long-planned vacation to Hawaii to come to San Antonio with her dad — she says it’s a matter of priorities and Hawaii can wait.

I also talked again with Larry Ballard, who has tracked down Johnny Traylor (who may attend the reunion.) Larry sent along this photo of a group of us at Con Thien:

I called Gary Hoopman, who has a flooring business with his son in upper Minnesota. Gary’s been married 23 years, with two kids and six grandkids. He’s going to retire in July, and then do plenty of hunting and fishing (he’s done guiding all his life.) Gary’s stayed in touch with Jim Borgh (Gary, please send me his phone number.)

I had a great conversation with Walt “Phil” Philbin. You might remember from Smitty’s e-mails that Walt retired not long ago as an ace crime reporter in New Orleans (he also covered Hurricane Katrina.) He hopes to attend the reunion, driving to San Antonio since he doesn’t like to fly.

I also heard from Bob Hommer, who has made several efforts to track down Linwood Thompson, so far without success.

As most of you know, Smitty’s sisters Christine and Ellen are coming, along with nieces Christine and Olivia. I’m looking forward to sharing pictures and stories with them.

It will be great to see all of you!

Best and Semper Fi,

-Alan

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Eric Smith & Reunion

My name is Christine Smith and I am Eric’s little sister.
I’ve been reading and hearing about the reunion in San Antonio.

04/29/10 1547 hours

Christine:

Rod and Alan are right on with their comments.

You better be there!!!!! Smitty was “walking point” for this reunion….it was going to revolve around him….that’s his personality with us……so you have no choice….we will bring our picture’s, etc….

Semper Fi,

Bruce Continue Reading »

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Joe Cooper – LZ Margo

“I think you and I and maybe someone else shared a very small and very shallow hole at LZ Margo with a guy named Cooper who i remember as a forward observer, who caught a wound in the ass from the shrapnel either while in our hole or he dove in the hole with us right after getting hit.

I remember trying to console him after the shit stopped, telling him he had a million dollar wound (though not knowing what the f i was talking about) and then I remember with another Marine holding him up and helping him walk to the DMZ past all the body-bags because we were going to get our wounded out first, no matter how long it took, even if it meant sleeping overnight with our dead bodies in the body bags by the LZ, which I think we did.

– Walt Philbin

10/05/08 2219 hours

Continue Reading »

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