I would like to thank all of the attendees for their selfless participation this year at our reunion. You were all responsible for making this year’s reunion a very enjoyable experience for our organization. It may have been cold but on the days we were out it was nice, with the exception of the Spirit Cruise which was a bit chilly getting there and getting back but a fun time was had by all.
There was good food and entertainment during the river cruise. As those of you there saw we have some talent in our ranks, there were several of us who participated in the floor show which was very nice. The 17th Artillery Regimental Association joined the wreath laying ceremony at the Vietnam War Wall with Jim Sanders and Mike Burke joining me in placing our wreath at the base of the Wall.
The guest speaker really drove home the idea that WE “The Vietnam Veterans'” HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE. The scholarship program is set to be completed again this year. I have lots of requests come in for the application and I have a voting board which will do the selecting from our applicants. They are: Richard Flowers, Rod Gurrero, Alan (Ray) Kaufman, James (Jim) Sanders, and Donald Brooks. I thank them for taking on this very important task this year.
There were lots of familiar faces missing this year but I am sure we will see them next year at Fort Sill . We filled the Secretary and Treasurer positions again this year at our general membership meeting. Jack Picciolo was re-elected to the position of Secretary/Historian, and Rich Siebe was re-elected to the position of Treasurer for the Association. Along with those positions being filled the vacant position of Chaplain for the 17th Artillery Regimental Association was filled by Richard Smith. It was an easy choice Richard had a background of such work and will officially fill that position for us. We now are looking forward to our next big reunion in 2009.
We will be returning to the roots of where the 17th Artillery Regimental Association was established back in 1999. This all took place at Fort Sill Oklahoma ; this will be our 11th annual reunion and our 10th anniversary. This reunion will give us all a chance to select a brand new President for the Association. It will be the beginning to our next ten years as a great organization.
All of the information for our big tenth anniversary reunion will be forthcoming on the website. Hope to see all of you at Fort Sill next year.
P.S. I have a number of pictures that attendees have sent me, and a copy of the CSPAN CD of the entire ceremony. If you are interested in a copy of both, send me your name and address and I will be glad to see you get a copy.
Jack (TOJ) Stroud
The following pictures were taken at the reunion (Click On An Image To See Full Size).
