Troy’s Updates:
Our fourth annual reunion that was held in Branson on May7-11th was a huge success.
A lot of folks got there early and were already celebrating when I arrived (which was 0130 hours) and I had a chance to have breakfast with them on Sunday AM.
We had a great hospitality room and it was ours for all our meals and visitations as well as our Banquet so it really simplified things.
Sunday Eve, Kenny Parrot – a Singer at the Hotel came in on his off day and serenaded us with some great songs while we had a great meal – I got to hear some of those creaking knees as a few of our Brothers took their brides to the dance floor. It was a great way to start a reunion.
Pam Brown, of Gatherings Plus handled arranging the rooms, the purchasing of tickets for the different shows and lined up the shuttle buses to take us and bring us back. In my opinion, as well as 95% of all the attendee’s, she did a great job that was really above and beyond the call of duty. The food, and I mean EVERY meal was truly exceptional and the ladies who served us truly did an excellent job. All of us gave special acknowledgement to Jack Hamilton, an ex baseball player who also ran the kitchen for the Hotel, for providing such excellent cuisine. Heck, we even had SOS one morning and we were blown away.
Our Banquet also was a huge success. The food was great and I made a presentation to Austin Etheridge of a USMC Eagle Statue and one of our E 2 7 Challenge coins. Austin is an Easy Co. WW 2 Marine who fought in several Island campaigns and was severely wounded on Okinawa. He was the only Easy Co. WW 2 Marine who attended. I also presented Don Greenlaw and Chuck Tidwell with a USMC Eagle mounted on a pedestal with an inscription that acknowledged them for their service for helping with making sure that Notices for our Reunion was posted in numerous publications. The inscription also acknowledged them for their contribution to all Marines everywhere. Capt. Greenlaw personally gets up quite often at weird early morning hours to either welcome home returning Marines or to send off departing Marines back to Iraq. I guarantee you that is “above and beyond the call of duty”. And nobody knows how many truckloads of Care Packages that Chuck Tidwell has been responsible for, beiog sent to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. We should ALL be very proud of them for their service to their fellow Marines Mike Radford was our speaker and nearly everybody commented on how much they enjoyed his speech. Afterwards, a very good three-man band played really nice dance music and we partied till late-thirty. If Tim (my son) hadn’t turned off the lights (every night), I think some of them would still be dancing and toasting Chesty. EVERY night, after the shows, many of us would congregate in the hospitality room and really have a great time talking and sharing our experiences. Some even had a few drinks; not me, of course. Special THANKS was given by all to my son, Tim Watson who, as usual was indispensable to the success of our Reunion.
Some of the shows we attended were: THE PLATTERS; THE GLEN CAMPBELL/CHARO SHOW (and she was fabulous!); THE BALDKNOBBERS (everybody really enjoyed the entire performance) and a special treat on Sunday night was to get to go to a fifties-type show at the American Bandstand which was hosted by Bobby Vee and starring Fabian and many others.
I am working on getting our next reunion to be held in Quantico, VA on the first weekend next May – MARK YOUR CALENDARS (and start saving your money) because this next reunion will be, by far, the heaviest attended reunion and the most fun yet. The main attraction will be the Museum of the Marine Corps and going to Wash. to see the sights (to be finalized).
I am attaching an attendee’s list along with their addresses.
Generous contributions to support your E 2 7 website were made by the following Marines:
BOYCE CLARK, CHAUNCIE BUIE, JJ MILLER, DON GREENLAW, BARRY LIEBERMAN, LOUIS CHANNEY, CURTIS PARK and a contribution came in the mail from CLARK MINTER.
It was an honor and a pleasure to handle the logistics & planning for this Reunion as well as initially creating but now supervising our E 2 7 website, which, by the way has had over 19,000 visitors. It is a huge success and will be a lasting tribute to you and to our brothers who did not come home.
SEMPER FI, FRATER INFINITAS
(Always Faithful, Brothers Forever)
Troy Watson
May 17, 2006