I want to thank all of you who made the trip to Gatlinburg for the January meeting. We had a great turn-out and saw some members whom we haven’t seen in a while. Also, all who attended proved, once again, that they have outstanding land navigation skills by finding the Park Vista even though they were given the wrong grid coordinates.
I hope everyone had as good a time in Gatlinburg as I did. We had great support from the Park Vista, and we got a lot of business conducted at the meeting.
I want to tell you how the law of unintended consequences came into play as a result of the meeting. As you may remember, I was fortunate to get, at the auction, a just wonderful pair of fuzzy pink slippers, made by Chinese craftsmen, and at $20.00 – what a steal! On the ride back home I just couldn’t wait to try out my new slippers. As soon as we got home I put them on, and immediately our normally laid-back cat, Huey, attacked them viciously, with my feet inside. So...one of you may be lucky enough to get some great pink slippers, made by those Chinese craftsmen, at a future auction. Just ignore the cat tooth marks and enjoy.
` I hope to see everyone at the meeting in Asheville. It looks to be a good time, so make your reservations, and come ready to have another great meeting.
Sidney L. Morgan
President
Chapter XXXIII, SFA
Spring 2010 Edition 03/12/10
9-11 April 2010
Theodore Roosevelt
1. Chapter XXXIII, SFA will hold its Spring 2010 Quarterly Meeting on Friday-Saturday-Sunday,
9-11 April, 2010 at the Park Vista Hotel and Convention Center in Gatlinburg, TN. (See the attached Alert Order
at pages 24-26.) This is a very NICE hotel – those of you with Internet capability should go online to
check out the various amenities, which DO include a heated indoor pool which will be operational during our visit.
“El Sid”, our meeting host, has planned well: this weekend is Army Week at the Park Vista. In
addition to Chapter XXXIII, SFA there will be two other Army groups there: one from Fort Campbell (type of
group unknown) and a group from the Nashville Recruiting Battalion, so this affords us yet another opportunity to
show the great unwashed Army what couth, elan and esprit de corps really mean.
This meeting will also again include a formal (catered) dinner, so be sure to (once again) check out your green
blazer and regimental tie. Chapter members to help host this event are again sorely needed, and volunteers will
be greatly appreciated. (Contact any of the chapter officers to volunteer.)
PLEASE make your motel reservations as soon as possible -- the deadline for reservations at our negotiated rate is
January 8, 2010 -- and the deadline for providing a headcount for the dinner is January 12, so PLEASE also
send in your meeting registration forms (to Sid) so that we’ll know how many are attending. Hope to
see all of you there.
3. Chapter XXXIII’s Winter 2009 Quarterly Meeting held in Gatlinburg, TN on January 22-24, 2010 was well-attended: there were 27 officers and members present (at the business meeting). (The names of all members who attended are listed on the attached Minutes of the meeting.) All the formal business items are covered in the Minutes of the meeting located at pages 13-20 and the Treasurer’s Report is at pages 21–25. There’s also a brief description of the highlights of the meeting in the Chapter XXXIII, SFA article in the Spring 2010 edition of The DROP which is due out during the month of April. The highlight of the weekend was the chapter dinner on Saturday evening: the food was plentiful and good, and the decorations and presentation were outstanding. Following the meal, chapter President Sid Morgan presented Rose Marie Davies, widow of chapter member Herman S. Daves, with an SFA Memorial Plaque and a poster depicting a scene from Vietnam combat which had been signed by most of the chapter members. To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the granting of the charter (in December 1979) for Chapter XXXIII, Special Forces Association, Sid presented a framed listing of the names of the 16 charter members of the chapter to three of those members who were present at this meeting: Bert Bates, “Bull” Durham and Jim Hash. (Interestingly, of the 16 charter members, eight are still living, and seven of those are still members of the chapter.) These lists will be presented at future meetings to our charter members who couldn’t attend this one. As promised, the evening’s entertainment included another stellar performance by the acclaimed auctioneer team of Ponds and Shank (or sometimes Shank and Ponds) who succeeded in relieving all attendees of all their blank checks, spare change and remaining credit balances. Some lucky persons outbid all others for some really nice items: one (unnamed) individual skulked away with a really nice rifle that had been donated by Bill Long and certified to be a true heirloom by that renowned weapons expert (and retired PA) Paul Low. Others weren’t so fortunate: they ended up with other items (several of which were also donated by Bill Long) which included a truly UGLY voodoo doll sporting a large masculine appendage. (That doll is so gross that it’s been dispatched back to Haiti: they’ll know what to do with it!) BUT – a GOOD time was had by all.
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Copyright © 1994 Chapter XXXIII SFA. All rights Reserved.
Chapter XXXIII, SFA, The Larry Alan Thorne Special Forces Memorial Chapter
Newsletter was created March 2010
And last update August 2010