62nd IPCT REUNION
Below is a message from Steve Barton
MESSAGE CENTER
62nd IPCT REUNION
Below is a message from Steve Barton
May
16-20, 2003
What an absolutely wonderful time was had by all!
This year C.T. and Veronica (Ronnie) Hinely
hosted the group in Savannah Ga. What a great job they did!
In attendance were; Steve, Cindy, and Jessica Barton; Kay O and Mary Mills; Estel and Judy Matt; Raymond and Mary Everhart; C.T. and Ronni Hinely; Roger and Hilda Faulk;
Dave and Sharon Bodle; Ken and Liz Besecker;
Dick Baumer; Dean and Nancy Harwood; Bill and Zachery Casey; Leroy and Darlene Habel;
and two special guests, Dixie Whitman and Rita Jones.
Most people arrived on Friday and a couple on Saturday. We toured
downtown Savannah on Sat. afternoon and then met at CT and Ronnie’s at 4:00pm for our
reunion ceremony. This was a time to honor our fallen brothers and to recommit ourselves
to “Never Forget”. A hardy thanks goes to C.T. and Ronnie’s daughter
Jennifer for her beautiful rendition of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless America”.
As all of you who have served know, this was a very special and emotional time for all.
We also had the pleasure of meeting two very special Combat Tracker
advocates - Dixie Whitman and Rita Jones. These women have done a tremendous job of
raising money for the War Dogs Memorial at Fort Benning and increasing the recognition of
the contributions made by the Combat Trackers Units. They even lobbied Georgia’s
Governor to produce a proclamation recognizing our brave efforts! They wanted to join us
and say thank you and welcome us home, and these young ladies said it from the heart! They showered us with recognition gifts and most
amazingly recruited volunteers to write personalized welcome home letters to each and
every one of us! I know I speak for all that
were there – from the bottom of our hearts – THANK YOU Dixie and Rita.
We talked about a bunch of stuff, turns out some of us will make El
Paso, I don’t think all will be able to this year but maybe next year.
We all also wanted to thank Frank and Sue Merritt for the wonderful job
they have done with the web page, and we were able to raise 140 dollars through the sale
of the badges that they provided, so checks in the mail gang. Thanks again from all of us.