Reunion

Remembrance Day 2004 was a huge success. It officially started at 10:00 AM with the Sea Cadets presenting the colors, the singing of “The National Anthem” and an opening prayer. It ended at 10:00 PM with a bonfire still glowing and a rock band still going on our makeshift stage (flatbed trailer). In the middle were a lot of ceremony, lots of good food and 4 great bands playing. We had a dedication ceremony officially proclaiming the tree-shaded hill behind the post as “Founder’s Hill” with a number of our Charter Members attending. Dr. Bob from KKLH was on hand to take dedications from family members with overseas troops, to be played on his Sunday morning show, and then sent to the troops not able to be with us. We had a live remote radio show and a TV interview for later broadcast. We had lots of representation from the local military establishment and booths set-up including a couple of military vehicles.

The kids liked looking at the “Hum-Vee” and participating in the “obstacle course” set up by the Young Marines and the “water war” that ensued. The kids had a great time running around the 24 park-like acres that is part of our post property.

The Ladies Auxiliary had a tent set up selling Post 639 t-shirts, hats and raffle tickets for the big drawings. They gave away a ton of prizes including mirrors, clothing and of course the grand drawing for a “peace quilt”. Everyone that participated in these events came away a winner in some way, shape or form.

Food service included hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs and barbequed chicken dinners including all the fixin’s that was provided for a nominal amount by our friendly catering service. In addition to the food, we had plenty of tap beer (a whole semi trailer load) available in the parking lot provided by Budweiser. Inside the post we also had a full service bar, pool and lots of music (four hours of Karaoke) to keep everyone entertained. Saturday was pretty windy, but our friends at the Air National Guard flew a Huey and landed it on the hill in front of the post. It was left on display for a couple of hours and the pilot and co-pilot spent most of that time answering questions from children of all ages. They especially took a good deal of time talking with our most honored guests from the Mount Vernon Veterans Home. The excitement reached a peak when the helicopter took off and then did a low level fly-by. There is something really special about the noise made by a Huey flying low, and you should have seen the grins on the veterans’ faces when it happened.

We would like to report that at the end of the day everyone had a great time and there were absolutely no negative incidents that had occurred. Post members and their families and people that had never been to the post before all commented about how much fun they had and wanted to know if we were going to do it again next year. OK, they talked us into it and we are now planning on making this an annual event the weekend before Memorial Day. It was decided to wait until the next newsletter to officially thank all the people that worked so hard on this event, so we wouldn’t leave anyone out and give all that participated proper credit.