Index to Larry Alan Thorne Special Forces Memorial Chapter 33 Spring Chapter Meeting

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Spring Chapter Meeting – April 2010

Asheville, North Carolinae

9 - 11 April 2010



Bill Long, the host for this Spring Chapter meeting, elected to return to our old stompin’ grounds, The Days Inn at the Mall of Asheville on Tunnel Road. The actual dates for the meeting were 9-11 April (Friday-Sunday) but some of the wiser members of this chapter opted to arrive a day earlier so they could spend all day Friday touring the sights and sounds of Black Mountain and Old Towne Asheville.

For those of you who have been to our meetings on Tunnel Road but have never drove the short, 15 miles east on Highway 70 to Black Mountain, have missed a rather unique small town. A tourist town, yes, but not the run-of-the-mill tourist town. There are really only three streets (and a couple of side parks) that attract the attention of the visitor. There are the Iron Works, the Hardware Store, the Winery and hand-crafted jewelry stores. It's a small village where the local population seem really glad you stopped by. Never mind that you didn't buy anything (of course they wished you had) they always had a cheerful hello and good-bye.

Most of the members arrived at the Team House on Friday and were ushered into the Hospitality Room by Bill and his usual band of cohorts. There was some worry a few days before the meeting as to how many members would show up. At that last count I believe there were 11 rooms reserved. There was no formal dinner planned for this meeting so all members had to make their own arraignments for substance abuse. However, Bill did reserve seats at the Berliner Kindl in Black Mountain for the Friday night get-together. There may have been some concern about how many people would show up for this meeting but the Berliner Kindl Restaurant was filled to overflowing on Friday night.

The Berliner Kindl Restaurant is located off the main street in Black Mountain. Highway 70 passes in front of the Days Inn at the Asheville Mall and, if you head east on this highway, it will eventually end up as the main street of Black Mountain. If you're not sure where you're going, you could drive by the restaurant and not see it. Like I said, it's on a side street and there are no flashing lights or large signs alerting you to the place. The only sign is the one painted on the front of the building, but you would have to be looking for it to see it.

Hard to find or not, the trip, and the trouble to find it, was well worth the effort. They served all types of Schnitzel, Leberkase (mit eir), red cabbage, German fried potatoes, Sauerkraut, potato salad, all types of sausage platters and, of course, German beer. Yes, Burke. Good German bier. Direct aus Bavaria und andres locales em Deutchland. In fact the beer menu at the Berliner Kindl could go head to head with any gausthaus in Bavaria. You really missed this one, Burke.

The highlight of the evening was the plaque presentation to Gina Mohar, wife of Vladimir (Mike) Mohar and Annemarie Korchek, wife of Robert (Bob) L. Korchek. Also a framed “1980-2000 Chapter XXXIII, Charter Members” certificate was presented to Ken Stickney and Chuck James. Bobby Burke, who is also a Charter Member, wasn't present at this meeting so he will have to wait until our Summer Meeting to receive his Certifcate. The other “Charter Members” still living were given their certificates at the Winter Meeting in Gatlinburg, TN in January.

Saturday morning was open time for everyone. Wayne didn't make his usual run to Patak’s Meat Market in Atlanta so we didn't know if we were going to have a lunch menu at the Team House or not. But once again, Bill and Kaye came through and by noon platters of shrimp, meats, breads, condiments, the works, appeared on the back tables and the troops made the mad dash to fill their plates. I believe the last of the shrimp was gone by 1400 hours.

There were enough members present to hold a meeting so at 1400 (2P.M for you legs) Sid Morgan slammed the gavel down on the table and called the meeting to order. Our meetings have usually run about an hour but this meeting exceeded that time frame considerably. This was largely due to the fact ballots for the upcoming SFA National Board elections were passed out to each member and we voted on who we wanted to run our organization. These ballots were then placed in a sealed envelope and the Secretary would mail them to the Teller Committee at National. I believe this is the way we should vote from now on. The last election was decided by a total of 500 plus ballots cast out of a membership of more than 8,000. Seems like there are a lot of lazy troops out there. Hope they didn't have the same attitude while they were on active duty.

A number of resolutions were brought up and argued about. Also, and the most important item on the agenda, was where our next meeting was going to be held. Judy Hines wasn't present so our Secretary, Art McRae, stood in her place. He announced that Judy would host the Summer meeting in Madisonville, KY in July. You can read all about the meeting on our website. One thing to remember if you go to the Meeting Alert page, you'll have to use the “Back” to return to this meeting page.

Stan Shank announced he would host the Fall meeting in Fayetteville, NC sometime in October. Chuck James opted for a possible Winter meeting in the Fayetteville/Peachtree City, GA area in January. If James couldn't fill the bill then Wayne Naihe would take it for the same time frame in Kennasaw, GA.

There was no planned Chapter dinner which meant everyone had to fend for themselves. As luck would have it, the Days Inn at the Asheville Mall had recently installed a new policy of lunch and dinner in the dining area of the Inn. They had even hired a chef. Many of the troops and their wives decided to partake the “Dinner de Jour”. From what I heard the evening at the dining hall was ball. Cries of laughter coming from within could be heard for miles around.

The auction started promptly at 1900 hours (7 P.M for you legs) in the Hospitality room. There were many items that went for $30-$40. Some went as high as $100 or $200. At the end of the evening the Scholarship Fund was ahead by $1,100 plus change. And the “Porno Doll” was re-introduced to the guests of the evening. I wonder how long this doll will make the rounds. The “Porno Photo” made the rounds at the auction for a number of years.

So there you have it, Troops! Make your plans to attend the meetings. You can't say you haven't been informed. We have somewhere in the neighborhood of 135 members and so far only about 25-30 regular members attend our meetings.

Like all previous meeting before there were photos galore taken. You can view some of them in the photo album.

Copyright © 1994 Chapter XXXIII SFA. All rights Reserved.
Chapter XXXIII, SFA, The Larry Alan Thorne Special Forces Memorial Chapter
Spring Meeting was created 19 April 2010