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Winter Chapter Meeting, January 2006

Knoxville, Tennessee
20 - 22 January 2006

Once again members from the US Army Special Forces Association Chapter 33 descended upon the sleepy town of Knoxville, Tennessee. These members drove, walked, flew or biked from far and wide in order to hold our Winter Meeting. There were even some there that hadn't been seen in a month of Sundays.

I'm running late on putting this page on the web site so I'm going to cut to the quick and cover only the good stuff. Sorry if you were expecting some whity comments and caustic barbs. There ain't gonna be none. Now how is that for good old-fashion English---southern style?

The troops and their ladies started arriving at the Jamison Inn on Friday. I could be wrong, but I swear this was the same location of our last Knoxville meeting but the name of the motel at that time was the Signature Inn. But no matter. The hospitality room was well stocked with the now famous Tennessee Tea along with the numerous guys and gals moving amongst the tables and chairs, drinks and snacks in hand, trying to slap old friends on the back without spilling part of their favorite brew. And this continued well into the night until the only person left standing at 0230 in the AM was Bobby Burke. He still can't understand why everyone went to bed and left him standing there alone, talking to himself and the bar. If you're really interested in what was happening on Friday, you can check it out here .

Saturday morning dawned early. Way too early for Bobby (who had, it seemed just hit the sack). The early birds huddled around the waffle irons waiting their turn at trying their hand at making a half-way decent waffle. Those that couldn't wait (or didn't want to) grabbed a danish, a cup of coffee and a glass of orange juice. This would hold them over until the doors of the hospitality room opened. Most of the ladies weren't interested in the hospitality room or the hotel. There were places to go and things to do. There were malls galore and the money was burning holes in their purses. It was time for them to lighten the weight of the purses and increase the weight of their vans, cars or trucks. The men folk did what men folk has done down through the ages... they stayed back and manned the walls and protected the homestead. The photos will give you an insight as to the trauma and hardships these brave lads endured.

As the day wore on, people started gathering in the hospitality room in preparation of our Chapter meeting. I've put a couple of photos if you're interested in seeing who was mulling around at the time. Our meetings are usually held at 1400 hours sharp, but because of our guest speaker, the time of the meeting was moved up to 1300. And, as customs dictate, as the bells struck 1300 hours, the doors to the hospitality room were closed, sealed and an armed guard, with orders to shoot on sight, was posted at the entrance.

The minutes, financial statement and highlights of the last meeting in Cleveland, Tennessee were distributed. Also included in the packet was the newest roster (which now included the e-mail addresses) of our members. The first order of new business was to fill the slot of Vice President. As everyone knows, Bob Hines had held this position until his untimely death on 28 November 2005. Our President, Bill Long, asked Mike DiRocco if he would fill the shoes of Bob Hines and take the position of Vice President. Mike agreed to that request and took his place at the head table. Judy accepted a memento, signed by all members of this chapter, in honor of her husband and our Vice President, Bob Hines. Bennie McDonald was asked to fill the new position of Chapter Chaplin. He agreed to fill this slot.
The location of the next meeting depended upon the number of members that were going to make a commitment to go. This was going to be held at Fort Storey, Virginia but could only be reserved if we could guarantee a certain number of attendees. A show of hands of those committing on going to that site was overwhelming. Our Spring meeting, as it stands now, will be in Fort Storey, Virginia in April.
We no longer hold an official chapter meeting at the National Conventions. Our Summer meeting is being discussed as being held in Ashville, NC in July.

At 1500, General Carl W. Stiner, U.S. Army (retired), one of the foremost experts on terrorism, gave us his views as to why this country just might lose the war against the Jihadists. His arguments were valid.
He outlined three things he thought were crucial to winning this war:

  1. Close the borders. Today, they are like a sieve.
  2. The people in this country don't really believe this is a world war. They don't believe there are people out there who want to remove the existence of our way of life...forever!
  3. Change the attitude of being Politically Correct. That atmosphere gives aide and comfort to the enemy.

I've put a couple of photos about the meeting if you're interested.

There was no scheduled dinner in Knoxville, but that was okay. We all adjourned to that small shopping mall on the outskirts of Knoxville and that now famous "Hole in the Wall", The Linderhof. This is fast becoming our chapter ritual when our meetings are in Knoxville. I've also put a couple of photos of our evening at the Linderhof if you're interested.

And last, but not least, the closing event of the evening was the Auction. Our two esteemed and certified Auctioneers, Stan Shank and Charlie Ponds, gathered the membership into the hospitality room and commenced to coerce, brow-beat, threaten and plead for us to buy the prizes on the table. All items were auctioned off and I do believe the chapter's coffers were increased to the tune of something like $1,400. Once again our hats are off to our two Auctioneers. And, again if you're interested in viewing the photos of this event, you can do so by striking this tab. Remember, all proceeds from our auctions do go to a very worthy cause.

Sunday morning came too fast. The weekend was over. The sun was out, the sky was clear and the weather was getting warmer (well warmer is a relative word. It was warmer than yesterday). We had breakfast in the breakfast area and said our good-byes, adios's and anything else one might say to someone they got a little tipsy with the night before. Bobby and Mitch Greene had survived the auction from Saturday night but didn't look all that good. They both probably closed up the hospitality room and now couldn't find anything stronger than coffee.

And so it was that the troops and their ladies left the sleepy little town of Knoxville, Tennessee. Come April, we'll all gather in Virginia and Fort Storey...see y'all there!

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The Larry Alan Thorne Special Forces
Memorial Chapter XXXIII Winter Meeting
was created 3 February 2006
and last update 3 April 2008