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

1. Chapter XXXIII met at the Howard Johnson Inn-Cleveland in sunny downtown Cleveland,TN on the weekend of 7 - 9 October 2011. Most of the old timers in this chapter remember this Howard Johnson as Le Chateau.

Do the very words Le Chateau conjure up fond memories of years gone by or what?

Team Cleveland, headed by Bert Bates with some help from the Terrible Trio (Joanne, Mitch and Art) did a fantastic job in setting up the meeting and doing crowd control at the same time. Believe me, when you get 30-40 ex snake-eaters in one location, you really do need crowd control.

And keeping with our quarterly meetings latest trends, the turn-out was standing-room only. There were 34 members present (more than enough for a quorum) and three guests. Let's hope this trend continues.

          Air Force Command Chief Master Sergeant (Ret) John Matheson, former Command CMS of the 1st Air Force.
          Dr. Ron Coleman and his son, SGT Matt Coleman. Sgt Coleman is a Special Forces Medic and Dr. Coleman was a Special Forces medic in Viet Nam.

2. Friday, 07 October:
          Unlike the Opening Session from our July meeting in Knoxville, Old Man, Thor, was nowhere to be seen (or heard). The sky was clear and the weather balmy. Almost like being in the South Pacific.

          The troops started arriving at the AO at noonish (that's California talk for 1200 hours) and their arrival continued throughout the day. The hospitality room filled up quickly and boisterous conversations could be heard as far away as the next room.

          The The Cleveland Clan had reserved a number of tables at a new (at least new for most non-Clevelandites) restaurant, the Catch Bar and Grill. This restaurant was a refreshing change of pace and the food outstanding. Our two resident Scots, Art McRae and Gordon (Duke) Dewey (no relation to that other famous Commodore who “fit” the Battle of Manila Bay), were joined by another famous Scot direct from the King’s distillery in downtown Edinburgh, Scotland, John Matherson. I’m sorry to report, our two resident Scots, no matter their expertise in fine whiskey, were no match for Sir John’s exotic tastes in the King’s Whiskey. Sir John’s reputation as connoisseur of fine whiskeys was further enhanced when he contested a shot of Scottish Whiskey was not that which he had ordered. The manager’s appologies were quick and abundant when the bar tender admitted he had given Sir John the wrong drink.

          Then it was back to the hospitality room for more mundane refreshments of beer, gin and vodka.

3. Saturday, 08 October:
          Much to the chagrin of the more cosmopolitan members of our chapter, Bobby Burke, Duke Dewey and Art McRae, the majority of the members hung around the hospitality room nursing massive hangovers from the night before. It was, therefore, extremely lucky they were still alive when 1400 hours rolled around and the start of the business meeting. The Vice-President gave his spiel on the sick, the Secretary did her thing on the correspondence and the Treasurer told us how much money we had in the bank.

          The President then took over the agenda and the meeting ended in less than an hour. We did achieve three major accomplishments: The places and dates (at least the months) of our next three meetings:
          Gatlinburg, Tennessee in January
          Madisonville, Kentucky in April
          Monteagle, Tennessee in July.

                    Dinner
          As is the custom of this Chapter, the newly-elected officers were sworn in. Our in-house Barrister, Bert Bates, administered the oath of office to the officers.

          Margie and Bennie McDonald presented a shortened version of the MIA/POW presentation and Sid presented the SFA Memorial Plaque to Mrs. Mary Bridges, widow of William W. “Bill” Bridges. Prior to this presentation, Jim Hamilton who had served with Bill, gave a short eulogy for Bill.

          Sgt Matt Coleman gave a short dissertation on his experiences in Afghanistan (if you remember the first photos of SF personnel riding horses in Afghanistan, that horseman was Matt Coleman). Matt then introduced his father, Dr. Ron Coleman, who also entertained us with his experiences, first as an SF medic in Viet Nam and then as a doctor doing his part to save the world.

4. Sick Call

          David Hensley’s great-grand-daughter, born 14 Oct. She weighs only 1 pound, 5 ounces. The early birth was due to toxemia.
          Bill Long has had another bout with more surgery.
          Wayne Naihe is doing well after his bone marrow test.
          Dan Barnes is still hanging out at one of his favorite watering holes, the Rod and Gun Club.
          Please keep these members in your thoughts and prayers and we hope they can make the next meeting.

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Copyright © 1994 Chapter XXXIII SFA. All rights Reserved.
Chapter XXXIII, SFA, The Larry Alan Thorne Special Forces Memorial Chapter
This Newsletter was created November 2011