Fellow Marines,

I hope you know by now that our next reunion is in Branson, MO, Sep 30-Oct 4 of this year. This letter is going out as an all-hands email, with registration information attached, and as hard copy to our snail-mailers. I won’t repeat the registration information here, except to remind everyone that those of us from the Vietnam cohort are getting a little long in the tooth and some of us won’t be around for the 2021 reunion. It could be you or it could be me, but it is statistically certain to be someone. If it turns out to be me, then I would like to see you one more time before I go. You younger Marines should come out and start renewing old memories before they become shrouded in the mists of antiquity, like ours.

Now, a few notes on other topics:

Website. Just a reminder that the Association maintains a website at www.hmm-265.org. Most of it is open to the public, so we invite you to wander through it and see what’s there. However, we hope that you will go to “members|about members feature|register” and sign up to access the members-only section. As soon as you get word that your registration has been activated please go to your profile and post as much or as little as you care to share about your life since 265, plus a couple of pictures. Let the webmaster know if you have trouble with any of that and he will lend a hand. To see member profiles, including yours, just click ‘Members’ at the main menu. You will be able to edit your profile if you are logged in. You also will be able to participate in the Discussion Board by commenting on existing topics and proposing new topics.

Webmaster Needed. Chuck Johnson has been Webmaster for almost five years, says he is 80, sometimes going on 97, and feels that it’s time to put down the plow. If you are anyone’s go-to person for geek stuff then your Association needs you. Familiarity with website creation and maintenance would be a plus, especially WordPress, but isn’t strictly necessary. Chuck taught himself and he’s no genius. Despite wanting out, he has no immediate plans to kick the bucket and will gladly serve as a resource for the new Webmaster during his or her OJT period.

Vietnam Tours. There has been a nationwide groundswell of interest in recent years by Vietnam veterans in revisiting Vietnam before we all get too old. A browser search of “military tours Vietnam” yields page after page of hits. Bill Waterbury, one of the pilots who went over with us on USS Boxer, did one of those tours in 2018, enjoyed it, and sent us the pictures of today’s Da Nang posted under “Galleries” on our website (beach at Marble looks different without the concertina festooned with sea snakes). If anyone is interested in taking the lead in trying to put together such a tour just let someone know via “Contact Us” on the website. We can help with communication.

Hope to see all of you in Branson.

Semper Fi!

John Long
President

(Published as all-hands email with 3 attachments: 2019 Registration form.pdf, 2019 Registration letter.pdf, and LEVEL 2 GROUP MENU.pdf. The attachments are posted at “reunions|2019 reunion”)

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