The Reunion Parties

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The Reunion

Following a flurry of emails as Gary Towery, one member of a pledge drill team I assisted to coach, together with help from one of his classmates, I believe it was Earl Holt, a schedule of activities fell into place. The goal seemed to be to have our weekend fall in conjunction with Veterans Day and ROTC celebration of Military or Veterans' day at the Eastern football game that day.

We gathered at Hall's On The River on Friday, November 14, 2008 where we reintroduced ourselves to old friends, classmates, and possibly teammates who had brought so many honors back to Eastern. Only eighteen made the group picture on Friday, but we represented many classes of PRs. I'm waiting on an original photo to be forwarded but for now here is a scan of the Friday night gathering. My thanks to Beverly and Marvin Swinford for the photo.

Front row, L to R: Darrel Halcomb, Dave Shrout, John Beam, Kermit Giles, Gary Towery. 2nd Row, L to R: Larry Taylor, Jerry Bryd, Reuben Hacker, Greg Struve, David Barkman, Earl Holt.  3rd Row, L to R: Bill Evans, Marvin Swinford, John Pickarski, Cliff Breehl, Michael Cecil, Terry Bridewell and Paul Hay.  (Roy Stivers is missing from the photo). That's Dave Barkman's bride in the corner.

These names were gathered hurriedly and I am about the world's worst typist. Don't hesitate to send me corrections. This same instruction holds true for the pix that follow.

What follows is a link to a little web slideshow that I shot on Saturday night at our dinner we held at Bananas. You will note in the captions that I have some blanks or question marks; please send me corrections. You can view the Saturday night slideshow by clicking on this link. After you view the photos, you can return here by hitting your browser's BACK button.

Slide Show Link

I hope you enjoy the photos and if you see any that you want, I have jpegs ready to email to anyone that asks for one, if you are a PR or a family member. Again, my link is here

I've already started getting replies and comments so I have added a comments section below. It's not a forum, yet, but I'll post and update as good comments come in. The corrections I may just keep to myself and I have already had a few come in.

It has occurred to me that there is another photo missing so allow me to send along a toast to all my brothers from Co. R-1.

In true military fashion, Gary Towery has sent along an "After Action Report" on this year's reunion. It seems only fair to give him his own page.

Gary has also sent along some photos from the 2006 Reunion, not many but you can see them here. Once again, to return to this page from the slides, just hit your browser's BACK button.

 

Comments from the troops

Without making it a cast of thousands, I highly recommend thanks for Terry Bridewell for phoning many people, Paul Hay for setting up Hall's, and David Shrout for Bananas.
 
Also Roy Stivers was at Halls, but (not shown) in the photo.
 
Thanks again;
Gary Towery

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Hey - great to hear from you!
 
It has been a LONG-LONG time! It would have been great to see you!
 
Hope to see you guys soon. My full retirement will probably be 1 Jan. '09. Then I can do a lot more things I want to do!
 
Keep in touch - I have so many fond memories of my time at EKU & as a PERSHING RIFLE R-1 brother.
 
Best wishes for the Holidays!
 
Bob Osborne
Company R-1
Class 64-68

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Bill,

Thanks very much for your good work. It was especially good to see some of the brothers that I missed at the last PR reunion.

Don Smith (Pledge '65) '68

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It sure was a pleasure getting together with everyone. I hadn’t seen any of my pledge brothers for 40 years. Amazing how time flies.

All my best,

 Greg Struve

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From Gary Towery
 
I can't express how happy I was re-connecting with all of you, especially the ones whom I hadn't seen since college days. 
 
To those of you who came further distances, like Earl Holt, Greg Struve, Jim Montgomery, Bill Evans, and Kermit Giles, that means a lot.
 
Thanks also to Bill Evans for setting up a link and the photos. Thanks to Terry Bridewell for making all of the phone calls. Thanks to David Shrout and Paul Hay for setting up the night time events. Thanks to Jim Montgomery for all of the interface with ROTC. I hope I didn't miss anyone.  Thanks the most to all of you who showed up and pitched in.
 
I sincerely hope we all can be there 2 years from now, plus many more attendees and many more reunions.
 
Fraternally;
GT
 

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