We left Cabela's in time to pick up Mike Schindler back at the airport and headed for St Joe. Others started arriving at the hotel. We picked Doc Lamunion up at 2:45 and went back to the hotel. Jim Swafford and his wife Shirley were there along with Coy and Sherry Smith. Walt and Annie Sanders came in with two of their grandchildren. (My wife gave them so much candy, Walt will be sending me a dental bill). Mark and Debbie Helten brought 3 of their kids. Their daughter has travelled all over the world and had taken a picture of the Rockpile in VN!! LT (Chuck) and Teresa St. Amour walked into our meeting room and I tell you he looks just the same. I had hoped he would have gotten a little better looking, but oh well. His wife is pretty so she must be blind. Mike Hite arrived about 11:30 Thursday night. My son and daughter-in-law along with my daughter and son-in-law were there so I talked the boys into going after Mike. We stayed up talking until 1:30 AM. Mike Wesley got there about 1:00 Friday afternoon. He brought a bunch of pictures so we had to start going through those. We had a banquet Friday evening at a restaurant that had promised us a special tent for our meeting. It was a 10 by 10 canopy over the food. The table was long enough for 20 people but they had 30 chairs around it! The mayor of St Joe (Ken Sharen) arrived and saw what we had, so he and my daughter went inside and visited with the manager. They brought another table out and the manager decided he would help serve. It was a nice evening and it turned out much better than I thought it was going to. The Mayor made a proclamation,
proclaiming it 101st Abn, Vietnam Vets day in St Joe and gave us a key to the city. The key didn't open any doors that I could find. I tried it on the local bank and on the women's locker room at the hotel. Since it didn't work on any doors, we gave the key to Doc. He had really pushed the reunion and had sent caps, shirts, and MRE's for us to try. He can bring it to the next reunion and we'll try it on more doors. We went back to the hotel and had some cake in honor of Teresa and Debbie's birthdays. The door opened and in walked Ray and Terri Leader! We took more pictures. We had a dirty dozen of us together again! The St Joe Newspress and KQ 2 took several interviews and filmed us a couple of times. We were on the news two times and the newspaper is doing a story that will come out shortly. I'll sent everyone a link or something. The TV stories can be seen on the internet at StJoeChannel.com. Go to the site and clink on News at the top of the page. When that page opens, click on the little archive button in the Top Story section. Look in Sunday 7/22 and in Thursday 7/19. You'll have to watch a commercial then the stories will come on that were on the 10:00 news. We did some running around on Sat, then went to a great fireworks show that night. There were thousands of people there, but my church people had saved us an area to sit in, so we had an excellent view. The church had also loaned us a bus so we could all ride together. Sunday morning, we had a memorial service for Tom Testorff and Harry King. Tom's brothers sent flowers and had mailed us a couple of letters that Mark read during the service. My kids sang a song, then I made a little speech. It was an emotional time. There was more than one person that was having problems with their eyes sweating. We formed a circle, held hands, and everyone said some nice things about Tom and Harry and about everyone else. It was a time of healing that we all needed. It was pretty tough to watch everyone leave. Jim Swafford has a great attitude about getting wounded. He said there is no need to be bitter, it just happened and it can't be changed, so enjoy life. He lost his other leg due to complications, so he is without both legs above his knees, he lost two fingers on his hand and he lost an eye. He offered to use his replacement eye to play marbles, if anyone is interested. As I said, he has a great attitude about it all. Jim does have a lot of health issues. I sure hope he can come to the next reunion, where ever it is. Most everyone had left by Sunday night. I went back over to the hotel Monday morning and said good-bye to Jim and then Mike S and I went to the airport so he could catch his flight. We had more good visiting time on the way, then he left also. I was pretty melancholy Monday and Tuesday. I'm really looking forward to the next one. I hope everyone can make it. I left a lot of the stuff that happened out of this letter. I guess you just had to be there to get the full effect. My wife and kids did a lot of work to make the reunion special. I am sure blessed to have my family. Everyone chipped in and gave us gift certificates and a lot of cash to help with the expenses of the reunion. It was unnecessary but appreciated.

Brothers for ever,
Terry
(Terry.Williams@altec.com)

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We are still trying to contact former members from 2nd Platoon, B 1/501 in the 1971 era. Your help is needed. If you are in contact with former platoon members, let us know.

An old Roster for the entire B Company is available listing all names and SSAN's. Copies of this roster are available upon request. We will need to confirm your identity before making this resource available to you.

If you served with me in Vietnam, please send me an email - GLamunyon@aol.com and WELCOME HOME!

PHOTO: Preparing to move out for mission to DMZ AO after standdown at Eagle Beach.

Contact information (no email address)
JAMES L SWAFFORD
6684 BIRCH RD
WINSTON, GA 30187

Telephone number available upon request - email Glamunyon@aol.com

I am developing online photo albums from my own photos and photos from other Geronimo's - visit later for more photos - Doc Lamunyon.

LEFT: Photo from 2007 reunion