Well you folks that missed the reunion, sure did miss a great time. On May 7th and 8th in Branson,Mo. 27 of us hearty souls gathered for a WingDing. I arrived in Branson, Tuesday the 4th to make sure everything was ready for the reunion. Dennis Willis had beat me there, so the partying started early. People continued to arrive Wednesday and Thursday, so by reunion day there was only four left to arrive. I persuaded the motel to let us have the Hospitality room on Thursday instead of Friday, so the reunion really lasted three days. I stocked the Hospitality room with Beer, Soft Drinks and all kinds of Munchies on Thursday morning. Later that night a bunch of us gathered to go out and have dinner at McGuffy's. Becky Jarvis organized several outings to shows and shopping for the ladies. On Friday, Ron Jarvis, Gil Wooden and myself went and got a keg of beer. The keg was Ron Jarvis's treat, and I get excited about anything thats free. A lot of shows were seen and the rest of the time the Hospitality room was visited. A lot of Tall stories were told and a lot of memories resurrected. And most of all a lot of beer was consumed. Saturday morning we all gathered in the Hospitality room to decide if we wanted to form a reunion group. It was decided that we would, with a reunion every other year. The second reunion would be in the Seattle area and co-hosted by Oscar Granger and Gil Wooden. The third reunion would be in the East at a place determined during the second reunion. The month and day in 2001 would be determined by the hosts and the membership would be notified. It was decided to change the membership years for the group to 1960 through 1965. Al Jensen will coordinate the search effort for the years 1960 through 1962. Annual dues of $20 was approved to cover the costs of the newsletter and the continued search for ex-shipmates. Ron McPhail was elected Secretary/Treasurer for four years. While the guys were in the Hospitality room doing all this work, Becky Jarvis gathered nine of the ladies and they went to the Yakov Smirnoff show. Well from what I understand Yakov ask for jokes from the audience and the person with the best one (voted on by applause from the audience) got to assist Yakov on stage. Well Mary Sponseller won and was invited on the stage to assist Yakov. The other ladies in the group said she got on stage and stole the show. In fact she brought back a video tape to prove it. If we can get a copy of it, we will keep it as one of the memories from the 1st reunion. After the meeting, we all gathered outside for a group picture. A lot of pictures were taken throughout the reunion and a lot of them will appear in this and future newsletters. It is planned to start a photo album that will contain all pictures taken at the reunion and these albums will be passed and added to at future reunions. If everyone that took pictures, would send me the best ones. I will put them in the newsletter and afterwards the Photo Album. Oscar Granger plans to put together a visual photographic record of the ship, the reunion and whatever else he can find. If everyone that took VHS video pictures would send Oscar a copy of their tape(s) it would be greatly appreciated. At noon that day, the entire crew plus their ladies gathered at the Lone Star Steak House for lunch. Afterward some went to shows, others to the Hospitality room, where we finished off the keg of beer and everything else that didn't move. Most everyone left for home on Sunday morning. About six of us were left to leave on Monday.

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