Jeez Guys, Doesn't anyone have anything to say these days. I keep looking and looking
and George is the only one posting anything. I know, life is busy and who has time, right.
Anyway, things are moving right along and the dates in July will soon be here. I am putting
together one last letter that I wil send out to everyone this week. Online folks included. I
am even going to include a return envelope so no has any lame excuses for not returning
the thing to me. Some of you have made your intentions perfectly clear about attendence,
but you also need to return the response card to me. I want to get a firm number of bodies,
so we can make plans with the hotel for brunch and dinner on Saturday.
Stay tuned and look for that mailing this week. (I hope)

Now, on to another matter that has been bugging me for about three weeks now. In case you
didn't know, Sgt Mjr Crout, that would be Andy to all of us, has politely asked George and I
to remove any mention of him from the website and do not include him in any further mass
communications that are sent to everyone. (By the way in case you haven't noticed we
ignored his request. I think George said, "It's my site, I pay for it, and you're staying on. Or
something like that anyway.) This request from Andy comes on the heels of the posts that
have been placed on the Blog by former Dragon and former U.S. citizen Peter Awramenko.
This might be paraphrased a bit but I believe Andy said "I can't be a part of a group that has a
'Commie loving Anti-American' in it's ranks. Pete definately has views that are quite divergent
from the rest of the group, but never has he posted anything that he didn't offer at least some
cogent support for his views.(We all read those mini-essays he posted, didn't we?)
As loyal as I am to my country, and as strongly as I stand behind
the current action that the U.S. has taken against the Iraqi regime, I still don't know that everything
is always as it seems to be, especially when you limit your sources of information to one filter,
namely the U.S. media. What I know from my rather limited study of govermental history,
is the U.S. government is still a young adolescent when compared with other govermental powers in
this wotld, and the actions I have seen from my government over the last 20 years, seem to have
more and more of a socialist flavor. They want more and more of 'my money' to pay for more
and more 'stuff' that would be best left to private industry or private funding. (If you can't raise the funds
for your cause thru private means then maybe there just aren't enough people who support your position.)
So, I believe it is a prudent person who follows closely what our government is doing, with and to the rights
that each of us enjoys, as a citizen of this great free country. If we don't pay close attention we might
one day find out that those freedoms no longer exist. Isn't that what was going on when this country
was established a little over two hundred years ago?

I say all that really just to say, Pete has the right to his opinion, and we have the right to ours,
and somewhere out there lies the real truth. Andy, you didn't agree with everything Pete or anybody
else said twenty years ago, and vice versa. It is no different today, except the fact that most of us can
express our opinions in a more consise manner today then we could twenty years ago. Why would you
want to cut off all contact with the rest of your 'family' because there is one voice out there that you
don't agree with. By doing so, isn't there a subtle implication that we are all 'Commie loving Anti-Americans'
since we didn't follow your lead after reading Pete's post. If you are available in July, I know there are
about 25 Marines who would be honored if you attended the reunion we are having to commemorate
the relationships that were built during the first and maybe only enlistment that we all served with
the U.S. Marine Corps.