7th Annual Reunion
USS Tom Green County (LST-1159)
San Angelo, Texas
October 6 – October 11 2007

The reunion was conducted from Saturday October 6th through Wednesday October 10th with check out on the 11th. The hotel that was chosen is the San Angelo Inn and Convention Center (formerly the Holiday Inn) located in downtown San Angelo.. This is the same hotel we stayed in for the 2001 reunion. The negotiated cost was $73.00 per night. This price includes a full cold or hot breakfast each morning.

We had a hospitality room available for our whole stay. We also had a meeting room for Sunday and a banquet room for Wednesday night. For those that stayed there before, you can remember the large common area that was also available for our use.

The hotel did the best they could with the limited resources they had but it was definitely a downgrade from 2001. The Radisson chain has purchased the hotel and plans to spend a great deal of money renovating so maybe next time (2013) will be better.

By all accounts the 2007 reunion held in San Angelo, Texas was a success. All who attended had a good time and expressed that sentiment to me on the night of the final dinner.

Shipmates meeting 12-2 PM
. The business meeting accomplished very little because the feeling was that 30 shipmates should not decide the location of next year’s reunion for the entire crew.

Several locations were nominated but no one stepped forward to volunteer to be the coordinator. Nominated sites were: Fredericksburg, TX - Branson, MO - Honolulu, HI – Laughlin/Las Vegas, NV – St. Louis, MO – San Diego, CA – Evansville, IN.

All in attendance agreed that the sites would be presented to the ships crew and MAG 7 for a vote and final selection. Everyone in attendance was aware that this is not in accordance with our by-laws but we feel that it is the only fair way to determine where the whole crew will gather.
In addition, someone needs to volunteer to coordinate no matter which site is chosen. There was only one member of the MAG 7 present at the reunion and he agreed that this would be the proper way to handle this event.

We had a great time at Fort Concho on Sunday with fabulous food and wonderful entertainment.

	Fort Concho Chuck Wagon
Cooks at work
	Bill Haack and award winning western author Elmer Kelton
The quilt presented to Bill Haack by Mrs. Troutman

Monday - October 8, 2007

Federal holiday. This day was free to do whatever was desired. The Historical Society offered to conduct a walking tour in the afternoon.

Tuesday - October 9, 2007

We started the day off with a fantastic tour of Goodfellow Air Force Base and also a visit the Navy contingent stationed at Goodfellow. Air Force buses picked us up at the hotel and transported us to various sites on the base. We had lunch at the Enlisted Dining Facility.

We then proceeded to the Navy detachment where we met LCDR Mac Diehl and his staff. They had set-up the cake cutting ceremony for the Navy’s 232nd birthday and our own Wilbur Howes participated in the cutting of the cake.

Tuesday evening was spent at the VFW cook-out and we had live music provided by a local C&W band led by Coy Moses. All of the cooking was done by Roy McCord and Dan Robinson and they certainly did an excellent job. I served the food with the help of Byron Wilson and heard many comments about how good the food was. Frenchy Lafontaine set up the condiment table and helped with clean-up. Angie and Danny Donegan helped Byron and I clean up the kitchen and their help certainly was appreciated. It has been a long time between mess cook tours.

During a session of the band, Vickie and Jerry Flynn performed with the band and I thought that it was Tammy Wynette and George Jones because they sounded so good.

	A group at the VFW
The cooks
	The kitchen crew

Wednesday was our dinner and final hurrah. The Reunion Banquet was conducted from 6:00pm to 11:00pm
The theme – Celebration of Texas and Red White and Blue country.

Judge Brown was our scheduled speaker but he had to cancel at the last moment because of county business and Pam Miller of the Chamber of Commerce graciously filled in for him.

	The Commemorative table set up for departed shipmates

The drawing was held for the raffle prizes and after some trading amongst the winners I believe that this information is correct. Jerry Flynn made the flag boxes.
Bud Pryor won the California flag.
Captain Troutman won the Maine flag.
Dan Robinson won the Texas flag.
Ron Toensing won the Japanese flag.
Roy McCord won both the American and the POW/MIA flags.

Dinner was a Tex-Mex buffet and entertainment was provided by David Wagner a local C&W disc jockey. People were more interested in socializing and saying good-bye so very little dancing took place.

Buffet
Featuring Cheese Enchiladas, make your own taco bar with all the condiments, BBQ brisket, Pinto Beans, Potato Salad, Spanish Rice, Chips and Hot Sauce and dessert.

Drawings for raffle prizes were followed by our entertainment for the evening, David Wagner a local news anchor who also is a Country/Western disc jockey. He played all of the country greats as well as music from the 40s, through the 90s.

Speaking from a personal point of view, it was an honor and a privilege to be the coordinator for this reunion. I am proud to call each and everyone who attended, “shipmate”.

Attendees to the 2007 reunion in San Angelo

• Heywood and Iva Baudoin
• Donald and Wanda Booth
• Wilbur and Leta Howes
• Charles and Carol Pryor
• Judy Olivier

• Everett and Jeanean Hayslip
• Edwin and Betty Jones
• Roy Duke
• Darel and Louise Dorpinghaus

• Travis and Mollie Badgett
• Joseph Jarreau
• Thomas Lavin

• Ed Muller
• Ron and Nancy Switzer

• Jerry and Vickie Flynn
• Roy and Nancy McCord
• Dan and Marge Robinson
• Ron and Nita Toensing
• Burl and Lu Troutman
• Jack McGee
• Byron Wilson
• William Haack
• Ronald Lafontaine
• Robert Manley
• Don and Barb Pavey
• Michael Clark

• Danny and Angie Donnegan
• William Frerich

• James and Anita Lane
• Charles Miller

Reunion Impressions

The following sample are comments that were received from reunion attendees. By the way - this was the best reunion so far. I think the extra day, plus a good place to gather and tell sea stories made the difference. Mollie said this was the first time she was able to sit around and talk and get to know the women.

WHAT I LIKED
1. San Angelo
2. The extra day
3. The large lobby which provided a place to gather and visit. In future reunions, I would like to see the same thing. If a large lobby isn't available, them maybe a larger hospitality/gathering room.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE
1. I gained 5 1/2 pounds.
Travis and Mollie Badgett

Overall I thought San Angelo was a great reunion. Fort Concho and the tour at Goodfellow were well done and very entertaining. The BBQ at the VFW was also very good (thanks for all the food and the good cooks for their work).

I think the group we had would rather listen than participate when it comes to music. The country western at the VFW was more active, but the DJ didn't fit in too well when folks were more interested in socializing on the last night and saying good bye. My wife found too much thrift store shopping!!

Everyone we dealt with did a great job representing San Angelo and welcoming us. The red carpet was out.
All in all we had an enjoyable time. Great welcome by the base and VFW, very sociable fellow shipmates and spouses, good restaurants, lots of laughs, etc.
Ron and Nita Toensing

I was sure glad I came to the reunion. The tour of the base was GREAT!! The local VFW did a really good job and we sure did feel welcome. Thanks
Chuck Miller

I for 1 enjoyed going back to San Angelo. It brought back many memories for me. I especially enjoyed the 12 year old who played the banjo @ Fort Concho. The Air Base was a treat.
It was GREAT to celebrate the 232nd birthday of the Navy with the Navy contingency on the air base. It was also a treat to see people that I had NOT seen since the 1st reunion. I would hope that more of them would come to the reunion in the fall of the year. Looking forward to next year where ever it's held. Smooth sailing & fair winds to all.
Chief Joseph

We had a great time in San Angelo. It was good seeing all the shipmates. We were well-received everywhere we went. The bar-b-que at the VFW was wonderful—thanks Dan and Mac! Our only regret is we missed the FT. Concho experience.
Danny and Angie Donegan

I think San Angelo is a well kept secret about good places to go in Texas. It is a well kept town-with all the walking trails and little flower gardens everywhere you look. All the people we met there were very friendly and seemed glad to see us. I just can’t believe most of them did not know there was a ship named after their county.
Jerry and Vicki Flynn

Quilting

During our Fort Concho visit, Lu and Burl Troutman gave me a beautiful quilt that Lu made for me. For probably the first time in my life, I was speechless. I had no idea what to say for such a wonderful gift. Even today I have trouble expressing my profound gratitude for such a marvelous piece of art. Pictures of the quilt will be on our website.

Lu has sent me a couple of emails about her quilting and I have included them as part of this article.

1st email
I wonder if you could mention that I (and my guild) are making quilts for the returning wounded. The quilts are no less than 50 X 60 inches, preferable red/white/blue. So far we have sent 69 and we only started the middle of May. I quilt them on my Gammill long arm quilting machine. The FEDEX Ground retiree group is shipping them free for us. Anyone wanting to know more can call me at 901-872-8951 or email gatorfrtr@bigriver.net. We would love to have donations of help/fabric/tops/cash, etc.

2nd email
We are the Millington Quilters Guild and we have about 60 members. We have many retired military wives, one retired Navy man, several active duty wives and 2 active duty women.
Every year we raffle a quilt for Breast Cancer Research. The Quilts for Wounded Soldiers just fit right into our lives since we are so closely military connected.

One of our ladies is waiting to have surgery for breast cancer; she had a heart attack the night before the scheduled surgery. She has made more than 70 quilt tops for this project. She always puts critters somewhere in her quilt even when they are mostly red white and blue. She adds Elvis also.

We are enjoying this project and we write letters with each quilt and send a SASE in case they want to respond. All the quilts are sent in a coordinating pillowcase. We add our guild label to thank them for their dedication and service to our country. The quilts and pillowcases are laundered before they are shipped since they are going to wounded warriors.
Thanks,
Lu

Please do not hesitate to contact Lu and offer any help you can whether it is material or financial. This is a project we can certainly support 100%. We, as an organization, need to do as much as possible for these kids that are coming home, some who are wounded and will never be the same.
Those of us who served in Vietnam know what is like not to have the support of the public, lets not let that happen to these guys and gals. Let’s get behind this and do something positive.