Kokomo Vietnam Veterans Reunion 2011 preview

The weather continues back and forth between Summer and early Autumn...yesterday on the warm and humid side as I headed to Celina Stadium to work the Defiance/Celina Freshman Football game....The Host team came out on top 32-14 in the battle of the Bulldogs.  Tonight, Sam and I have a youth league varsity game at 6pm then will head for Van Wert to take in the local rules meeting. 

I met Tom Friedly and Nick at the Pullman Bay Restaurant this morning for breakfast, that took about 45 minutes.  Also on the agenda today is a haircut and getting ready for Kokomo.....

Kokomo 2011____

The Howard County Vietnam Veterans reunion is this weekend.  Now called the All Veterans Reunion, it officially kicks off Friday, but I'm as I type this, the campgrounds are already pretty well filled, as upwards of 20,000 vets, their families and friends will gather in the farmlands east of Kokomo.

http://www.hcvvo.org/hcvvo_006.htm 

I lived in Kokomo back in 1979 for about 8 months, working as Morning News Anchor at WIOU Radio in that blue collar town of nearly 50,000.  For the past 3 decades, A rural area near Greentown, just east of Kokomo, has been home to one of the largest reunions of Vietnam Veterans in the world.   Last year I had a short stay at my buddy Tom McCandless Boars Nest Campsite....this year I will make it awhile longer.

I will head out tomorrow morning, leaving Sam to be the watchful eye on the abode, while I spend 50 hours or so camping, visiting, and mostly BS'ing with old and new friends from that conflict long ago.  One of these years, when my football officiating days are over, I will attempt to stay the entire week, like Tom and Big Sam Lewis will do this time around. 

One thing for sure, whatever the weather(and it looks cool after today, real cool), the bands will be playing, the food will be plentiful, the BS'ing in large doses, and the Moonshine and other adult beverages flowing......

Of course Tom Mc and Sam Lewis will also be at Dayton next month for our Vietnam Security Police Reunion at Wright-Patterson, as will Harry Bevan, Tony, Bruce, and a few other guys that I have not seen in over 40 years, since our Law Enforcement days at Nha Trang Air Base on the South China Sea..   Damn~How time does fly!

This means the next 4 weeks will be filled to the brim, with football, and reunions....I plan on enjoying it as much as possible...

back later>>>>

Photos-Pins, Hats, and Neckwear, all part of the Kokomo Reunion....Sam Lewis, Me, and Tommy Mac, along with "Sweety Pie" at Boar's Nest Campsite last year....and a small part of the gang, before things got too rowdy last September.  Finally and me and Harry Bevan, 42 years ago in the Summer of 69, at Nha Trang, working Day Shift Law...I'm sure neither one of us will have changed a bit, when we meet up next month in Dayton.