Alpha Avengers Newsletter

Alpha Avengers of Vietnam

NEWSLETTER

SPRING 2002

A Company, 2/501st Infantry, 101st Airborne

Reunion Headquarters is the Timber Lodge, 3627 West Colorado Avenue, Colorado Springs, 800-448-6762.

NOTICE: The Timber Lodge is currently SOLD OUT, but there are many hotel and motels in the area. Overflow reservations are being taken at the Eagle Motel, 800-872-2285. They offer various size rooms and a continental breakfast. Tell them you are an Alpha Avenger and you get a 10% discount. This is a nice, very clean motel, about 1.25 miles west of the Timber Lodge.

A couple motels within walking distance of the Timber Lodge are the El Colorado 800-782-2246 and the MECCA MOTEL, 800-634-2442.

As I work on this newsletter, we are finalizing plans for our reunion in June. The current schedule can be found on the schedule page. Unfortunately, due to the events of September 11th, the planned tour of Cheyenne Mountain had to be cancelled — the mountain is on high alert.

However, we still have lots planned — Pikes Peak, Royal Gorge, Cave of the Winds, a cook out, our Saturday night banquet and, of course, much time to get together and swap war stories in the Timber Lodge Pavilion — the stories keep getting better!

Our thanks go out to Jim (LT) Kwiecien. He lives in Colorado Springs and is our Local Arrangements Chair for the reunion. He has been working hard on our behalf, scouting out places to stay and things to see and do and setting up the schedule of events.

Our thanks also go out to Bob Morris, our Vice President and Treasurer. Bob reports that there is a lot of excitement growing amongst our members for this reunion.

One very significant and emotional event which Bob started at out last reunion is the "Some Gave All" award. The award honors a fallen Alpha Avenger. This year’s award will recognize James "Michael" Holmes, KIA '68. Last year, his niece, Trudi, contacted us through our web site and asked that we try to locate GI’s who may have known him. Her effort brought together three of our comrades who served with him: Dave (Doc) DeSoucy, Michael Christiansen and Floyd Turnley. Their reunion was reported in the Salt Lake Tribune during the Summer Olympics.

Speaking of the website, our website (www.alphaavengers.org) provides a place where we can all keep up-to-date with what's going on in our association. It's also a place you’ll find a record of our history. Everyone is encouraged to bring copies of pictures, documents or any other historical material to the reunion so we can get it on the website. Tex and I will scan them and return them back to you. Thanks to everyone who has donated the material we have so far.

For the last year and a half, I have been honored to serve as president of the association. I do appreciate all the support everyone has given me. Two supporters that have always been there, GI Joe Ludwick, our past president and John (Tex) Fair, our first president and founder. Thanks to everyone.

See you all in Colorado Springs. Please make your reservations today if you haven’t done so ready. Also, please fill out the Reunion Event Sign-up Form.

We recently lost one of our fellow Avengers with the untimely death of Ralph "Korky" Korbacher. He not only was a comrade in arms who served in my platoon in Nam but a dear friend to my family who we have grieved since his death. I mention this not because we've lost another one of the Avenger family but because it made me once again stop and reflect on the uncertainty of the future and the memories of the past. I sat with tears and remember almost day by day my tour in Nam and the men I served with. I remember not only the bad times but also the good ones. I remember the men I could count on when the going got tough and the ones who kept my spirits up when they began to get low. I remember the blood and the sacrifice and the bonds that were built between men that were from completely different worlds only weeks before. Some I remember the names of, some I don't, and for that I am sorry, for one was just as important as the other.

When Ralph passed away, I got on the phone and called several that I had stayed in touched with. But it shouldn't be that way. Why should there have to be a death for us to call each other or to email each other.

That brings up the future. Our reunion is coming up. As I said in the last newsletter we're not getting younger. Now is the time to start coming to the reunions. Share the fellowship and renew old friendships. Hope to see everyone in June.

MESSAGE FROM PAST PRESIDENT, JOHN (TEX) FAIR

Thanks for all your hard work in putting this together. I know how hard you have all worked in finalizing the plans & for decisions that have been made. You are truly an asset to the organization. The organization has grown through new leadership with fresh ideas. I think that the website was one of the best things we have ever done to further our aims. All this could not have been possible without information from each of you guys & a special thanks to you Lt Houghton for all the endless hours of work on it. It makes me really proud to have such good friends. May it continue forward. Does anybody have any suggestions for upcoming leadership (ie: VP/Treas.) Now is the time to start talking about it. Also we might want to look at different locations for the 2004 reunion. One location that might be considered is Branson Mo. Reasonable rates plus lots of activities as well as being centrally located. We might consider DC again. I will try to get some info from Branson for all to look at the reunion. If any of you have other sites please try to bring info on sites to the reunion. Again thanks for everything you have done.

I would like to join Association President Ray Houghton and the Board of Directors in extending an invitation to each of you to attend the Reunion. Our Association was formed to preserve and foster the camaraderie we had over 30 years ago in Vietnam. Our reunions are an exciting experience of renewing old friendships and acquaintances from our past. There are very few days that go by that you don’t think of someone from that era or an experience that we all had. Come and enjoy the fun times of our experience. I promise you won’t go away disappointed.

If you are looking for a Vietnam book that tells the story of the good as well as the bad times in the 101st, please buy this book: (RIPCORD SCREAMING EAGLES UNDER SIEGE, VIETNAM 1970). The author, Keith W. Nolan, has written several Vietnam books. This has the story of the day I got shot, and was retired from the Army with 100% disability. If you were in Vietnam around 1970, this book is mandatory reading.

I have a website with more information about our times in Vietnam, and what fun I am having these days. The address for my website is: http://www.orcacom.net/~joel/.

I am looking forward to seeing you and yours in Colorado Springs. In Brotherhood,