Well, we had another fine reunion. The highlight of this reunion was the graduation at MCRD San Diego. These new Marines looked sharp

We had a good group, there were 15 of us, 26 people total, this included: John Beck, Dave & Sydney Tucker, Wade & Jackie Thompson, Dick & Audry Squires, Clyde & Charmie Sprague, Don & Joan Jones, Jim & Bonnie Berhide, Stan Steinmetz, Bob & barb Robarge, Mel & Dana Ragland, David Foxworth,. George & Annie Imbembo, Roy Smith, Al & Cabby Pelletier and Willie & Gail Versch.

Our first stop on the reunion was at the airfield at Pendleton. We toured the control tower and they explained how they control the aircraft on the field, landing and takeing off. We also saw the equipment and heard how they keep track of and control all of the aircraft in their airspace. The airfield is located where we had the 3rd Marine Division parade in 1952. A lot of us remembered that day. There is no room for a parade there now.

We then went to Tent Camp 3½ now Camp Talega. The quansit huts have all been replaced so our old company office looked new and clean but 'Ol Smokey' hasn't changed a bit. The tents were all gone, of course, but we went up the terraced area where our tents were and visited with some Marines that were on a field exercise and they were sharp, we were all impressed.

The second day we started off with a trip to La Jolla, Ca. This is where Camp Mathews ( the rifle range) was, now it is beautiful and the kind of neighborhood that people park their Rolls Royce at the curb. We then went down through San Diego and took a boat ride through the harbor before we went to Tejuana, Mex. We did find some bars, but they didn't look the same.

Friday, we went to MCRD. We started the day at the Colors Presentation Ceremony where we were recognized as guests. We went to the graduation parade. Where we saw a fine bunch of Marines. There were 6 platoons that graduated, approx. 350 Marines. We were very impressed with everything that we saw at MCRD.

When we got back to the hotel we found that one of the graduates and his family were staying there and we had a nice visit with him.