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dale link on January 6, 2014 at 8:35 AM said:

-1, wind chill -13, 12" powder snow outside. shoveling & keeping warm. one set of gi boots & one set of gi long johns issued 1966. the army has been very good to me.
Jerry Mahanay on January 1, 2014 at 7:44 PM said:

As always Jack McCabe has once again beat me to the punch to wish all of our Avel Veterans, Family and friends a Happy New Year, What a great Reunion we had in Washington, DC and what a great Reunion we want to have in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Happy New Year and look forward to seeing you in Colorado Springs.
Jack McCabe on December 25, 2013 at 6:31 AM said:

Merry Christmas to all my AVEL brothers. I has been great seeing so many of you at the last 4 reunions. I am looking forward to seeing more of you in the future. I wish you all a very happy and healthy 2014.
Jerry Mahanay on December 24, 2013 at 6:54 PM said:

Dennis Kanatake, I wish you and your wife a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. It has been awesome that you have made the last two Reunions. Hopefully I will get to meet your wife at a Reunion soon. Bill Toland called me today. Great to hear from him and he says he is going to the Reunion in Colorado Springs. That will be great seeing him. To all of my Avel Brothers and fellow Veterans I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Dennis Kanetake on December 24, 2013 at 1:32 PM said:

Aloha from Hawaii! Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas) to all my AVEL brothers and families. May you all have a safe and joyful Christmas.
Also, Hauoli Maka Hiki Hou (Happy New Year).
dale link on December 16, 2013 at 7:46 AM said:

AMEN...3ru8nt
Russ Mason on December 16, 2013 at 7:02 AM said:

Jack, let me be the first to say a huge THANK YOU for all of your tireless effort you have put into getting this done. I think I speak for everyone, even though I am not trying to, in expressing our sincere gratitude to you for bringing to reality the actual reconnections that have occured through this channel...something I had for many, many years thought about and dreamed of but never felt would happen. When I found the Hexmate website and left a message on their board, I could only hope that someone I knew would find it and respond. Instead, someone I never heard of responded, a guy named McCabe, who told me about an AVEL website. Talk about a rush! Just to hear someone else mention Avel was exciting, and since then it has been a real blessing of events which have brought brothers back together for another chance to spend time together.
God Bless you, Jack, and all of out Brothers, here and gone. Merry Christmas (I warned you).
Jack McCabe on December 13, 2013 at 5:55 PM said:

I had no idea in 2009 where my curiosity of what happened to the guys I served with in AVEL Central would lead. The first guy I found was Dale Garringer who thought I was trying to get back at him for something. When he realized I actually served with him (although he didn't remember me)he became more relaxed. We talked and emailed several times and he told me he knew Rene Defourneaux in Germany and believed he was on classmates.com. He was and I recognized the photo immediately. I called Rene on Christmas Day but he wasn't home. He called me back on the 26th and we spoke for 45 minutes. I was hooked. I had to find my AVEL Central buddies. Well, I started to find guys from the other AVEL companies. The rest is history.

Merry Christmas guys. It has been a hell of a ride. I am extremely grateful that I was able to meet with my old friend Joe Kaminski in Brooklyn before he died. I am grateful I was able to connect with our old First Shirt Marv Bentz and put him in contact with Joe Matos and talk to him before he died. I spoke with Ed Fitzpatrick many times before he also died.

I am sorry to find all the guys who have passed since their tour. They did their final DEROS and we will always remember them and they will always be young.

God Bless you all and a heartfelt Merry Christmas from Jack & Pat.
russ mason on December 12, 2013 at 10:36 AM said:

Well Chief Raincloud (the Mahanay, for those of you who might not know), if you ever do never forget anything, I'll be quite impressed. I don't remember much from last week, but do still remember the reunions. It just seems that there are more and more things I don't remember, but I forgot what they are. I know I used to remember more stuff than I do now, but I don't remember how much more. Something to think about. What?
I do remember that it is almost Christmas, so let me be the first here (I think...) to wish everyone who reads this and wonderful Christmas and new years, or whatever else might be special to you. This way, I won't forget to do it later, unless I forget that I have already done it and might then wish it on all of you again. No problem. You can't have too much love. God Bless America, and God please watch over our troops in war zones now.

SEEYA.
Jerry Mahanay on November 27, 2013 at 4:31 PM said:

I really don't remember Thanksgiving in Phu Loi 1971 or Christmas for that matter but I will always remember the Avel Reunions of 2011, 2012 and 2013 and reuniting with my old buddies from Avel Central at that time and meeting all of the Avel Veterans, Non-Avel Veterans, the family and friends from the last couple of years. It has been an incredible time and experience and I want to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving.
russ mason on November 27, 2013 at 6:41 AM said:

I don't remember Thanksgiving of '68 at all...not even sure we had anything special...maybe a can of those Beenie Weenies with the cotton/alcohol burner attached to the bottom of the can...I do remember eating a lot of those.
I do also seem to remember having a drink once with some of the guys. Kinda fuzzy, those memories are.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my Brothers. Glad to be home.
Woodie on November 27, 2013 at 5:55 AM said:

Maybe that was my problem. I remember having a drink in Nam, and the next thing I knew I was setting in a bar in Frisco.
dale link on November 26, 2013 at 9:57 AM said:

don't remember thanksgiving or xmas of 67. vaguely remember my birthday the day before thanksgiving; turned 26. the back of our hooch was hit by a 122mm rocket the week before thanksgiving. we hadn't sand-bagged yet. shrapnel burned my mattress. poured water on it and turned it over to sleep on. only reason I remember this, I have photos of it. hard to remember things when one drinks every day
Jerry Mahanay on November 26, 2013 at 6:10 AM said:

There is a picture on the website taken Christmas Day of Bill Biggs sitting on a bunker with a silver mug in his hand (no doubt an adult beverage inside). I'm sitting behind him on the bunker with my back to the camera. Shot of the back of my head (of course) and Bill Fesus and Joe Kaminski standing on the side. I really don't remember that day but more than likely had to pull Guard Duty with Gary Clark that night and missed out on any Avel festivities.
Richard Dees on November 25, 2013 at 6:29 PM said:

Can't remember a thing about Thanksgiving 1967.Every day I just wanted to be able to see the next day until I left that place.

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