EC-47 Reunion 2005 held at the Ramada Inn, Hanover Maryland, May 19th thru May 22nd 2005

EC-47 Association Meeting Minutes:

At approximately 1730 hours, the meeting was called to order by Dave Brooks/TEWS 361st

Attendance was taken and approximately 112 members were in the room or the hallway.

Doug Milton/6994th gave the general agenda for the meeting: Guest Speakers Treasurer's Report Vote for new Association officers Vote for next reunion: Date and Location Raffle/Auction Any unfinished business.

Doug mentioned that tonight's members include Generals Clapper and Coolidge, and also one special 6994th (203 linguist) James McKee and wife Shirley, James is now the U.S. Ambassador to Madagascar. Also in the room are air crew survivors of Brew 41, Flt mech Dave Lott 361st and Ken Corbin 6994th as well as Danny Russell/6994th and Phil Ehrhorn/6994th from CAP53. Later on in the meeting, the wife of SSgt Mike Conners/6994th (Mike lost his life in CAP53), Mrs. Judy Huiting would make an appearance.

Guest speakers include Dave Steiner/361 TEWS NKP. Doug then introduced Dave who spoke about his website and urged everyone to visit, then spoke of being the first to find 'The EC-47 History Site'. I did visit Dave's site and I thought it was very interesting, also some neat info/pics of the EC47. His web site is: http://stripe.colorado.edu/~steinerd/Home.html

David then introduced our EC-47 Association President: JC Wheeler/361st JC briefly spoke about maintaining the site, new equipment and to always put EC-47 in the Subject Line. If not, it will go into his spam file which numbers in the hundreds. JC also said that one of the "special raffle" items would be presented to Judy Huiting, wife of SSgt Conners.

Next to speak briefly was Danny Russell/6994th. Danny spoke briefly of his selection for and his recent trip back to Vietnam. He brought back with him the bottle of wine with the Cobra in it with the scorpion in it's mouth, donated it for raffle which monies were to go to the association kitty. Joe Martin/6994th was next to speak and told about his last trip to Vietnam and other S.E.A. parts. He would be glad to talk to any member desiring to "go back" and help them plan the trip.

Rick Yeh/6994th was next to speak and promptly apologized for the mix up with the buses and also the dinner hour being pushed back. The Crab Fest on Fri nite and the golf tournament on Thurs were a success. Special thanks to Bill Frizell/6994th and his wife for the outing. They opened their home for a BBQ after the golf outing. Dave Brooks/361st interjected that the EC47 Association is still a relatively young organization and mistakes will be made but we will learn from them. JC Wheeler also spoke that he will be more involved for next year's reunion. Rick then spoke about the DFC ceremony that will take place at the dinner. Medals will be awarded.

The Treasurer's Report by Jim Trozzo/6994th was given and a motion to accept by the group first and seconded.

Vote for officers: Dave Brooks announced that names are being accepted for officers for the upcoming year. A motion from the floor to keep the current names/officers in place and was loudly seconded by the members. Therefore your new (same as last year) officers are: JC Wheeler/361st-President, First VP Rick Yeh/6994th, @2nd VP Dave Eddy/360th, Treasurer Jim Trozzo/6994th, and Recording Secretary, Doug Milton/6994th. Unit Reps will be Joe Martin/6994th, Fred Sanders/360th, Dave Brooks/361st, and Bill Gibbons/362nd. Their responsibility will be to generate attendance from their own units. I believe that once again the 6994th outnumbered the 360/1/2.

Next Years Reunion: Nominees for location were taken and they were: Luckenbach, Texas (by Ed Benningfield) Zero votes Branson, MO Zero Votes Colorado Springs (by Leroy Gray, Dave Lott and Dave Steiner) 70 votes Las Vegas 3 votes Thailand Zero Votes Ft. Walton Beach, FL (by Ben Welch) 12 Votes San Antonio, Texas (Tom Rinderle) 3 Votes

JC Wheeler accepted the nomination of Colorado Springs and announced that he will be working closely with the 362nd guys Leroy Gray, Dave Lott and Dave Steiner. A flow of information is critical to bring about a successful event as each year the association gets larger and larger. JC commended Rick Yeh for his handling of this years event. The date voted on will be Sept. 2006 (subject to change of month due to availability).

JC then announced that the Business part of the meeting was over and the Leisure Part of the meeting will begin. Auction of the "Cobra in a Bottle of Wine" and the raffling of the EC47 models was conducted. Some of the winners were: Ed Wheeler/362nd, Charles Capshew/362nd, Larry Shuman/6994th, Linda Corbin/(Ken)361st, Sandra Jones (Clyde)/362nd, Ben Pennell/6994th, Bob Wilhelm/6994th. And the special award from JC Wheeler to Judy Huiting, the wife of SSgt Mike Conners/6994th. A standing ovation for Judy. A grand total of $919.00 was collected and this money will go into the general fund.

Before closing a request for donations to JC to keep the web site running. A grand total of $1203.00 was collected and will be turned over to J.C. .

Dave Brooks announced that immediatley following this meeting, unit pictures will be taken and also a large portion of H'orduerves are being placed in the foyer. Dinner will be at 9pm.

Dave's call for the meeting to be adjourned was seconded and was closed at 1900 hours.

Respectfully submitted, Recording Secretary Doug Milton/6994th