Reunion 2010

We had beautiful warm, clear weather with mild breezes out of the northwest. Lindy's Landing RV Resort is
lush and green this time of year with the roses and many other flowers blossoming and the hummingbirds, robins and other creatures of nature in full Springtime mode. A truly great setting for a reunion and get-together.
There was way less of a turn-out than expected...a good number of "no shows" and did they ever miss out on
a fantastic time. Attendees included: Johnny Velasquez (B Co. 2/502) and his wife Lillian from Tracy, CA; Tony
Cardenas (D Co. 1/327) and his wife Florence from Ceres, CA; John Sorge (A Co. 1/502) from Fresno, CA; Craig Johnson (E Co.-Recon 2/502) from Oxnard,CA; Paul "Doc" Sudano (E Co.-Recon 1/501) from San Jose, CA; Mike
Donovan (A Co. 1/502) from Petaluma, CA; Joe Diaz (HHB DivArty) and his wife Mary Ann from Oxnard,CA;
myself, of course, Michael Bradshaw (E Co.-Recon 1/501) and my woman Tina (and our boy Timmy) from
Reedley, CA; my son Jason and his wife Faree (both former Screaming Eagles of a newer generation) and my
son Ian all from Fresno, CA.
Friday afternoon and evening we gathered here at Lindy's Landing RV Resort for Mountain Mike's great
pizza, some drinks and some of Mike Donovan's excellent barbequed prawns while telling old "war stories" and
talking over the next day's strategy.
Saturday morning prospective members met at the beautiful Dinuba Veterans Memorial Building in Dinuba, CA (just 5 miles away) where they kindly supplied us with a fantastic meeting room for our first "official" meetings
(they even had coffee ready for us when we arrived). In rapid order we accomplished what was needed to form
our new chapter including election of five chapter officers, adoption of some chapter by-laws and choice of a tentative place and dates for next year's annual chapter reunion (see the "Reunion 2011" page).
After our meeting everyone met back here at Lindy's Landing where we slung more "BS", raffled off several items and had an overall fantastic time. At around 5:00 PM or so Tina and I served up a great meal that consisted of: slow cooked barbequed Tri-Tip marinated in a special beer marinade; Baked Potatoes with whipped butter, sour cream and a homegrown chive type garnish; Tina's special Macaroni Salad; various grilled and steamed Veggies; Garlic Bread warmed on the grill and for dessert some of Tina's fantastic Strawberry or Caramel Cheesecake. I'm proud to say that Tina and I received numerous compliments and were asked to try to top it at next year's reunion...a challenge we'll be glad to undertake.
An extremely good time was had by all...so good, in fact, that some stayed over until Sunday afternoon and even Monday morning. Our host Vito Chimienti, owner of Lindy's Landing RV Resort, was gracious and magnanimous and his staff very helpful...so much so that on Sunday I prepared a meal for them using "left-overs" from the meal