Pershing Rifles National Alumni Reunion and NATCON
I didn't have time to put anything up on this page during NATON and the reunion. I only took pictures of the drill meet and they weren't very good. This page will be very slow loading because of the large number of pictures. Please continue all the way to the end for an e-mail and picture I received from one of the brand new PR companies I talked to at NATCON
Linda
| Thursday, March 18 | |
| Flight to Tallahassee. As everyone has heard, my plane had a computer problem in Memphis and I didn't to the hotel until around 10:30 pm. Obviously, these first pictures were not taken by me!!! | |
| Cocktails at 5:00 p.m. | |
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| 2LT Craig Zagorski, former National Commander, David Poe, Chris Scheuerman, former National Commander | PR BG Rebecca Scholand, Cheif of Staff, Craig Zagorski |
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| Alumni from Company E-8 (New York University). I met them all, but can't remember the names. Shame on me, but I met too many new people. The guy in red in the background of the picture on the right is the PR National Advisor, MAJ John Blankenhorn. The couple who drove me to to the tour of the restored mission is in the picture on the right (she's only partially seen and he's next to her. Most of the guys from E-8 were wearing their blue shirts. | |
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| MAJ Blankenhorn again. In light blue: Paul Farinella, Q-8, Hofstra University | Bill Wagnor, Q-8, Chris, Rebecca |
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| Some of the FPRAA Board, Jim Ridley, Q-8 (Vice Chairman), Chris Scheuerman, (Secretary) and Bill Wagnor Q-8 (Chairman) | Chris, David Poe, Jim |
| Alumni Dinner at 5:45 p.m. I was supposed to short speech about CAPERS. Well that was a lot of work in preparation for nothing!!! | |
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| Haig Yagoobian, B-12 (Boston University), FPRAA Board Member, Bill Wagnor, ?? | More of E-8 with names I can't remember. I made friends with the two on the left side of the tables. Two very nice guys. |
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| The color guard for the evening. | The color guard with two very proud G-7 alumni and their advisor. At this point the color guard is from future Company K-7, Kansas State University. Their advisor, MAJ Ryan Hofstra. To the left is Dr. John Chatelain. G-7 Alumni, Ret MG Don Jacka and his wife are in front. |
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| Joh Chatelain and MAJ Hofstra (the alumni from Q-8 really like his name!!) | Bob Sierra, E-8, Reunion Chairman |
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| Bill Wagnor giving his speech. Both he and Bob tried to tell them about me and about CAPERS. | A picture of a photgrapher! |
| Friday, March 19 | |
| Tours and probably some meetings during the day. I still haven't gotten pictures from someone who took pictures of the tour I went on to the restored Spanish Mission. This was the first chance I had to really met people, including one of the couples I was supposed to eat with the night before, Ret COL Allan Irwin and his wife. Thus far I don't have any pictures of him. Like all of us from CAPER National, he never pledged a PR company, but pledged PR National Staff in the 1950's. He was recruited by his older brother. Both Irwin brothers were National Commanders. | |
| After the mission tour, I came back to the hotel and went to lunch with some of the FPRAA board for an informal meeting. Then it was back to the hotel and saw the last few minutes of the Antique Rifles (Company E-8 Alumni) practice on the hotel parking lot. Then a ran into Antonio Arnold a PR alumni who I met on-line. He was excited to see all of the information I had on CAPERS, as he know some CAPERS when he was active in PRs. He just got out of the Army and is job hunting. There will be a picture of my new friend, Antonio later. | |
| Cocktails at 6 p.m. This was on a deck at the top of the Florida State University Stadium. This was my first chance to actually meet some of today's PRs. It's also where I found the PRs who know some of their CAPER alumni (North Carolina A & T University, Greensboro and Tuskegee University). | |
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| Bill Wagnor on the right. Others ??? | The sun messed up this picture and I can't tell who is in it. |
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| Mostly active members | MAJ Blankenhorn, David Poe, Chris Scheuerman |
| Black tie dinner with actives. Each table had both active members and alumni. | |
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| I can't believe no one (yet) got a picture of me wearing my old CAPER Cord and my new PR cord. But I did get in the background of a couple of pictures. So I had to put them up so I could prove that I wore them both on my formal dress. I had a harder time pinning them on than I thought I would have (after all we pinned our cords on when we had the royal blue jumper uniforms) and they really felt funny on a sleeveless dress! | |
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| Bob Wagnor with Ron Russell, E-1, University of Cincinnati. I got to know Ron's wife on the tour and then him on Saturday evening. Their son was the National Deputy Commander in 2007. Ron pledged a company that later had a CAPER Company and was very interested in learning about us. | Haig Yaghoobian with Thomas White, E-8 and his wife. |
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| In the center is my new friend, the Rev Dr Antonio Arnold, Q-4 (Virginia State University), with ?? on the left and Bob Sierra on the right. | A picture taken from close to where I sat. I sat with one member of National Staff, 1LT Amanda Kress (G-1) and a couple of other members of her company (A-3, University of Indiana...where there was a CAPER Company), one of the E-8 guys I met in Memphis and members of one of the newer companies from Washington University in St. Louis...small world) |
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| Paul Farinella (left), Bill Wagnor (almost hidden) and Jim Ridley (right) with a group of actives...which must be from Hofstra University (their company) | A view of one of the tables. |
| Saturday, March 20 | |
| Drill meet at Tully Gym on Florida State University | |
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| I really liked this unit and their t-shirts. But their drill was outstanding! I found a video..it's Company A-1, Ohio State University. | |
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| I didn't get a picture of how they started with a gymnastic roll with the drill commander ending up at the front. This is the picture of how they ended their performance. | |
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| This is the Clemson (C-4) drill team who usually win. They had a few of problems this year. | One of the companies in the Color Guard Competition. |
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| The "Antique Rifles" from E-8 (New York University) | |
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| Two of the E-8 alumni I met in the Memphis airport, Nick Campagna (usually with a ponytail) and Mike Greenburg, alumni commander and "pain the the ass" who keeps on everyone to go to things. | |
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| Actives taking pictures of the "Antique Rifles". | The "Antique Rifles" finishing. |
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| The standing ovation as they left the floor. | |
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Drill Down |
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I first heard about the "Drill Down" while I was in Memphis. The "Antique Rifles" got their inspiration after some of their members participated in this last year. It's basically "Simon Says" of drill. The drill continues until some on goofs and are eliminated. You can see a large group leaving in this picture. |
| Awards after the drill meet | |
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| I was trying to get a picture of the companies getting into formation (a very slow process) when someone walked in front of my camera and then came up to me to apologize. But it was not getting in the picture like I thought, he was coming to tell me that he hadn't had the time to talk with me like he wanted. I didn't recognize him at first. It was the National Commander PR MG Tom Carlson from Clemson (on the left). It ended up being a great picture! | |
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| One of the awards being presented by MG Carlson. | |
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| The overall winners, Company R-1. Even during the awards they were very good. It wasn't until I really looked at this picture, taken by someone else that I realized I had talked to them before they competed. One of their members was on crutches, having hurt himself only a few days before the competition. So they were the overall winners at the NATCON Drill Meet with a substitute drill team members. WOW! | |
| Change of command ceremony | |
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P/R MG Carlson (2009-2010 Commander)
the NCO In Charge (I don't have his name) P/R MG Andrea Walsh (2010-2012 Commander) |
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| Cook-out at the alumni hotel with the active members | |
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| On Friday, March 26, I received
an e-mail from a young man I met during the cook out. He was in one
of the new companies.
"My name is Ulysses Simmons from Central State University T-1 Company in Wilberforce, Ohio. We meet at the 2010 NATCON during the cook-out. I talked to you for a brief moment about our company. As you know our company has just been re-instated and we are asking you for your support. We need your support with helping us get new equipment, or if you new anyone who my be able to help us with are endeavor we really would appreciate you support. It was great meeting you and maybe sometime you can share some of your Pershing Rifles stories with us." I'm sharing it so that you can see what the companies today have to deal with. I sent it on to FPRAA and we are getting more information on what they want. I hope we can help these young men and women get a good start as a company. Here's a picture of some of them. |
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| Sunday, March 21 | |
| Breakfast at the hotel before flying back to St. Louis in the afternoon. Some pictures were taken Sunday, but I don't have them yet. | |
| Go to the CAPER Alumni Main Page. | Go to the CAPER National Headquarters Alumni Main Page. |
| Go to the PR Company H-7 Alumni Main Page. | |