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There are 5 months and 12 days until the next CC Conference at the Silver Legacy in downtown Reno, Aug. 23-27.

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Jack Paxton
Executive Director, USMCCCA
110 Fox Court,
Wildwood, FL 34785
+1 352-748-4698

EMAIL:
usmccca@cfl.rr.com
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USMCCCA

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Cochise Cash

Found a couple images from the Iwo Jima trip. This one of Obie shaking hands w/CMC The photo was taken by Cpl. Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo. She is the CMC's photographer, shooting everything the CMC does. By the way, she's also a CC —Chuck Beveridge.

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Did you miss the cruise? See the photos

Photos by Jim Klingerman, Mustang.

If you missed the Feb. 28 2010 CC and Mustang cruise and pre-cruise package  you can see photos of the fun they all had courtesy of Mustang, Jim Klingerman here. 
 They were among the first to visit the new additions at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.  And did you know, one of our own, CC Norm Hatch, is featured in the Pacific wing of the museum?
There were two new ports added, Costa Maya, Mexico, and Santo Tomas de Castilla, Guatemala. The cruise also visited two familiar stops, Cozumel and Belize.

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Chuck Beveridge at Iwo Jima shows up on ABC News

Chuck Beveridge is in the red shirt on the left.

Chuck Beveridge is in the red shirt on the left.

Eagle-eyed Don Knight spotted Chuck Beveridge during an ABC news piece about the return of Iwo Jima veterans 65 years later to the the island. Cy O’Brien is also on the tour but not shown on camera.

(Note: The video below takes a long time to load. Be patient… I SAID BE PATIENT! If you can’t wait, go here: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/memories-war-10003934)


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Hey, that was Dad!

CC Lifemember Frank Real

PBS recently aired an “American Experience” segment entitled “The Kennedy’s.”  In this particular segment, Ted Kennedy’s plane had crashed near Southampton, Mass in 1964.  CC Life Member Frank Real’s sons spotted their dad in one portion, taped it and sent several still photos of it to their dad.  Frank tells of his involvement. 

Frank Real caught in background.

These pictures were gleaned from the recently aired PBS program American Experience. The segment was “The Kennedy’s.”  My sons, Kevin and Brian spotted me in the film. copied it and sent me a copy Brian has purchased a DVD copy of the segment, Ted Kennedy’s plane crashed in an apple orchard in Southampton, Mass. in June 1964 while he was on his way to attend the Democratic State Convention in West Springfield. He was taken to Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton with a broken back and other serious injuries. The pilot and an aide died in the crash and U.S. Sen. Birch Byeh of Indiana escaped with minor injuries. Bayh’s wife, Marvella, also suffered back injuries. It was reported that Ted Kennedy nearly died in because of his injuries.

Click here to read more ›

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CC gets in before the parade passes by

Seven-year-old Kaitlin Oliver gets in the spirit with her great uncle, Keith Oliver.

When Keith Oliver’s home town throws a parade, its citizens turn out regardless of the weather.  Eustis, FL, located about 40 miles north of Orlando in the heart of Central Florida, annually celebrates GeorgeFest, in honor of our Nation’s first president. This year the Eustis Historical Society honored its home town Marine by inviting him to speak early in the week and be saluted by riding  in the annual George Fest Parade on Feb.  27. 

CC Gene Packwood (l), a member of the local Marine Corps League Honor Guard, reunites with Executive Director Jack Paxton. The two served briefly together at Parris Island in the early 1950s. Packwood annually prepares the Florida Chapter Gator ad for the Conference Journal.

Keith, always a proponent of misery-loving-company, then decreed that his Executive Director, Jack Paxton who lived nearby should also share the honor as a salute to the CCs.  They were joined by Keith’s great niece, Kaitlin, whose parents reside in Eustis.

The forecast of  rain and an unusually cold day came true forcing the abandonment of riding in a convertible with the top down.  “Well,” as Keith said when it started raining, “it could be worse.”  And, it was.

We were to be the 26th unit in the 100+unit parade.  ‘Were’ became the operative word.  As our turn  to move out came the car would not start and parade officials quickly marshaled forces and pushed us out of the parade route.  As the convertible was a stick shift we asked several bystanders for help, thinking we could kick it into gear but that failed.  Finally, our ever-resourceful former National President, started asking nearby parade-watchers if anyone had jumper cables.  They did and we were finally back in the parade… in about the 78th spot.

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Review: HERO OF THE PACIFIC: The Life of Marine Legend John Basilone

HERO OF THE PACIFIC: The Life of Marine Legend John Basilone.
By James Brady. Published by John Wiley & Sons Inc. 272 pages.
Stock #0470379413. $23.36 MCA Members. $25.95 Regular Price.

We knew from conversations just prior to his sudden death in January 2009 that Parade Magazine’s James Brady was working on a book covering the life of the legendary Marine, “Manila John” Basilone. What we did not know was how Brady would approach his subject. Brady followers, me among them, thought he would fictionalize Marine history as he did in various novels, including “Marine,” “Warning of War” and “The Marines of Autumn.”
What we have in “Hero of the Pacific” is more akin to Brady’s “Why Marines Fight,” only with a sharper eye on the actual fiction that surrounded this Marine hero. Brady had this sharper eye. After all, as a decorated Marine platoon leader who fought in the cold of the second Korean winter, he had some insight as to what an infantry platoon and, more importantly, what a machine-gun section could and should do. As a veteran newsman, he also knew how to “mine” a story.

Click here to read more ›

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If you have moved…

CCHQ tries to run a tight ship and hold expenses down by using bulk mail rates to send member mailings.  You can imagine our surprise (read: dismay) when the post office called and we had to pay a hefty penalty because we had (so far) 23 newsletters returned due to bad member addresses.  We are required to put “Address Service Requested” on all mailings a minimum of every 90 days.  This helps when a member has moved within one year as the new address is furnished and we can correct our records.  It hurts when more than a year has gone by and the Post Office has no record.  In this instance your returned newsletter costs: .17 cents original bulk mail, .50 cents penalty, and for those whose addresses were corrected for us, another .44 cents to re-mail.  Total:  $1.11. The sad part is the majority of those returned did not come back with a new address so not only do we not know where you are, we lost .67 cents.  We have said  repeatedly that we cannot afford to lose members.  We are listing those with bad addresses and hope they (or a friend) will see this and let CCHQ know their whereabouts.  If any are deceased we hope someone will let us know.

Looking for Addresses. If you know where these CCs are please contact CCHQ
Erik Aguilar
Charlotte Ann Crouch
John Deering
Bart J. DeVito
H. S. Doone
Richard G. Frankovich
George R. Francis Jr.
Richard M. Gibney
James Bond Johnson
Stewart J. Johnson
G. Jack King
Renee Krusemark
Allen G. Mainard
Kevin McGants
Richard Odermann
Jimmie Perkins
Chris Perrine
Chester H. Smith
Angel J. Velasquez
Frederick J. Wilson
William Wood Jr.
Andrew Zurick
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Author goes home and gives talk

Keith Oliver spoke at the opening ceremonies of "George Week" in Eustis Fl, Feb 23, 2010.

Keith Oliver spoke at the opening ceremonies of "George Week" in Eustis Fl, Feb 23, 2010.

Family support

Family support for Keith Olver.

Former national president Keith Oliver returned to his Eustis, Fla. boyhood,  to speak at the opening ceremonies of “George Week” in this Central Florida community.  Several hundred citizens turned out, including three of his brothers and several other family members to honor this hometown boy who “definitely made good.” 

Keith recounted his boyhood and what it was like in those days growing up in Central Florida.  Three of his brothers were on hand as were several nieces and nephews and various friends, including national Executive Director Jack Paxton and his wife Pat.   The  George week festivities will conclude Saturday with a parade and Keith expects to be driven throughout the parade route by his Executive Director.

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Where is George Chrisman?

PAO staff at MCRD San Diego, circa 1952-53.

Above is the PAO staff of MCRD San Diego in either late 1952 or early ‘53, according to George Chrisman. See if you can find him without reading the caption…
 
Seated, from left: Sgt. Edward A. Hamann, Pfc Marilyn Ryan, Capt. Charles F. Johnson, Pfc Frances Nealen, Cpl. Stanton Keeney.
Standing: MSgt. Dick Waite, Sgt. John Toohey, Sgt. George Chrisman, Cpl. Don Jennings, Sgt. Frank Goodall, Sgt. Tom Anderson, Cpl. Art Widmark, Sgt. Chuck Niles, PFC Jack Mills, Cpl. Jack Heeger, Sgt. Rick Olmstead, Sgt. Marshall Hall, PFC Gene Toohey, SSgt. Arne Hokans.

To see this photo larger, please click here.

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Tom Kerr is 2009 Dickson Memorial Award winner

Tom Kerr is the 2009 Donald L. Dickson Memorial Award winner.

Tom Kerr is the 2009 Donald L. Dickson Memorial Award winner.

A long time member of the Los Angeles Chapter, the Florida Chapter and as National Treasurer, Tom Kerr has given energetically of his time and expertise to the programs of the USMCCCA. As a member of the Florida Chapter, Tom has arranged cruises that provided considerable funds to the chapter for further donation to the USMCCCA Foundation.

As the USMCCCA National Treasurer, Tom has managed and enhanced the financial funds in an outstanding manner.  He has also led the transition in the separation of Foundation and Association accounting.  Accordingly, the two entities are on solid financial and legal ground.

Tom Kerr’s wisdom, hard work, honesty, dedication to detail, reliability and unerring professionalism, which he applies to every task have had an enduring impact on the Association, Foundation and the Chapters he has served.

His exemplary contributions to the Association and Foundation are highly deserving of this special recognition by his peers.

2009 USMCCCA Conference, Hampton Va.

“I am proud to receive this award and thank all those who supported it.  There is no greater reward than to be recognized by your peers.  When I look at the list of past recipients, I have much to live up to as a member of this elite group.” said Kerr.


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