VVVA 2002 Reunion

The Villa Verde Veterans Association, those who served in Italy on the staff of CTF-60 in the late 1970's, met in Fredericksburg, Texas, April 19 and 20.

 

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The entire group in Al Carr's wood shop. Everybody is visible except for Rose Lavinder who seems to be hiding behind Gale Emery (on the left between Jan Munsee and Karen Carr.)

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Al explains some of the techniques that he uses in his horse construction projects.

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The Lavinders and the Munsees listen to Al tell how he makes his beautiful wooden horses.

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Dutch and Rosemary check out the tapas on the patio of Al & Karen Carr's lovely home.

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Looks like Tom doesn't quite believe something Carlton is telling him.

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Jerry Houston seems a bit unsure about some of the food.

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Ann and Ron Horn share stories with Gayl Carson

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Tapas on the patio accompany the conversation and 20-plus years of catching up, in some cases.

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Dick Thomas and Ann Horn enjoying the food and the conversations.

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Dick and Gayl Carson in the living room, watching a video about Al's horse business.

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Saturday we visit the Nimitz museum, and their recently opened exhibition on the Pacific War. Here a Japanese tank is on display.

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An exhibit in the rear of the original Nimitz museum building.

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At lunch we share the resturant with a few of the 1500 Harley bikers who were having their convention in the same town. Note one of the bikers is very supporative of his female companion.

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As we return to our motel, and admired one of the bikes, the owner invited Cindy to sit on it. He even offered to hold her purse (as other bikers came and went). Now THAT guy was confident in his manhood!

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Saturday evening we had a wonderful dinner of authentic Italian foods. Linda Muegge who catered the dinner,explains the dishes. Linda did such a spectacular job, she has been made an "honorary member" of the VVVA.

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The group is attentive to Linda's presentation of how the various foods were prepared.

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Carl gives the dinner high marks!

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Dick and Connie Thomas also seemed to enjoy the meal. Here, a little post-dinner wine reminds us of some of our time at the Villa Verde Hotel in Naples.

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Gayl won the Judy Derryberry shopping award, and here shows her rather unique bird house. The inside is cleaned through the hinged section shown.

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Al and Karen's daughter, Ashley, loads the dishwasher as the evening draws to a close.

The evening ended with goodbyes that took over an hour. Nobody really wanted the leave and have the memories from years past fade away. There will never be another group like the CTF-60 staff and their spouses, nor a more interesting place than the Villa Verde in which we all spent many enjoyable hours, days, weeks, and sometimes months.

This page created on a Macintosh by Mike McLane (mmclane@mac.com)

Click HERE to go to a page with individual pictures