Update November 7, 2015

1/83rd Unit News	1. Remembrance - November 26th is the Anniversary of the death of one of our 1/83rd Brothers. David Angelo Barbarino, a Veteran of "A" Battery (1970), Died 11/26/91 as a results of wounds sustained 4/13/70. More on David can be found on our website. Lest we Forget. (Rubbing from the Vietnam Memorial) 2. Late Arriving November Birthday - Happy Birthday to Dan Tvenstrup (66-67). 3. Veterans Day 2015 - As you are probably aware, many companies offer free, or discounted, things to Veterans each year on Veterans Day. A couple of you have sent me links on this subject. Here are some and you may know of others. a. Military.com b. Applebee's - courtesy of Greg Sachnewycz (70-71) c. Several Listed here - courtesy of Ken Blank (69-70) 4. Sick Call - The latest from Bruce Taiji (67-68)... "Health wise I finished all of the chemo treatment and radiation treatment and as such I was able to take a vacation to Orlando for a week to attend the US Army Warrant Officers Annual Meeting. Right now I am waiting to get a CT scan with Contrast on Oct 30th to find out how the tumor reacted to the treatment. Hopefully it is smaller and the DR can go in and surgically remove it. I will let you know how it progresses with me. Take care." 5. Challenge Coin - There are still Challenge Coins available if anyone wants one. 7. Reunion News - A couple of things I want to call to your attention regarding the 2016 Reunion. a. Optional Post-Reunion Tour to Gettysburg - As previously mentioned, Mike Reetz has offered to organize a one day, bus trip to Gettysburg on October 17, 2016, the day after the Reunion. He needs to know if enough of you are interested in this optional trip, which will be an additional expense for you, before he can plan further. What makes this item of even more importance is that it will effect your hotel reservation. You probably will want to stay at least through the night on October 17 (checking out on Oct 18) if you go on the trip. Also, since the idea of this excursion came up after I signed the hotel contract, I did not take this into consideration when setting up the number of rooms in the room block. Most of the nights in the block are allocated to the Fri-Sat-Sun of the Reunion. Since I am personally financially liable for meeting the contract terms, I can't put in an unlimited number of rooms since, if we don't book them, I am on the hook financially. If the trip does happen, I may be able to adjust the contract so that there are enough rooms available for those staying for the Gettysburg trip. Although I know from past experience that many of you tend to "wait until later" on these things, I hope you understand the importnace of knowing now if there are enough interested in the excursion. Please let Mike know directly as soon as possible. His contact info is on the Roster. b. Hotel Reservations - So far, only 8 hotel reservations have been made. Please remember that although the room rate will hold for 3 days pre and post Reunion, that is only subject to hotel availability. I mentioned above about the issues involved with adding rooms to the block. The hotel has advised me that we have some flexibility in this but only if we know far enough in advance. The hotel is in an area where there are many visitors, both leisure and business travelers, so there is no guarantee that a room will be available if you wait too long to book. Remember, you can cancel a reservation up to 1 day prior to your arrival so there is no reason to wait if you intend to go to the Reunion. For more on the Reunion, See this section on the 1/83rd website. 8. Unit Merchandise - See this section on the 1/83rd website. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Be sure to let me know what is going on in your life so we can share it with everyone in this section. See the latest 1/83rd News by clicking here.
Photo of the Week	The men on the right are about to paratroop into France on D-Day. The men on the left are the same men today. More remarkable, it's the same plane. (Photo courtesy of Ed Kloiber (68-69)
General News	1. US Army Museum - John (Ziggie) Zagami (69-70) sent this note along... "Bill, I want to give you & our fellow cannon cockers a heads up on the building of this Historic Museum for the US Army. Anyone who every wore the uniform is entitled to submit a brief story of their experience in the Army. This will be posted in the Museum for all to review. Their are also selling blocks with inscriptions. If you need any further info please contact BETH SCHULTZ SEAMAN --Director of Grassroots Development ---2425 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22201= I volunteer to distribute pamphlets --- I believe this is a worthwhile cause". 2. St. Barbara's Day, the Patron Saint of the Artillery is celebrated each year on December 4.
Interesting Links and More	1. Dan O'Brien (69-70) sent this story of a young man who developed an App to help Veterans with PTSD problems. 2. A few of you sent this video, the Navy version of the Jersey Boys 3. Rex Hon (66-67) sent this list of Military Slang that you may enjoy. Some photos are there also. I will be adding it to the website as well.
Did you Know	The old phrase “one bad apple spoils the bunch” may or may not be true on a sociological level, but it is absolutely true on an agricultural one: apples emit ethylene gas when they ripen and an over-ripe apple will emit enough ethylene gas to rapidly over-ripen and spoil the surrounding apples. (Courtesy of How-To Geek Newsletter)
Website Updates	1. If you come across anything that you think may be a good addition to our website let me know. Also, if you have any questions or suggestions regarding the website, let me know. 2. Check out all the latest updates by looking at the website Table of Contents.
Vietnam Veterans of America Update	1. VVA Update for October 16, 2015 2. VVA Update for October 23, 2015 3. VVA Update for October 30, 2015 4. VVA Update for November 5, 2015 5. VVA website
1/83rd Roster	Review your entry on the website Roster and let me know if any changes are necessary. If your email stops working, I cannot reach you if you have incomplete contact details on the roster.
Missing members of the 1/83rd	Help us find those former 83rd members who haven't found us yet!! I am sure that each of us has someone they would really like to reconnect with. If we all pitch in, we may find many more of our old buddies. Here are some ways to do that: 1. If you are in contact or have contact info for any 1/83rd guys please contact them and tell them about our group or at least tell me and I will contact them. 2. Look through the roster on the website and if you know of others who are not listed, let me know who they are. Also, if you see any incorrect or missing info (including your own entry) let me know. 3. If you have copies of old orders tucked away someplace, send me a copy so I can make sure those names are on the roster. 4. Sometimes all it takes is a name and location and we can find someone but the more details we know the better our chances.
Rules & Regs	If anyone would like an updated copy of the "Rules & Regs" document which has helpful information about the website, let me know. Go to Contact Us and submit your request or email me directly.
Advisory	If you get an email from and it has a website link included anywhere within the email, most times you should be able to just click on the link and you will be taken to the website. Sometimes however, the link will not work because, in sending you the email, the link is deactivated although it is still usable. If this should happen, another way to use the link is to copy and paste it into the address line on your browser. Please be sure to let me know if you have any questions on this. Please make sure that your email system allows emails to be received from both of my email addresses, bill_t_08012@yahoo.com and artillery_83rd@yahoo.com Please note that there are no blank spaces in email addresses. What you see in mine between words/characters is the underscore (_) character.