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Our First Reunion ............

      How it Got Started

Looking back at how this got started, it was a chain of events that lead up to our 2008 reunion in Washington, DC. But what was it that started the ball rolling? Actually, it's not a "what", but a "who". And the "who" is Donald Wilson. inquiries on various military and 1st Cavalry message boards. Somewhere along the line, Donald felt a need to reach out for his Echo Recon brothers. In his attempts to re-establish contact with former members of E-1-5, Donald began posting inquiries on military and 1st Cavalry message boards. Sometime in 2005, Howard Patrick saw one of those messages and responded to it. That led to a series of emails and phone conversations. But one contact wasn't enough for Donald. And his continued posting of his inquiries paid off again. Jeff Duvall came across one of them, and he too responded. After another series of communications, Donald put Howard and Jeff in touch with each other. After numerous conversations, the two of them decided to meet face to face. Howard lives in Philadelphia, PA and Jeff is in Arlington, VA. So the Denny's restaurant in Perryville, MD seemed like the ideal midway point for them to meet for lunch. And on June, 15, 2006 they did just that.   It was quite a positive reunion for the two of them. So much so that they did it again. After their second meeting, Jeff and Donald talked about the meetings, and Donald expressed an interest in joining the next meeting. So, on September 28, 2006, Denny's in Perryville had three former members of Echo Recon having a mini reunion over lunch.   During Howard and Jeff's next lunch meeting, they talked about what a positive experience it was for the three of them to have gotten together, and how great it would be if they could put together a real Echo Recon reunion. It took well over a year, and a lot of  effort from that point for it to actually make it happen. It was Howard and Jeff that worked on the actual reunion, but once again, it was Donald's determination to locate as many Echo Recon members as possible that resulted in a total of six of us attending that first reunion, and ten at our second reunion.  So Donald, we can't thank you enough, for without your efforts it is doubtful that our reunions would ever have happened. Your fellow Echo Recon 1-5, 1968-69 veterans salute you.........