13 June 2019: Well, another highly successful TCHVA Reunion is in the books, and what another fabulous time was had by all. We had several first-timers, a nice representation of TC HART Plankowners (good thing the ship was commissioned in 1973 or those guys would be really old!), and the steadfast group of repeat attendees. We were blessed with great weather throughout the week in support of our agenda, and fortunate to have a fantastic event coordinator in Barb. From what I hear, it’s a good thing she’s such a talented event coordinator as her karaoke prowess was, uh, well, lacking (but she was a gamer!).
Click here to see Reunion 2019 Photos
13 June 2019 – Meet your Association Offers:
Congratulations to the members of our TCHVA Officers Board who were selected and approved by the members attending our 2019 Reunion in Rapid City SD from 4-9 June 2019. We thank Steve Garcia for his dedication, insights, and calming hand as our outgoing Board Chairman and welcome Ron Church as new Chairman as he moves up from his prior role as President. Thank you, Ron, for leading the Association these past two years.
We welcome Philip Leblanc as our newly nominated and unanimously approved President, and our new Vice President (and first-time attendee!) Stephen ‘Doc’ Holliday the position vacated by Phil who, as indicated, was unanimously approved as President. Thanks!
We also bid farewell and our most “Hart-felt” thanks to our outgoing Treasurer Randy Groen who has fulfilled this role since the beginning of TCHVA. Randy will still remain with us as member and consultant to the new Treasurer Dennis Paul, also a first-timer to the reunions. Thanks Dennis, for stepping up and assuming this important position and function.
All of our standing Officers agreed to continue for another 2 years in their positions, and were also unanimously approved by the membership reunion attendees.
Front Row L-R: John Ebata (Storekeeper), David Neimeyer (Newsletter Editor), Garry Collins (Secretary), Steve Holliday (Vice President)
I’m sure many of you are wondering about the next TCHVA Reunion. One of the major bennies of attending the reunion is you get to vote for the site of the next event. Well, it will be in 2021. The city voted on by the 2019 Reunion attendees will kind of dictate what time of year we’d be looking at. At the TCHVA Business Meeting of all attendees, almost a dozen different cities/sites were discussed and then we had a vote on each city as to whether we’d like to consider it as part of our cutdown to three potential sites. The final 3 were (in no particular order): San Antonio TX, Northern Virginia (city TBD but outside of Washington DC), and Savannah GA.
We then voted to have our same event planner for this year look at those three alternatives, and give us the pros and cons of each with regard to factors such as costs, hotel availability and amenities, sites for tours and general visiting, travel time between sites, variability of venues (not all historic tours, or sitting on a bus for hours, etc.), freedom to plan own excursions, and recommended time of year for the event. Naturally we’d look at cooler months if we go south, more moderate temps if we move north. We also will allow our planner to suggest an equally competitive site if for some reason unknown to the group, there are some issues that may make one of our final 3 questionable for what we’d like to do. As our planner is a long time veteran of these type events, and she did such a bang up job in Rapid City SD, we trust she’d be above board and neutral if one of our options may not work. But in the end, it will be by a vote of this year’s attendees if we want a different option, and then a vote for the winning city.
We will do our best to keep the Association members and any former shipmate(s) we come across informed of the plans for the 2021 TCHVA Reunion. We’ll use this Web site, our USS Thomas C. Hart FF-1092 Facebook page, as well as mass emailing to addresses we have on file of past members of TCHVA. We also rely on word of mouth, which is actually how some folks found out about TCHVA and this year’s event in Rapid City! So please stay tuned. We’d like to have the city for the TCHVA 2021 Reunion decided on within the next 3-4 months. And if you could not attend this year, but have any questions about the next reunion, feel free to use the Contact Us link on the left hand side of this page.
Click Here for 2019 TCHVA Reunion Business Meeting Notes
4 June 2019: LET THE FUN BEGIN!!!! Reunion time is here and the folks are trickling in and headed straight for the Hospitality Suite to renew acquaintances, welcome old shipmates and some first time attendees. It promises to be a great 5 days!!!! Stay tuned for more info as the week progresses.
25 May 2019: Only 10 more days until the TCHVA Reunion in Rapiod City SD!!!!!!! Still not too late to sign up, and if you just want to show up and register once you arrived, we will certainly make that work as well. Looking forward to seeing a bunch of former shipmates as well as folks who may be attending for the first time, or the first time in a long time. Promises to be fun (unless of course we find ourselves snowed in, but like good sailors, we’ll certainly make the best of it regardless). Cheers!!!
28 April 2019: Reminder – the last day to reserve a room for the TCHVA Reunion, 4-9 June 2019 in Rapid City, SD and get the guaranteed group rate is Saturday, 4 May 2019. You may still reserve a room after 4 May 2019, but it is on a space available basis, and the hotel cannot guarantee the special group rate – but you can always ask! Also remember to fill out the registration form and sign up for any of the tours/events we have planned. Hotel info and the Registration Form can be found in the TCHVA 2019 Reunion Agenda link below, just above the attendee roster. Should be a lot of fun, so don’t delay!!!!
13 April 2019: The latest edition of the TCHVA Newsletter is available by clicking on the Newsletters link on the left hand side of this page. It contains the latest info on the Rapid City SD event planned for 4 – 9 June 2019.
9 February 2019: We have published a Special Edition TC HART 2019 Reunion Newsletter. It is included in the Newsletters page as well as being emailed to all current and past members for whom we have a current address. It includes the same 2019 TC HART Reunion planning brochure and registration info/form to review and hopefully sign up to attend our event this coming June in Rapid City SD. It promises to be a great time. We have put a lot of thought, time and effort in the agenda, and have been working with a great event planner to try and make this as easy as possible to attend and enjoy. Cheers!!!!
10 November 2018: OK Shipmates! Below is the link to the official brochure for our 2019 TCHVA Reunion in Rapid City, SD, to be held 4 – 9 June 2019. Please take time to review the brochure as it contains all the info you will need to decide what events and excursions you may be interested in during this event. A link that will allow you to make your hotel reservations at our special Thomas C Hart Reunion rate is in the brochure, as well as the reservation form for the Reunion to sign up for the various outings and excursions we have set up for attendees.
It is a quite venue in a most picturesque and historical part of our country. We are looking forward to seeing many of you there. Just simply click on the link below this note and you’ll be transferred to the brochure and registration info.
Again, can’t wait to see lots of new faces to join with many of the, well, seasoned attendees from past reunions, each of which has been most successful.
***Check out who is planning to attend the 2019 Reunion!!!! We receive an updated list of folks who registered at the hotel and for the event(s) each Friday afternoon. In some cases registration forms may have arrived later than the last update, or there was a delay in processing the forms. So if you have mailed in your registration form, and in some cases also received a confirmation note from our planner, never fear, your name will appear!!! Tours: (1) Black Hills: Weds, 5 Jun 19, 8:15AM – 4:45PM; (2) Badlands: Thurs, 6 Jun 19, 8:45AM – 3:15PM; (3) Founding Fathers/Air & Space Museum/Downtown Rapid City Tour: Fri, 7 Jun 19, 8:45AM – 3:00PM; (4) Banquet: Sat, 8 Jun 19, 6:30PM – 9:00PM
| Reunion Registrations: Rate/Rank (on TCH) Tours | ||
| Randy Groen, Anita (spouse), Jillian (daughter) | STG2 1973-1976 | 1,2,3,4 |
| Jerry Leatherwood, Terry (spouse) | BT1, 1985-1988 | 1,2,3,4 |
| John Ebata, Wendy Baker (Guest) | BTFN, 1986-1990 | 1,2,3,4 |
| David Coleman | STG1, 1973-1977 | 1,2,4 |
| David Neimeyer | LTjg, 1975-1977 | 1,2,3,4 |
| Ron Church, Peggy (Spouse) | FTG2, 1973-1977 | 1,2,3,4 |
| Dan Schubert, Molly (spouse) | ETN3, 73-75 | 1,3,4 |
| Glenn Marshall, Kathleen Allen (Guest) | GMG2, 74-79 | 1,2,4 |
| Steve Holliday | DC1, 85-90 | 1,2,4 |
| Garry Collins | LT, 86-89 | 1,2,4 |
| Mark Lamboni, Kathy (spouse) | LTJG, 76-79 | 1,2,3,4 |
| Lee Edwardsen | STG2, 81-86 | 1,2,4 |
| Dennis Paul, Marie Glisson (Spouse) | HM1(SW/AW), 91-93 | 1,2,3,4 |
| Larry Cooper | FTG2, 73-75 | 1,2,3,4 |
| Jim Stevens, Nancy (Spouse) | CDR (CO), 87-89 | 4 |
| Thomas Sexton, Marilyn (Spouse) | BT2, 75-80 | 1,2,3,4 |
| Larry Martin | RM2, 73-76 | 1,2,4 |
| Phil LeBlanc, Diane (Spouse) | HT2, 73-76 | 1,2,3,4 |
| Scott Ruerup, Patricia Kotch (Spouse) | OS2, 73-76 | 1,2,4 |
| Kevin Staten, Margaret (Spouse) | OS1, 87-92 | 2,4 |
| Robert Coleman, Patricia Kotch (Spouse) | HM2, 73-75 | 1,2 |
Here are some links to information about our host city for the 2019 TCHVA Reunion in June 2019. Enjoy!!!