2024 Business Meeting - San Antonio

1st RECONNAISSANCE BATTALION ASSOCIATION

Official report given but in a rough format

RUSH ACT TRIBUTE

See you in Quantico, Virginia 

Next Year. God Willing

1st Recon Battalion Association

2025 reunion Quantico, Virginia
 

A once-in-a-lifetime event.
 

The 55th Anniversary of Rush Act

Rush Act Tribute

In mid-November 1970 a recon team from the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion got in trouble while on patrol: their Corpsman broke his leg, necessitating that the team be extracted. Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 263 was tasked with extracting them, a task that turned out to be impossible for two days.On the third day, in CH-46D (BuNo 154837), the HMM-263 crew succeeded in picking up the eight-man team - but all fifteen men aboard the CH-46 died when it collided with a mountainside after the extraction. Three of the crewmen were from HMM-263, two from H&MS-16; the Commanding Officer of the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion was aboard, as well as the extracted team.

Reporting Membership Deaths

On a sad note, the last time I sent out a large amount of emails was about a month ago. What you don't know, unless you keep up with the website newsletters/message boards, is that out of the 1500+ emails sent to our members we had 52 emails kickback to me. This is 3 1/2,% of the total emails sent. Out of the 52 kickbacks on a quick search I found 12 deceased members which is 23% of that total. This is shocking news to our organization.

Which brings me to this point. The 12 deceased brothers, whose deaths ranged from 2015 to the present, tells me that the method that I'm using to track the membership totals, is not working at all given the average age of our membership.

Looking at this method and the 23% that I received in the last kickbacks is telling me that we possibly have about 345 or more members that might be deceased. That's a Company and a half of brothers.

Let me just be upfront with you. This is not a paid position that I hold unlike 1st Force or the 1st division associations webmasters. I'm not asking for compensation for my time. I'm here to serve you and the membership of the 1st Recon Battalion Association to the best of my ability. The end of my assignment is at the 2026 reunion. I thank you all, for the opportunity to work as your Membership Director/Webmaster which will end in 2026. (For more on that see the website.)

So I'm going to need a little help and assistance with the membership directory. I'm requesting all members from the president on down going forward that with this email and any email you received from me, You need to hit your reply button and let me know that the email was received. This may sound extreme but this is the only way I can keep an up-to-date directory. I will flag that your email and information is possibly not correct in the directory if I don't hear from you in a reasonable amount of time.

Looking at it from the numbers standpoint the average name/member search takes me 15 minutes to conduct. That tells me it will take me 375 hours to do a full search of our members directory. That doesn't even include the 60 to 90 minutes it takes me to do a memorial tribute webpage when I find or hear of a fallen brother. Thanks for your help in keeping the directory current. It will really help me out.

Hope to see you all at our up-and-coming reunion in San Antonio or maybe next year in Arlington (see website for details). Please respond to Ron's Facebook request from Charlie. Let him know if you will be at the reunion and which events you will be attending. He particularly needs a head count for the BBQ.

Check out our website from time to time for new updates.

Over the years our members have brought their ‘treasures’ and auctioned them off with the funds going to the general fund. However, Members and Associate Members are encouraged to make donations annually to help defray the Association's operating expenses. An annual donation of $10.00 is suggested. Donations can be sent to the Association Treasurer: Creg Howland, 43761 Churchill Glen Drive, Chantilly, VA 20152. Make donations payable to the 1st Recon Association.

Please keep your contact INFORMATION Up-To-Date. This allows the Association to contact you. Our membership directory is at: https://1streconbn.org/members.html Please let me know if your Information is not correct. You can also reach me by phone. My cell number is (612) 810-4196. Call me from 10am-5pm.

Semper Fi,
Floyd Ruggles
Membership Director & Webmaster

Miscellaneous Business

Commemorative Bricks

Commemorative Bricks will line the winding pathways in the Semper Fidelis Memorial Park. 1st Reconnaissance Battalion Association members, family and friends are invited to donate a commemorative brick to honor a reconnaissance Marine or Corpsman, living or deceased. 1st Recon Commemorative Bricks will be placed along the pathway in front and around our memorial. The Association is collecting 1st Recon commemorative brick donations and inscriptions and submitting them to the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. Commemorative bricks may be ordered through the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion Association with a donation of $210.00 for each brick plus $5.00 for related postage with each order of one or more bricks.

Prices may be going up soon.

 

Brick Engraving Guidelines. Each brick may have no more than three lines; each line may be 20 characters in length (a character includes all letters, punctuations and spaces). Each line must end with a complete word or name (words and names will not be hyphenated and continued on the next line). You may purchase as many bricks as you like. Examples of commemorative brick inscriptions are provided below.

1st Recon Battalion Association

Limited Space Available

Charlie Kershaw

Order your Commemorative Brick(s) and submit your contact information (name, mailing address, phone number(s), and email address) along with a check or money order and your brick inscription to the 1st Recon Battalion Association at the address below. The MC Heritage Foundation will provide a proof copy of each brick inscription before it is engraved. Ensure you send your contact information in case there are questions about your inscription. 

 Thank you for your support of the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion Memorial and Commemorative Bricks. Commemorative Brick check or money order donations should be made out to: 1st Recon Battalion Association. Send your contact information with your $215.00 donation and brick inscription to: 1st Recon Battalion Association, c/o C. Kershaw, 2527 Unicornio Street, Carlsbad, CA 92009. Call or email Charlie Kershaw with brick questions at: 760 402-8638 or invictus7@earthlink.net

2024