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HMM-262 Flying Tigers in Iraq (Jan-Aug '07)
Last night, my wife and I attended the HMM-262 “Flying Tigers" Reunion at the O'Club on MCB Quantico, and it was probably the best squadron function I've ever been to – (including all the Birthday Balls over the last 9 years). There were Generals, and Colonels, and former Commanding Officers, highly decorated combat vets from Vietnam who have aviation awards named after them, and the list goes on.
SgtMaj Leon S. Thornton was the guest speaker who was my SgtMaj while in Iraq from Jan-Aug 2007, and he started by saying how humbled he felt to address such an audience.
LtGen Fred McCorkle. USMC, (Ret) and former Deputy Commandant for Aviation also spoke, and said some very kind words about Joseph “Jake" Jacobs who basically organized the entire weekend.
Earlier in the day I was fortunate enough to assist LtCol Bob “Wedge" Sweginnis with the static display at HMX-1 for the group which seemed like almost 100 veterans and their families, and afterwards had lunch with Jake and his family. Jake came out to Okinawa in 2006 to be our guest speaker for the Marine Corps Birthday Ball just before we went to Iraq, and I'm sure every Marine crew chief who was there can still remember that night vividly.
I tried to think of the highlight of the evening, but every moment was a highlight, from sitting at a table with 3 door gunners who served in Vietnam to my wife being introduced as “overdue" by Jake as he called off the names of the Marines who went to Iraq in 2007: those I haven't mentioned yet were Capt Paul “Happy" Minihan, Col Mike “Sluggo" Farrell, LtCol Darren “Bones" Brown. I hope that my wife had a good enough time to convince her to goto these events every year from here on out, and I think she did – even 9 1/2 months pregnant! Next year is the “Pop a Smoke" reunion in Orlando, so we might just be making reservations at Disney World soon! Hopefully more “old tigers" will make it to the next reunion. Like Col Farrell said, this event is worth marking on the calendar a year out!
One last thing before I close this: as the remarks portion of the evening began Jake said that they were not going to read off the names of fallen HMM-262 brothers over the past years, as had been done in previous reunions. The reason for this was so that we would not dwell so much on the past but focus on the celebration of the present. As I reflected on this during the drive home, Maria and I talked about how the older generation sometimes relives the glory days. Tonight, though, we experienced the joy of being in the moment… instead of re-living, we were be-living.
Semper Fi Marines,
Capt Johns