AFNE REUNION 2009
Baltimore, Maryland
June 25-28
WEBMASTER NOTE: Like most AFNers, I am sad to see this year's reunion cancelled, and look forward to hearing about a revival one day. I just wanted to add a note thanking Mark, Tom, John and the entire reunion committee for the hard work in putting it on. It's hard for me just to attend, I can't imagine the time and effort it takes on behalf of the committee to make such a great gathering successful.
Jim
21 February 2009
Fellow AFNers:
I am sorry to inform you of our cancellation of the 2009 Baltimore AFN Reunion. As outlined in our February Newsletter, we were seriously behind where we needed to be with our registrations, and within the last two weeks we have received only a small fraction of the necessary number of registrations needed to carry forth with our plans.
Reunion Chairman Mark VanTreuren relays this from Afghanistan:
I am sorry to report that we are cancelling the 2009 AFN Reunion in Baltimore.
The success of our reunions is based completely on attendance. This year, unlike past years, the number of alums who have indicated an interest in attending has dropped to a point where we can simply not justify the effort to plan the event or to ask various vendors to reduce prices for function rooms and food. The cash flow is simply not there which would place us in a position of having to pay rather large fees for areas we do not budget for.
For those who sent in registrations that money will be returned to you in full as soon as we can.
I know many folks have shown an interest in purchasing Trent Christman's book "Brass Button Broadcasters." This summer, when I return from Afghanistan, I will offer the book for sale as part of an AFN memorabilia package. Items will be sold at cost, plus shipping. We have about 140 of the books so they will be on a first come first serve basis.
This brings down the curtain on a great run of events from Atlanta, to San Diego, Baltimore, San Antonio and Reno. We have done our best to give AFNers a chance to reconnect and remember. My greatest memories, of the reunions, will be the visuals of those many separate reunions.
I want to thank all those who have helped put the events together. Lee Hilliard, Tom Scanlan, John Wild, Bill Swisher, Hal and Rosalie Roeder, Leonard Buchanan, Chris Davala, Steve Sedahl, Marc Streeter, Jim McKane, Bill Kowalski; our dinner speakers, Bob Gaylord, Rick Scarry, Adrian Cronauer, Tommy Cash and Nick Clooney. Thanks to Joey Welz for the entertainment, to Brent Melton for letting me crash on his couch while planning San Diego, to Dick Nirenberg for recommending and pushing for Reno which proved a fitting farewell event for us. I hope I have not left anyone out always a risk when honoring so many.
A special thanks to Ben Hoberman, who in 2003, reminded us what it was like back in the very beginning, in London, 60 years before.
Thanks to Jim Johnson for all the work he has done with our web page and without doubt to Bob Stoffel who more than anybody else has made reconnecting AFNers a passion to be admired.
These folks gave young AFNers a chance to meet those that came before them. We never failed to honor our past while saluting our present day broadcasters.
Through the efforts of the reunion committee, AFN Europe and AFRTS are the most decorated organizations in the Dept of the Army Public Affairs Hall of Fame. Bob Harlan, Bob Cranston, Tom Lewis, Trent Christman, Steve Mason, Herb Glover and the remarkable men of Detachment 5 AFVN Hue are forever enshrined with our highest honor.
I hope a new generation of AFNers, interested in keeping the memories alive, will pick up the reunion torch and put their stamp on the reunion effort. We'll be happy help you if you would like.
I wish you all the best and thanks for your friendship and support over the years. I did three tours at AFN a total of almost 10 years. I consider my years as your reunion chairman an important postscript to those times a way of thanking each of you for wonderful memories of a very great time in my life, my years as an AFNer.
Mark A. Van Treuren
AFN Frankfurt 1978-81, 1985-89
AFN SHAPE 1994-96
Allow me to thank Mark for his excellent leadership; and to my close friend, ally and former AFTV Germany (Spangdahlem) staff NCO, John Wild, for his enthusiasm, energy and can-do attitude, and to Lee Hilliard for his wise counsel, advice and insight.
I also thank those who Mark mentioned in his letter, and all the terrific AFNers I have met, eaten with, drank with, and reminisced with for the first time thru these reunions.
Finally, my personal thanks to the late Bob Harlan, Colonels Bob Cranston and Hal Roeder, and the many, many former AFN Europe alums who have heartily indorsed the idea that as we go forward, we no longer march apart to different services, call letters, locations or specialties, but to the call of being members of the wonderful fraternity of broadcasters serving in uniform, worldwide – Today's American Forces Network!
God Bless all –
Tom Scanlan, LtCol, USAF (Ret)
Deputy Chair, AFN 2009 Reunion Committee
