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Book Copies Sent and Acknowledged Andy Vaart received a letter of acknowledgement and thanks for a copy of the Cruise Book sent to the Library of Congress. Click here for a copy of the letter Andy also received a thank you letter for a gift copy of the Cruise Book from Lin Ezell, the director of the National Museum of the Marine Corps. And Andy got a letter from the Vietnam Center and Archive at Texas Tech University acknowledging a copy of the Cruise Book. Finally, Andy & Mike Wholley got nice "thank you" notes from LtGen Mark Faulkner, president of the Marine Copr Association. Copies were also sent to University of North Carolina and the Piedmont NROTC consortium. A Thank-You Copy! The Photo below is the August 4, 2017 presentation of the B Company cruise book by Hays Parks to Sharon Hughes, Executive Assistant to LTGen. Robert R. Blackman, Jr., USMC (Ret.), President and CEO, Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, in gratitude for her advice, assistance and support leading to installation of B Co. TBS 1-67 memorial plaque on the grounds of the Marine Corps Heritage Center, Semper Fidelis Memorial Park.
A Special Thanks Mike Wholley, through Andy Vaart, received a great letter of appreciation Major General James T. Jackson after he received a copy of the cruise book. Read the letter here. Arnie Fields, a retired Marine Major General, attended the luncheon that followed our Plaque Commemoration the Marine Corps Museum. In a short but sweet ceremony, he presented Vietnam War Veteran pins to each B Company classmate and family member. He also entertained the group with a rich baritone rendition of "God Bless America"! Editor Andy Vaart Ambushed! Months ago, Phil Norton decided that Andy, the editor and "creator-in-chief" of the cruise book should be honored with a special copy - Phil planned to collect many of our autographs and have the printer insert these custom pages in a copy for Andy. This "signed" edition was made and several of our DC-area classmates appeared at Andy's door at 4:00 pm, July 8. Andy's wife Tracy was a co-conspirator.We have a video of these intruders! https://youtu.be/JmMb6g_qxNA
Hays Parks (top); clockwise to Larry Karch, Mike Wholley, Andy and Hon Lee. The Book has been mailed! The cruise book has been printed and mailed - copies were delivered starting June 30. Here is a sample and these are the early reviews:
"Happy Independence Day and Semper Fi! Received my copy of the cruise book yesterday, too...fantastic job, a,d many thanks to all involved in its production! John Pope"
"Happy Independence Day! Received mine yesterday---Bravo Zulu!! Semper Fi, Glenn Hill"
"Bob - Got mine yesterday too. Thanks to all involved in getting this together with a special thanks to to you Bob for all your work at keeping us connected over all these years. Tom Thompson"
"Thank you, Joe! And you know we were all more than honored to work on this project! Am happy it landed in the mailboxes of many in time for Independence Day. Happy Fourth! Semper fi, AndyVaart"
"To describe the cruise book as awesome is a profound understatement. Bravo Zulu. Semper Fi, Bob Lund"
"I got mine yesterday and had to call my old buddy Ross Brown and leave a message for him to look at page 42 to see a photo of us at DaNang in 1969. What an amazing documentation of our classmates and their accomplishments both in the Corps and in their civilian career. I am both privileged and humbled to have been in the company of such outstanding Marines. The team that did all the work putting such an outstanding remembrance journal together definitely deserve special recognition. Semper Fi has even more meaning now than I had given it in the past. I wish all of the class of Bravo Company 1-67 continued health any many more years of great memories of our years in the Corps. Whenever the next reunion is, I will certainly be there..... (God willing). Rob Hill"
"Happy Independence Day! Received mine yesterday---Bravo Zulu!! Semper Fi, Glenn Hill"
"Bob- Got mine yesterday! It is near "perfect." I admire you for your efforts over these many years. You truly have made a great impact in the lives of many. Thanks for your steadfastness with the bulletin and the cruise book. Congrats! Mike Kelly"
"I just got my copy. Better than I imagined possible. Andy, in particular, deserves a medal. Harry Roberts"
"My copy arrived yesterday and it's fantastic. My whole family is visiting for the 4th and were impressed. Many thanks for all the hard work and dedication to put it together. Semper Fi to the Marines of B Co. Bill Symolon"
"I stayed up w-a-y past my bedtime last night reading this fine book. It certainly merits wearing the Globe, Eagle, and Anchor. It also gets PCS orders to my coffee table. Congratulations on a Job Well Done. John Lovell" Update, June 16, 2017 Andy Vaart reported: "I had printer ship me a handful of copies. (At the top of this webpage) is image of one, with its inserted cover letter - thanks to BGen. Wholley - and dedication program. It’s real....but the number who have not ordered is a bit disappointing." The (unofficial) cruise book committee discussed whether some TBS-167 classmates had not ordered a copy because the $50 price was too high and if a price cut would prompt more sales. Hays Parks noted "Those have seen all or parts of the cruise book in its last stages have been very impressed and suggest that the book, at the original $50 price with included shipping, is a very good value ." The consensus was to retain the current $50/each price. Update, May 9, 2017 Andy Vaart reported that the book went to print on May 8. The firm delivery schedule will be determined in a few days. In the meantime, sales remain open. Simply email Andy (avaart@umich.edu) or mail a check to his home address (2436 Freetown Dr., Reston, VA 20191) with number of copies wanted, $50 per copy and the delivery address Date: April 29, 2017
To: FMF B Company TBS1-67--Hqs SUBJ: Cruise Book Sit Rep
Looking ahead:
Actual amount received: $3,625 (25 April),
including $1,325 from the reunion residual. The remainder is from checks
received for orders. Don’t know if this will pass accounting
firm’s audit, but it is best that I can do at the moment, considering some
printing-postage related variables. Semper fi, Andy From Andy Vaart, April 18: Status of B Company 50-Year Cruise Book, “Whatever Happened to B Company?” The updated and carefully reviewed cruise book print file went to the printer this evening! I expect a printer’s proof by mid-week next week. After I approve it, it will be another five to six weeks in printing, binding, packaging, and mailing. Since notice of its imminent publication came out a couple of weeks ago, the response has been most encouraging. To date more than 50 B Company members have placed orders for more than 80 copies. We also have a good number of copies slated to go to the next of kin of B Company deceased and to institutional recipients important to our history, the Basic School, the National Museum of the Marine Corps, the Marine Corps Historian and so on. If you have not yet placed your order, please take this note as an opportunity to fire away and get in the initial mailing of the book. Please send an email to avaart@umich.edu. Provide the number of copies you would like and a US Postal Service mailing address. (The printer will ship directly via book rate mail.) I will acknowledge the order, verify the mailing address, and send you my own for payment. Alternatively, you may short-cut the process by mailing a check directly with delivery address(es) for $50 a copy to Andres Vaart at 2436 Freetown Drive, Reston, VA 20191. But do include your email address so I can acknowledge your order and payment. With many thanks in advance and Semper fi, Andy From Andy Vaart, April 6: Gentlemen of Company B, TBS 1-67: The B Company cruise book, “Whatever Happened to B Company? Quite a Lot Actually—The ‘Official’ TBS 1-67, B Company Cruise Book, 1966–2016” is about to go to print. This is a call to put in your orders for however many copies you wish to have delivered, at $50 per copy, including shipping.
Front cover After an additional six months of intensive research and interactions with company mates and families of next of kin after our reunion in October 2016, the book now contains profiles of 140 members of B Company. In addition, it contains data about B Company as a whole, images from the reunion marking 50 years since our experience in 1966, and an illustrated timeline of our experience together. It is the collective story of men of an era—a particularly gifted and dedicated group. It tells of triumph, of sacrifice, and of loss. But most of all, it is about service that continued well beyond our time together as B Company mates in 1966. We have posted a sampling of the book (click here) on our TBS 1-67 website to give you a peek at its contents. It has the front matter explaining its content, its table of contents, and a sampling of pages, totaling 30 some of its total 160+ pages. The book will be a hard-cover publication (with cover as shown above), perfect for your coffee table or memory shelves in your libraries. And perfect for gifting to family and children (and their children), who will wonder about Dad, Granddad, or Great Granddad or those he grew up with. As noted above, the book is available at $50 a copy, including shipping. That price includes the cost of printing and shipping (just under $40 a copy) and a $10 additional cost to cover the printing and shipping of copies that will be sent without charge to the next of kin of our deceased mates who provided information on their loved ones. We have nearly forty of those. We also intend to send copies to the Basic School, the Marine Corps Museum, the Marine Corps Historians and possibly others with special interest in our history. As you think about orders, please consider others in your circles (home NROTC units, for example) who might have interest in a copy. Should you have suggestions about other institutions that should receive copies, let Andy know, and we will determine if it fits in the budget for complimentary copies. To place orders, please contact Andy Vaart, at avaart@umich.edu as soon as possible with the number of copies you would like and the address (or addresses) to which you would like the copies to be sent. Andy will acknowledge, double check the mailing address, and send you his snail mailing address to which to send checks to cover the cost. The crew that worked on this book hope it meets your expectations and tells a story that you and your family will appreciate about Marines of our day. The crew: Andy Vaart, Phil Norton, Bob Lange, Harry Roberts, Alex Welch, and every individual contributor—and Andy’s spousal unit, Tracy Rich, who did tons of web mining. |
