145th CABVA  HOME PAGE
 
The following page provide planning information for our next Reunion of the units of the 145th Combat Aviation Battalion when it served in Vietnam:
Contact:

   

   

                           

      
                     jbodkin145@aol.com

                                           
SCHEDULE
 REUNION FORM
 HOTEL INFO


Click here for a list of people attending past Reunions

     The next Reunion of the units of the 145th Combat Aviation Battalion in Vietnam is being planned for May 2025 for Branson, MO. Details will be posted later.


       2023 Reunion Report
   We started off our Reunion on 30 May with our early bird reception with many old friends and meeting new ones.
   The morning of May 31st we attend the Change of Command for the 1st Bn / 145th Avn Rgmt, great weather and ceremony for outgoing commander LTC Katherine J Slingerland and incoming commander LTC Mark A Axtell. From there we got a Ft Novosel briefing from Col Tucker, 1st Aviation Brigade Commander. Time was short between the Briefing and the Museum tour so we ordered Subway sandwiches for 75 people served at our Hospitality room at the hotel. We then toured the Museum, while 6 of our people had a Question and Answer session with some flight school students.
   On June 1st started off with a tour to three airfields to check out the new Lakota, the CH-47 Chinook, and the AH-64 Apache. It was hard to get everyone away from the aircraft so we were a little late for the 1st/145th Avn Commanders picnic. Most of us went for the Huey ride with the Friends of Army Aviation from Ozark, AL.. My grandsons 9 and 11 yrs old, my son Rob and his wife Summer and my wife Debby all went for a ride, riding in the gunners and crew chief well, where I spent many hundreds of hours in Vietnam and after, with doors open.
 June 2nd we started off with our business meeting, election of our officers, then we went to lunch. Then to the flight simulators. The group of 4 that I was in picked NY City for the flight area. It was fun flying around the buildings, around the Statue of Liberty, 10 ft over the river and three times under the bridge.
 Friday night 2 June, we had our main Banquet, with 77 people in attendance at the Country Club. We had 8 active duty personnel, the Guest Speaker and members of the 1st/145th Avn. Our Speaker was Major General (2 star) Michael C McCurry, Commanding General, United States Army Aviation Center, Ft Novosel (FT Rucker) AL. Not only did he agree to be our speaker, he arrived early during the social hour, visited with everyone, spoke for about 25 minutes, dinned with us then went around visited some more.
   The bad things about the Reunion are it was too short and we will never be able to have a better one, although we will try in 2 years in Branson, MO, then back here at Ft Novosel (Ft Rucker) AL in 4 years. I have to give all the credit for the great Reunion to our VP Ron and Donna Manning and the staff of the 1st BN, 145th Aviation Regiment. They did the work and had all the contacts to make every event happen, get all our people on and off Ft Novocel efficiently, and coordinate with all the other units involved in the events. I also need to thank the ladies who helped my wife Debby set up and maintain the Hospitality Room, Andrea Smith, Catherine Breaux, and basically all the ladies, thank you. I will be posting pictures and more info on our oldwarrior.com website as they come in. For all those that attended please post and let us know you arrived home safely and post your pictures. Thank you.
   At the business meeting we discussed the plans for the next reunion and suggested the date of the middle of the second week in May 2025 in Branson Missouri. Ed Knighten volunteered to work with the people and Branson to set up the reunion. Mike Hoke our Association auditor passed away in April 2022, Joffre Filion volunteered for the position. We had election of officers: Jim Bodkin - National Dir, Ron Manning – Vice President, Debby Bodkin - Sec/Treasurer, Joffre Filion - Auditor, Mel Metzger - Historian. Mike Breaux, Fred Eckelmann, and Bill Sheets to the Executive Board positions. I want to welcome and thank our leaders.
   Our 2023 Reunion finances: income: 37 Reunion Fees $2960, 61 Banquet meals $2135, and 2 Donations $300, total $5395. Reunion expenses for Hospitality room food, refreshments, Commanders picnic, Subway lunch, and Banquet, etc, total 5094.62. Reunion refunds of $230. For a total profit of $70.38. We try to plan the cost as close as possible so as keep Reunion fee as low as possible. Thanks to the donations, two people that couldn’t attend at the last minute and didn’t want a refund, We made a small profit. And a really big thanks to the 1st/145th Avn Reg for requesting bus support from General Dynamic Flight Simulator Operations saving us $2208. And the 1st Avn Brig for making sure they didn’t need the bus during that time period.







2019 Reunion Report
     We started off the 2019 reunion of the 145th combat aviation Battalion Vietnam Association on Tuesday 9 April with 72 people registered with 65 attending. About 1 PM we open the hospitality room and about 4 PM we started the early bird reception. My wife Debby set up snacks, soft drinks, beer and wine. She also prepared meatballs and weenies in sauce with vegetables on the side. The reception went on until about 9 PM, seems many were tired from traveling.
    Wednesday 10 April we started off with breakfast at the hotel. At 7:30 AM the buse departed for the 1st of the 145th Aviation Regiment Change of Command at 8:30 AM. At 9:30 AM we had a welcome briefing and Fort Rucker update from Col. McHugh. It was very interesting, our group asked questions and enjoy the sincerity and joking with our speaker. The first question was "Where are all the wooden barracks?". The speaker was very up front with how he did not like talking about some of the charts, and in his words "they were boring". He talked a little bit about where Army aviation was in the past, where Army aviation is today, and told us some of what Army Aviation will be in future with some unmanned aircraft. Bill Kidd: deputy director for all of Fort Rucker, nicknamed the penguin, welcomed us to Fort Rucker and thanked us for our support of Army Aviation. We returned to the hotel for a quick bite to eat then departed for Blackwell field for the Huey rides. We had 23 people signed up to ride on the Huey. The breakeven point for the people operating the Huey is 30 riders, the base had put out word for anyone wanting to ride in a Huey to meet at the airfield, we had over 50 riders, many active-duty with their families. About 5 PM we started the reception and hospitality room which lasted till about 10:30 PM. About the middle of the evening a gentleman came in with a cart with 6 cases of cold beer. I asked him what was going on and he said, he wasn't a vet but his dad and his uncle were VN vets, and they would kick his but if he didn't do something like this. That’s the last we saw of him.
    On Thursday 11 April we departed the hotel about 8:45 AM headed to the Army aviation Museum. We had a very nice guided tour of the museum. The place was very busy with a large flight school graduation, our group and a group of 114th AHC veterans after they dedicated their Memorial in Memorial Park. About 11:30 AM we departed for the Commanders barbecue picnic at Adams Hall. The outgoing commander Lt. Col. Kent M MacGregor and the incoming commander Lt. Col. Donald R Kirk attended and visited with the guest. About 1 PM we departed for the static display of aircraft, UH 60 Black Hawk and the new Lakota, and the display set up in Yano Hall of some new Army equipment. About 3 PM we departed for the hotel. About 5 PM we started the reception and hospitality room which lasted till about 10:30 PM.
    On Friday 12 April we departed the hotel about 9:30 AM for a memorial service at our memorial in Memorial Park, by the Daleville gate. At 11 AM we started our business meeting at Adams Hall which I will go over in more detail at the end of this report. About 11:45 AM we departed for this flight simulator tour and lunch at Larry's barbecue in Daleville. We split our group into three smaller groups, one group toured the flight simulators and the others went to lunch switching groups about every hour. About everyone wanting to fly the flight simulators got about 15 to 20 min. of "stick time". Most of them flew the new Lakota simulator and really had a good time. A little after 3 PM we departed for the hotel. The buse departed the hotel about 5 PM for our Friday night banquet. We had a social hour from 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM then the banquet dinner. CW5 Vance Paul was our guest speaker and the XO of the 1st of the 145th, Major Nelson B (Brad) Gray attended. CW5 Vance Paul talked about the new army Warrant officer ranks and some of the new developments in unmanned aircraft being controlled from the front gunner seat of the Apache aircraft and others. About 9 PM we returned to the hotel and hospitality room until about 11 PM.
Saturday 13 April we all say goodbye to each other until the next reunion in two years.
    At the business meeting we discussed the plans for the next reunion and suggested the date of the middle of the second week in May 2021 in Branson Missouri. Ed Knighten volunteered to work with the people and Branson to set up the reunion. Mike Hoke our Association auditor gave the financial report. We had election of officers: Jim Bodkin - National Dir, Debby Bodkin - Sec/Treasurer, Mike Hoke - Auditor, Mel Metzger - Historian. Then we discussed filling the vice president positions, three executive board positions, and three trustee positions. The main reason for filling those positions was to ensure our organization would continue if something happened to me and/or my wife Debby. We want to assure everyone that our organization will continue as strong as ever. We decided that that three trustee positions was not needed at this time. And we discussed that at some point the leadership of our organization might be turned over to our children. We elected Ron Manning to the Vice President position, Mike Breaux, Fred Eckelmann, and Bill Sheets to the Executive Board positions. I want to welcome and thank our new leaders.
    In going over all the expenses from this reunion I think we lost a few hundred. We hadn't planned the $2250.00 cost of the bus. In the past reunions the base was able to pick up a big part of the cost of the buses but due to the many things going on on the base and their overflow bus contractor being booked up for spring break trips we had to find alternative transportation. I think everyone attending had a good time with no major issues.
    I hope to see everyone two years at our next reunion. Dwight Beuthling (dwight_1947@yahoo.com) and John Flynn (bandit512@concast.net) took many pictures said they would share them with everyone (I suggest a donation to them for the cost of the CD and mailing), send them an email. I want to thank Richard Rissman for the flowers they sent because they could not attend. And I thank Richard Rissman, Tom Moody, and Tom Payne for donating the money they sent in but couldn't attend.