The attached is for the 26th Marines Association Members or those who would like to attend. My wife and I attended the reunion in New Orleans and had a great time with the members. Just wanted to pass the information along to you. Jan and I are considering attending the reunion but again it all depends on health. Hope to hear from members of DMZRats on their thoughts. Jerry Lewien G, 2/26 jerryal517@gmail.com --- Begin forwarded message: From: sonnyusmc <sonnyusmc@gmail.com> Date: June 16, 2021 at 3:41:19 AM CDT To: SonnyUSMC 26'er Nam Vet Hollub <sonnyusmc@gmail.com> Subject: Fwd: 26th Marines Association 2021 Reunion and Dues Notification Fellow Marines, Friends and Family Members, please find attached to this email the notification of the 26th Marines Association 2021 Reunion and Dues Notification, along with the form for submitting your dues and reunion fees. This year's reunion will be held in San Diego. All information is contained in the attachment. As is the norm when we are in the area of an MCRD, we add Thursday to our reunion focus dates, so we can attend a MCRD Graduation. We have done this twice in Parris Island and once in San Diego... This will be our second for San Diego. So our reunion focus days will be Thursday September 30, 2021 until Sunday October 3, 2021. In addition, we have contracted for our discount rate to extend 3 days before and 3 days after the focus date for those who want to make a vacation out of it. Our basic itinerary will be: Thursday night… Landing Party in the Hospitality suite with snacks and drinks. Friday… Caravan to San Diego MCRD to attend a graduation. Saturday morning 8:00 am, Annual Meeting... for members up to date on their dues only. Saturday evening 6-9 pm, Banquet with a great meal. The rest of the time will be for personal trips, visits etc. We will maintain the Hospitality Suite from Thursday through Tuesday with snacks and drinks. When you check in, you will be provided a handout that shows all the events along with room names or numbers… i.e.., the Hospitality Suite will be Room number 1208. Each person registered at the hotel will be provided free breakfast each day of your stay. We will get a reduced rate for parking... It is normally $50.00 per day, but we will get the reduced rate of $25.00 per day. If you plan to have a vehicle at the event, or if you have questions, please let Sonny Hollub know. His number is 512-825-4730. Thanks and Semper Fi ! Sonny Hollub 512-825-4730

For the 1st time since 1948, the U.S. Marines have a new Camp! YouTube has several spectacular short presentations on the Marines and our new camp. I recommend the following: U.S. Marines Just Activated Their First New Base in Nearly 70 Years (by the US Defense News). The mission for our Marines is that in the event of war, we would be tactically harass the enemy throughout the Pacific area. Small independent groups of heavily armed Marines would be tasked with island hopping, taking control of man-made islands, destroying facilities, and holding the land. The Commandant in testimony on Capitol Hill stated that in case of war, we would primarily be responsible … “to sink ships by any means possible.” I recommend you all to call up YouTube and Camp Blaz and look at the equipment rolling off the supply ships. Much of it is absolutely unknown to me. I would also mention (as an 03 Fire Support Coordinator type) that a new prototype USMC V-22 Osprey will have a tactical range all the way to the geographic center of the People’s Republic of China or virtually anywhere in that part of the Pacific. What may not be mentioned is that diplomatically, Japan wishes a permanent American presence in the Pacific, but not on Japan and with a reduced presence on Okinawa. Japan has already committed $28 million for the Camp Blaz technical buildout. As you may also know, in that part of the world, the Philippines has ‘invited’ the US out of their nation. China needs to realize that it will not be allowed, with impunity, to take island/atolls and block internationally known navigationally recognized parts of the Pacific. The US Navy and US Coast Guard are in strong presence in the area. But, God forbid, combat actually takes place, the US Marines will be called upon to perform difficult missions while working in small isolated units with a larger degree of autonomy than we have in recent his history. Yes, I know, I’d like to be there, too. Keep up with a new chapter in our history: go to YouTube. Semper Fi John Brown 24 Tom Roadley

We're pleased to welcome new Forum member Pat "P. J" Donaldson, who says of his time with BLT 2/26: I was in H Co 3rd platoon 1st squad last name is Donaldson, PJ is what I was called over in Nam. Best Regards Pat

We just received this message from a Corpsman who served on LZ Margo with Echo Company: "My name is Gary Boniger. I was HM3 Doc Boniger 3rd PLT Echo 2/26, July 1968 to Jan 69. I was a platoon Corpsman with Doc John Lancaster and endured LZ MARGO." Doc Boniger is now a member of our Forum and will read any messages you post here. Welcome aboard! Our Forum has almost 30 members and we are remiss is not introducing all of them. We'll remedy that in the near future and expect message traffic to pick up once everyone knows who else is in the group. In the meantime we've been busy with a very special story from one of the key members of BLT 2/26. Look for an announcement in the next week or so.

We just received this message from James Bandy, a Fox Co, 2/26 Marine, who has since joined our site and will reply to any comments. --- I was with this group. but back in February of 1968, which is when I left for back home (the World). LOL. Was with Fox in 1966, of November. With the guys that were on float got shipped to Nam. Our base was Phu Bai. Fox operated in over about 18 Search & Destroy Operations during the time I with them. I was in guns, 2nd. Plt. , Sgt. Meeks was my squad leader. You can see my profile on www.togetherweserved.com. Maybe you guys heard about us in number of battles such as Independence, Hickory, all the Prairie’s, before called Operation Hickory. Would love to be at a future reunion. Is Jimmy Dixion part of this group? He came after myself, but with you guys. Really looking forward to a reply. Semper Fi, Jim Bandy

When you first log in to the Forum, your posts and comments will be identified by your email address. It's probably not a good idea to expose your email address in a public forum. Plus it's a lot friendlier to use your name or a nickname. It's very easy to replace email addresses in posts with your name (or nickname): Log in. Right-click on your name (in the upper-right of any DMZ Rats page) and select My Account. On the left side of the My Account page (under the place for your picture) are Edit and Save buttons. Click Edit. Type in any name or nickname you wish and then Save it. Here's a short video of Amber Rogers (our tech support rep) clicking My Account and adding a nickname on our site. If you have any problem or question, send an email to DMZRats@gmail.com.

Our Forum is open. Several of us are testing it until the July 4th weekend and then will make a general announcement about the Forum to our mailing list. In the meantime if you'd like to post a message or a photo, please do so. When you create your first post, you'll be asked to sign up as a member, providing your name, email address and a password. If you're on our mailing list, we'll send you a message confirming your membership. If you're not on our list, we'll ask how you're connected to BLT 2/26. We'll attempt to respond to all requests the same day.