26th Marines Association

26th Marines Association - Our Origins...

In case you haven't seen this, it is a powerful tribute to our generation of Vietnam veterans. Sam Elliott narrates this stirring video! https://www.youtube.com/embed/aVeBtnfAxP8

Our reunion was a lifelong dream of Ted Nichols, a member of Echo Company, 3rd Platoon in country in 1969. He was basically the only one Harvey Lang had stayed in contact with over the years, with the exception of occasional contact with others in 3rd Platoon. He wanted this to happen years ago, and then in the spring of 2001, Ted died of cancer.

The death of Ted was devastating; this loss brought home once again the brotherhood of being a Marine. The facts are we all made it home, not because of our individual skills or luck, but because we all had each other, and we took care of each other. Harvey and Mike Townes (know as Nashville Cat) deceased in early 2014, had also been in contact with others off and on since we had returned back to the world in ’69. We met in September of 2001 and decided to start work on the first reunion.

Sonny Hollub was our first contact who had been in contact with several 2/26'ers, Paul Tribus, Doc Charlie Klotz, Rudy Fonseca, Bruce Killen, Ron Barrett, Lee Martin and others over the years and it mushroomed from there.

The 26th Marines Association’s website www.26thMarines.com was created by Sonny Hollub. This site has all the up to date information regarding, our organizations history, origins, current officers, past and next reunion information, contact information for members on a voluntary basis, and other information related to our ongoing 26th Marines Association.

All photos of past reunions are posted on our Face Book page "26th Marines Association" now, with plans of transferring them to our website www.26thMarines. If any of you have pictures you took and want them made available to everyone, please send those pictures to Sonny for inclusion until further notice.

Quinn Harry found us early on and created his website www.26thMarines.org. His site has been a repository for Nam photos and a compendium of other historical pictures and information related to our past. This site is appropriately linked to the 26th Marines Association’s website, as well as the association's website appropriately linked to Quinn’s.

While we were not for sure how successful we would be in starting this association, we started preparations for the association's first reunion. In May of 2002, this lifelong dream became a reality, and we were together again for the first time in 30 years. We have completed 14 annual reunions since and will have our 15th annual reunion 2014 in the Denver, Colorado area. We all owe ourselves a pat on the back for continuing this legacy.

Now you know the background of the start of our 26th Marines Association which is the intention of this posting including the introduction to the our new officers and board members along with our goals, and our intentions to keep the association as an ongoing succesfull association.

The goal of this association is to preserve our brotherhood, reflect on our past and present for the benefit of all. Our intent as officers and board members of this association is to not only make this possible, but to improve the next reunion and strength of our organization.

In closing, we would like to tell you, 2015's 26th Marines Association reunion will be held in the Denver, Colorado area (and as decided at this 2014’s membership meeting)… Seattle, Washington, Minneapolis, Minnesota or the Mount Rushmore area will be voted on at this years annual meeting for 2016.

We are currently accumulating information related to these 3 cities selected to chose from for 2016 at the 2015 Annual Meeting. That information will be sent to you via the last known mailing address, last known email and posted on the 26th Marines Association website, www.26thMarines.com under "Reunions" and as mentioned above, presented at the 2014 reunion as well for a vote.

Please check our Association's website www.26thMarine.com often for updates.

Semper Fi,