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| WHY A REUNION? by Pete Roche
In the past six years, since I first organized our reunion, I have been asked many times, “Why do you have reunions?” Sometimes the question comes from a veteran, but more often it comes from a non-veteran. It’s much harder to explain to the non-veteran, and it’s somewhat hard to explain to a veteran who never left the States and never saw combat. I’m sure some of you have had the same question asked of you. If I had to go into detail, this is the way I would explain how I personally feel about it.
Reunion means exactly what it implies, re-uniting people who have shared a common event or experience, or a special time in their lives. There are family reunions, high school reunions, college reunions, survivors reunions, and the list goes on and on.
We, as young men of the early forties were united by World War II. As sailors in the Navy, we became a part of something that had never been tried before, Amphibious Warfare. Our particular group of the Navy Amphibious Forces manned the small boats that took the men and materials ashore on enemy held islands in the war against Japan.
We made assault landings at places that most people today have never heard of or have long ago forgotten. Places like Attu, Kiska, Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Anguar, Leyte, Luzon, and Iwo Jima. We sailed the Pacific from the frigid Aleutians to steamy New Guinea. We anchored in places with strange sounding names like Manus, in the Admiralty Islands, Ulithi, in the Carolines, Apra-Guam, in the Marriannas, Hollandia and Sansopar in New Guinea, and many more. We were the Gypsies of the Pacific, with no mama and no papa most of the time. The Navy Department called us “casuals,” but there was nothing casual about the task we performed, and the conditions under which we performed it.
At times we lived in the boats for days and nights, never going aboard the mother ship. We ate cold food, when we ate at all, food that was lowered down to us on lines. We tied up to buoys at night, sleeping when we could, with life jackets for a bed on the deck or on the engine cover.
We retook the first American soil from the Japanese at Attu in the Aleutians. We liberated the Philippines and received a medal for it from the Philippine government. We were there when the flag was raised atop Mount Surabachi on Iwo Jima. Without the “Amphibs” there would have been no victory in the Pacific. We took the war to Japan’s front door, island by bloody island. We helped make history.
Because of what we shared, a union was formed. That union has endured for fifty years now, as is evidenced by our get-togethers each year when we are re-united. It’s a great experience. We remember, and talk about things, both good and bad, that happened so long ago and so many miles away. We laugh, we argue, and at times we get a bit emotional, but that’s all right, too. Most of all, we just enjoy the fellowship.
HOW THE SUMTER REUNIONS STARTEDby Melvin L. Burks
THE FIRST REUNION Orlando, Florida Nov. 1,2,3, 1985
Dear Fred, I am sorry to be so long answering your letter. After we returned from our 6th reunion (Aug. 30 - Sept. 2, 95) in Seattle, we spent some time in Houston with our daughters and grandchildren. This information may not be of much help, but it is all that I have. As far as I know, there were not any written minutes kept of the first Sumter reunion. Since there had not been a get-together, and 40 years had passed from the time most of the crew left the ship, it is kind of a miracle that things have gone so well. Pete Roche and his wife, Alexia, have been spending summers in Chicago and winters in Florida. In the fall of 1984 they visited us in Tahoka. Pete and I were talking about men we had seen and heard from since WW II. The only people I had seen were Lt. Buck Hines, Lt. Frank Harrel, Henry White and Freeman Tate. He lives in Silverton, Texas and we lived there a short time in the late 1940’s. He has not been able to make any reunions, but I still see him occasionally. I had not seen Pete Roche until they came by in 1984. He had seen several former shipmates and we both had corresponded with several others at Christmas time. Alexia Roche listened to us tell about the good times in the Navy and mentioned that we should have a Sumter Reunion. Pete and I commented that we would not be able to locate enough former shipmates for a get-together, but Alexia and my wife, Thalia, both insisted that we could do it. While teaching Animal Husbandry at Sam Houston State College in Huntsville, Texas in the late 1940’s, I had gotten into the Naval Reserve at the request of the college President. He wanted to have a Navy Reserve unit on the college campus. During the Korean War, my Program Officer in New Orleans promised to keep me from active duty as long as I kept the Navy Reserve Unit going. Since I had 12 years in the Navy, I decided to continue until I had my 20 years. I retired as a Lt. Commander in 1968. As time went on, Pete and I decided to have a reunion in Orlando, Fla. in Nov. 1985. I still had Navy contacts so I was able to contact as many shipmates as we could find. Pete took care of the reservations and arrangements in Orlando. The ones that we were able to contact furnished us with additional names and addresses. We sent out 125 letters, 44 of which were unclaimed. We sent a notice of the reunion to all military and retired military organizations asking them to publish the notice. In addition, I mailed the notice to 30 large city newspapers. The response was very gratifying from all the sources. A list of the people attending is enclosed. If my memory serves me right, we had 29 shipmates with a total of 52 people. I am enclosing Pete’ Roche’s schedule for the Sumter’s first reunion, also. At the Sunday morning business meeting it was decided that Larry Babin would host the next meeting with the help of others in New Orleans in 1987. Captain O’Pry was still living, but since his wife was ill, we thought that he would be able to come to New Orleans near his home. His wife died. He made the reunion in New Orleans, but was very sick and died soon after that.
Yours Truly Melvin L. Burks |
