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In Memory
(updated 1-26-2010)

Remembering Tena Phillips

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2009 Reunion Recap

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"Hold At All Costs"
By Don Smart

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This site last updated
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 Dear 612^th Tank Destroyer Friends,

We were so happy to see all of you back in Tarpon Springs for this reunion! We enjoyed the entire event and appreciate you being here with us. Everyone helped out and made it an easy affair.

For those of you who couldn’t be with us, we sure missed you!

It has always meant a great deal to all of us in the Karaphillis family to have the honor of being part of this wonderful group of people. Thank you for always welcoming us and everyone who attends as part of the “family”.

We are looking forward to seeing everyone in Tennessee next summer! Hopefully, even more people will be able to attend.

Please take care of yourselves and keep in touch. May God bless us all with a year of good health.

Sincerely,

The George Karaphillis Family

By all accounts our 53^rd reunion at the Holiday Inn in Tarpon Springs, Florida was a big success. Our numbers may have been down considerably this year but that didn’t stop those in attendance from having a fine time.

A Big THANK YOU to Mary Ann Wesoly, Tena Phillips and the entire Karaphillis Family for the fine job they did in hosting our annual event. As always, George and Verona, daughter Irene Tharin and her husband Bob, son Theo and his wife Dayna made everyone feel welcome with their warm Florida hospitality. A big highlight was that Verona was feeling well enough to attend for a few hours each day.

Things kicked off on Thursday with Tena manning the registration desk and folks enjoying refreshments and fellowship in the Tarpon Room. After going back and forth for several months on whether or not we could bring in outside food the hotel management kindly allowed us to bring in our own refreshments. To those of you who had wanted to bring some goodies from home we apologize for the confusion.

Prior to the Saturday night banquet a brief business meeting was held. At this meeting the dates and location of next years reunion were selected (more to follow) and Fayne Haynes graciously accepted the position of Association Chairman.

In other business George Karaphillis asked Tena Phillips to take on his position as Flower Fund Chairperson. It was decided that Tena will now handle both the Flower Fund and the general fund. Since returning home Tena has received the flower funds from George as has deposited them. Tena is currently recovering from surgery and in rehab. We will be sure to include the total amount of our 612th funds in the next newsletter.

As always the Flower Fund Raffle was a big hit with folks providing lots of goodies to be raffled off.

Irene did an excellent job on our group photo this year. She was kind enough to send me copies of several photos (Thank you Tena for requesting them for me!) as well as a picture of the beautiful cake she brought to the banquet with the 612^th logo on it.

Mary Ann outdid herself with all the lovely table centerpieces and room decorations she made for the Friday night buffet and the Saturday night banquet. Folks seemed particularly impressed with the mason jars she hand stenciled with the 612^th logo on them. I heard so much about these mason jars that I e‑mailed Mary Ann to see if she had a photo that I could include in this newsletter. She did send me a photo but unfortunately the mason jars were not clear enough in the photo that copying them would not do them justice. So you’ll have to take my word for it. J They were awesome! Thanks, Mary Ann for all of your hard work and for graciously stepping in when Rick and I realized we wouldn’t be able to make the trip to Tarpon.

Those in attendance this year included:

A Company:

George and Verona Karaphillis - Medic

Irene and Bob Therin

Theo and Dayna Karaphillis

Toni and Adam Harvey

Gert Flanagan  (Jack )

Diane and Colleen Flanagan

Marty and Shelda Flanagan and Erin and Megan

Mary Ann Wesoly

B Company:

Fayne and Beatrice Haynes

Janice Bellamy

Anita Stanley

Iris Morris (Charles)

Evelyn Talllman

Carolyn Verhoeven

Judy Ramhoff

Tena Phillips (Travis)

Glenda Millar

C Company:

Avery Sanders

Diane Kelton

Candice and Matt Northcutt and Chloe

ReCon:

Donn Fischer

And no it’s not a misprint – after making it to all of the past 52 reunions Jewell Raulins was unable to make it this year. Well Jewell since you are such a good guy we will cut you some slack and we will overlook this little slip up. Next year Sgt. Raulins we expect you front and center! All joking aside we sure hope to see you and Ouida next year in Tennesee!

 Photos can viewed in the Photo Album.