__________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ THE OLD GRAY MARE # 45 (LAST ISSUE) JANUARY 2010-VETS 109TH INF. REG. The 41st and final reunion at Indiantown Gap for the WWII Veterans-109th Infantry Regiment. Gary Dix our longest surviving member is in the center of the photo with Sam Dimas’ son Nick, who we enjoyed having at our last official reunion. A final message from your President: We had our last Reunion and meeting as an active Association at Indiantown Gap from 9/9/09 to 9/12/09. The 28th ID Association has sponsored our last three Reunions and the 109 th hosted the annual in-door picnic held on Friday as a final gift from the Association for their warm hospitality. The last stand-alone 109 th Reunion we had was graciously hosted by Jerry and Reva Sherman in Tucson, AZ. And it was a fantastic one with great weather, trips and the FOOD! It was a Blast. Thank you Jerry and Reva. The attendees this year were: John Born, Joe Cochrane, Sam Dimas, Gary Dix, Jim Ferrario, Harold Holdiman, Sam Ieronimo, Jerry Lilyquist, and Jerry Sherman; The three Korean Veterans were Dan Voelker, Ken Wright and John Watson. Juliette DuBois (George Bunnell's Angel) came to say Goodbye to all of us. Our other Angels were the Stockton’s, Art and Carol, who adopted us some years ago. Without their help, enthusiasm, and encouragement; we would have sputtered and closed shop four years ago. Art made beautiful Memorial Plaques for each Reunion. Thanks again Art. Linda Rae (Stockton) Coon also attended. We drafted her as our final Historian to research files here in the U.S. and to work with Curator, Roland Gaul, of the “National Museum of Military History” in Diekirch, Luxembourg to make a permanent home for our historical records and artifacts. Old diehards like Al Leone, Joe Gadbois, Tom Hickman and Joe McCabe were unable to attend this year. The average age of the WWII veteran is at least 88. If it wasn't for their wives, friends and children none of us could have made it! It was a bitter sweet goodbye for all of us. The 28 th ID Association hopes that 109 th Veterans will join their ranks along with their comrades from the 110 th and 112 th Regimental Associations that have also formally disbanded as independent Associations. Some of the 109 th members in attendance acknowledge their plans to join the 28 th ID Association and attend their Reunion activities in 2010. Our final act as an Association was to determine how best to disburse our remaining funds, which is outlined in the minutes from our final meeting printed in this last Newsletter. We should all be proud that the 109 th Infantry Regiment Association stayed strong in friendship for over 40 years and may that friend- ship still find a way to continue into the future through all surviving veterans and our wives and children. Sam J. Ieronimo President
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THE OLD GRAY MARE # 45 (LAST ISSUE) JANUARY 2010-VETS 109TH INF. REG.
The 41st and final reunion at Indiantown Gap for the WWII Veterans-109th Infantry Regiment. Gary Dix our longest
surviving member is in the center of the photo with Sam Dimas’ son Nick, who we enjoyed having at our last official reunion.
A final message from your President:
We had our last Reunion and meeting as an active Association at Indiantown Gap from 9/9/09 to 9/12/09. The 28th ID Association has
sponsored our last three Reunions and the 109th hosted the annual in-door picnic held on Friday as a final gift from the Association for
their warm hospitality. The last stand-alone 109th Reunion we had was graciously hosted by Jerry and Reva Sherman in Tucson, AZ.
And it was a fantastic one with great weather, trips and the FOOD! It was a Blast. Thank you Jerry and Reva.
The attendees this year were: John Born, Joe Cochrane, Sam Dimas, Gary Dix, Jim Ferrario, Harold Holdiman, Sam Ieronimo, Jerry
Lilyquist, and Jerry Sherman; The three Korean Veterans were Dan Voelker, Ken Wright and John Watson. Juliette DuBois (George
Bunnell's Angel) came to say Goodbye to all of us. Our other Angels were the Stockton’s, Art and Carol, who adopted us some years
ago. Without their help, enthusiasm, and encouragement; we would have sputtered and closed shop four years ago. Art made beautiful
Memorial Plaques for each Reunion. Thanks again Art. Linda Rae (Stockton) Coon also attended. We drafted her as our final Historian
to research files here in the U.S. and to work with Curator, Roland Gaul, of the “National Museum of Military History” in Diekirch,
Luxembourg to make a permanent home for our historical records and artifacts. Old diehards like Al Leone, Joe Gadbois, Tom
Hickman and Joe McCabe were unable to attend this year. The average age of the WWII veteran is at least 88. If it wasn't for their
wives, friends and children none of us could have made it! It was a bitter sweet goodbye for all of us.
The 28th ID Association hopes that 109th Veterans will join their ranks along with their comrades from the 110th and 112th Regimental
Associations that have also formally disbanded as independent Associations. Some of the 109th members in attendance acknowledge
their plans to join the 28th ID Association and attend their Reunion activities in 2010. Our final act as an Association was to determine
how best to disburse our remaining funds, which is outlined in the minutes from our final meeting printed in this last Newsletter.
We should all be proud that the 109th Infantry Regiment Association stayed strong in friendship for over 40 years and may that friend-
ship still find a way to continue into the future through all surviving veterans and our wives and children.
Sam J. Ieronimo
President
MINUTES OF THE BUSINESS MEETING HELD 9/11/2009 AT THE HAMPTON INN, GRANTVILLE, PA
The meeting was attended by 12 Veterans and opened by Sam Ieronimo asking that the minutes be read from the 2008 reunion held in Indi-
antown Gap. The Minutes and the President’s letter were read by Secretary Joe Cochrane and accepted as read.
The Treasurer Joe McCabe was unable to make the reunion due to illness, so Sam Ieronimo read the Treasurer’s report. The Association’s
checking account balance as of July 31, 2009 was $2733.64 and a CD that will come due later in September has a current balance of $5,309.81. Joe will not renew the CD since the issue of disbanding the Association is to be determined at the meeting.
No Old Business was brought up for discussion.
Sam Ieronimo opened up New Business to discuss the possibility of the Association disbanding as an official organization in 2009. He advised the group that the 110th, 111th and 112th Associations have already disbanded, with the 110th being the most recent.
Joe Cochrane read letters he had received from Veterans and their wives who could not attend, but wanted to express their opinion that it was time for the Association to consider disbanding.
Several Veterans commented that due to health reasons it was becoming too difficult to travel to the reunions and informed the group that this reunion would probably be their last. Danny Voelker motioned for disbanding.
A vote was taken and the motion was approved by all present but Sam Dimas and Gary Dix. Sam and Gary expressed a strong interest in
still meeting as an unofficial group at future 28th Division Reunions at Indiantown Gap.
The next New Business item was introduced by Sam Ieronimo. He opened up for discussion on how best to disburse the remaining funds.
He advised that the Board had authorized $439 to be spent on hosting the Division Reunion Luncheon on the 11th and that $1,000 in travel
funds were forwarded to Linda Rae (Stockton) Coon to attend the reunion to discuss possible disbanding activities and to aid in new re-search activities at the U.S. Army Military History Institute in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and at the National Archives in College Park, Mary-
land. Her collection of new material will be added to the 109th’s historical archives held at the National Museum of Military History in Diekirch, Luxembourg, as well as to be made available to 109th Veterans and their surviving family members at their request.
Sam Ieronimo suggested that the Association consider donating funds to the Yellow Ribbon Foundation (for active Iraq/Afghanistan sol-diers and their families) via the 28th Division Association and to fund an official 109th History Preservation project to be managed by Linda
Rae Coon in coordination with Roland Gaul of the National Museum of Military History in Diekirch, Luxembourg. The project will in-volve collecting, organizing and cataloging of historical records and personal artifacts to be delivered as donations to the Museum in Lux-
embourg by Linda Rae and for any additional projects that will focus on preserving the history of the 109th for future generations.
Joe Cochrane requested that the History Preservation Project to also include the cost and time of publishing the Association’s last “Old
Gray Mare” newsletter. Linda Rae agreed to add that task as a part of the project and that she would travel to Joe’s home after the reunion
to gather all of his past records of the Association to assist in the historical archiving of the 109th’s records.
John Born motioned that $1,000 be donated to the Yellow Ribbon Foundation and any remaining funds held by the Association should be disbursed to Linda Rae Coon to complete the 109th History Preservation Project. A vote was taken and all in attendance accepted the mo-
tion.
It was also agreed that the 109th Regimental Flag used at all reunions was to be donated to the Pennsylvania National Guard Military Mu-
seum at Indiantown Gap and that the 109th Welcome sign used at all reunions will be delivered by Linda Rae to the National Museum of
Military History in Luxembourg.
Meeting Adjourned:
Submitted by Linda Rae Coon for Joe Cochrane, Secretary
TAPS
Franklin W. Coldwater, Regimental HQ, died 01/05/2010 at the age of 96.
Franklin was the personal driver for Col. Blanton and Lt. Col. Rudder.
Edward Hitchin, 1st Battalion HQ, died 06/18/2008. Ed retired from the Division as a
Major General and he was a devoted and active member of the 109th’s Association. He
held the office of President many times and hosted the 1984 and 2005 reunions. The
2005 reunion in Asheville, North Carolina would also be the last one he was able to at-tend. Ed even took a turn at publishing the “Old Gray Mare” for two years. However,
he’s probably most famous for making sure the bar for the hospitality room was always
fully stocked at all the reunions. To the left is a picture of Ed enjoying the Thanksgiving
Day events held in Diekirch, Luxembourg for the 109th Veterans in November, 2004.
MORE MEMORIES FROM THE 41ST REUNION
The very special ladies that love their veterans
and coming to the reunions.
George Bunnell’s love Ms. Juliette Du-
Bois attended the reunion with her
grandson, Michel. Juliette was honored with a special membership in 2008 to
the 109th Association. Juliette contin-
ues on with George’s good work in edu-
cating our young future leaders on the important contributions of the WWII Veteran as a Honorary Member of the Military Officers Association of
Vermont. This Association also honored George with the creation of “The
George H. Bunnell Book Award” given each year to highly deserving Ca-
dets with the Norwich University ROTC program.
Joe Cochrane, the Association’s Secre-
tary is very excited that Linda Rae came
to visit his home after the reunion to gather all of the records he has kept for
over 20 years.
109TH WWII VETERANS HISTORY PRESERVATION PROJECT
I am honored to be drafted as your historian and to be working with Roland Gaul of the National Museum of Military History
(NMMH) in Diekirch, Luxembourg on your behalf. Roland is truly devoted to preserving your legacy and keeping the history of
WWII alive for many, many generations to come. It was an amazing and privileged experience to be able to personally handle the
actual WWII records of the 109th at the National Archives. Your records are very fragile and I’m so glad to have had the opportu-
nity to digitize and organize them for the NMMH archives.
I first visited Roland’s museum in October of 1997, before I even knew a veteran from the 109th , but from the moment I stepped
inside his museum I knew it was going to be something special. It was an enlightening experience, one that I will never forget. I’ve
been to many WWII Museums throughout Europe, but this one was so very different. It gave you the ability to really connect with
the history and left you feeling as if you had been a soldier during the “Battle of the Bulge.” Since then, I’ve been back many times
and thanks to my friendship with the 109th Veterans I can now call Roland a dear friend too. He has been great supporter in all of
my projects to preserve and promote the outstanding accomplishments achieved by the 109th and the 28th Division during WWII.
I will be flying to Cologne, Germany on May 4th to deliver your donations and I’ll return from there on May 14th. I would like to
extend an invitation to all 109th Veterans and their family members to join me in attending this very important event and to have a
chance to re-trace your own history, as I will also be visiting your battlefields along the Siegfried Line and in the Huertgen Forest.
Please contact me by February 20th, if you would like to join me, so I can make the necessary travel arrangements. I am confident
that this trip will be just as memorable and successful as the one that several 109th Veterans made with me to Luxembourg in 2004.
To facilitate your project I have also created a 109th Facebook Page to help preserve your legacy and to provide you with a resource
for all of you and your children to stay in touch. Please ask your children or your grandchildren to help you set up a Facebook ac-
count, so you can then register as a “Fan” on your Page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/WWII-Veterans-109th-Infantry-Regiment/292565147845
The internet is a valuable tool to reach out to the younger generation to keep your story alive and there are many young people
online today looking for ways to connect with surviving veterans of the 109th and their family members. I will also use your Face-
book Page to record my progress on your donated items and their delivery to the museum in Luxembourg. In addition, your page
will provide access to important 109th records. One of the most significant items I have posted is a document created many years ago
by a 109th Veteran. It is a list of the European grave sites for all of the 109th Soldiers killed in action. This will be an invaluable
resource to your supporters in Europe, as many individuals take the time to adopt the grave sites of your fallen comrades.
I hope you will all agree that the NMMH is the perfect place to hold in high honor your personal artifacts from WWII and I am de-
lighted to have the opportunity to personally deliver your items to Roland during their 65th Anniversary celebrations for VE Day.