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I did not know the man but some of you may have met him at the 196th reunions.
In Memory of
Francis S. Conaty Jr.
May 15, 1920 – September 23, 2013
Col. Francis S. Conaty, Ret. (Age 93) Passed away peacefully at home surrounded by his loved ones, on September 23, 2013. The only son of Lt. Col. and Mrs. Francis S. Conaty, was born in Rockville, IL on 15 May 1920. He is preceded in death by his cherished wife of 66 years, Carol Clayton Conaty. He is survived by their six children, Mrs. Patricia McNamara, Mrs. Ceci Dittmar, Mr. Chip Conaty, Mr. Phil Conaty, Mr. Pete Conaty, and Mrs. Peggy Pisciotta and the respective spouses. Additionally he had 16 grandchildren, 21 great grandchildren and a large extended family, all of whom were treasured dearly.
He proudly served 30 years in the US Army, a veteran of WWII and the Vietnam War. A true patriot, he is a hero and inspiration to all who knew and loved him.
He will be buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery (date tbd).
Personal tributes and photos may be posted at http://www.murphyfuneralhomes.com (search under his name). Funeral details will be posted on same site. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Citadel Scholarship Fund or to a charity of your choice.
Tooch,
Sorry you feel left out. I will personally attempt to answer as many of your questions as I can. As far as the so called clique, the few of us who do talk with each other here are closely linked such as me being some of these guys platoon leader with Harper and Missar being in my platoon as leaders. Unfortunately many people I hear do read the blog but choose not to get involved. We would love for more folks to be involved but apparently there are a lot of folks who choose not to get involved here just like the many who do attend our reunions. We want all of our C/2/1 brothers to join us here and at any future reunions. Note my response to Larry Mladek below. Come to Escanaba next summer!
LT,
I want to know why I am so good looking but not rich. That is always on my mind.
Where is everyone? Hibernating? I know Larry Harper is probably fishing off the Texas shoreline. Must be something on someones mind out there that can be discussed.
LT, I think one of the problems is that there is a bit of a clique on the site. The same guys talk to one another and kind of elbow everyone else out. Look at how many guys are on the roster; and you only herefrom the same few. I have posted a couple of comments and questions, and have gotten no response.It’s a bit of a turn off. We have to find ways to get more of the guys involved.Tooch
Larry,
We would love to have you join us. We are going to get together in Escanaba MI the end of July beginning of August of 2014 with more to follow. We have open arms for all of our C/2/1 brothers regardless of when you served. It would be good cross fertilization as I’m sure your time period brothers may tire of your stories so we would be a new sounding board. Come on and drink some beer or other stuff if you like and share our fellowship. Invite your friends!
This is for Jim Armstrong, HI guy, Larry Mladek , I think the major reason we seldom see 66-67 RVNers is that many of us just want to let it stay buried. Not good for sure, but that could be a fact. You have to remember we paid our dues in the Iron Triangle, I know the later Charlie’s paid their also and heavier up north. The reunion in DC was very good. Turnout over 800 at dinner. The sad part was for the Charlie’s of 66-67……. 7 were in attendance. Way down from other years.I have never made a reunion of Charlie Company. But I am really thinking of making this next one. I maybe the only one from 66-67, but I’ll be there.
A little night ops on my X and her lover would have been nice. Thanks for the thought…..
I arrived in Port Aransas, TX yesterday. I will be spending most of the winter here. On my way down here, I was in San Antonio, TX for a couple of days. I went by to do a tune up on Dominick, but no answer at the door on Reenie Way.
I then went and visited with Mike Lynd who was 1st platoon leader from late 1968 to the middle of 1969 when he became XO for a while and then moved on to other duties. We had a very nice visit. He talked about Jim Leland, Don Perry, and several other guys he served with. He says he visits this site often but never post. I encouraged him to say something. This is the second time I stopped by and visited with Mike. He has a very successful business in which he works with his two sons. We had a great visit.
haven`t had time to recon for smart phones or even dumb ones wife is showing no mercy–worse than any D.I. AT least i got a roof over my head and no canned “food”.plan to drive west in 2 weeks or so, before any white stuff falls from the sky here in PA.
talked to cpt. morris and all ok there. waiting to hear back from LT ty.
will be glad to be back in AZ where i can keep an eye on chuck-make sure he is sticking to his C-rats diet. he could be next for a knee operation..
Everybody gots thier tongue tied?
I agree with LT, any reunion that I can make will be wonderful. The DC 196th reunion was a great experience, all I’ve made have been great. My experience at the Wall is a cherished memory with my brothers. Being able to go to Le Claire, Ft Hood, Wabasha and Hilton Head seeing and meeting these incredible people on this journey is priceless. And I agree, time is not on our side. If you can, just do it!
I just went down today to start a series of Hyalgan injections in my knees to see if I can get to the point where I can walk reasonably comfortable again. I hope it works so I don’t have to go under the knife. Hope all is well with everyone! Mr. Fry and Rick, I hope I didn’t come down too hard about the reunion site thing. We have been leaning towards Escanaba ever since we met in DC in July but Larry Harper wanted to open it up to see if anyone else was interested. He made one last appeal and no one raised there hand so Escanaba it is. Larry did allude to this in one of his older entries here. It will be a great time again for those who come and sadly I feel sorry for those who don’t join us as they are really losing out and time is not on any of our sides anymore.
I asked SR what a smart phone was, I guess he’ still on recon checking that out. Had the opportunity to attend a modern day Standown put on by volunteers for veterans from several service groups. No beer nor USO entertainers! They have these things all over the country. They have info on services locally for veterans and surplus military goods, (no m16’s!). LT, they had a huge amount of ponco liners. Good people, check it out,
sry Rick the last posting -it was a suggestion that he{Doof} might host /wasn’t shure.. hope you get to make one wherever it might be. they are good for the soul…the guys are great and it ‘s like picking up from last week …
Hey Guys!
The decision has already been made about reunion 2014. It is going to be held in Escanaba, Michigan with Bill “Doof” Porath hosting it in late July to early August. If someone wanted to take on setting up a reunion in Shreveport for the next year that would be great but bear in mind you don’t just pick a neat place and go there, someone has to host and set it up.
LT,
Sorry, Didn’t know that the decision had been made. I didn’t see it posted anywhere.
Either way, I hope to be able to attend my first reunion, wherever it is held.
u can get pictures of all that is offered at Boomtown.com it’ll give a lot of details that would take me awhile to type-ok–just a thought….
i hear there are request for suggestions for the 2014 get together: how about SHREVEPORT LOSIANA??? all the casino’s have large hotels and are pleased to give group special rates.. there is plenty to do/have an air base,a M. FLINT HUSTLERS club, while in casino free flowing brews of sorts and sizes/a V.A.,the rates start at $49.00 a nite. they have all kinds of HQ’s desinated for group attendance..oh yea—plenty of SHOPPING area’s for the women… there are also some R.V. parking places right by the hotels parking area…//shuttels/big airport……sights calore-old &new…
Shreveport sounds great to me! I may be a little selfish here, as I live in Houston. I would be able to attend my first reunion.
SR, you’re assuming grunts know what a computer can do. By the way, what’s a smart phone?
bill–your assuming half of all grunts can read and write–or remember how.this .assumption could cleary be inaccurate.
I for one am very proud of the Brothers who paved the way for us. We are all Grunt Brothers, no matter when we served, but again, thanks to the ones that went before us and showed us the way.
Rest in peace, Richard and Roger……..Hi Jim……I read recently that only about 50% of people over 65 years of age use the internet…..I guess the rest are not aware of this web site.
Jim,
I did not get there until 11/68 which is not early enough for you. Wish I had an answer for you.
The end of this week marks the 47th anniversary of the loss of the first two Charlie Grunts in Vietnam.
Richard Smith and Roger Bonner had been in the same squad for almost a year since starting BCT at Fort Devens. I was their platoon leader, the first of many the 3rd platoon would have. At the time they were killled, I was in headquarters company, but only a couple of hundred meters away.
They were both drafted at 20 years old, Smith a white man from New York, Bonner a black man from Georgia. Neither had married. I remember them as good friends.
There were other casualties in their squad that evening and I sat with them while waiting for their evacuation.
I have wondered now for years why the participation here and in other 196th LIB forums is so weighted toward veterans who served later in the war. I wish some earlier ones would come in, but I appreciate hearing from my later brothers.
Welcome home to all of us.
Gary, I’m tied up until about 11:30. Call me at 719-691-9685
LT: Oh, He does bless me every time I go. And, every day in between trips.
Gary,
God bless you and the rest of your Disaster Relief Team for what you do! I’m sure the help is greatly appreciated by those in need.
I haven’t heard anything from anyone wanting to do next year’s reunion. I told William “Doof” Porath full steam ahead on hosting a reunion.
hi fellow grunts–just checking in, as wife is over-working me , as usual. she must believe in active duty for me.
be well all–gary–stay above the water line.
I’ll be leaving for Boulder on Thursday morning as a part of the Oklahoma Southern Baptist Disaster Relief advance team. We’ll be bringing in trained and experienced crews to mud-out and tear-out the damaged homes for free. Since few people in Colorado have flood insurance, it will truly be a God-send. We do this all the time, among our other ministries. We were there during and after the Waldo Canyon, High Park and Black Forest fires and we’ll be there until the job is finished from these floods too. My job is assessments, which means I meet with the homeowners in the wreckage of their houses to see what we can do for them and to minister to their emotional needs. If it’s something we can do, I write up the job order and turn it over to the work crews. I’ll probably be there 8-10 days before being relieved. We already have our 53ft feeding unit set up in Longmont and other states are enroute too.
Clay: I’ll be passing through Lamar sometime Thursday. If you’re still in that area, I’d be happy to have lunch with you, but I can’t stay very long.
Army vs Marines: Some of you know I took up running when I retired. I started competing this year. A few weeks ago I did the Iowa Warrior Dash, a 5K obstacle course. You can check it out by Googling Warrior Dash Iowa and can even see my results. I was in the starting chute with 3 nice looking young men in modern BDU’s. They were very polite and interacted with the crowd, posing for pictures. Made me proud to be an American and a soldier once. Couldn’t help but think if that was 40+ year ago, no one would have approached me except to spit on me or worse. They noticed my “antique BDU’s” and asked about my service and then suggested we run as a team as they were active duty Marines. I jokingly said that would create a problem for me as “we left no man behind” and I came to compete. My time was around 50 minutes. Being the gentlemen they are I hope they come here to tell us their time as I do not actually know.