military ball 2013

4th Brigade Combat Team
"Warrior Brigade"

Home of the 2-12th Inf Regiment

The 2-12th Inf Regiment

I want to personally thank LTC Richard Garey and his staff for being such gracious hosts during our visit. Every time we crossed paths during our post visit, the officers stopped what they were doing to say "thank you for taking the time to be involved with the troops and to thank us as veterans for our service and leading the way". It's just a wonderful experience for us as returning veterans to share time with the troops and to swap stories. I hope that some of you will seriously consider the next invitation to mingle with the 2/12th later this year at Ft. Carson.

Photos of the 2/12th command staff and the evenings events. Click on any photo to start slide show.

More photos of the Ball can be seen at www.triducle.com by going to the browse bar and looking for military ball.

The 2/12th hosted a Military Ball on December 19th and was open to all former veterans of the unit to attend. It was a formal attire event with the military wearing their dress Blues and wives wearing floor length gowns of all shapes, colors and designs, quite a sight to take in. Attending the Ball, were Bill Braniff, his daughter and son in law along with Chuck Mohr and his wife Nancy who came down from Idaho, myself, Jeanne, my wife and youngest son Jesse. The evening started off with a no host open bar, followed by the receiving line, then seating in the hotel banquet room. CPT Stu Williams, Chaplin led off the evening with a prayer followed by the posting of the colors ceremony, filling of the grog, toasts and tribute to the missing in action. We had a fine dinner of salad, chicken or flat iron steak, bread, coffee and cheese cake for desert. Following of the retirement of the colors, the dance floor was opened up for the rest of the evening.

I had a chance to revisit with the offices I had met from the Dining In event in October. COL Pearl, the 4th Brigade Commander was in attendance along with the guest speaker, Col Vincent P. Baerman (ret), a West Point grad, class of 1968. Battalion commander, LTC Richard Garey once again extended an open invitation to Vietnam Veterans to attend any of the functions that the unit puts on in the future and hopes that we will return to the next one, once the unit returns from its scheduled deployment this Spring. He thinks it will be held in the fall. On Friday, we toured the post once more. This time, after visiting the company quarters and a stop at the Armory so my son Jesse could see some of the units hardware, we made a stop at Brigade HQ to visit the facilities, check out the Wall of Honor where 41 photos are displayed of the men the unit lost in Iraq and Afghanstan. Mixed in with these stops, was the "pinning" ceremony of 1LT Quinn Henson to the rank of Captain, two change of responsibility ceremonies for Baker and Dagger companies (change of First Sergeants) held in the motor pool and a stop at the Dining Facility for lunch. The weather was a bit on the rough side with a freezing fog hanging over the post and the temperatures in the low 20's mixed in with a light wind.