2025 CAP Unit Veterans Association Reunion
Good morning to all,
2025 San Antonio Reunion – 250th Marine Corps Birthday and 60th Anniversary of the CAP Program,
I contacted several of the board to see if they returned home or were at least camped for the night, all made it home safely. From all I have heard and of course what I saw it appears our CAP Marines and Corpsmen enjoyed the reunion having a great time. All worked out as planned and it is because we have great people in our membership that will help accomplish all that we need to do to make our membership know that they matter. Thank you to all our members our volunteers, our Board, and our great membership for being who you are.
Many have asked where next year’s Reunion will be and we did take a vote on where members would like to go based upon availability. Two of the top places were San Diego and Phoenix. The board will devote a great deal of time doing our due diligence checking out these locations and maybe a couple more. As usual we will more than likely announce the location in December or January once we finalize our process. Members can make suggestions and volunteer ideas in advance of any decisions. I am looking forward to another great reunion next year.
We announced our Legacy general membership and we are moving forward with spouses, children, grandchildren and siblings of CAP Marines and or CAP Corpsmen to be part of this membership. More to come on this as times goes by to update our membership, we had a tremendous response to the survey with only 27 no’s 199 yes’s for the program. We needed a coordinator for this program that wasn’t a CAP Marine or Corpsman and I am happy to say we have one. Twayne Hickman (son of Donna and Wayne Hickman) who is a retired Marine Corps Major was honored to accept this duty and will begin program development immediately. He will need volunteers to assist please contact Wayne Hickman if you would like to assist.
Our Keynote Speaker this year was the 11th Sgt. Major of the Marine Corps – Sgt. Major Donald W. Sommers, he joined us for the Marine Corps Birthday and circulated meeting as many of the men as he stated he wanted to do. Our Association is very close to his heart as he was the very first CAC Platoon leader in Vietnam, he is where our program started. What a great speaker and truly an inspiration to all Marines, we were very fortunate to have him join us on the Marine Corps Birthday and celebrate with all the Marines/Corpsmen and gusts.
We also announced a recognition program for our membership that truly needed to be recognized for what they do for our membership the Bravo Zulu, Above and Beyond and Humanitarian recognition. These are for the past reunion, in other words we will recognize 2025 next year for people who stepped up in those categories at the Reunion. For 2024 Nancy Davis Matricardi was given the Bravo Zulu for all her hard work and dedication to our Monument/Ladies Luncheon’s and so much more, Debra Murphy was given the Above and Beyond for her years of service with general assistance but most of all the registration process with tracking all reunions information, Chet Mattern and Cheri were given the Above and Beyond recognition for their years of dedication and financial donations to the Association and last but not least Michael Lawson was given the Humanitarian recognition, Mike stays busy with a multitude of organizations spending most of day and nights volunteering. Most of this for Mike revolves around helping out Veterans and some non veterans the list is too long, trust me it is a full page of volunteering. Congrats to all these great people you are much deserved. If you know a member that devotes time and effort to any organization Veteran or not please have them contact Richard Stoehrmann so we may consider these people for Humanitarianism recognition.
Additionally, we introduced a table donation fee to help raise funds for the Association. Most of these donations we raise go towards mailing and/or non offset costs of the reunions we have. We will have two different types of Table donation fees Members $100.00 and Non Members $250.00. This will allow board approved items to be sold at the reunions, non members could be merchants that would like to bring their items to sell, members are our membership that could sell their items (if a member donates a part of their sales no fee will be expected).
During the last two Reunions we have had expenses that were not offset by the charges on the registration forms we send to out members. We want to make sure our Reunions are affordable so we will continue to find ways to raise donations so we make our Reunions the best we can without encumbering our membership with high costs.
I do hope all returned safely and had no time delays. All that I spoke with said everything was on time and no issues on getting to San Antonio or returning home with flights or transportation. Another great thing at least to me knowledge and thank for Rich Stoehrmann’s reminder, NO ONE came down with COVID this year or got seriously sick, that’s a big winner.
See you all next year!
Semper Fi,
Eric Webb
Chairman/President
Additional Gratitude
I wanted to take a moment to thank all the people on this list which have helped and are helping to make this 2025 Reunion a great success. If anyone has been off this list please let me know as it is not intentional. Thank you for all your time, effort, input and your selflessness to continue to support our CAP Unit Veteran’s Association along with all our members. We couldn’t accomplish this with you!
Thank you and Semper Fi,
Eric
VOLUNTEER LIST:
Registration – Deb Murphy, Barb Kaupas, Denise McDonald, Colette Stoehrmann & Donna Hickman
Hospitality Suite Host – Mike Mullins
Hospitality Suite Manager – Wayne Hickman
Photography – Gary Quernemoen
Ladies Luncheon – Nancy Matricardi, Alice Casto & Cheri Mattern
Ladies Luncheon Token of Appreciation – Fred Caleffie
Barge Guides – Rich, Mark, Rick, Eric, Wayne & Mike
Bus Guides – Mike Lawson and Rich Stoehrmann
Banquet Attendants – Rick Frantz, Rich Stoehrmann, Mike Lawson and Mark Morales
Cake cutting ceremony – Wayne Hickman
Missing Man table – Mike Lawson
Sales table team – Mark Morales and Rich Stoehrmann
Raffle (Collect items and set tables up) – John and Denise McDonald
Birthday Cake & cupcakes – Deb Murphy
Banquet Decorations & table centerpieces – Donna Hickman – Volunteers & Sara Walker Events
Finances & Inventory – Mark Morales, Mike Mullins and Mike Smith
Reunion Tours, Transportation, Raffle M.C. & Asst. Reunion Organizer – Rich Stoehrmann
2025 Reunion Photos
Great time 👍