The DoubleTree Hotel in Springfield, MO. was the place we all gathered for the 21st reunion of the USS SALT LAKE CITY CA25 Association Veterans and Family Members. The Hospitality Room was large and spread out where we could all be together with the Memorabilia, Ship's Store, Food Area, Bar and Visiting area. The hotel staff was very helpful with anything we needed, which makes the job of organizing it a lot easier. Everyone pitched in to help wherever they were needed.

Richard Noar had several replicas made of the new plaque for the USS SLC CA25 at the Nimitz museum and I was shocked to receive one of them. He wanted to give one to a veteran or surviving spouse, so we put all their names in a *Sailor Hat* for a drawing at the beginning of the meeting. Joyce White, surviving spouse of John White, was the lucky lady who won.

During the meeting Janet Veit gave a talk about the dedication of the new USS SLC CA25 Plaque at the Nimitz Museum in Fredricksburg, TX. to take place on Sept. 19th, 2008. Complete details in the Saltshaker Newsletter.

Albert Jowdy will be organizing the 2009 reunion in San Antonio, TX. next June. Some details will be in the Saltshaker Newsletter and on the USS SLC CA25 Website. More information will be in the November-December Saltshaker.

Wed. night we had our banquet and the food was fantastic. We had the drawing for the beautiful handmade quilted SLC wall hanging and Toni Saeger-Lukenbill, daughter of Ruth Saeger and the late Maurice Saeger from ID. was the lucky winner. Ron Calkins from CA. won the beautiful patriotic frame.

Then we all danced and watched others dance to the music of the 1940*s era played by the Disc Jockey from Mobile Melodies of Springfield, MO.

Thursday, June 26th brought another event and a few people decided to go on. It was called the Discovery Center, a place for *Kids of all ages*. It turned out not to be for some of *our kids*. Lesson learned ;)

By Thursday evening a lot of the members and families had headed home. Those of us left started packing up and visiting. We ordered pizza and sat around and laughed and listened to *tall tales* and *stories*. Then we said our goodbyes and well wishes and headed off to our rooms.

I want to personally thank you all for coming and making the reunion a success. You made it happen. I have written to the DoubleTree Hotel and thanked them for all their assistance. They worked well with me all year getting things organized to make your reunion as nice as possible.

Sincerely, Sandra f. Thompson-Eskew [ Sandy ]