USS Boston Shipmates Reunion 2013 - Day 4
On Sunday morning we had breakfast at 0600. (are you kidding me, I never remember 0600 being that early!)   The buses were to start loading at 0730 for the New Mexico Veteran’s Memorial park and the Balloon Museum.  To our surprise there were Hot Air Balloons in the Air out side the hotel as we were leaving.  One was having some issues and even landed in the parking lot of the hotel!
New Mexico Veteran’s Memorial Park:   The Memorial Service was set up in an Amphitheatre of the Memorial Park.  We had 214 attendees for the memorial service and 3 widows, Alvine Keesing (representing Arthur Keesing, 1945) Frances Fazekas (representing Julius Fazekas, 1957 – 1963) and Audrey Thorp (representing Ira Thorp, 1943 – 1945). During the service we had a moment of silence and I asked Shipmates to call out names that they would want remembered here today and Fred Probst rang the bell for each name that was called. Dennis LaFrenier, 1967 – 1970 assisted with the ceremony along with Fred Probst.  When I said “Let us lay this Wreath in Remembrance of all our departed Shipmates” Dennis walked the Wreath toward the American Flag and the Fallen Friend Memorial as symbol of the wreath being tossed in the water off the fantail of a ship.  We placed the Wreath after the ceremony at the statue of the Lone Sailor.  Unfortunately our Bugler didn’t show up because of a scheduling conflict. Our Shipmates toured this fabulous park and then boarded the buses for the Hot Air Balloon Museum.	More Photos
International Balloon Museum:   We arrived at the Balloon Museum at around 1030. A lot of Photo Op’s at the entrance to the Museum.  This tour was very interesting and there were many photo ops inside as well.  I have photos of RADM. Barr and his wife Marcia enjoying this tour They are First Timers (Note: he only signed up for Saturday night but enjoyed himself so much on Saturday he decided to spend Sunday with us as well) he will be back again.  Also photo’s of our  Shipmates enjoying the tour and getting their photos taken. The buses loaded up at around 1200 to return to the hotel.	More Photos

This ended the reunion for this year, however, quite a few Shipmates stayed in the Hotel on Sunday and some had planned to stay in New Mexico for a few more days.   The committee did another exceptional job this year in putting this reunion together.

Submitted by Barry Probst