Finance Officers Attack Fort AP Hill

Finance Officers Attack Fort. A.P. Hill

During the period Friday November 30, 2007 through Sunday December 2, 2007 several retired and one active Finance (Resource Management) officer, on order and with detailed planning, successfully infiltrated Fort A. P. Hill in Virginia for a weekend of good food, poker, leisure activities and camaraderie (swapping old war stories).  The Headquarters was established at the A.P. Hill Recreational Lodge that comfortably sleeps 20 with a commercially equipped kitchen, dining area, fireplace, and yes even a large screen TV with digital programming.  The detail plan and all logistical support (mucho, mucho food) was superbly organized by Jim WATKINS, Ted STOUT, and Tom SPAINHOUR.

There were a total of fourteen that answered the call-Arty ARTEAGA, Clint COWARDIN, Russ DELANEY, Mo DENNY, Derald EMORY, Tom MOREHOUSE, Eldon MULLIS, Al RUNNELS, Roger SCEARCE, Pat SHINE, Bob SPEER, Tom SPAINHOUR, Ted STOUT, and Jim WATKINS.

Most everyone brought something to drink or eat for the whole group.  Arty brought one bottle of wine, but he says it was a good bottle.  Truth be told, we had much more food and beverage than we could handle although some of us tried hard.

As the troops assembled on Friday afternoon and evening, Teddy STOUT and Tom SPAINHOUR prepared the “Italian Night” dinner. It was excellent.  Clint ensured enough pies were available for the weekend.  Ted and Tom followed Friday’s dinner with an equally good breakfast on Saturday morning.  Never mind that most went to bed between 2:30 and 3:30 AM and were up early Saturday morning.

Russ DELANEY achieved his winning quota on Friday night so he left on Saturday to go to warmer Florida.  His excuse was he had promised his wife he would participate in a bridge tournament with her on Sunday.  He missed the thick prime steak that Jim grilled for each of us Saturday night.

Roger SCEARCE and Teddy STOUT got up well before dawn on Saturday morning and after a leisurely breakfast purportedly went out deer hunting.  The resulting story was that Teddy shot a deer on the farm they were hunting but could not bring the deer back onto Ft. A. P. Hill so Roger’s son had to take the deer back home.

Five attendees (Al RUNNELS, Pat SHINE, Derald EMORY, Bob SPEER, and Mo DENNY) went on a terrain walk (code for golf).   After five hours of attacking the facility with lots of wayward artillery and duds, it was generally agreed that we lost the battle.  There were a few Murphy’s, lots of Monkey’s, infrequent skins and Pat SHINE accumulated most of the spent ammunition (in other words he won).  For further analysis you better ask Pat since he came up with all the crazy rules and rotating teams.   He will admit he lost control of the teams, but not the resulting points.

Jim WATKINS attacked the woods with a chain saw, did not hurt himself and even managed to return with enough scraps to keep the fire burning on Saturday and Saturday night…football games without fire is not good.  Arty consumed his bottle of wine I guess.

Easy conclusion was that we could be found and vulnerable to attack at night since most of us have become heavy snorers.

Some left early Sunday morning for the Redskins game or to teach Sunday School.  The rest of us were treated to Roger cooking omelets after he begrudgingly got up.

Since this plan worked so successfully, the participants plan to do it again December 5^th weekend in 2008.  Most senior Finance Corps retirees understand how difficult it is to get a consensus from a group of stubborn has beens.  Please contact any of us if you have an interest in attending the next group attack.

Waywardly scribed, Mo DENNY