The first Annual Holy Loch reunion was held as scheduled during the first week in May 2001. With over two hundred former veterans from the Site One Team attending, and many of our local friends welcoming us a truly great time was had by all. We were not only welcomed by the local community but the Scottish press was there in force and provided a very positive coverage of the events. Even though it was a news event the press fully understood that this was a reunion of not only true friends getting together but more like a family who had spent many hard and trying times together getting together to reminisce not only about those tough times but to also look over the many good times that we as the family of Holy Loch had.

Though many of our previous local friends had moved on, as we Americans had, there were still many in the area that welcomed us in such a way that we indeed felt like family members that had come home after a long trip away. Though many of us had put on a few pounds and our hair was a little grayer we all felt like the young Sailors we were when we were crawling the pubs after a hard day at the Site. Some of those pubs were even gone; The "Harmony" is now a grassy spot next to the swimming pool. But the "Clansmen" is still there and though they have new names the "JPJ", "Berts" and "Blue Dolphin" are still there. I may not have mentioned all the pubs but you can rest assured that they were all visited by Americans during the reunion.

The pubs were fun but the day trips through the country side and around the Lochs also were a great hit. We all once again verified what we already knew that there is no place in the world more beautiful than the hills of Argyll. The weather was probably the best many of us had seen even those that had spent 13 years in the Holy Loch. It appeared that even Mother Nature was happy that we had returned for the visit and she was showing her very best.

The social events were a total success and I will leave it to the many photographs now on Ray Plumlee's web page to describe them to you. As we all know a picture is worth a thousand words. As I have said before we were indeed a family getting together to have a good time and we had just that. For the very close friends and loved ones that were there it was great to be together again. For those that were not there you were in all of our hearts and minds.

The many things we did and saw convinced us that the Holy Loch Experience, though tough, was one we would never have wanted to miss. We are all looking forward to the next reunion and it will be an honor to host our wonderful Scottish friends in the US. We know it will be a challenge for us to meet the high standards that they set for us in Dunoon, But we will give it our best.