Blackhorse E-News – September 2010

I won’t bang on too long here but there are several items I need to get out to you.

First, a sad weekend as we learned of the loss of MSG (Ret) Leland Tabb. Leland fought a tough battle with brain cancer and passed on to Fiddler’s Green last week. Leland Tabb was a tremendous soldier and leader and a cherished friend. He served our Regiment for almost 18 years and continued to serve soldiers and our Association after his retirement. Our thoughts and prayers go to his family. We will miss him.

Second, the 2011 Blackhorse Family Reunion will be held in Las Vegas from June 1 to June 5, 2011. We are finalizing the schedule of events now and will be posting it to the websites at opens in a new windowwww.blackhorse.org and opens in a new windowwww.blackhorse.comin the next days. We will post a preregistration form that we encourage you to use. We need you to indicate early if you plan to attend so we can adjust room counts with Treasure Island Resort (TI) in order to capture the tremendously reduced room charges they have offered us. With that publication, we will also provide reservation telephone contacts for TI so you can reserve your room early. Since we are so close to our Regiment, one day is slated for a bus trip visit to the Regiment. We are planning no official evening events for Wednesday and Thursday evening so that you can take advantage of the many shows and events along the "strip". Friday evening we will return to our old tradition of a "Stable your Mount" social mixer first hosted in 1970 by Chuck and Kay Hensley from Radcliff, KY. They continued to host this event any time the reunion was close to Fort Knox. Saturday evening of course will be our banquet. Watch our websites and our E-News for details. We all look forward to being with you in Las Vegas.

Our dear friend Dr. Wolfgang Hamberger celebrated his 80th birthday last week. Many of you will remember him as Lord Mayor of Fulda. He loved and supported our soldiers with great vigor and compassion. We wish him continued health and many happy returns of his special day.

Thanks all for your support of our Regiment and the Blackhorse Association.

Allons! and Blackhorse Forever!
John Sherman Crow
President, Blackhorse Association

For the many who attended the annual reunion, this year’s event was the highlight of 2010. For those of you who may have missed it, there is always next year in Las Vegas!

The key activities this year began Thursday with a Golf Tournament at the Blackhorse Golf Club, complete with mounted color guard! Friday began with a VIP tour of the NASA Space Center and the motorcycle rally. Later that afternoon we received a Proclamation from the Mayor of Houston welcoming the Blackhorse Association, followed by presentations by Julian Burns and John Poindexter at the ice breaker Friday evening. Saturday saw the General Membership meeting and a Memorial Service for our Fallen Comrades. The highlight of the reunion was the banquet. The current RCO gave an update on the regiment and we were honored to hear from our guest speaker, Hal Fritz, describing the action for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor. The formal events concluded with presentations to the speakers and special award of the Order of St George Silver Medallion to Glenn Allardyce for his service to Armor and the Blackhorse Association. This was followed by dancing and much reminiscing.

Colonel Paul Laughlin, 63rd RCO

LTC (Ret) Hal Fritz, MOH

See you next June 1 to June 5 in Las Vegas! Details and preregistration info soon at www.blackhorse.org and www.blackhorse.com

MSG (Retired) Leland Tabb passed on to Fiddler’s Green after a tough battle with brain cancer. Leland served 17 and a half years in the Blackhorse Regiment.

The funeral service will be held in the small town that Tabb was born in, called Cobbs Creek, VA at Ebenezer Baptist Church, 3601 Buckey Hall Road.

The services are scheduled for 14:00 this coming Saturday, the 4th of September.

The name of the funeral home is Forest Brothers Mathews Chapel on route 198, Hudgins, VA 23076.

Sir,
In addition to Leland running the in-processing center for the Regiment, which coincidentally was a couple of buildings down the street from the Anvil Troop Headquarters, he was instrumental in organizing many of the sporting and athletic programs and competitions. From intramural softball, football and bowling, Leland was very involved in making these events a huge success for the command. I have no doubt his personal involvement as a coach and referee greatly contributed to the quality of life for the troopers and Families of the Regiment. Because of his longevity in the community, Leland was the perfect volunteer to maintain the continuity of these vital moral building programs during the high operational pace of the Regiment on the former East/West German border, while maintaining a high level of combat readiness. With the Ironhorse Squadron deployed for weeks at a time, Leland was the one individual who managed the team schedules to accommodate the rotational forces in and out of the community, so no unit or trooper was disadvantaged or missed an opportunity to participate due to a deployment.

As a personal friend and a fellow member of the Wednesday Night Men’s Bowling League, Leland and I were members of the five-man team known as the "Fulda Vice." For the three years I bowled with Leland, the Fulda Vice was a dynasty among the men’s teams. It was Leland’s positive attitude, his spirit of competition and sportsmanship, and his leadership that bonded all of us together.

Even in retirement, Leland continued to support Soldiers. With the closing of Downs Barracks, Leland made the daily journey from his retirement home in the Fulda area to work in Hanau at the gymnasium on Pioneer Kaserne. As the division CSM in 1st Armored Division and then the V Corps CSM, Leland was always eager to show me some new idea he was executing to improve the quality of service and quality of life for our Soldiers. I will miss him.

v/r
Ken Preston

Kenneth O. Preston
Sergeant Major of the Army
203 Army Pentagon (3E677)
Washington D.C. 20310-0203

I was with the 11 Cav in Regensburg, Germany beginning in 1959. I was in the scounts patrolling the border from Rehen to Passau normally in four man patrols.

I would like to hear from anyone that would have been there during that time frame.

David England
opens in a new windowdaveenglandcpp@nullsbcglobal.netcreate new email

Note from the Association: Be sure to check out opens in a new windowCavLand.com. It’s a great way to find old friends from the unit.