China Post members including: Jim Luke, Jerry Williams, Roger Gowen, CMSgt Tom Rhode, SSgt James (BJ) Robertson, Leigh Robertson, Hans Stockenberger, & Tim (Brownie) Brown assembled in Paris on the 5th of May to attend and lay wreaths at the V-E Day Ceremonies in the suburb of Paris known as Issy-les-Moulineaux. The 5th was spent gathering up our members, stocking a room as a hospitality room for our stay and getting over jet lag.

On the morning of 6 May 05 the local VFW members drove out in several cars to pick up our group and take us into the town for the meeting of VFW Post 605, the Benjamin Franklin Post, which we had merged our CP1 VFW Post into following the death of Mel Rosen last year. The VFW meeting was followed by a lunch around the corner from the meeting hall and we split up to go back to the hotel.

On the 7th we took a bus to the Opera District from the hotel we were using near CDG Airport and then walked around the corner to the British Royal Legion for a 40 & 8 meeting of the Grand du France. The prime focus of the meeting was to merge the local Voiture (832) into the China Post Voiture (1496) and the Grand Promenade for the election of the Grand Officers. Almost the entire Voiture and the Grand are now CP1 members with a few exceptions of older members who are in Paris Post #1 of the Legion.

Since we were running late, the scheduled CP1 meeting was held on the bus coming in. After lunch served at the British Legion, which will be the home for future 40 & 8 meetings in Paris, we went to see the sights, especially the Eiffel tower since this was the first time in Paris for several of our members.

On the morning of the 8th a private bus picked up CP from the Holiday in Charles de Gaulle and dropped us off for the first of six wreath laying ceremonies in Issy-les-Moulineaux. We then attended a Medal ceremony where 5 French troops were decorated and adjourned to a "Vin de Honour" at the mayors office with the French troops and a lot of the town people. There was a Banquet scheduled for the afternoon and we also had passes to go to another "Vin de Honour" at the Paris Mayors office which we had thought to do. In the last minute we skipped having a wine with the Mayor of Paris and went as guests to the Banquet which turned out to be spectacular. We were all given watches by the town and an interesting note was that the Regimental Honor Guard in ceremonial uniforms, the troop Honor Guard, all the officers and French troops wore as part of their uniform, the American Presidential Unit Citation which was presented to them by Harry Truman after WWII.

The China Post members in attendance came in from CONUS, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Germany.

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