The Thoroughbred

The newsletter of the 2d Cavalry Association

The reunion in Nashville at the beginning of last month was easily one of the best I’ve experienced. The team, headed up by Jeff Davidson, was extraordinary: Jack Waldron, Mike Kalinowski, and Joe Deskevich were joined by Ed Luzadder and Lieutenant Ava Lusskin to engineer a stunning success.

Some of us arrived on the first. There was a staff ride at Chickamauga and a junior officers panel for senior ROTC cadets at Middle Tennessee State University. Household 6 and I traveled to Shiloh, where we met a park ranger who had served in the Regiment. (In my dotage, of course, I’ve forgotten his name.)

On Wednesday, the senior leadership team prepared for the arrival of the Association. We also had a meeting with Middle Tennessee State University to explore an oral history project — more to follow on this effort. Look to hear more from a team headed up by Matt Simon.

On Thursday, the festivities kicked off in earnest. Troopers from eras spanning the end of World War II, the early, middle, and late Cold War; Operation Desert Storm, the Global War on Terror, and the current, uneasy peace in Europe gathered together. All in all, there were nearly 200 of us, including more than two dozen from the active Regiment. As always, it’s great to be among Dragoons.

On the fourth, we headed into Nashville and split up, some enjoyed some day drinking and barhopping. Some of us visited the Country Music Hall of Fame, while others never made it off Lower Broadway. It’s an exhilarating, clean, and beautiful city. That evening, we held our traditional pizza party, many were festooned with the popular football jerseys. (As a side note, we are exploring the possibility of producing a similar jersey with our partners at Sports Locker. For those of you asking about the smoking jacket, go ahead and Google: Dragoon Unlimited.)

Saturday found us at the Stones River Battlefield. My wife, who has spent her entire life not being in the Army, opined on the similarities between Shiloh and Stones River. In both cases, the Union Army missed the necessity of Stand To. In both battles, the Confederate commanding general reported a stunning victory at the end of the first day, and in both, the Confederates were stunned to find the Union victorious by the end of the second day.

Saturday evening brought the punch bowl ceremony, resulting in a nutritious, beneficial, and certainly fortifying elixir! This was followed by dinner, where we were treated to a State-of-the-Regiment briefing by the 83rd Colonel of the Regiment, Don Neal. COL Neal dragooned about a dozen veterans into the Honorary Squadron; a BFD. We introduced the 2d Dragoon Artillery Chapter of the United States Field Artillery Association, and chapter president Sam White bestowed the Honorable Order of St. Barbara on Greg Franks. Bill Wilson, John Walker, and Glen Back were inducted into the Association Honor Roll, along with Merritt Powell, who was inducted posthumously.

On Sunday morning, we conducted the biennial membership meeting, reported on separately, hugged, shook hands, and departed for home station.

We will gather again next year for a mini-REFORGER — stay tuned for details! And in two years, we’ll meet again in Charleston, South Carolina. I hope to see all of you there.

Click the buttons below for a photo tour of the reunion.

Dragoon for Life!

John

29Apr2025

After three weeks, the Reunion is still fresh in my mind. What a great event; by all accounts the best in the “modern era.” Kudos to Jeff Davidson for his leadership and to all those that supported the planning and execution—bravo! Thank you to everyone that made this event so successful. Special thanks to the dynamic duo of Joe Deskevich and Jack Waldron for making the administrative and logistics of the reunion work. Thanks to Mike Kalinoski for pulling together a platoon of volunteers to staff registration, raffle sales, etc. Bob Young and Ed Luzader lent their photography skills to ensure that many smiling faces and key events were recorded for posterity—thank you gentlemen. Ski Szwaczkowski once again put together a wonderful golf outing unencumbered by tornadoes or rain. Thank you to Bob Reeves for his gift of the 2d Cavalry corn hole game and for the wooden gift boxes in which we present the Honor Roll bricks to new inductees.

We are grateful to COL Don Neal (83) and CSM Dennis Doyle (35) for their show of force: a record total of 18 Dragoons from Vilseck were in attendance. COL Neal presented Frank Hurd with the Reed Award and Dragooned 13 veterans. Thanks to MAJ Drew Kang for leading the Regiment’s contingent in 83’s absence and to 1LT Ava Lusskin for her prodigious efforts to make this all happen.

CSM Doyle facilitated the transfer of the Honorary Command Sergeant Major of the Regiment responsibilities from Roger Blackwood (24) to Dwayne Parrish (28). A personal note of thanks to Roger for his many years of service on our Board as well as his duties as the HRCSM.

Having established the 2d Cavalry Association Honor Roll in Annapolis, we recognized four more members in the Class of 2025. We are honored to acknowledge the significant contributions of these members by inducting them into our Honor Roll: Glen Back, Merritt Powell, John Walker, and Bill Wilson. A paver will be installed in their name at our Memorial in Patton Park.

We took another step forward during our Association meeting on Sunday morning by having the members vote on our Board. We will continue to strengthen our organization structure, processes and procedures as we march into the future.

During the Association meeting on Sunday morning, our historian, Matt Simon, briefed us on our ongoing efforts to preserve and present the Regiment’s history. Look for more enhancements in this effort over the balance of this year. Critically, there is now a group of eight members working on history-related projects. WOW! However, there is room for more so please don’t hesitate to reach out to Matt or me if you’d like to join this effort. [email protected]

Mike Wieczorek, our Treasurer, updated us on the state of our finances, which continue to be strong. He also updated us on the paver/Memorial project at Ft. Benning. If you haven’t done so, please buy a paver at: https://www.2dcavalryassociation.com/donate/. Doing so not only immortalizes your service in the Regiment but also provides funds for continued enhancement of this amazing monument.

Also, we are continuing to work on getting historical markers placed in

Germany to commemorate the Regiment’s four-decades of service along the edge of freedom during the Cold War. We have received several generous donations towards this recently but still need funds to complete this project.

The AAR is nearly complete, and planning is accelerating for 2027 in Charleston, SC. The first leaders’ recon for Charleston will occur at the end of May; expect details to begin filtering out in the fall. Joe Deskevich and Jack Ryan are leading this charge. We hope that you’ll join the party in South Carolina in 2027.

We are committed to developing deeper and broader connectivity and engagement with the Regiment. With the Reunion over, Jeff Davidson has agreed to spearhead our efforts in this regard. There will be ample opportunities to help with our liaison activities with the Regiment. We hope that you will step forward with your time and talent.

Our Adjutant, John MacEnroe, carries a heavy load for all of us. He publishes The Thoroughbred as well as email communications. He organizes our Board meetings, keeps the minutes, coordinates for the production of Association swag and the creation of the 2d Dragoon Artillery Chapter of the Field Artillery Association; the list goes on and on. As we’ve done with our History team so we must do in terms of our communications team. We absolutely need help with The Thoroughbred, Dragoonbase, our website, and the development and maintenance of our organizational database. We need your help. Please contact John or me to discuss how you can assist us to get to the next level in our organizational communications.

[email protected]

[email protected]

We are making progress in fulfilling our mission. You can help us get to the next level. Please help.



Always Ready, Dragoon for Life

Always Ready, Dragoon for Life

Tim White

President

The 2025 biennial general membership meeting kicked off at 1000 hrs. Sunday, 6 April 2025.

The key points were:

1.     Election of officers:

a.     Without objection, the following officers were elected to the board

 i.     Chairman; Bryan Denny

                                                         ii.     President: Tim White

                                                         iii.    Vice President/Treasurer: Mike Wieczorek

                                                         iv.     Vice President/Adjutant: John McEnroe

                                                          v.     Honorary Colonel: Frank Hurd

                                                         vi.     Historian: Matt Simon

                                                        vii.     Jeff Davidson

                                                       viii.     Joe Deskevich

                                                          ix.     Mark Calvert

                                                           x.     T. Mary Smith

                                                          xi.     Jack Waldron

2.     Finances-State of the Association

a.     successful reunion

                 i.     This is our primary fundraiser for Association Operations

b.    initiate Dragoon walkway phase 2

                  i.     brick sales from April 2025 through January 2026

                 ii.     installation of bricks May 2026

c.     install European historical markers

d.    update the Vanguard account

e.     strengthen accountability- prepare for audit

3.     History and Heritage

a.     Fort Benning Memorial

b.    Walkway to History

c.     Cold War markers

d.    ArcGIS mapping project-look for a story in the Thoroughbred soon

e.     2/2 change of command

f.       REFORGER 2026-Operation Rusty Spur

g.     Charlestown reunion

4.     Regimental Liaison Plan-a new initiative expanding on the Honorarys. We intend to deploy a liaison at the squadron level with both Honorary SCOs and CSMs. This is not a direct rank link, although we expect to pair a commissioned officer in the noncommissioned officer with the squadron leadership. The purpose of this is to forge deeper, long-lasting connections between the regiment Association that will permeate throughout both organizations. Ultimately, we would like to pair up at the troop, company, or battery level. Any interested members of the Association are urged to contact the adjutant, or the president.

Mid-Late July 2/2 CR Change of Command

23 May 2026 – 190/200 Global 2d Dragoon Birthday Teams Call

June 2026 – Operation Rusty Spur – Association Euro Trip

Don’t forget to sign up and use DRAGOON BASE