[Vhfcn-l] Mel Canon

[gthewlis at comcast.net]

1996. That was the year I found and joined VHFCN, the then still young veterans email group founded by Mel Canon. And, due a great deal to Mel's urging, the year I joined the VHPA and attended a reunion for the first time as it was meeting in the south San Francisco bay area near my then home.

It was also Mel who, after a seeing the then very heavy and often chaotic email threads concerning the Viet Nam war from mostly KIA family members on search, pushed the group to consider how to better handle helping those we could while also bringing some order to the process. I had ideas. I wrote about them to Mel. He strongly advocated more than just ideas, just discussion. Out of all that came the Family Contacts Committee.

So much more, but those are the personal things I remember best.

He will be missed.

Gary Thewlis