ARKANSAS SMART HOGS—Kic Wheeler, Secretary
By the time you read this, Christmas will be over, a New Year will have started and many of you will be
traveling to warmer climates.
Our last muster was during Veterans Day at the Downtown Riverfront RV Park in No. Little Rock, AR.
Twenty-two Hogs were present. We had three guests, Richard & Mary Engel (perhaps future SMARTS)
and Elizabeth Swindle Smith, a veteran of Underage Military Service, USAAF. She is the mother of April
Jones.
The muster began with a dinner of roast pork, rice, salad, french bread and brownies provided by
hosts Bill & Kathie Corroum and Fred & Valerie Smith. The hosts also made sure we started out each
day of the muster with a hardy breakfast of piping hot coffee, coffee cakes, various egg casseroles,
sausage, pancakes, or biscuits and gravy.
On Wednesday morning we went to the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum and USS Razorback.
Tours through the submarine were led by Jim Franks who was assigned to this sub in the Fifties. He told
us about how life was for about 80 men living on this small sub. That evening we had a potluck dinner at
the AIMM dining facility.
Thursday we toured the Jacksonville Museum of Military History. It is quite new, very impressive and
interesting At the entrance was a field of one hundred nineteen waving U.S. flags, one for each fallen
Arkansan along with their picture and service data. By then we were hungry (again) and ate at the First
Street Diner near the Little Rock Air Base.
Friday we attended Veterans Day ceremonies at the new WWllMemorial located by the Laman
Library in No. Little Rock. In the afternoon we met at the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum and helped
the crew there prepare and serve dinner to 62 homeless veterans. Later that evening we met at
Cregans Irish Pub for our last dinner of the muster.
The final Hog event of 2011 was our annual Christmas luncheon held at the Golden Corral Restaurant
in North Little Rock. The following attended: Jim & Doris Case, Glenn & Pat Foster, Ralph &EdyeJungels,
Christian & Carolyn Eck, Joe & Marti Ruiz, Sonny &Joella Huddleston, Bill &CharoletteHards, Jim & Susan
Franks, Ann Lowry, Hollis Kinder, Bill & Kathie Corroum, Kic& Eileen Wheeler, Marion Spivey, Fred &
Valerie Smith, Special Guests Ruby Miller, past Hog member and John Heffernon, Director of the Retiree
Office at LRAFB.
The new 2012 officers were sworn in by Christian Eck, Past National President. They are: President
Jim Franks, Vice President Jim Case, Secretary Kic Wheeler, Treasurer Hollis Kinder, and Muster Master
Fred Smith.
The Hogs sponsored three needy military families for Christmas. Each received a $100 gift certificate
and presents were collected for all eight children of these families. Members also brought cookies
which were distributed to airmen at LRAFB on Christmas.
Happy New Year.
Arkansas SMART HOGS
Kic Wheeler, Secretary
