On October 20, 2013, the FOCM Metro Philadelphia Chapter met at Restaurant 29 in Malvern, PA.  This place used to be called the Boathouse and is located in a business office area.  It certainly does more business during the work week.

First to arrive (arriving before I did) was Steve Jacobs.  I have known Steve for around 15 years.  Tonight’s attendees were:

Steve Jacobs

Vicky Martin

Deb Carfagno

Tonight’s attendees each drove a minimum of 35 minutes to attend.  They will all receive the FOCM commitment ribbons at the next ceremony.  (the time and location of such ceremonies is always very, very secretive).  All, but Vicky were able to present their membership cards.  It seems Vicky prefers to keep hers in a special location at home rather than carry it with her.

War stories, honest to goodness war stories were told, military insults hurled, whilst Deb and I tried to remind the Army people that we are involved in clinical trials to bring new drugs to market to improve lives.  Soon, the insults of “you were just an Army helicopter pilot” and “oh yeah, you Sargeant Interrogator, just asking people questions” gave way to “lets all just get along and improve patient’s lives”.

We all left at the same time.  We parted as friends, and in the traditional FOCM disembarkment procedure, everyone hugged everyone and not at once, but one at a time.