The H & H Last Man’s Club will hold its 58th-annual reunion on Saturday, Jan. 19.

The meeting is scheduled at the Post 48 American Legion clubrooms in Stillwater. Social hour will be at 5 p.m., with a roast beef dinner to be served at 6 p.m. All members, wives, widows, family members and guests are cordially invited to attend. Cost of the dinner is $10.

Reservations are to be made by Jan 8, by mail to Ken Heuer, 2428 Driftwood Lane, Stillwater, MN, 55082, or call 651-439-4407. Checks should be made payable to “H & H Last Man’s Club.”

The call up for members of Headquarters and Heavy Mortar Companies of Stillwater was received in mid-December 1950. Guardsmen were sworn into federal service on Jan. 16, 1951 to serve in the Korean conflict. The reunion is held on the Saturday nearest the date of the call up.

A memorial service will be held again at this year’s event for the comrades who died during the year. A candle is lit for each, and a toast is given.

The program will be given by Anita Buck, who worked as a Department of Army Civilian in Seoul from July 1949 to June 25, 1950. Because of the North Korean invasion, she was evacuated to Japan aboard a Norwegian fertilizer freighter. She will talk about her experiences.

It was a very cold day in January 1951 when Headquarters and Heavy Mortar Companies departed from Stillwater. The troops boarded the train and said their final goodbyes. The train started up the hill. It was unable to make the grade, so it backed down again through the waiting crowds. Once again the crowd called its goodbyes. Once again the train started up the hill — and made it over the top.

As the train went through Hastings, some of the soldiers looked out the windows. They saw familiar faces. Many Stillwaterites had jumped into their cars and raced down the river. More waving, more goodbyes. The same scene was repeated at Red Wing.

The local troops underwent training at Camp Rucker. Many of them were sent to Korea as replacements. Exactly two years after the call up of the National Guard, the unit was defederalized and the colors were returned to Stillwater.

The Last Man’s Club was organized in 1963, carrying on a tradition started by Civil War veterans more than a century ago. The custom was continued by World War I veterans and by the members of A and D Companies who served in World War II. The H & H club will continue to hold its annual reunions “to the last man.”