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Class 62-A
50th Anniversary Graduation Celebration Sep 21-24, 2011
You were missed if you were not able to
attend this special reunion... and you missed out on a lot of
excellent activities (See the schedule below).
We stayed at the Hyatt Regency, right on the river and smack dab in
the center of things.
Hyatt Photos
View of Alamo from the roof dining area.
Night view from the rooftop pool.
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Schedule
WED, SEP 21:
Arrivals.
Check in; informal
reception activities.
Visit the hospitality suite. Have dinner on the
river. Visit with classmates. There are lots of places to go and things to do.
Information will be available at registration.
THU, SEP 22:
9:00 AM. Bus leaves the hotel for a tour of
Fredericksburg (almost a visit to old Germany ).
Visit the greatly updated Nimitz Museum (now known as the
Museum of the Pacific War). There are numerous
shops and attractions. Lunch will be best done in small
groups to preserve flexibility and better menu choices. There
are lots of great places to eat.
Back on the bus for a leisurely drive back to San Antonio.
FREE TIME:
Evening
dinner in small groups at one of the many restaurants in the area.
FRI, SEP 23:
7:45 AM.
Bus leaves the hotel for Lackland parade ground; attend a
graduation parade, followed by a class formation at the 62-A
monument for a memorial ceremony.
(An aside -- our monument was the first placed
in an area which will ultimately become "the" area for all
monuments).
Return to the hotel around noon.
FREE
TIME: Remember we’re on the river and pretty
much in the middle of everything. A nationally known jazz band plays
at the riverside café/bar at the Hyatt; visit the San Antonio Zoo and
adjacent Japanese Gardens ; the S/A Missions; the Witte Art Museum;
the Old Pearl Brewery and Buckhorn Museum; the Tower of the
Americas (the restaurant is 800 feet in the air); the Alamo; take a cruise on the river.
SAT, SEP 24:
FREE TIME: Do what you’d like; play golf; go
shopping. The Rivercenter Mall is high on the
list of attractions. Visit with friends; rest up
for the dinner that night.
SAT, SEP 24:
5 PM.
Meet in the Hospitality Room for drinks from our stock.
6 PM.
Pay as you go bar in the Chula Vista Dining Room.
7 PM. The official reunion dinner, where we will celebrate our
golden graduation anniversary and pay honor to our departed
brothers. The dinner will be hi-lighted by a
special “TWO BELL” ceremony (a U.S. Navy rite, which is widely
copied); a solemn expression of our devotion to the memory of our
brothers who have gone on. Farewells to other
attendees.
NOTES:
1)
A dinner cruise was ruled out
because of some previously reported bad experiences, the high
price, and general complexity.
2)
A “convenience” desk was available to help with
information on areas of interest, transportation, and other
“concierge” type assistance. Other group or
individual activities could be scheduled or organized, depending
on feedback from the attendees. And
there was plenty of FREE TIME provided for
individual excursions.
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Check out the Bits n Pieces page for a song you are sure to
remember.
Click
HERE
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| Unsolicited comment from a
guest at our 50th Anniversary Reunion |
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If someone had told me, when I was a high school
activist, shall we say, front row
and centre protesting the
Vietnam War, Marching for Civil Rights in the
South (although up here in cold Canada), going on every and any
demonstration possible for world peace, etc., etc, that I would
at some point in my life accompany a US Air Force Airman across the
USA via rail to a 50th OCS reunion I probably would have responded with a smart
ass remark along the lines of "sure - when Hell freezes over."
Well, hell did freeze over in Sept of 2011 and I found my very
Celtic blood (who really does love the cold weather, you can ask
Jim on that one) in sweltering
San Antonio, Texas, overwhelmed with pride, amazement
and awe with all the men and women I met from the class of 62A.
Life sure does change us, sometimes slowly and sometimes with
much resistance. Some of us, namely myself, can be a rather
hard case to teach anything to and often need to see rather than
be told it. That is what I saw in the class of 62A, a bond, warmth and closeness
that can't be put into words but has to be seen and felt.
I do have to say from the viewpoint of a pysche nurse for 16 years
when I saw the 'good conduct medal on some
of these guys like Hal Miller and yes even the SA Jim that I
play cards with I have to wonder did the higher ups have their
heads turned away and not see them?
Hal even had a smirk on his face when he told me what that medal
was exactly, as I do understand from my friend Mike (he served
for both countries) that the medals are different for each
country.
I wonder if Hal was recalling Lenny the night of the banquet
when he was comparing the shoe shininess of everyone and
questioning other class-mates if they still polished their shoes?
Nonetheless, I personally hope that I have changed since that HS
kid of more than a few years ago and truly thank each and every
one of you for what you so freely did to keep me free enough to
make the choices that I had the privilege to make during my
lifetime although some of them might not have been the wisest
ones, they were still mine to make, thanks to the class of 62A and so many like
you.
A huge thank you to every one for
allowing me to be part of it and
making me feel so welcome.
Eileen Browne
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