REUNION!

Okay everyone. By a great margin, looks like everyone would like to hold a reunion on the panhandle (based on our Facebook group poll).
Let me tell you what’s going on.

Sept of 2028 marks the 20th anniversary of the retirement of our our beloved PAVE LOW. I know I said I would never host another reunion, but we’re not getting any younger and I think it would be great to have one with a huge turnout. Having said that, and with emphasis that some of us are getting much older, the next question is, should we wait until Sep 2028 to mark the occasion or plan one for next year? (Vote in our Facebook group poll)

I don’t have this planned out yet, but here are some ideas I’ve been thinking…

Labor Day falls on Sept 6th in 2027 and Sept 4th in 2028. This would give people some time to get together for the long weekend and not have to rush in and out (providing you have off).

Once we decide, I can start arranging registrations so we have a good idea of a head count and figure out costs. I can delay taking payments until we’re closer to the event, and if someone can’t make it after they’ve registered, I can refund the money (up to a certain point anyways as I don’t want a repeat of what happened to in 2010).

I can check to see if we can host an informal event on Saturday at the Air Force Armament Museum outside of Eglin. Maybe we can get them to open up the helicopter so we can all get in it. Get some catered food and drinks brought in and either have it outside or inside.

For Sunday, we can plan a banquet at the Emerald Coast Convention Center or some other location (depending on how many people we have, costs, etc.). Maybe we’ll get some folks to be speakers, but we can keep it short as there is a lot of catching up for us to do!

None of this is set in stone, but that’s why I’m starting with the broad questions of where and when before we get into the finer details.

I would hope that as many people as possible could make it. It would be great if this can be even bigger than our one in 2008. I’ve already had couple of folks that offered to help, and we’ll probably need a few more, but again, we can talk about that later when planning starts. For now, let’s narrow down when.

Vince