Ahoy USS O'Callahan shipmates, affiliated units and camp followers -
Our 2016 reunion is scheduled for October 5-10 in PENSACOLA , FL. (All updates will be posted HERE - linked by "News" from our main website www.ussocallahan.org)
- Also welcomed are the HSL detachments we sailed with and sailors from other ships related by our heritage or our operating histories. Just let us know and sign in for the ride.
- YOUR CONTACT:
vic@buzzcreek.com (Served '71-73 - OC Div. Officer)
Vic Campbell 6933 Martin Road , Milton , FL 32570 850 994 6120 (text or call)
Everyone is welcome to attend all or part of the reunion. Registration forms will be in a later email. (probably by March)
Visit our FaceBook Page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/irishsong/
It is a closed group so you will have to ask permission to join, lots of discussions and sea stories.
The local international airport is PENSACOLA INTERNATIONAL.
In a few weeks, we will have a more definitive plan for the hotel accommodations. I will include some contacts for other lodging options as well - such as the excellent camping facilities including one on NAS Pensacola that retirees can use.
Our original dates were OCT 6-10. I have moved up to OCT 5-10 in order to try to fit in a better tour trip to Mobile . Pensacola and Mobile are very close to each other. Mobile hosts Austell shipbuilding where they make the new LCS trimarans. I hope to get us some kind of tour or a speaker on the topic at Mobile .
That is in the works. If not a few other items make a day in Mobile a good day. Otherwise, the activities will be in Pensacola and therefore a Pensacola hotel will be our base of operations.
Activities Planned (Links are underlined)
MOBILE - Austell Talk/Tour. Bellingrath Gardens. History and technology and dinner at Wentzell's Oyster House in historic downtown.
PENSACOLA BEACH TOUR including Fort Pickens overlooking the bay, a possible Dolphin tour, dining overlooking the Gulf.
PENSACOLA NAVAL AIR MUSEUM at NAS PENSACOLA - A premier affiliate of the Smithsonian. It is an amazing museum that can fill a whole day. IMAX films. Blue Angels may be home from tours. If the plan works out, we may have a cookout on the beach at the waters edge right on the base (at cottages for military and retirees).
PENSACOLA DOWTOWN -- Many small museums and crafty shops and eating establishments will fill the day - Probably Saturday - all within walking distance of the hotel (as planned). Some excellent historical tours will give you insight to the eras of the Spanish colonization, the British and American all overlaid on the Native American experience. The Jackson tour is quite an eye opener about the war of 1812 and post war exnpansion to eventually bring in Florida to the USA .
