The submarine I was on is having a reunion at the end of September this year. The reunion will be in Portsmouth, NH, were the boat was built and where the sail (conning tower) currently resides.

September is one of the busiest months of the year for me getting feeders ready for bow season. It is close to a 3 or 4 day car/truck trip to New Hampshire, plus 3 days there and then 3 or 4 days back to Texas. I will not fly.

Should I make plans and arrangement to go or just blow it off?

What say the sages of the OT?

Went to one last yr. for my Helicopter co in Nam. Best thing i have done in years there was 10 guys i hadn't seen since 1969. They sure did age,bunch of old pharts. This was a mix of pilots and crewchiefs,doorgunners. Best three days in a long time ,just wish we could track down more of the crews. We now have a site on facebook and we stay in touch that way.
GO IF YOU HAVE TO WALK!!!!!

After talking for an hour about the way-back-when stories, I mean what else do you talk about? Kids? Work?

Gag me with a spoon.

there's not too many of my guys living still

If you would fly I'd say go, bit not if you have to waste a week just getting there and back.

i think its more than just a high school reunion.

i have friend that i can go without seeing for 5 years, put us in a room together and its like we visited yesterday.

if you in that type of situation you stay tight.

I would go.

GO! The bonds you must have made with some of those guys are something you may want to relive....

Go. If we don't get some winter and have an early summer and havevanother hot one like last year, You'll be eating them cows.

I'm leaning stongly towards going. Don't know if my wife could make it. All my sub time was pre-her, but would really like to show her some of those things.

Talking about stories, one of the guys who will be there, was an inertial navigation system tech. Him, me, and another guy, (native American) went to Nice, France. The Native American guy had to take a room on another floor that had a communal bathroom. The Native American guy was a very clean person.

We were woken up at like zero dark thirty by the management, cussing us in French and making it clear we weren't welcomed there any longer cuz our bud had decided to take a bath and passed out in the tub, with the water running. The floor was soaked under the door and other guests on that floor couldn't use that bathroom. We just nodded and said Merci, merci, as we were packing the little bit of stuff we had and getting the heck outta there asap.

Me, at 19 years old. Late 1968.

Hold your breath and fly. Southwest flies to Manchester, NH ... direct from Houston Hobby.

I've driven it 3 times ... Portsmouth is roughly 30 hours and $20 in tolls. I wouldn't drive if I had to make time ... hard driving the NE corridor. So if driving is your only option and its the busy time of the year for you ... I'd say don't go.

I've done the SW flight before ... not too bad. Then rent a car and an hour drive.

That explains why the French hate us.

Does AMTRAK allow you to pack heat?

Get off the wallet and go see your buds while you are still able. Maybe see if Amtrack can get you there.

Dad (RIP) enjoyed his WWII reunions back in the day, they always had a heck of time from the stories he told.

I would go, my wife and I went to Porstmouth last summer and that is a awesome place to vistit!

OK ... just read your are leaning toward going ... take routes around the major metro areas. Oh yeah ... add 7-8 hours to your drive time ... I only had to go to/from East Texas. I can recommend routes if you want although its been 12 years since I last did it.

Get Manchu to drive you

GO! I was never permanently attached to anywhere while I was in so no invites to gtg's. maybe if sigonella had one I could go see some buds but doubt it.
y'all were more like a family on the bubble boat and as long as it has been there may not be another, go relive old times, take pics for us, have a good time and don't worry about the deer (let the daughter do it for a week).

I would fly tho, too much of a pain in the backside to drive up there. from ohio on the traffic suks and the people are even sukier.

the route I would take is drive to Del Rio get on plane to Houston or DFW and fly there. Be there in less than 5 hours.

Yeah, I know how the Northeast sucks. I'd promised myself I wouldn't go east of the Mississippi again, but I guess I could make an exception for this.

I might check into Amtrack, but I'm thinkin' if I fill the fuel cell in the back of the F-250 I probably wouldn't have to fill up more than 3 times.

Still accepting advice from ya'll.

GOOOOO!!! Surely someone there owes you a few beers.

Amtrack is expensive, and would take just as long as driving yourself.

After driving to Pittsburgh 2 years ago I SWORE I'd never do it again. It's just too far and airfare is too cheap to spend a week in the truck. My back was crippled up for weeks from sitting in the truck that long.

Didn't you mention you were cutting back on the feeding? If so, I'd definitely say GO! But fly for sure.

That's what I thought too about AMTRAK. I'd kinda like to see New London, Connecticut again and try to get a glimpse of what's new sitting on the ways at Electric Boat.

My boat was a 637 class boat, and I know the last time we transited down the Thames and passed EB, one of the new 688 class boats was sitting there and it was huge compared to us.

If our old Navigator is going, I would like to see him again and tell him to his face what a profound positive influence he had on me. Probably the one "O" that I respected more than any other I served with.

I think you should go. Get your doctor to give you a script for something to ease you on the plane in Del Rio. Personally, I think it would be worth it and flying would give you more time for other things.

My Grandfather spent 31 years in the Marine Corp and loved every reunion he went to. Some of his best memories he shared with me were about some of the reunions that he attended. He would talk about who was and was not there and what they experienced together. He lived for those reunions each and every year, planning and preparing for each and every one of them. The seemed to always put a smile on his face for some time.

I spent 30 years in that canoe club. Don't waste your time. Take the money you will waste on this and take your wife on vacation to Hawaii or spend the week at Falcon fishing. I learned a hard lesson when I retired, Civilans look at you like you are a 2nd Class citizen who could't make it on the outside and Active Duty look at you as a "UsetaWas".

I voted go. df flying is not sooo bad either.

Howdy from Sudbury, Ontario.

I'm not afraid of flying, I just never liked to do it, and Lord knows I've done a bunch. What a pain! And I'm going to guess now, with the invention of TSA, it will be worse.

If I drive I can take more stuff with me and avoid waiting around in the airport, going through the rent a, too small car, thing, riding shuttles, and risking having to sit in the middle seat, next to someone who wants to talk.

Since I'm too old and too proud to take an azzwhoopin, and can't carry a cop with me I don't like being without an equalizer either. Airplanes, since I retired and don't have the badge anymore, make that difficult.

If you have that many phobias about traveling, why are you even considering going?

GO and enjoy but I would find another way to get there than driving.

I have no phobias about traveling. I just don't like hassles and want to do it on MY terms. That's it, nothing more nothing less.

I'm not joking here. Check into chartering an airplane.

You need to go at least once, even if you dont think you're gonna enjoy meeting all the porn stars, hookers etc.

Dang, I don't wanna renew old acquaintences with them OF. I still am recognized once in awhile from all the stunt work I did in some of them movies.

I have been invited to my ship's reunions in the past and thought about going. But then I realized that I pretty much keep in contact with all of the guys that I cared about. I will have been off the ship for 25 years in May. Got a fishing trip scheduled with one of my Navy buds here in 3 weeks. Talk to 3 others at least once a month. Here we are at one of my crawfish boils.

So deerfeeder, are you going to this or not?

Id go, and I'll say when I was working up there at the end of last summer I flew back for a wedding, EASY! When it came time to drive back home Ive never thought harder about selling everything I had with me and just hopping on a plane and flying back. I didn't put a pencil to it but after gas and hotes, unless your sleeping in the car, I'd bet with time you spend deiving it's cheaper and eaiser to fly.

Your choice to make,
If you dont go, my thoughts are, you'll always regret not having done it.

It's just deer.

Give bowhunting a rest this year and go have fun. Deer will always be there, friends not so much.

I voted "Go", DF!

OBF, if I ever met you and knew you were Navy (Ret), I promise you that you couldn't lump me into your reply!

We appreciate your, and DF's, Service and Sacrifice tremendously!!!

-alton

It stands as a big probably right now on going. I can probably finagle the deer feeding thing to make sure I don't have anything to feed for a couple of weeks.

I'm not going to fly. I'm not gonna be restricted by what I can or cannot take, what the time table is, dealing with the TSA minons, yada, yada.

I think fuel costs in September will probably determine it in the long run.

I want a picture of me on top of the sail. I spent many a manuvering watch up there, in all sorts of weather and all sorts of sea states.

Thanks for ya'll's input.

My brother served a brief time between Nam tours with some outfit in Germany. They sent the invitation to a unit reunion about a month after he died.(He was only 54). I dearly wish he had been around for the reunion.
You can fiddle around with deer feeders all the rest of you life, but this may be the only time you ever see some of these fellas again. Go to NH.

Yeah Grandpa, that's the kicker. I just recently got an email address for the man who was the Operations/Navigation Officer on my boat. That guy was a leader. I had more respect for him than any other officer I served with. He went on to command the USS Sunfish, another fast attack sub.

I would like to tell him, to his face, what a positive impact he had on my life overall, and thank him, before either one of us croaks.

And there you have it. Decision made.

Deerfeeder, as long as the law in Conneticut allow you to carry with your Texas CHL, you can fly with it checked in your luggage. Just be sure to tell them immediately you have a weapon you want checked.

My son carried a pistol on a flight from Love Field to Corpus a few years ago with no problem. He just told them immediately he had a gun he wanted checked.

I would not take it if it is going to cause problems once you arrive in Conneticut.