$89. per night for a standard room.

Features that are provided by the Inn include:

Health and Fitness center on Site:

On site center includes Bikes, Treadmills, Stairmaster, Universal Weight Machine & Free Weights.

Spa Facilities   Sauna equipped.

Entertainment & Recreation

Indoor Pool

Dining and Night Life

Houlihan's Restaurant & Bar

Houlihan's Open for Operation: Sunday-Thursday 6:30am-12:00 Midnight. Friday-Saturday 6:30am-1:00am. Featuring a varied menu of entrees & sandwiches, extra large salads & mouthwatering burgers. Also featuring a large selection of beers on tap & wine list.

Be sure to mention when booking that you re going to the 'Alpha Association Reunion' in order to receive the special rates and assure availability. We have had members try to book without saying that they were with us and were turned away because of the block of rooms that have been set aside exclusively for Alpha Association members. The hotel is ours for that weekend except for a limited number of rooms that were set aside. Those are all taken.

Many members will be arriving early on Thursday so if you can, get there early and stay late. The official reunion will begin on Friday afternoon as attendees will be trickling into our function room. Our first meal will be served at 6PM on Friday evening.

In the interest of allowing as many of our members as possible, we've maintained the traditional $75. per veteran and spouse or significant other. We understand that other friends and family may care to join us,  we are asking that additional attendees  contribute $50. per person. We think these are fair and reasonable rates to assure that sufficient funds are collected to pay all their costs relative to the reunion. The costs include the function room and meal costs. Meals will include breakfasts on Saturday/ Sunday, dinners Friday and Saturday.

In compliance to our charter, no one gets left behind due to inability to pay the reunion fees. Just let us know if you would like to go and cannot afford the fee and we will all chip in and assure that you will be there. Consider it payback for sharing your canteen with us back then. In addition, a limited number of rooms were offered by local members for those who don't have the funds to pay for hotel room. Contact me with your requirements and we'll get you set up.

If you haven't paid your annual dues for the year, you may do so with your fee for the reunion, if this is convenient, at time of registration.     

Who do i pay?

Glad you asked. If you look in the bottom of this envelope, you will see a card that should be returned with payment to our Treasurer, Peter Filous. I am not sending out the postcards like I usually do, so its important that you get this card mailed to Peter who will be e-mailing me a list of who will be attending. If you don’t plan on paying your dues until you arrive at the reunion, you will still need to tell  him if you are going. Otherwise, we will not be able to properly number the folks who will be there for the meals and we’ll go hungry! Well, maybe that won’t happen, but the sooner you let us know if you are going, the better we can organize the affair. One more thing that became a bit of a problem last year. Some of the men didn’t decide to go to the reunion until the last minute and didn’t pre-register. They then asked for badges when they arrived. As in the old days, “No can do, GI”. No warning that you’re coming, no pretty badges, no exceptions. Just too busy. 

Who will be there?

In addition to the many men who have attended earlier reunions over the last 7 years, we are expecting new attendees from the men who manned Fire Support Base GOLD on March 21, 1967. They all were there serving in the 2/77th Artillery. We’ve seen them, they’ve seen us, they’re coming. They are still in their beginning stages of getting together and are looking forward to seeing how we organize things.

As is customary, I will be posting a listing daily showing who will be attending. You can access this list along with web links to nearby attractions off our website, WWW.ALPHAASSOCIATION.ORG. 

It will only be as accurate as the information that I get from Peter, so get that card in the mail early for the best seats. OK, that doesn’t matter, but it is important to keep us posted on your intentions.

What's on the agenda for the weekend?

Golf comes first; tee times have been set up for Thursday, May 31st. This will give the guys a chance to sharpen their skills for the tournament. Many others just arrive on Thursday because they feel the three-day period isn’t long enough to spend with their friends in the Association. Come early, stay late!

Friday morning will once again feature the annual golf tournament, The Greater Ivy Open. If you golf, heck, even if you don’t, you can join in on the fun. The boys will be glad to teach you all there is to know. Hit the ball in the hole. How hard can that be?

Contact Sam Babcock to register for the tournament and to receive specific details:

Sam Babcock 115 Victoria Heights Middletown, CT      06457 

Tel: 860-347-5077         E-mail: bluecrabing@sbcglobal.net.

Reunion attendees will be arriving and registering Friday afternoon.

This year the Board Members decided to allow Friday evening open with no activities planned. We will be meeting in the Function Room, but we have no specific plans for that night.

After breakfast Saturday morning, we will be visiting a Veterans' Memorial in a nearby community. All are welcome to join us. Upon returning to the hotel we will be served lunch. That will be followed by the Ceremonial segment of our weekend. Our Master of Ceremonies once more will be Allyn J. Palmer, Commander, A/2/12, 1966-67. We will begin with  a tribute to our Honor Roll Members and a special tribute for the men who gave their lives at GOLD 40 years ago. Some additional acknowledgments of Unit brothers, past and present, will follow. We will then be honored to hear short addresses from some of the attendees. Anyone who has a thought to share with the attendees is invited to participate.

Saturday dinner is served after this ceremony followed by the annual reunion photo.

Saturday evening festivities begins at 7PM. We will be having a social on Saturday night. From 8 to?  we will be meeting in the Banquet Hall to share some old memories. We will be having a DJ play those Oldies that so entertained us as youngsters. There will be dancing for those of us that feel so inclined.  For the others, we can share the music and wonder where all the years have gone since the days of Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. It should be fun.

Sunday morning the attendees will share a breakfast together and begin saying their final goodbyes for the weekend. It is another year older for us, but we are all survivors and proud ones at that.

By noontime, everyone is on their way back home after sharing a memorable weekend with the men and women of Alpha Association, and our new found Brothers from the Artillery Unit that never quit.

How do you get there?

Like most of us, you can get all the directions on line from MAPQUEST. COM. The hotel is situated right off of highway 91, with easy access to the exit.  

                         Coming in from the south                        Coming in from the north     

For those of you flying in, Bradley Airport (serving Hartford CT) is 45 miles away from the reunion site and directions to the hotel are:

Take I-91 South to exit 12, turn right off exit and left into hotel parking lot.

Can’t be much simpler than that, huh?

Here’s hoping that another large group will join us in North Haven as we celebrate the Brotherhood that gave us hope, when our courage was waning, laughter, when even a smile was hard to come by. More than anything else, it was the friendship that ultimately made the difference and kept us going when we couldn’t see past Vietnam to t