Does it seem almost impossible to you that the war in Vietnam ended almost fifty years ago? You probably have mixed memories from those days. While you may have been proud to be serving your country, the fact remained that you were far away from beloved family and friends and all that was familiar to you. Probably the best thing that happened while you were away was making friends with others who were in the same boat. Some of those individuals became lifelong friends while others are a distant memory. If you are in charge of planning a reunion for all of you to get together, here are some ideas that might inspire you to plan something enjoyable and memorable.
Hopefully you have friends who will help you with the large endeavor of planning your military reunion. Whether they live close by or in another town, having extra people to help you will obviously be a tremendous help to you. Even though you may each have different assignments, it will still be helpful for you to work together so that you can brainstorm. Contrary to those Vietnam years where you often had to wait weeks for letters, now you have the convenience of communicating online. Here are some ideas for committees that you can establish.
Information And Invitations - Consider getting people who have excellent computer and communication skills.
- While you may already have a list of those you want to invite, it will be helpful to put the word out that there is a reunion in the making so that the dates can be saved.
- This committee can supply the names you already have and ask individuals to supply you with other names so that more people can be included.
- Later, this committee will send out the invitations that will not only include dates, times and places of the reunion but what the activities will be.
Event Committee - Think about individuals who live in the area where you are holding your military reunion, as they will know how to handle logistics best. Some ideas for that committee are listed below.
- If your reunion is close to the base where you all met in the first place, it would be great to tour the base. Not only will it be nostalgic to be back where your friendships started, but it will be interesting to see the changes that have taken place over the years.
- During the day, it will be fun for your group to see historic sights and other places of interest in the city of your reunion.
- Think about having a banquet at the end of your reunion. It would be very meaningful to remember those who are not with you anymore. A display of photographs and other memorabilia would also be wonderful, as would a slide presentation or a movie made from photographs people have provided.
Hotel Committee - Where you stay will be of utmost importance to the success of your event.
- Consider getting a hotel that is near the sights that you will be visiting.
- It's important to make sure that it is affordable for all who will be attending.
- Think about getting a hotel planner. This individual will help you to coordinate the arrival of your attendees, will set up a hospitality suite and the banquet facilities. In addition, the military reunion hotel planner will do special online booking so that you can continuously keep tabs of how many people will be attending your reunion.
It's very helpful to have frequent feedback from all of your committee heads so that you'll always know the progress that is being made and so that problems can be ironed out before the big day. Have fun at your reunion!