USS HARRY E. HUBBARD DD-748 REUNION
New Orleans September 22 – 26, 2024
Shipmates,
At our last reunion in Orlando, it was suggested and agreed upon that future reunions would run Sunday through Wednesday to avoid Friday-Saturday hassles noted in many cities. This year’s reunion will be from Sunday, September 22, through Wednesday, September 25. Our hotel will be the Drury Plaza Hotel, New Orleans. We will have a discounted room rate of $145 per night
and the same rate is available for three nights before and three nights after the reunion for those coming early or staying late. Make your reservations at:
https://www.druryhotels.com/bookandstay/newreservation/?groupno=10106956 or call 800-325-0720 and refer to group number 10106956 to get the discounted rate. Reservations must be made before Thursday, August 8, 2024, to receive the discounted rate. The hotel has amenities similar to those at the Drury we stayed in last year in Orlando, including a free breakfast buffet and the evening “kick-back” with three free drinks per guest and assorted hot snacks.
If you have lost or never had a HUBBARD nametag, we can have one made for you. See the registration form.
Schedule of events:
Sunday, September 22
1200 – 2000
Arrival and check in at the hospitality room after checking in at the front
desk. The hotel does not operate an airport shuttle, but the taxi flat rate
from the airport to any downtown hotel was $30 last Fall and shouldn’t
have changed. The same flat rate applies for the return ride.
Monday, September 23
0845 – 1700
We will depart the hotel in a motor coach for a guided tour of New
Orleans. About noon, we’ll stop at the Riverwalk for a chance to sightsee
and grab a bite to eat (a cup of chicory coffee at Café du Monde?). At
1315 we’ll board the bus and go to the pier and board the Creole Queen, a
paddlewheel riverboat, which will take us to the battlefield where Adrew
Jackson’s backwoodsmen defeated the British in the last battle of the War
of 1812. After a tour of the battlefield, we’ll head back to the pier in New
Orleans where we will board our coach and return to the hotel.
Tuesday, September 24
0900 – 1300
We’ll depart on another motor coach and head south of the city to a
facility where we’ll board a pontoon boat for a 90-minute swamp tour.
During the tour, we’ll learn about the story of the bayous and the New
Orleans swamplands, while also seeing alligators, raccoons, wild hogs,
birds, and much more, all in their natural habitat. After the swamp tour,
we’ll return to the hotel and the afternoon will be yours to further explore
the city or exchange sea stories with your shipmates.
Wednesday, September 25
0900 – 1630
We will travel by motor coach to the National World War II Museum,
where we will spend the day. Our admission will include the show
Beyond All Boundaries, produced and narrated by Tom Hanks. The
exhibits are amazing and help you understand what our parents’
generation went through to bring that war to an end. We will also have the
Memorial Service in the chapel on the museum campus. We'll announce
the time while on the bus to the museum. Don’t miss Final Mission,
USS TANG Submarine Experience. My wife and I did on our first day at the
museum and, fortunately, had a second day on which we could go back
and experience it. John Kraft would no doubt get goose bumps! At 1600,
we’ll reboard the bus and go back to the hotel. We would normally have a
banquet the last evening of a reunion, but the options available to us were
significantly more for a buffet than we have paid in the past for sit-down
dinners. We made the painful decision to not have a banquet, but rather to
enjoy each other and the hotel’s “kick-back.”
1630 – 1730
Annual business meeting.
Thursday, September 26
0800 – 1100
Check out of the hotel and head home or on to the next adventure.
NAME __________________________________________________________________
SPOUSE OR GUEST(S) NAME(S): ___________________________________________
STREET _________________________________________________________________
CITY ___________________________________ STATE _____ ZIP __________________
EMAIL _____________________________________________________________
Monday’s City and River tours ____ person(s) at $70 each = $_________
Tuesday’s Swamp tour ____ person(s) at $35 each = $_________
Wednesday’s WW II Museum tour ____ person(s) at $60 each = $_________
Nametags (Engraved plastic with magnetic attachment) @ $6 each = $_________
Pin-on are available. Circle type attachment.
Name as you would like it: ____________________________________________ Mag Pin
Years on board: ____________________
Name of guest/spouse: _____________________________________________ Mag Pin
Total Enclosed $_________
Please make checks payable to: Jim Kelly, with HUBBARD Reunion on the memo line.
Send this filled-out page and your check to:
Jim Kelly
1225 N. Avenue 63
Los Angeles, CA 90042
Responses needed by September 1 for nametags and September 16 for inclusion on tours.
