1 August 2017:  As you might have read elsewhere in this web site, Rapid City SD was selected by a vote of attendees at the TCHVA 2017 Reunion in Minneapolis MN as the site for our 2019 Reunion.  As it is still early in the planning stages, we have enlisted the services of a professional travel planner to get the ball rolling on considerations such as the best time of year to hold the event, hotels that afford us the rooms and services at affordable rates, spaces for our Hospitality Suite/Banquet, etc.

Please check out the link(s) below to get an idea of what there is to see and do in RapidCity (and there is a lot to see and do!) and stay tuned for updated information over the coming months regarding this event.  And as you look at different websites, travel brochures, or talk to family and friends who have been to Rapid City, and have an idea or two of places to stay or visit or interesting things to do, let us know via the Contact Us link on the left side of this page. 

13 June 2017:  We just completed a fantastic TCHVA Reunion in beautiful Minneapolis - St Paul MN from 6 - 11 June 2017.  Our hotel in Bloomington, MN, was the Best Western Mall of America and provided us great accomodations, a free Hospitality Suite that served as a private space for shipmates and families/friends to gather and swap stories, prep for our tours, discuss the days' events, enjoy refreshments, munchies (pls feel free to contact Randy Groen for his grandma's chocolate chip cookie recipe!), look at the memoribilia and Ship Store items, visit the Mall of America (a short 10 minute walk) and simply kick back.  Randy did a superb job with our itinerary, topped off by our banquet on Saturday evening.

 So what's next?  Well, we start our planning for our 2019 Reunion, of course.  We looked at almost 15 different sites, spanning the US from Boston/Cape Cod down through Norfolk to Atlanta, through Dallas/San Antonio and Austin Tx, westward through Prescott/Tuscon AZ, then San Diego up to Seattle and back across to Rapid City SD.  We also considered a cruise.  Many of these sites came from our newly formed TCHVA Auxiliary, composed of spouses, other family members and significant others who are interested in being a part of and contributing to the growth and energy of our association.  In the end we narrowed our focus to 3 candidate cities:  Atlanta GA, Prescott AZ, and Rapid City SD.  As in the past we have a member (acting as a site advocate) pulling together info and "things to do" for each site, as well as a professional event planner (as a neutral party) putting together some estimates and recommendations for each site.  We will then take all this info and distribute to the TCHVA Reunion attendees in MN to take a vote.  We hope to wrap up this effort in next few months.

 If you didn't attend our Reunion this year, but would like to have an input on one of these three locations, please pass that along to any board member using the Contact Us link below, or contact one of your shipmates who attended the Reunion.  One of the benefits of attending the Reunion is being part of selecting the site for the next one.

Stay tuned for more info as we get closer to the decision.