The good old days! UPT Class Reunion, 40 years later.

I just got back from my UPT (Undergraduate Pilot Training) Class 70-05 reunion. There were several 70-05 Classes, but ours was at Williams AFB, just east of Phoenix. The base is closed now - too bad, it was truly a garden spot – so we decided to hold it at the Hanger Hotel (http://www.hangarhotel.com/) in Fredericksburg, Texas.
Why Fredericksburg? Well, it turned out that more than 15% of the guys live in Texas, now, and besides the Hanger Hotel with its Officer’s Club was a cool place to meet.
Our class was at the height of the Viet Nam war. We started out with 92 guys in two flights, and graduated 63 a year later. 6 guys got washed back and graduated later, but the rest disappeared into the world of ground pounders.
The reunion was somewhat informal; the only ‘scheduled’ events were Happy Hour at the Officer’s Club, and a pay-as-you-go dinner on Friday night, and a Kegger/BBQ at Lady Bird Park on Saturday. The rest of the time was spent in small casual groups at the airport, catching up on the past several decades.
OK, so my first impression was “Who are all of these old guys?” After all, I haven’t seen most of them since we got our wings. Still, I recognized most of them right away. And, like the pixilated display in a simulator, we all started to ignore our age and picked up ‘just like old times’.
It was particularly interesting to see what all of the guys had accomplished. Many had recently retired from the airlines, some were CEO’s of their own businesses, and others retired from the Air Force with chilling (and confirmed) stories of their exploits and achievements. Naturally, we figured that we were simply ‘an exceptional group’.
For those of you who are interested, I set up a website for the class so we could post any photos that were taken at the event. http://willy7005.myphotoalbum.com/