INFORMATION ABOUT 2010 REUNION
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Air Forces Escape & Evasion Society Reunion

May 6, 2010 – May 9, 2010
Colorado Springs, Colorado


This is a note from Lynn David

The Crowne Plaza is the best selection on all points that I evaluated including:

Price                                       Location

Banquet Room                     Layout

Hospitality Room                  Transportation

Meal Expense

The Crowne Plaza agreed to a price of $99.00 per night which, including all taxes, will be $108.31.  (Less expensive than the Holiday Inn in Savannah which was $116.39.)  The hotel has also agreed to one free room for every 25 rooms booked (The normal free room ratio is one room for every 40 to 50 rooms booked.).  We will also get up to 10 rooms per night at an $89.00 rate to assist in paying for the helpers.

The Banquet room is beautiful and is on the fourth floor with many windows.

The Hospitality room is large with a wet bar already built in and a restroom.  The room will easily hold 30 to 40 people.  It is located on the second floor.

The hotel has agreed to meet the same meal expense we had in Savannah as long as we are approved for a tax exempt status.  They feel approval of the tax exempt status for the meals is a very good possibility. 

The hotel is located one block east of Interstate 25 and is only five minutes from the Broadmore Hotel (which has 11 different restaurants), five minutes from downtown which has many good restaurants and 20 minutes from the Air Force Academy.

The layout of the hotel is good, even for our people who need special assistance.  They have a nice indoor swimming pool, hot tub, free fitness center, free business center, restaurant and lounge area.  The breakfast buffet is very nice.

The hotel is a comfortable one hour and 20 minutes drive from the rental car lots at the Denver Airport.  There is also a shuttle service available from the Denver Airport.  The shuttle service takes two hours from the Denver Airport to the Crowne Plaza Hotel and leaves the Airport at 8:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m., 5:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.

The following is the tentative agenda for our meeting:

 Air Force Academy Visitation

The Air Force Academy is looking forward to hosting us.

Everyone will need to take a bus from the Hotel to the Academy since private automobiles may present more of a problem as we move from one area of the Academy to another area. 

The tentative plans are to leave the hotel by bus at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 8, 2010.  We will first visit the cemetery where we can view the plaques to the 5^th, 8^th, 11^th 20^th and 379^th Air Force groups.  We will have our Memorial Service in the Protestant portion of the Cadet Chapel from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.  Then a 30-minute tour of the Cadet Chapel will be available (They have six separate chapels, one for each major religion.).

The buses will then take us to the Visitors Center.  There is a wonderful 14-minute movie that provides a briefing on Academy life.  There are also exhibits and a large gift shop.

The next stop is the Officers Club for a nice lunch.  I have capped the cost at $14.00.  It will be a plate dinner rather than a buffet to make it easier on some of our members.  This will be a fairly light lunch since we have the main banquet that night.

After lunch, I hope for a brief tour of their flight line which is gliders and small planes only.

Since this may be too many activities for some of our members to be traveling about, I feel one bus should be available to take people back to the hotel after the memorial service.

Other areas of interest near Colorado Springs include The Garden of the Gods, The Olympic Training Center, Pike’s Peak Log Railroad ($30.00 per person, round trip), Cave of the Winds, Mainitou Springs, Cheyenne Mountain Tour, Royal Gorge Bridge and Park, Seven Falls and Echo Canyon.