About the Amphibious Ships Reunion
 Background
The Amphibious Ships Reunion is a joint reunion of AKAs, APAs, LSDs and other amphibious ships. Our attendance has grown from 68 people from two ships in 2016 to 160 people from 18 ships in 2019. We had no reunion in the COVID year of 2020. In 2021, we had 130 people from 13 different ships. See the Previous Reunions page for details.
Our attendees have included organized reunion groups from twelve ships: USS Bayfield, USS Bexar, USS Cambria, USS Capricornus, USS Casa Grande, USS Chilton, USS Monrovia, USS Muliphen, USS Pickaway, USS Rankin, USS Telfair, and USS Yancey; most of them plan to continue coming to our reunions instead of holding their own.
We have also welcomed individuals and guests from 15 other ships: AKAs Arneb, Mathews, Union, Winston and Wyandot, APAs Lenawee, Okanogan, Renville, and Rockbridge, LSDs Catamount, Fort Marion, and Gunston Hall, and LSMs 297 and 419. No doubt there will be more in future years.
We seek to add groups whose reunions are in jeopardy due to declining attendance, the fatigue or departure of leaders, or any other reason. Joining us is a good way to keep these groups alive and having great reunions. It also relieves their leaders of a lot of work.
We also welcome men and their guests from amphibious ships that do not have active reunion groups, or that have never had a reunion.
The Amphibious Ships Reunion is organized by Skip Sander of the USS Rankin (AKA-103), George Clifton of the USS Yancey (AKA-93), and Ray Casey of Military Reunion Planners, with help from many other people. Skip and George have been leaders in all of their ships' reunions – over 40 in all. Ray has been organizing reunions for over 30 years. We definitely know what we're doing.
 And by the way, the three of us try to be very easy to work with. We seek input from everyone, on any subject. But in the end we make all the decisions, especially about where to go next year. We do NOT take votes on that, any more than the Captain lets the crew vote on the next liberty port.
Operating Principles
 We only invite AKAs, APAs, LSDs, LSTs, LSMs and similar ships. We know from experience that there is great compatibility among shipmates from those types, since they have so much in common… boats, landings, cargo handling, and more.We use a professional planning company. Under our guidance, Military Reunion Planners finds hotels and negotiates with them, arranges tours, keeps registration lists, makes badges, collects money, etc. Those services relieve our leadership team of an incredible amount of work, and their cost to attendees is minimal.We go to great reunion cities. We aren't limited to places near the homes of shipmate volunteers. We typically go to cities in the East, South, and Midwest. The West Coast is pretty much out of reach for us. We go to great hotels. While room rates are important to us, we prefer mid- to upper-range hotels with heavy experience hosting Navy reunions, with plenty to see and do within walking distance. We have outstanding hospitality rooms, with top-shelf brands of beer and liquor, plus plenty of wine, soft drinks, and snacks. People have complimented the abundance of our bar.All tours and meals are optional. You only pay for what you want. You don't even have to stay in the reunion hotel.A professional photographer takes portrait photos of shipmates and their guests at our banquets, plus group pictures as appropriate. We make available high-quality Memory Books featuring these and many more pictures, plus a reunion recap, lists of attendees, and more. You can see PDFs of them on the Past Reunions page. How to Join Us
The only cost to join us is the cost for individuals to attend.
There are no additional costs for the group to join or to stay for future years.
If your reunion group wants to join us, please let us know as far in advance as you can, so we can arrange space for you at the hotel and at our events. You need to keep your own membership records and invite your own members, but we can provide promotional materials to help with attendance. Our goal is to insure you have a well-attended reunion and that your members will want to keep coming back. We can even send customized emails on your behalf via our Constant Contact account. They can look in all respects as though they come from you, and you will get feedback on how many were opened, which ones bounced, etc. It is a very good system.
If individuals from your ship want to attend one of our reunions, all they have to do is register, pay, and show up. If somebody is coming to scout us on behalf of your reunion group, they should let us know ahead of time, so we can be sure to give them a proper welcome.
If you need more information about the Amphibious Ships Reunion, please call me at (412) 367-1376, or send email to ussrankin@aol.com
Regards,
 Skip Sander
Amphibious Ships Reunion
 Last updated on 5/21/22
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