Overview - left for posterity, nothing new here, move along.


The 2017 RAYunion will be held in Norfolk, Virginia over the Memorial Day holiday in late May. The host hotel will be the Hilton Norfolk The Main Hotel (it's on East Main Street in downtown Norfolk).

We intend to have ground transportation from the hotel to those events the committee will schedule. You will also have free time to "do your own thing" or swap tales in the hospitality suite.

If you're flying into ORF there are a number of shuttle services that will get you to the hotel (the hotel has pay $$ parking if you drive):

James River Transportation
The Shuttle Network (page contains links to a number of shuttles)

You can also get to downtown Norfolk via AMTRAK- two trains a day from Washington DC, Richmond and Petersburg VA.

In addition to our RAYactivities, there are a number of attractions you'll want to see in your free time. Downtown Map. Area Map.

In fact, just down the street is Nauticus, a maritime venue that features the battleship USS Wisconsin (BB64) and has a number of exhibitions and education opportunities. The Navy Base boat tour that runs past all the big carriers (and the little submarines) leaves from this complex (more on that later).

Here's a link to the Visit Norfolk web site (or phone 800-368-3097). You can ping them now to get literature sent to you about the various things to do in the area. Visit Norfolk's office is a block from the hotel, handy for our use during the RAYunion. Here's another of their web sites that lists phone numbers for various organizations you might want to have.

If your lady wants to look at shops that are different from those at home, she can walk two blocks to the MacArthur Center and Monticello Arcade. The waterfront area two blocks away is a good place for a walk or run, and the ferry to Portsmouth docks there. There's a light rail system called The Tide a couple of blocks away but it's mainly to ease commuter traffic on the roads.

The Downtown Norfolk Council also has a website providing lots of information about the area around our hotel.

Those who want to visit Newport News to look around will have to use public transportation or POVs, unfortunately. Due to liability issues, we can't get a tour of the former NNS&DD company shipyard where RAY was built, launched, and commissioned 50 years ago (12 April 1966).

For those who made the Navy their career, you have access to one of the largest Navy Exchanges in the world at the Norfolk Naval Station. We'll all have an opportunity to tour the base by bus with a Navy guide.

One of us, Charlie Jett, of the PreCommUnit and first couple of deployments, wrote a book entitled Super Nuke. Yes, it's about RAY. But it's also a memoire of his entering the Navy and USNA and how he found his way into the PCU RAY and how RAYs work contributed to further submarine deployments.. Highly recommended. If you bring a copy, he'll autograph it for you.