PEARL HARBOR SURVIVOR HEADLINE SPEAKER FOR MILITARY REUNION GROUP

NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Pat Frew, Director of Communications
859-655-4163
E-Mail:  Pressroom@nkycvb.com | www.nkycvb.com 

PEARL HARBOR SURVIVOR HEADLINE SPEAKER FOR MILITARY REUNION GROUP

Florence, KY/June 15, 2007—The 53rd Annual Reunion of the USS Ashtabula will be held June 20-23 at the Hilton Cincinnati Airport Hotel.

Keynote speaker for the group is Joe Whitt, a World War II survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.  Joe served aboard the USS San Francisco CA-38.

While in town, the veterans group will visit:

• Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton
• Key historical sites;
• The Ohio River aboard BB Riverboats;

The Ashtabula crew began meeting annually in 1955 in Augusta, GA.  Just a year earlier, the ship suffered a horrific gas tank explosion that took lives and injured others.  Over the years, attendance at the reunion grew.  The event still attracts about 50 sailors annually.

The mission of the Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau is that of an aggressive sales, marketing, service and informational organization whose primary responsibility is to positively impact the Northern Kentucky economy through conventions, meetings and visitor expenditures.  The direct economic impact of visitors’ spending in Campbell, Kenton and Boone Counties in 2006 was $263 million.