In 1968, Bruce and Judy Henry were in their first year of
marriage, and Bruce began a pilot’s training course in the Air
Force. He worked hard, under intense pressure, and often brought
home some of his bachelor classmates for one of Judy’s home-cooked
meals.
In 1968, Bruce and Judy Henry were in their first year of marriage, and Bruce began a pilot’s training course in the Air Force. He worked hard, under intense pressure, and often brought home some of his bachelor classmates for one of Judy’s home-cooked meals.
Earlier this month, one of those bachelor friends returned the favor by inviting Bruce and Judy, now Morgan Hill residents, over to dinner at his home – the White House. The Henrys and the rest of that 1968 training group were guests of their old classmate, now-President George W. Bush.
“You know, it was really something to get an invitation in the mail from the White House and to go have dinner with the president,” Bruce said. “But really, it was even better to have a reunion with all those guys. We hadn’t been together in about 37 years, and everyone was just so tickled to see each other again. It was really a great, social occasion. It wasn’t about politics or the president, it was about all of us seeing old chums again.”
Judy recalled a younger, dark-haired George coming over for dinner. Because microwaves were not yet widely available, bachelors couldn’t simply heat up their meals, so being invited to have a dinner cooked by Judy was considered a treat.
“George was an ordinary guy; he wasn’t a leader per se. He didn’t have a look that made you say, ‘That guy is going to go places,’ ” Judy remembered. “He was just like everyone else then.”
After pilot’s training, many of the men were sent to the Vietnam War, and the rest were scattered to various pilot duties across the country. Most lost touch with their classmates.
Fast-forward to 2000, when Bruce got a call from a national publication asking about his days in pilot school with Bush, the hot Republican presidential candidate. The publication gave Bruce a few phone numbers for some of his other classmates he hadn’t spoken to since the ’60s, and the idea of a reunion was born. It took six more years, but the idea came to fruition with a gold embossed invitation in the mail, complete with a return address of “The White House.”
“We literally found out a few days before that we’d be going to dinner at the White House,” Judy said. “It all happened so fast. We got the invitation and a follow-up phone call on Friday, and on Tuesday we were sitting on a plane to Washington, D.C.”
The reunion dinner, held April 4, comprised of 33 people, including 17 of the original 26 men Bruce went to school with, many wives, and a few instructors. Two classmates had died in Vietnam, other classmates couldn’t make it and a few chose not to attend the reunion for political reasons, Bruce said.
The Henrys went through rigorous security checks before being sent up to the President’s private quarters in an elevator. Once they stepped out of the elevator, the President and First Lady were there to greet everyone.
“They really set the tone and put us right at ease,” Judy said. “They gave us a tour of their living quarters, and Laura talked about how she chose the color of the carpeting, and she talked about renovations they’d had done. It was just like going to any friend’s house and having them talk about some remodeling they had done. They made us feel so comfortable.”
Bruce said he called the First Lady “Mrs. Bush,” but she immediately asked him to please call her Laura. Bruce also said he kept reminding himself not to call the President “George,” because he felt it was more appropriate to call his old classmate “Mr. President” out of respect for the office.
“But, you know, back then he was just ‘George,’ ” Bruce said. “He was one of the guys. One of our classmates who’s kept in touch with the president over the years did call him ‘George,’ and that wasn’t a problem. It was really whatever you were comfortable with saying.”
The dress for dinner was business attire, and Bruce chose to wear a black suit and gold tie while Judy wore a fuschia-colored knit top and black slacks. At dinner, the guests were seated at two long tables and were given menus listing each course of the meal. The courses included an asparagus cream soup with crab, a marinated skirt steak, salad and coconut meringue cake. The meal was served on the millennium china selected by the Clintons to commemorate the year 2000.
“The china was beautiful. It was a soft yellow-ish color,” Judy said. “The meal was delicious, but it wasn’t too over the top, and there weren’t a million different forks to choose from. Everything seemed to be designed to make us feel at home.”
At dinner, conversation ranged from topics including 9/11, children, marriages, health and details of everyone’s lives that had occurred over the last 37 years, Bruce said. The group later got a private tour of the Oval Office and Air Force One.
“It was just one of those perfect days in your life that you’ll never forget,” Judy said.
The Henrys, who now work for Alain Pinel Realtors, left various birthday and anniversary cards for the president to sign when he had a chance. They got the cards back with not only a signature, but personalized messages from the president.
“How often does a man in (George’s) position get to just hang out with the guys and relax?” Bruce asked. “He got to do that with us, and it’s something I wouldn’t trade for anything. It was just luck that he and I happened to be in the same class, and he’ll always be George, a guy that went through a really intense time in my life with me.”
