State Armory, Officer’s Club, Dedicated to Gov. Bill O’Neill

Tuesday April 29, 2008

It’s noonish and Gov. M. Jodi Rell and Nikki O’Neill, the widow of the late former Gov. William A. O’Neill, just unveiled a bronze plaque and a wooden sign designating the state armory as the Gov. William A. O’Neill Armory.
It’s probably appropriate that the outdoor sign is located between the main entrance and the more-informal door that leads to the Officer’s Club.
Nikki reminded everyone that her late husband, who might have made the U.S. Air Force a career if his father hadn’t died and “Billy” came back to East Hampton to run the family saloon, liked the O Club very much.
“A lot of very-important decisions were made in the Officer’s Club,” Nikki told about 200 people gathered on the armory’s second-floor gymnasium space. “Or at least, that’s what he told me.”
Nikki, appropriately enough, invited those present, including old loyalists like former Lt. Gov. Joe Fauliso, to repair to the O Club for “a light lunch and a few cocktails” after the event.
The 100 or so Connecticut National Guard troops – clad in desert camo – present at the ceremony seemed like they would have supported to idea, but they were on duty.
Nikki also said that former Speaker of the House Nelson Brown is recovering in a Groton assisted-living facility, waiting for a prosthetic leg, after a recent amputation.
Rell, who remembered O’Neill as governor when she was a freshman member of the House of Representatives, called him a “titan of Connecticut politics” and that he was “decent and fair.”
“Bill O’Neill always made sure common sense prevailed when decisions were made,” Rell said.
Maybe lawmakers currently embattled with the state budget, should take a page from the political playbook of the old timers and wander across from the Legislative Office Building, salute the new sign and plunge into the frfiendly darkness of the O Club to wet their whistles and talk some “common sense” with each other, for a change.j