I have posted the reunion registration form for you to fill out and return to me along with the funds.
You can reserve your hotel rooms NOW. You can always cancel if needed. You can cancel by 9/17/14 and receive a full refund.
The form is on the REUNIONS/2013/Reunion @ Pensacola, FL TAB. It is in Word and PDF format. I will also email it and snailmail it for everyone.
Any questions let me know
see ya there
Guy Fisk
LAGING HANDA

Welcome aboard JOE FAVREAU and his wife Sande. Joe enjoyed 2 tours with VP40, His seaplane era time was from April 1965 – June 1967.
He was an AX2 while in that tour. He was in various flight crews. His 2nd stint was in the P3 era and he worked in the avionics shop.

I just got home from a very productive trip to Pensacola,and Jacksonville, FL.
I have finalized our reunion details (as much as possible for now).
We are set for the Holiday Inn Resort @ Pensacola Beach. The rates are the same as posted before.
The Thursday buffet by the pool is set, Friday we will have a guest speaker, I meet with him last week and he will provide
handouts and help with filing for VA claims as well as Agent Orange claims.
I stopped at NAS JAX and talked to VP30 Ops, and they have scheduled a P8-A to fam over to Pensacola Friday during our reunion and we
will get to board it and take a tour. Sat night our dinner will be at the National Flight Academy, as the museum is still not having any functions outside of the daily schedule.
And it probably will not change. WE will have our group pictures taken by our plane QE10 on Sat afternon before dinner.
I toured the Flight Academy and it was like stepping onto a ship. I think it will bring back some memories to anyone who was on a ship back then.
All in all we will be ready for the reunion. Hope to see you all there.
Guy Fisk

Thanks to Jim Thayer, he found a former VP40 member from our era.
WELCOME ABOARD KIRBY HAMM. He was in VP40 from 1962-1965.
He was an AO2 and flew in crew 1 with me for awhile.
If you remember Kirby please let him know. His email address is [email protected]

Tony Lazzaretti sent me this, It deserved a wider audience
so here it is in Word 2003 format. I can Hear and Smell it now.
Although I never seen them so clean and shiny as this.

ROUND ENGINES

TAPS
Listen to “Taps”

Here is something Every American should know.
We in the United States have all heard the haunting song, “Taps”. It’s the song that gives us that lump in our throats and usually tears in our eyes.
But, do you know the story behind the song? If not, I think you will be interested to find out about its humble beginnings.

During the Civil War, in July 1862 when the Army of the Potomac was in camp, Brig. Gen. Daniel Butterfield summoned Pvt. Oliver Wilcox Norton, his brigade bugler, to his tent. Butterfield, who disliked the colorless “extinguish lights” call then in use, whistled a new tune and asked the bugler to sound it for him. After repeated trials and changing the time of some notes which were scribbled on the back of an envelope, the call was finally arranged to suit Gen. Butterfield and used for the first time that night. Pvt. Norton, who on several occasions, had sounded numerous new calls composed by his commander, recalled his experience of the origin of “Taps” years later:

One day in July 1862 when the Army of the Potomac was in camp at Harrison’s Landing on the James River, Virginia, resting and recruiting from its losses in the seven days of battle before Richmond, Gen. Butterfield summoned the writer to his tent, and whistling some new tune, asked the bugler to sound it for him. This was done, not quite to his satisfaction at first, but after repeated trials, changing the time of some of the notes, which were scribbled on the back of an envelope, the call was finally arranged to suit the general.

He then ordered that it should be substituted in his brigade for the regulation “Taps” (extinguish lights) which was printed in the Tactics and used by the whole army. This was done for the first time that night. The next day buglers from nearby brigades came over to the camp of Butterfield’s brigade to ask the meaning of this new call. They liked it, and copying the music, returned to their camps, but it was not until some time later, when generals of other commands had heard its melodious notes, that orders were issued, or permission given, to substitute it throughout the Army of the Potomac for the time-honored call which came down from West Point.

In the western armies the regulation call was in use until the autumn of 1863. At that time the XI and XII Corps were detached from the Army of the Potomac and sent under command of Gen. Hooker to reinforce the Union Army at Chattanooga, Tenn. Through its use in these corps it became known in the western armies and was adopted by them. From that time, it became and remains to this day the official call for “Taps.” It is printed in the present Tactics and is used throughout the U.S. Army, the National Guard, and all organizations of veteran soldiers.

Gen. Butterfield, in composing this call and directing that it be used for “Taps” in his brigade, could not have foreseen its popularity and the use for another purpose into which it would grow. Today, whenever a man is buried with military honors anywhere in the United States, the ceremony is concluded by firing three volleys of musketry over the grave, and sounding with the trumpet or bugle “Put out the lights. Go to sleep”…There is something singularly beautiful and appropriate in the music of this wonderful call. Its strains are melancholy, yet full of rest and peace. Its echoes linger in the heart long after its tones have ceased to vibrate in the air.

The haunting melody, we now know as “Taps” … used at military funerals was born.

The words are :
Day is done, gone the sun,
From the hills, from the lake,
From the sky.
All is well, safely rest,
God is nigh.

Go to sleep, peaceful sleep,
May the soldier or sailor,
God keep.
On the land or the deep,
Safe in sleep.

Love, good night, Must thou go,
When the day, And the night
Need thee so?
All is well. Speedeth all
To their rest.

Fades the light; And afar
Goeth day, And the stars
Shineth bright,
Fare thee well; Day has gone,
Night is on.

Thanks and praise, For our days,
‘Neath the sun, Neath the stars,
‘Neath the sky,
As we go, This we know,
God is nigh.

I too have felt the chills while listening to “Taps” but I have never seen all the words to the song until now. I didn’t even know there was more than one verse. I also never knew the story behind the song and I didn’t know if you had either so I thought I’d pass it along. There is another version of the orgin but SNOPES claims it is
FALSE.
I now have an even deeper respect for the song than I did before.
Remember Those Lost and Harmed While Serving Their Country.
And also those presently serving in the Armed Forces..Please send this on after a short prayer.

I pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.

I have posted the February 2014 Newsletter on this site today. It is found on the PICTURES, VIDEO & MORE TAB
VP40 NEWSLETTERS section.
All the newsletters are published in PDF format.
I will be adding OLDER newsletters there very soon.

I received this picture from Jim Thayer and it is QE10 in the last flight from San Diego to Pax River in 1968.
Notice the crew names under the port window of the cockpit. I have been told these were removed sometime before it was displayed at the Naval Museum in Pensacola. Also the QE10 was removed and the names were added for this flight. If anyone has more or different details LET ME Know.

Guy

I received this from James Stull . It is the Obit for John King.

WELCOME ABOARD our newest member. ROBERT A. BLECHLE. He was in VP40 from 11/1953 to 1/1955 as a AMS3. He was in crew 12.

He recognized a few of the people and names from our web site, so if anyone remembers him please welcome him aboard.

His email address is [email protected]. He asked if there was a Cruise Book for the 1954 deployment? Does anyone know or remember this Cruise Book.

If it does exist, send it to me and I will publish it on this website and return it to you.