VC-12 VAW-12 VOICE
SEPTEMBER 2004
To find our website start with Google. You just can’t get there right now from Yahoo. www.vc12vaw12.org
New members page on website:
http://www.vc12vaw12.org/members/members.html
The Website is up and running again. I’m continuing working on the membership list. We are over 900 members. Send me names from your memories, old orders or cruise books. I have been breaking down the lists by detachment and year so people can find old friends. Tell me your detachment and I’ll share what I know. You should send me names you recall. Some people have regretted that we are grown so big; others are pleased with the larger personnel base and have found long-lost friends. Write to me and I’ll help you find more.
Chairman: Seykowski, Edward CWO4 607 N 70 E Valparaiso, IN 46383
219-462-3636 edseykow@juno.com 1959-1962 Karen
Treasurer (And Scribe): Smith, MD Roger G. LT 34464 SW Firdale Rd Cornelius, OR 97113-6218 503-628-2229 FAX 503-648-9179 LT(jg)1955-8 rgs@coho.net or rgs@vc12vaw12.org
Office: 256 SE 2nd Av. Hillsboro, OR 97123 503-648-7126 Joan
ALLVAW 9/21/04
To all VAW-12 and VC-12 Squadron personnel:
The annual membership meeting and reunion scheduled for Pensacola FL Nov 8-10, 2004 has been washed away by hurricane IVAN. We all feel awful for our many friends in Pensacola, Gulf Breeze, Pensacola Beach, Milton and nearby neighborhoods. It is not a question of waiting to see if things get better. The hotel cancelled us. No groups for 6 months. Restaurants have little prospect of opening soon. Mustin Beach O Club where we were to have had our banquet took a hit. We had to move.
We put out a call for suggestions and entertained several. The VC-11 gang are going to New Orleans on the same dates as they originally planned – Nov 11-13.
We opted for Gettysburg, Penna.
Chairman Ed Seykowski is still firming up all the arrangements. edseykow@juno.com
Plan:
Sunday evening Registration snack foods and no-host bar at the hotel 1700. Meet and talk.
Monday Battle field tours after breakfast. Busses or vans.
Dinner together in the main ball room
Tuesday Further tours or scramble on your own after breakfast.
1600 Annual meeting. Election of officers. Plan for following years’ events
1830 Annual Banquet
Wednesday Farewell breakfast.
Reservations:
Your reservation at the Crowne Plaza in Pensacola is cancelled – by the hotel.
If you want to be sure call 1-800-348-3336 or 850-433-7572
EVERYBODY DO THIS
Reservation may be made with Best Western Gettysburg at 866-373-1797
Or 717-337-2000 or joe@hotelgettysburg.com
And say you are with the VC-12/VAW-12 squadron group.
Dates are 7, 8, 9 Nov 2004.
Rates we were quoted are $89. per night double room with 9% Penna tax.
Parking next door at $7.95. per night
Or $119 per night with Jacuzzi, Fireplace and King bed. I told Joan I’d take her to the Honeymoon suite.
Cost will be $175. per person. This includes the No host reception Sunday night, two dinners, and two breakfasts. New people ante something like $50. and pay the rest when you come. People who have anted already will pay the rest on arrival. I have a good record of who has paid what already. IF you can’t come, I will send a full refund.
We may be able to include lunches on the tours or a third breakfast on the morning of departure. We do not know what the tours will be for another day or so, so that’s extra. Our costs are a little bit unknown, but there are costs associated with having a banquet speaker, and some administrative costs. We are not sure if our planned guest speaker can still accommodate us.
Gettysburg Battlefield is a magical place. An astounding event in the history of the United States took place here on July 2, 3, & 4, 1863. The ground speaks to you as you walk among the monuments. Joan & I spent 3 days here in 1990 and followed the fortunes of a single regiment – the Second Rhode Island – through all its travails in Northern Virginia and at Antietam, just south of here. The ground is complicated, but as you tour it you come to see what happened and how it happened. It is worthwhile to read up before you come. A book I have and will re-read this month is They Met At Gettysburg by Edward J. Stackpole. Two days is little enough time to come to understand the complexities of this event. And your appreciation of the heritage we have will be greatly increased.
VAW website http://www.vc12vaw12.org
To get to the members section www.vc12vaw12.org/members/members.html
Patches and books advertised on the website are available from the treasurer-- rgs@coho.net or 156 SE 2nd Av. Hillsboro, OR 97123
Other paraphernalia is still available from Military Locator & Reunion Services which was our prior agent.
Dues are $10 a year. The year starts anew at the reunion.
We want your memories and stories for the newsletter
We want the names of your mates to add continually to our roster. We are well over 900 guys now – pilots, aircrew and sailors.
We were founded by a dozen or more ATs and we value the tradition that we are a navy squadron reunion group and not just a pilot’s club. Our reunion is a celebration of the mission which has become one of the most important missions in the navy from its beginnings when we were an unwanted orphan.
Roger Smith