San Diego Here We Come!

It’s the 1^st of June and I’m making plans for our October San Diego trip to the 26^th Annual Reunion of the OV-1 Mohawk Association!  I made hotel reservations for Karin and me at the Crowne Plaza San Diego – Mission Valley back in January, and today I bit the proverbial bullet and booked seats on Delta. 

John Bosch, the Association’s Reunion Director, has planned some great touristy events.  On Friday, we can go on a City Tour that includes La Jolla, Mt. Soledad, Balboa Park (museums and the famous, very good San Diego Zoo), the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center, Seaport Village and a tour of Coronado Navy base.

Or we can go on a tour of the USS Midway aircraft museum that’s on the aircraft carrier docked right in downtown San Diego.  Lots of restored aircraft and exhibits are on board and lunch will be on our own at Seaport Village.

Then, in the evening, we will have a Mexican Fiesta in historic Old Town, the birthplace of California.  Old Town is a state historical park in which all the merchants and employees dress in period attire, and they sell quality items in their stores.  Karin and I were there in April and it was by far one of our favorite places to visit!

On Saturday a professionally narrated Harbor Cruise is planned.  Included will be Harbor and Shelter Islands, Point Loma, Cabrillo National Monument, North Island Naval Air Station, the Submarine Base, Coronado Bridge and much more.

Saturday evening, of course, is the banquet.  This is always a highlight of our Reunions! 

If you have extra time in San Diego, be sure to take in the San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park or some of the many other great attractions that San Diego offers.

I’ll send my registration into the Association this week...there are some really good choices that John has picked for this year!  Click here to get a registration form and print it and then be sure to send it in!

I hope all you 225^th guys can make it this beautiful city in October; you can go to the Association web site to see who’s registered at the hotel; several from the 225^th are already on the list (Joe Beckham, Don Bernstein, Tom Cote, Steve Hammons, Arlan Lando, Bobbie Luthie, Ben Perez, Ron Pitcock, Ernie Serna, Alan Summers and Gary Todd).  Oh, and a special note to Joe Beckham....there are some great craft brews available in San Diego too!

I’ll see you there!

More Phantomhawks Found!

 L-R:  Luis Ponton, Rudy Anzaldua and Miguel Anza

L-R:  Miguel Anza and Luke Christ

The other day I got a note on email from a man I have been thinking about for many years.  Seems this guy and several others of us in the 225^th got together more or less regularly at Phu Hiep to have drinks, and the sometimes the food that helps the drinks go down better, just because we all spoke some Spanish.  I had taken 4 years of it in high school (which was only a couple of years before I got in country.)

Miguel Anza (I think I called him “Mike” in those days) had been talking with Luke Christ who had told him about this blog.  Well, Miguel sent me an email note after all these years!  I was blown away because I had been recently thinking about him and the other guys, wondering what happened to them.

Saturday afternoon I was watching an old James Cagney movie “Captains of the Clouds” (a great 1942 movie, by the way, about the RCAF training pilots of WWII, in color with some pretty good float plane stunt flying) when my phone rings with a call from Puerto Rico!  It was Miguel!  We talked for almost an hour about the 225^th, all about the group we were in, about Joe Beckham and that he and Miguel were both from Gary, Indiana, and about Miguel and John Dewar, who was in the Orderly Room, got to Phu Hiep all the way from Boston to Oakland to Nha Trang and Qui Nhon to the 225^th together!

Miguel mentioned that Rudy Anzaldua was in that hospital in Houston after recently undergoing major surgery.   Please pray for our brother as he recovers!

Anyway, our comrades continue to be found!  I’m looking forward to seeing Señor Anza, and many of you all, at the 26^th Annual Reunion in San Diego in October.

May We Never Forget

As we spend this long weekend working around the house, visiting friends and family, taking in a movie, watching the Indianapolis 500, taking advantage of a sale at the mall or doing some other activity, let’s not forget to remember the real reason for the Memorial Day Holiday.  From Wikipedia I’ve excerpted a portion of the description of the holiday:

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces.^[1] The holiday, which is observed every year on the last Monday of May,^[2] originated as Decoration Day after the American Civil War in 1868, when the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans — established it as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers.^[3] 

For those of us who were in the 225^th Aviation Company (Surveillance Airplane) please take a moment to remember our friends who sacrificed their lives in the defense of our freedom in Vietnam.  I put this video together a few years ago to commemorate our brothers.

"May We Never Forget"