Last month there was a bit of confusion on staff’s part with respect to the increased cost of the lunch. The electronic announcement said $15 and the mailed copy of the OP Plan said $18. Ray decided that there was a conflict, we would charge the $15 for October. Hopefully we will all be in synch this month lunch will cost $18!
Our speaker this month will be the Executive Officer of VMM-164 (A V-22 squadron), MAJ Allan Thornhill, USMC. Allan started in the CH-46 (Battle Frog) community but has transitioned to the V-22. He will be talking about his experiences on deployment with the Osprey. MAJ Thornhill is the son of Dave Thornhill, a friend of mine whom I see every year at Tailhook. The senior Thornhill flew A-4’s in Vietnam. Found at the Skyhawk Association website: “August 1, 1967: A-4C Skyhawk BuNo. 147670 was shot down by North Vietnames Triple A fire. Lieutenant D. W. Thornhill was recovered. Lieutenant Dave Thornhill straps on his trusty A-4C Douglas Skyhawk BuNo. 147670 for a mission to Hon Gai, North Vietnam. During this mission North Vietnamese Triple A fire got lucky and managed to bag Dave. After an “interesting” ejection and subsequent “interesting” rescue – the Jolly Green dropped Dave on the PIREZ ship — the frigate FOX.
The FOX then began delicate negotiations with INTREPID for the amount of ice cream Thornhill was worth. Finally the FOX and INTREPID agreed on the trade and sent a helicopter. It is party time! During the dickering with the FOX the INTREPID Mess managed to bake a cake saying: “Welcome Home Thorny.” and the Flight Sturgeon managed to find a bottle of medical brandy for the happening. Lieutenant Commander Jerry Tuttle, (the rescue on-scene-commander) presented the cake to Dave. Unfortunately, FOX got all the ice cream so there was just brandy to wash the cake down with.”
Last month we had RADM Don Shelton, USN (Ret), as our speaker. See Dave Malmad’s write-up elsewhere in the OP Plan. Coincidentally, Admiral Shelton just happened to have an article published in the current issue (Fall 2017) of Tailhook magazine. The article is a discussion of post stall gyrations of the F7U-3 Cutlass. Don touched on that issue during his presentation. Note the model of the F7U in my hand when I am making the certificate presentation to Admiral Shelton. Thank you, Don, for a very well-received brief. We will be presenting the awards for Sailor of the Quarter at this month’s meeting. Please take the time to talk to the outstanding sailors and congratulate them on their superior performances.
Elsewhere in the OP Plan I am going to make a point of requesting responses to a question about the mailed copy of the OP Plan. Please respond. See you on 9 November.
