It has been a busy couple of weeks. Ray LeCompte and I met Marv Garrison and Bob Johnson up at Tailhook 2014 in Reno over the weekend of September 4th through the 7th. It was an interesting and informative affair. If I have time and Hal has space, I will put something together to summarize the convention.
CDR Paul Werring, the former XO of NWSSB, has attended his last GPS luncheon for awhile. He is on his way to Panama City, FL, to take over as the XO of another organization. Before he left, I had breakfast on 11 September 11 with him and his replacement, CDR Eric Franzen. It was a good, but all-too-short goodbye to a real gentleman and strong supporter of the SOQ program that is currently in place. We will miss Paul but Eric should be an able replacement. He comes to NWSSB from NAF El Centro where he has been acting C.O. for a number of months. He is a Naval Aviator from the E-2/C-2 community. Welcome Aboard Eric!
Maury Rosenberg gave an excellent briefing on SR-71 operations. He told those gathered all about the aircraft and many of its very secret flights all over the world. He also told us a few flying stories and they sounded like they were true. He actually received an award for one of his adventures. He also told a very heart-wrenching story about his experiences on September 11, 2001, when he was flying United Airlines Flight 81 that was in the air when the attacks began and ended.
This month our speaker is Major Aric Liberman, USMC. Quite a bio: joined the Navy; became a SEAL; got out of Navy to attend college; returned to Navy after receiving degree; graduated from flight school and received Wings of Gold; flew F-18; and then transitioned to the F-35. Flew first F-35B into Yuma to join VMFA-121 “Green Knights”. He will talk about his experiences with the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.
We hope that you will attend our luncheons and bring a friend. We try to intersperse active-duty military aviators with authors and prior-service aviators such as Jerry Loeb who flew the AD in the 60”s and was, for a short time, a POW in Algeria (13 November speaker) and Dave Leue who flew in both Korea and Vietnam (11 December speaker). The speakers have great stories to tell. This is your chance to meet these speakers and to ask questions while you great bunch of fellow ANA members.
Please make sure that you are a current member of ANA. We need the numbers in order to have any credibility in Washington. It also helps us to attract active-duty personnel as speakers. All I ask is that you keep your membership current and try to get one of your family members or friends to join ANA. Most important though is for you to continue to attend our luncheons and bring friends, or at least a guest, even if you don’t like them!
