NOVETZKE, LCDR Richard C. N999N@aol.com "...From Pensacola it was Hutchinson Ks for multiengine and the PB4Y-2 thense to first squadron duty with VP-6 NAS Barbers Point, Hawaii. Certain events made that a memorable tour. Sally gave birth to two beautiful daughters now both married and parents to two each of our four grand children. Dick did his obligatory tour at the nav table of the P2V5-F while at the same time moonlighting with the local FASRON flying fleet airplanes FASRON was too lazy to pickle. It was great sport and included the F6F, F4U, AD-5, F9F-5,6, Panther and Courger, F2H-4 Banshee and some other minor sports and little known religions that I have since forgotton. . . .I think the SNJ was in there somewhere. Coming off a P2V training flight on the nav table and going to the FASRON line and "checking out" whatever looked like fun to fly was truely a wonderful experience and I will forever be thankful to the Navy and a series of FASRON operations personnel who believed me every time they would asked me if I was checked out in the airplane. Yea Sure. I have fond memories of walking slowly down the stairs from the Ops Office with the flight manual in my hand looking for the chapter titled "How to Start the Airplane". Serveral times I had to have a plane captain make the start but from there it was just plain fun. While in VP-6 I skipped the right seat and got a job as PPC with a crew of my own, I was so impressed with myself I figured this was the life for me. Accordingly, I applied for Regular Navy, but with the stipulation that I be sent back to college to complete work toward a degree. The Navy agreed but said it would be 1965 before that would happen so I took my discharge after four years and put myself in school at the University of Minnesota where I finally did complete my undergrad work. That was 1956 and I continued to want to be around airplanes so when the Navy called and offered me augmentation to Regular Navy from civilian life I opted to become a lifer and put the uniform back on and joined my second squadron, VP-10 in NAS Brunswick, Maine. Two signal events occured during my VP-10 tour which incidently only lasted about 18 months. The first event occured because I was the Fleet Air Wings "personal" pilot and as such spent time in Washington while he was on business. At BUPERS I learned that I was doomed to be on sea duty non stop for the next 8 years. Ugg I said to myself. When I got back to Brunswick, several days Iater, I had a nite launch over the Atlantic looking for a oil drum or something that looked like a Russian sub. It was 3AM, 100 feet off the water, flying the same Bureau Number P2V that I had soloed in Kodiak Alaska 5 years earlier. . . .and I decided then and there that I had to leave the Navy. It took me 9 months to get out so back to civilian life I went as a military sales rep for Collins Radio, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. For the next 2 years I flew with the Naval Reserve out of NAS Minneapolis (VP-814). One day I got a call from Aero Commander Inc. in Olkahoma with a offer to come to work for them. . . .which I did. I checked out of VP-814, packed my family in the station wagon and headed for Oklahoma City to find a house then on to NAS Dallas, Texas to check into another VP. Never got there. While on the road, the Berlin crisis hit and I heard on the car radio VP-814 had been called to duty. I figured if I was gonna take thier money I better be ready to do the duty and since I didn't want to go back in the Navy, I never did check into NAS Dallas, Texas and that was the end of my flying of Navy airplanes. I missed it but to me family came first and the two simply were not compatable. At Aero Commander Inc I was called National Accounts Sales Manager which meant I got lots of flying in on various demo tours of new models of the Commander. I got into experimental and production flight test and worked with the turboprop version of the Commander as well as the Jet Commander. After 7 years there, I got a phone call one day from Collins asking me to come back to work for them. . . . I accepted and back to Cedar Rapids we went. Two years into my new job as Director of Sales for Collins, I got fired from the job in what I recall to be one of the classiest political confrontations one could ask out of the corporate world. It was great sport as well as great theatre. Two days later, I was "recalled" and went to work with Arthur Collins at the "think tank" in Dallas. Since I am not all that bright, sitting around thinking all day was not my cup of tea but the gods of corporate life smiled on me and a head hunter connected me with McGraw-Edison and suddenly I was in the station wagon again, this time headed for Ft. Lauderdale to head the Instrument Division. Ft. Lauderale is no place to raise children. Cedar Rapids Iowa is. A call to a banker friend of mine in Cedar Rapids pleading with him to find me a distressed business I could buy (cuz I didn't have any money) led me to the purchase of a company called Midwest Nameplate Co. I formed a corp to acquire the assets and U.S. Nameplate Co. was born. (http://www.usnameplate.com). That was 1970. We have been here ever since. As I grew old the company became more prosperous and on balance I could say life has been good. During the interim, we added two more children. . . .both boys. . .one is here working with me in the company and the other is in SLC in the movie business as a camera sorta person. Wife Sally when not raising kids was the consumate volunteer and had her nose in just about anything that had to do with making kids happier than they were. Meantime she brushed off her political disappointment at Goldwaters failure and ran the Iowa Republican Party for several year as Chairman (person). In 1989 George Bush tapped her for a Ambassador post and she took up residence in Malta for the next four years. I was on the commute from Malta to CID during that time and racked up a ton of Frequent Flyer miles with TWA. All in all it was a grand experience and we were looking forward to Sally's next posting in Austria when Clinton upset the applecart. So now were are Cedar Rapids and Naples Florida citizens. I am in the process of turning my company over to my kids and hoping and praying I can keep my mouth shut and hands off and let them see what they can do with it. I still fly airplanes. I currently have a Cheyenne for serious travel but up until last year had a N2S-4 Stearman for fun and games. It was a beautiful airplane. . .in Navy colors of course..." [BIO Updated 21AUG2000 | 15JUL2000]

PETERSON, CAPTAIN Donald O. Retired donp@mwsco.com "...I enlisted in the Naval Air Reserve in January of 1953, as an AR and retired as Captain in August of 1992. I served on active duty '56 to '59 as an ET3P1, then went back to AT3/AT1 and became a qualified crewmember in P2V-4, 5, and 7's flying radar and radio positions with VP-811 and VP-814. I also flew radar in S2F aircraft. I recieved a commision in July 1964, and became assistant maintenance officer in VP-811, all stationed at NAS Twin Cities, Minnesota. In 1966 I transfered to Detroit Michigan, and affiliated with NARMU 731 and its successor names until selected for maintenance officer of VP-3414 and then VP-93 as a plankholder.('76-'82) Following promotion to CDR. and some VTU duty I served in the Maintenance officer billet for VR-56, and was cross assigned to VR 51 at NAS Glenview, Illinois to assist in the transition from C118 to C9 aircraft. My next duty was with the Air Systems Command VTU prior to my last assignment as the Naval Laiason Officer for the State of Minnesota. I was thrilled to review the entries and note the progress made in the careers of many of the sailors that I served with. I still own my welding Supply distributorship with headquarters in Winona, MN, and stores in Winona, Red Wing, and Rochester MN, La Crosse Wisconsin, and Dacorah, Iowa..." WebSite: http://www.mwsco.com/ [03SEP99]

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SHEARY, Doug ddsheary@live.com "...I served with VP-814, VP-815, VP-816 at NAS Twin Cities, Minnesota, VP-67 at NAS Memphis, Tennessee and VO-67- when we transferred E models to Nakhon Phnom. I retired from the Navy Reserve in 2009 after 41 years active and reserve. I would like to hear from former Shipmates..." [14DEC2011]

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"VP-814 Summary Page"

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