VP-49 '2002' Reunion Report
Contributed by NYLAND, AVCM Ken Retired avcmkn@tds.net [11APR2003]
Greetings
I want to thank everyone who participated in this get together of Shipmates from the 1952-1954 era of VP-49 and our PBM5S2 and P5M seaplane years in NAS Bermuda.
In addition a great big thanks goes to Frank Dorsch. He made all of the arrangements for our terrific accommodations in Memphis.
There were many great bits of memorabilia shared at the Reunion. Everyone enjoyed each others photos among other items. There was a lot of time put on identifying Shipmates on the two panoramic photos I had along.
There were some sidetrips taken by some Shipmates and their guests. Most of all I think each of us enjoyed the Reunion of each other and some of our memories of our time in NAS Bermuda and in VP-49. The only thing missing in this Reunion were more of our Shipmates being there.
I do need to apologize to all of my fantastic Shipmates for your patience with min finally getting out this report of our wonderful Reunion. I do believe everyone felt th experience was well worth it. For me, personally it was an experience of a life time!!!
I am including some things that were in our handout packets. I am mailing this to everyone on our current roster as I have updated it. I am missing some e-mail addresses, have some out of date addresses and we are looking for more Shipmates to add to our roster so your help is really sought after and appreciated! Also included in this report is a listing of hundreds of Shipmates we have not been able to locate. We need your help. Please notify us of anyone you know about or if you know of some whdied. It would be most appreciated.
There is information on ordering the panoramic photos taken in NAS Bermuda and now located in the University of Texas. Also included is a printout of the Shipmates we have been identified in the two squadron panoramic pictures, one taken in 1952 and thother in 1954. Here again we need your help to fill in the blank spaces so we can do ou best to identify every shipmate in each of these photos. As you can see many have beeidentified in the 1952 photo but we have many blank spaces in the 1954 photo.
I would encourage those who have photos and scanners to share your photos with all of our Shipmates who have an e-mail address. I am sure they would all be enjoyed, have received some and they are all great so let's share as many as possible with each other.
We need to thank Bob Griffin and the VP-49 Woodpecker Association for the $300 dollar seed money to get us started, some of it is in printing and sending this report out.
There is come interest and thought about having another squadron Reunion in 2004. Some possible sites would be Norfolk, Jacksonville and some have even mentioned NAS Bermuda. No plans have been made, just a few thoughts and dreams float around.
Thanks,
Ken Nyland
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