All members who attended the November membership meeting heard the announcement stating the Association of Naval Aviation (ANA) no longer exists as of November 5 th, 2005. ANA has merged with Naval Aviation Foundation (NAF) But, please, read on. The ANA has been in financial difficulty for some time. It needed to find some other naval aviation group with which to partner. An attempt, this summer, to partner with the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola failed for various reasons. The partnering with NAF is a good move for us. It will aid in resolving the financial problems of ANA. We lose the ANA name but we retain our ANA squadrons as NAF squadrons. The great Grampaw Pettibone Squadron (GPS) will keep on going as long as the members maintain their excellent support of GPS. I have every confidence that our Grampaw Pettibone Squadron will be around for many years as a NAF squadron.

The GPS officers for 2006 have been elected. I am sure they will carry on the traditions of the Squadron and provide all the events you have come to expect. This is my last “From the Skipper” column. I want to thank everyone for their wonderful support. All of you members have been very supportive. I particularly appreciate and enjoy your enthusiasm, camaraderie and general good cheer at the lunch meetings.

I especially want to thank all of the trustees, fellows and staff members of the Grampaw Pettibone Squadron for their dedication, time, and hard work that make this Squadron the best Squadron in ANA and it will be the best Squadron in the NAF.

SUPPORT YOUR SQUADRON! I bid you farewell as your Commanding Officer and hope to sit at your tables with you throughout the coming years and enjoy your company.

The field trip to the Ronald Reagan Library scheduled for Wednesday, January 11 is on track. As you probably saw on TV, President Bush formerly opened the new Air Force One Pavilion a few days prior to its public opening on October 24 th. As a result, the new pavilion got a lot of press and the library has been very crowded. It is fortunate that we delayed our visit to Jan 11.

All the trip plans remain the same, i.e. leave the Elks Lodge at 0900 and return at 2000. Since there has been such an interest in this trip (65 to date), I have arranged for a second bus so those of you that have asked about bringing friends, please do. Our private dinning room at the Odyssey Restaurant in Granada Hills can accommodate up to 100. I will not be at the November meeting but I will have a sign-up sheet at the back of the room. I will be at the December meeting and those of you that have not paid can pay me at that time (checks only made out to GPS for $75 per person). If you will not be at the December meeting, please mail me your check by December 20th.

Since we have a private dining room at the Odyssey and time for a leisurely cocktail and dinner, I will have a microphone available so that you can pass on a 3 minute SEA STORY to the group. I have heard so many good short punchy ones at the luncheons that I thought a wider audience should enjoy!!!

Our speaker for January is our own John Durant. He participated in the Berlin Airlift and has given many presentations on this topic over the last several years. After WWII, the Military Airlift capability left in Europe was down to almost nothing. A massive undertaking had to be taken very quickly in order to get sufficient aircraft, navigation aids, and airfield capability in order to move the required tonnage of food and coal to sustain the Berliners in the U.S. sector. This is a most fascinating account of a very successful and impressive project.

Guest Speaker - LtCol. Mel Locke, F4U Corsair

By Dr. Dick Fields, Public Affairs Officer

Grampaw Pettibone was honored to hear the story of the life of our XO and soon to be CO, Mel Locke. After being dazzled as a young four-year-old boy by Charles Lindberg’s transatlantic flight, Mel joined the service after “reasoning” with his parents to get their permission in 1942. He went through Navy flight training, first flying a Piper Cub, then the Stearman, the BT-13 Vultee Vibrator and the SNJ Texan and was assigned duty flying the Douglas SBD “Dauntless” dive bomber. This was the exact aircraft that he had been enamored of after reading an article in his doctor’s waiting room two years before! The SBD was especially fun because it could be pointed straight down and dived without exceeding its maximum speed.

To his chagrin, the Navy and Marine Corp stopped using the SBD and he was assigned to the Helldiver, a real “dog”, while based at El Toro. The next plane was the Hellcat, which he enjoyed flying. He trained for carrier landing at Mojave and Santa Barbara and was then sent to do his carrier qualification --- 6 successful traps. On his seventh trap, he was given a defective plane with a faulty tailhook and got to go swimming as a result! He was then assigned to Hawaii with Air Group 9 that consisted of a TBM “Avenger” squadron and a Corsair squadron. After V-J day, Mel was assigned to a Corsair reconnaissance squadron operating off a 2200 foot runway in Japan --- very exciting.

After the war, Mel attended college but was recalled for the Korean conflict and assigned to a Corsair squadron where they flew interdiction, close air support and rescue missions. They were directed to targets for bomb delivery by radio and radar based on reconnaissance photos. He also flew L-5s as an Observation Pilot. The Corsair was phased out in favor of the Douglas AD Skyraider which was used for night radar missions. He flew ninety missions and earned nine Air Medals and a Distinguished Flying Cross.

After the war he was given the job of interviewing released POWs. He extended in the Marine Corps for one year to learn how to fly helicopters. On reporting for duty, however, the OD informed him that he was not there to fly helicopters, rather he was to be a flight instructor. After extensive training in aerodynamic subjects, he went on to instruct three students a day and has remained in touch with some to this day.

After discharge, he achieved a masters degree, became a high school administrator and then the principal of a brand new high school in Whittier which was so new it did not even have a name. It then became La Serna High School.

Mel has been generous in sharing his experiences with Planes of Fame in Chino, the Experimental Aircraft Association, the Survivors of Pearl Harbor, the Desert Storm Squadron in Palm Springs and now we are honored to hear of his career and service to our country at GPS. Many thanks, Mel, we look forward to your term as our commanding officer.

New Op-Plan Format

Tim Brown Assistant Membership Officer (Recruiting)  

>> Click HERE for the Complete Op-Plan in the NEW Format!! <<

Welcome to the 21st Century! We are so pleased to bring you your monthly OP-Plan in a new electronic format. Why are we doing this? There are so many good reasons “why” that we have to make a list!  

• 1. By sending you the OP-Plan electronically instead of by US mail our organization will save a significant amount of money each month , not to mention the MASSIVE amount of man hours that our good friend Hal (who is retiring from this job) and countless other Gramps stalwarts have spent every month writing, editing, printing, folding, and mailing your OP-Plan to you.  
• 2. The new OP-Plan will be in color, with much better and clearer pictures. It looks fantastic!  
• 3. There should be no delay in receipt of your OP Plan again. Because it is electronic you will have instant access to the new OP-Plan as soon as it is updated every month. You can read it at your leisure any time you want, and go back again and again to reread articles. You will receive a monthly email reminder every month when the OP-Plan is updated.  
• 4. You will be able to easily print the OP-Plan yourself , or read it on your computer. No need to file or store bulky paper files - save a tree and store it on disk. You can also print out and keep pictures or articles that are important to you without keeping the whole OP-Plan.  
• 5. If there is an article that you would like to share with friends or family, simply cut and paste it into an email, or just send your friends the URL to the website and let them see what a fantastic website GPS has!  
• 6. Sending the OP-Plan electronically has cut GPS newsletter volunteer work hours from approximately 140 hours per month to about 10 hours per month!  
• 7. Gramps CO adds: FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT HAVE A COMPUTER or do not have access to one, the GPS OP-Plan Staff will not "cut you out of the pattern."  Contact Tim Brown to find a way to stay connected to GPS and all of our activities. Tim's U.S. Mail and email addresses are listed on the flyer insert in the regular OP-Plan or contact him at timb53@hotmail.com.  

Thanks for your understanding as we go through this OP-Plan transitional period together. None of us are professionals; we are all volunteers trying to do the best job that we can around our job and family obligations.   There may be some turbulence ahead as we launch our new website. We appreciate your patience while we navigate through it all. Happy reading!