Pledge/Prayer: President Peter Manley
Song: Andy
Brents card game winner: Ed Pinn in a card-off
Sergeants Report: Gerri
Welcome back snowbird Walter Osborne
Welcome guest Matt Vogt and John Sikora
Raffle Winners: John, Walter, Bob A.
Happy Bucks - of note, Keith and Bill were happy to spend a day with the GSE team and provide rides to the Coast Guard Academy and other points of interest.
Announcements:
Pres. Peter showed off our newly acquired banner from Jupiter, Fla courtesy of Walt
Pres. Peter asked that we pay Gerri for the evening meeting on April 30 - advance pay is preferred
Pres. Peter announced that the Board of Dir. meeting of May 1 has been cancelled and will be rescheduled
Brent announced that next week, a Paul Harris Fellow will be awarded to a deserving club member. Please come out for this event.
Brent told us we need to get in gear and work on the golf tournament - our most important fundraiser. We need to push so that we can hit our goal of $24K net.
Program: John Donnelly introduced John Sikora
John Sikora served in the Vietnam conflict in the reconnaissance Wing known as the Batcats. Along with Larry Westin, John co-wrote the book, BATCATS, The United State Air Force 553rd Reconnaissance Wing in Southeast Asia. Recently, John attended a reunion of his squadron and at which time they honored those who fell in the line of duty. The book is a collection of stories during the time of the Vietnam conflict. Their mission was to monitor enemy movements in the Ho Chi Minh trail which connected the north and south. It was a new concept, dropping sensors in enemy territory - sensors that were developed at the Underwater Sound Labs in New London. Navy pilots began the process of dropping the sensors and the Air Force eventually took over - converting navy planes into what became Batcats. The operation was a huge success. There were 2 kinds of sensors, Seismic - contained coils that could pick up vibration then sent a signal which was re-transmitted to analysists and Sound sensors that could actually pick up voices. John accepted the information and worked with a plotter to get a fix on enemy positions.
The skies were very busy at that time and mid-air collisions, particularly at night and bad weather was a problem.
John was trained at Cape Cod and began his mission in Karat, Thailand. He flew 96 missions.
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