at the Holiday Inn in Dayton, Ohio
on September 29 through October3, 2010.
Holiday Inn Dayton/Fairborn Ohio
http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/hi/1/en/hotel/fbnpd?stopredirect=true
Direct Dial: 937.431.4603 Make your reservations TODAY !
We will look for you in Ohio at the reunion.
Here is the Agenda for our 2010 reunion. Information on what we will be doing and where we will be going at this reunion will is in the agenda above as well as in our newsletter.
Below is the information on our 2009 reunion.
The 48th Squadron Association Annual Reunion was a huge success thanks to Joe Onesty, Bob Maurice, John Classen and especially Dick and Sandy Stultz who acted as our hosts and travel guides in and around Sacramento, CA. For those of you who could not make this one, we missed you. You would have had a great time! What follows is a quick recap of the events. The mission was headquartered at the Holiday Inn, Sacramento. The weather was CAVU just like you would expect. The hospitality room was “up and running” as the first priority.
Thursday began with the Sutter Gold Mine tour in the heart of the gold country through the tunnels of an actual working hard rock gold mine. Several squadron members “struck it rich” panning for gold. After lunch at the Sutter Creek Palace, it was off to the wine country for an afternoon of wine tasting at two different vineyards. The bus ride back was a good time to nap. From the vineyards we drove to the old Mather AFB to meet the 48th FTS as they arrived from Columbus AFB, MS. Lt Col Sean Schoolcraft and eight captain and lieutenant instructor pilots flew in in three T-1 trainers. While waiting for the T-1 arrival, Dick Stultz arranged for a quick walk around briefing from an active duty U-2 pilot of the black T-38 that they use for proficiency flying. It was great to see real Air Force airplanes flying. Dinner was a buffet at the hotel followed by a late night in the hospitality room.
Friday came early as we loaded the bus for the Reno Air Races. As we crossed the mountains to Nevada, we stopped at Donner Pass for a memorial service dedicated to our fallen comrades complete with Taps. The Air Races is a great show. We saw several classes of airplanes race including jets and unlimited which ran at almost 500 mph. There were plenty of static displays including the P38 “Glacier Girl” and numerous aerial acts including the Blue Angels. The weather was perfect, the racing was exciting and the aerobatics were spectacular. What a great day at a world class aviation event. During the RTB we stopped at Boomtown, NV for dinner and gambling. Everyone was a winner.
On Saturday morning Dick Stultz took us to the Aerospace Museum of CA located at the old McClelland AFB. He gave us the $3.00 tour which included the F-106 that he and Sandy salvaged and restored for the museum. This museum has a great collection of USAF Cold War fighters along with some Russian MIGs. Lunch time found us in “Old Town” Sacramento - Lots to see and do with good food and good shopping. Some of our stops included The Military Museum, The Delta King, Wells Fargo, Doc Holliday’s, The California State Railroad Museum and costume shopping at Evangeline’s. The banquet Saturday night was attended by 35 association members and 9 officers of the 48th Flying Training Squadron. This included the following members from the WWII P-38 era: Joe Onesty; Ira Latour; Earl Mealer; Bert Stokes (and daughter, Elaina); Jim Stanhope (and wife, Juanita) and Josephine O’Rourke, widow of Henry O’Rourke (with daughter, Teresa and granddaughter, Christine – daughter Peggy attended Thurs and Fri). Ed Benson (and wife, Robin) attended Thursday’s dinner.
TSgt Bob Wegeman gave the invocation which included the 48th Squadron Association prayer written by Joe Hester. The 48th FTS officers set the POW/MIA table and Lt Col Schoolcraft (the guest speaker) gave a briefing on current operations. After dinner the floor was open for hanger stories. Several stories were told, many from WWII. Some of them may have even been true! The hospitality room stayed open late for more.
Thanks to everyone who attended the 2009 reunion and another special thanks to Dick and Sandy Stultz for all of their efforts to make it such a great success.
