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Updated : 19 JUNE 2008
Look for the RED highlights for June 2008 information.
2008 REUNIONS
19 JUNE 2008: Leon Lacy has provided information on Marshall "Jim" Irby's Range Rat Get-Together as noted below:
THE 4th ANNUAL RANGE RAT GET-TOGETHER FOR 2008
ATTENTION
ALL FORMER RANGE RATS!
(this includes all companies that worked down range).
WHERE: Jim Irby's home in Hawthorne Florida (S E of Gainesville, Florida).
It is scheduled for 3 & 4 Oct 2008 (Friday and Saturday) .
A fish fry is scheduled on Friday, (5 PM) the cost is $15.00 per person.
There will be a barbeque on Saturday, (2 PM) the cost is $15.00 per person.
BYOB for soft drinks, beer, booze etc.
Please bring your own chairs.
Bring your old photo’s and slides along for “Show & Tell Time”
Accommodations: Arrangements have been made at two hotels in Gainsville FL for this get-together, a special discount rate will be given to Range Rats!
(Cutoff date for reservations is: 21 Sept. 2008 for the Quality Inn Gainsville
and 26 Sept. for the Gainesville Travelodge).
For further details all interested parties should get in contact with
Leon Lacy, (321) 427-3409
RSVP NLT 21 Sept 2008
You can also reach Lacy at this email address by clicking: HERE
OR
Contacting Jim Irby at (352) 481-4094
KWAJ REUNION, 01 - 04 AUG 2008
01 JUNE 2008, Roger Priest of Merritt Island FL has sent in information of a Kwaj Reunion and a link for Range Rats who may have worked on Kwajalein or Roi Namur, or visited there on a tracking ship.
They are having their reunion in Colorado Springs, CO on August 1 - 4, 2008. Click on this link to get all the info on the Kwaj Reunion 2008. You will also see a list of persons who have already signed up. You might find more old Range Rat friends.
(Thanks Roger, and I am including your notice of this reunion because I have become increasingly aware that many ETR Range/Ship Rats have also worked on the Kwaj Range).
19 FEB 2008: Fred Perkins emailed me with info about the:
2008 RCA Oldtimer's Reunion
it was held on Saturday 05 April at the AZAN Shrine Temple in Melbourne FL
16 APRIL 2008, JIM EDWARDS: wrote There was indeed a very large crowd. It is actually a problem to get around and talk to all of the old acquaintences. For a lot of them you just get a chance to wave or shake hands and then move on. In addition to those mentioned by Fred Perkins (below), I noted Eliot Phillips, John Walker, Gary Janousek, and Bill Degraw. Mac and Fran Stinson were there for the first time, I believe. Most notable was Fred Kenney. He had not attended previous gatherings as he was engaged in setting an all-time record for time on Ascension. That record isn't likely to ever be broken - at least not in this century.
13 APRIL 2008, FRED PERKINS: wrote that he and his wife Sheila attended the reunion. He goes on to say: "Organizer Arbe (Mac) Mcdowall told me they had (I believe the figure was) 260 folks signed up.
As you may know, attendees are mainly uprange folks, many of whom us downrangers probably never met. I did take notice of at least 24 down range folks as well as other notables known to a lot of us. The list is below.
I heard there that Art Wren had passed away. Art held a number of engineering and management positions at MTP, and although he was not a "downranger" himself, was well known to a lot of downrangers. His son Robert worked with me at AUTEC many years after I had left ETR.
Another sad note, got an e-mail recently from Gordon Clarke that he saw the notice of Dave Donaldson's passing in the paper. Dave passed away on April 4. I relieved Dave as IM at Pretoria in 1968. I believe he held IM positions at a number of other stations over the years.
Here are some of the folks I met / saw at the meeting. Tom Alman, Andy Anderson (not Gordon), Myrl Anderson, Dave Beirle, Al Bishop, Chris Bullis, Tom Campbell's widow Doris, Gordon Clarke, Chauncey and Carol Dunn, Jim Edwards (PAA), Mike Grant, Curt and Deidre Jarvis, Benny Juhl, Bill Kenny, Fred Kenny, Mac McDowall, Dominic Mancini, Max and Essie Miller, Dave Simonson, Larry Smith, Bob Stupp, John Thomas, Les Waddill and Dennis Woods."
Thanks Fred and Ed for these fine reports.
If anyone else has more info or pictures about this reunion that they would care to share with the other RRs who didn't attend, please
send email to Joe
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2007 REUNIONS
Jim Irby's 3rd Annual Range Rat Reunion at Hawthorne FL. was
held on 19 & 20 Oct 2007.
13 FEB 2008,
The below panoramic photo was take at the reunion and sent in by Leon Lacy
Click on above image for an enlarged view
and then click it again for a much larger view.
Leon Lacy has a web photo album page of the 2007 Irby Reunion, Look and see if you are there or see who attended:
Click here to see the photo album.
If you attended this reunion, why not send me an email of who was there and any range rat news you learned that would be of interest to other who did not attend.
thanx
Send Email to Joe
15 FEB. 2007: Jack Tolman emailed me a copy of the informational flyer announcing the
18th ANNUAL RCA OLDTIMER'S and
SPACEPORT PHOTOGRAPHERS GET-TOGETHER (REUNION)
It was held on Saturday 10 March 2007 at the Shrine Azan Temple in Melbourne FL.
17 Mar. 2007: FRED PERKINS & HIS WIFE SHEILA attended the RCA Get-Together and Fred sent a list of some of the folks he recognized there: Tom Alman, Ron Blackburn, Tom Brozoskie, Gordon and Olga Clarke, Chauncey and Carol Dunn, Everett James, Jim Judson, Benny Juhl, Bill Kenney, Dominic Mancini, Fran Mason, Max and Essie Miller, Ethel Porter, Les Purdue, Hoot Ringo, John Rose, Larry Smith, John Thomas, Jack VanCleve, Les Waddill, Willie Williamson, and Dennis Wood.
Fred also took some pictures which can be viewed by clicking HERE
25 Mar. 2007: JACK TOLMAN forwarded an email from Howard L. Northrop who said: " I was at the 'RCA get together' (L.L. didn't mention seeing me in his e-mail to you). I don't know if you know them, but I saw Andy Anderson, Frank Mason, Ray Scarpa, Bill Redman, and several others that I can't think of their names right now. (Old Age?)".
17 Mar. 2007: JACK TOLMAN forwarded an email from Larry L. Smith who attended this RCA function and had this to say about the gathering: "Yep, I was there and enjoyed seeing many of the ol' gang from RCA and PAA. Vic Craft said he had 225 signed up and the no-shows pretty well matched the walk-ons so I would reckon 250 in attendance. I asked why they had jumped the count by a month from the normal April date and Vic said it was due to a scheduling mixup, so it will probably be in April in '08. The air conditioned Melbourne Shrine Auditorium is a great set up for this gathering and takes weather (which was scrumptious) out of the equation. Arbe McDowell and John Thomas are members there so they arranged our affair with Mac playing affable host and John laboring in the kitchen. The bar was open and that makes it nice for those of us who like to enjoy an adult beverage while we chew the fat. Downrange from my epoch was fairly well represented. Saw Ray Edester, Bud Emard, Scott Fetterman, Dave Burch, Jerry Wolfe, Dennis Wood, Les Perdue, Ron Blackburn, Maurice Jones, Elliot Phillips, Jim Edwards and so on. G. Denton Clark, who was Project Manager when I hired on in '66 was there and looked like a million dollars. Other PMs Karl Wenz, Tom Alman. Managers Jack Simpson, Gene Fetner, several engineers - Jack Galpin, Max Miller, Frank Cockerham, etc. Enjoyed chatting with Glenn Brown and we agreed it wasn't the same without ol' Maj Carter. John Mayo, still laboring away at the ROCC was probably the youngest there with his dad (Timing) who was one of the oldest.
It was a nice gathering and Vic Craft, Gene Fetner, Pam Day, Ann Sheimer, Arbe & Mrs., John Thomas and team did a marvelous job as usual. Vic indicated he is planning to press on for next year. Let's make sure we are all well and well represented!"
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2006 REUNIONS
Jim Irby's 2nd Annual Range Rat Reunion at Hawthorne FL. was on 27 & 28 Oct 2006.
10 NOV 2006: Fred Perkins sent an email saying he and his wife did not attend Jim Irby's Reunion but Leon Lacy sent a link to view pictures taken the the event which can viewed here.
Fred said he Recognized only a few ex RCA folks: Les and Carol Waddill, Curt and Deidre Jarvis, Doris Campbell, (her first husband Tom died many years ago, don't know her current name) and Leon Lacy, who took most of the pictures.
On APRIL 8, 2006 the 17th ANNUAL RCA OLDTIMERS & SPACEPORT PHOTOGRAPHERS GET TOGETHER, was held at the Azan Shrine auditorium in Melbourne Florida. And again no one reported what went on. So thats the story from here!
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2005 REUNIONS
On April 9th, 2005 the 16th ANNUAL RCA OLDTIMERS GET-TOGETHER
was held at the Shrine Azan Temple in Melbourne FL.
Glenn Brown who attended writes: "One of the interesting things at the reunion is that someone had a copy of the first contract proposal that got RCA the bid, I think in 1952 (?). It was for 13 million, and included 2,300 employees. As for the old oldtimers, maybe someone else can inform you on them better than I can.... Jack Van Cleve is the only one I can think of right now.... you might remember Dick Tangen and Lee Northrop."
Elliot Phillips who attended writes: I attended the reunion with Carl Winkenhofer. Talked
to Ray Edester, Marvin "Hoot" Ringo, Frank Thompson, Dennis Woods, Larry Smith, John & Mary Thomas and a few others I can't remember.
Fred Perkins sent me this message in early May:
I went to the RCA oldtimers picnic a few weeks ago. Heard there that
Joe Clarke had passed away. Joe was my site chief when I was a transmitter tech on SLU in 1958-1960. He eventually wound up in Ops Planning at the Cape, and retired from there many years ago.
Heard also there that Len Mashburn had passed away. Len spent some time downrange, I'm not sure where, and several years in the D/R office at PAFB.
Met Dominic Mancini at the RCA picnic. First time I had seen him since
Antigua 1971 or thereabouts. It seems like every year I meet someone who I haven't seen since range days, which ended for me in 1972.
Had a long chat with Arbie (Mac) Mcdowall at the picnic. He is one of the organizers. Worked with Mac at SLU. He worked out of Patrick for many years in the Crypto Administration area. Best remembered by many D/R folks as the guy who played piano at the club. At 73 Mac is still going strong and playing gigs a couple of times a week.
Other folks we ran across there included Les Waddill, Bill Kolter,
Gordon Clarke, Larry Smith, Wayne Witham and Howie Phillips. Sheila and I try to attend every year, and each time seem to see at least a few folks we haven't seen since Range days.
Jim Irby notified me in July 2005 that he was having a Pioneer Range Rat Reunion in his home, in Hawthorne Florida, but unfortunately I was not able to publish this information as I was having major trouble with the web server and could do no updating for over two months.
Robert Sellars sent me this report Jan 02, 2006 on the Jim Irby mini-reunion: Irby lives in Hawthorne, which is S E of Gainesville, Florida.
Mac McDowell and wife were up from the rock; it must be 20 years that they have been together down there. And speaking of the rock, Dave Avsec, ABOM during my time there, was also present. But for me, the biggest thrill was seeing a bunch of Seychellois Tracking Station alumni! Jim Pollard, now working at JDMTA, was there, but without wife. Richard Archer, who relieved me as Commissary Supvr. was there with his wife. Also, Bernie Bernard and wife, Bert Shirley, who was Admin. Rep. and his wife, Marguerite were there. Chauncy Dunn and his wife Carol were there; these are good friends of ours, we spent New Years at their home, and Frank O'leary showed up there. He said he had been to Irby's, but on a different day then Ann and I. Russ Reed was there, as was Bob Staats' widow. Wow, I could go on, but I just had a real inspiration. Leon Lacy has a web photo album page, where he put quite a few pictures of Irby's mini-reunion. That would be something to show the troops.
Click here to see the photo album.
(added 24 MAY 06) Ivan R. Kistler had this to say in the range rat sign in book entry of 26 Mar 06: Had a great time last year at Jim Irby's 2005 Range Rat Reunion. It
was great to see some guys I had not seen in many years. What a
treat to BS and talk about the great times we had down range.
Due to this website I contacted Bill Hughes who is back on Antigua
as a DGO. He later called me from Antigua and filled me in on
his return to what is left of the range.
I am still in contact with Jim Irby, John Bujnosek, Lou Holtkamp, Gerald Lindsey, Andy Harper, Arthur (Robbie) Robinson and as I mentioned Bill Hughes.
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ADDED 13 FEB 2008,
1986 and 1988 REUNIONS
Dave Stark and his wife organized two Range Rat Reunions in 1986 and 1988 which he said were very successful. They got over 200 people at each one. Rangerats came from as far as Saudi Arabia and islands on the Western Test Range (Kwajelin).
09 FEB 2008, Received word from Dave Stark's granddaugher that on 07 FEB 2008 he had passed away and that Dave's wife had died SEPT 2007.
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