A Report on the Excellent Reunion in Pensacola, Florida

For those who were unable to attend the recent VP-2 reunion in Pensacola, let it be known that a good time was had by all.   The rooms and facilities at the Hilton hotel on Pensacola Beach were fantastic.   The hotel staff could not have been nicer or more accommodating to our needs.   We must emphasize again what a great job our reunion hosts did in making it all come together.   One additional note: The reunion committee plans to issue a CD to all of the reunion attendees to include the slide show that was presented at the banquet plus as many other photos as they can gather from the attendees.   Send your reunion photos to Jim Summitt either on a CD by mail to Box 250, Niceville, FL 32588-0250 or attach your photos to an email to summittk@cox.net.  

On Monday, we checked in to the hotel and gathered at an evening cocktail reception that allowed us to mingle and meet with our old friends from the past and to meet some new members of the Association.  

We gathered at the Beach Bum Trolleys at 7:00am Tuesday morning for the ride to the Naval Air Station, where we saw the best of all Blue Angel performances followed by a day at the Naval Aviation Museum.   For the Blue Angel show, we had our own grandstand and narrator and a close-up view right next to the runway.   Wow!!  For many, it was a first trip to the Naval Aviation Museum, which is now so large that it would take days to see it all.   We did get to see The Truculent Turtle up close.   There is much more on that elsewhere in the December newsletter.

On Wednesday, we held our business meeting in the morning, and then had a sit-down lunch in an adjacent meeting room.   During the business meeting, elections were held for five of the seven positions on our Association’s executive board.   Floyd Palmer was reelected as President, Jim Welch was elected as 2nd Vice President, Doug Donohue was reelected as Secretary/ Treasurer, Vic Gulliver was reelected as a Director, and Arley Hamilton was elected to his first term as a Director.   Dino Vlahakis continues in his first term as 1st Vice President, and Milt DeBuhr continues in his first term as a Director.   After some discussion at the meeting, it was decided that we should hold our 2012 VP-2 reunion in Fort Worth, TX.   Jim and Pat Welch have volunteered to host that reunion.

The last event of our reunion was a banquet on Thursday evening in the hotel’s largest ballroom.   With terrific entertainment and a slide show of VP-2 photos from the many eras of the squadron’s history, the reunion ended on an upbeat note.   Those of us who were able to attend the Pensacola reunion look forward to the next one and hope that as many of our friends as possible can join us in Fort Worth in 2012.