Brothers in P-Cola

Has anyone heard from our Brothers still living there? Stumpy Parnham, Matt Dierney, Frenchy, et all. How can we help?

LZ

Brothers in P'cola

Larry,
Gerald Williams of HMM-263 called me yesterday and mentioned that he had talked to Frenchy's son and they were hit pretty hard by Ivan. The son stated that they would be out of business for awhile. This is second hand info but I think it would be pretty relialbe concidering the above information from our members regardng Whiting Field. From what I understand Frenchy lives close to the base.

S/F Gary Alls
HMM-263 '66-'67

My cousin and Husband live in Ft Walton Beach area, Navara, not sure spelling, they got back home yesterday and stated a lot of amage on way in they are misssing front oirch, shutters and shingles without elect and water but are ok and looks like 3-6 weeks at least for power back maybe longer for Pcola area.

More pictures of PNS,Navarre and area damage

FYI 511 plus 89 pictures are located on www.pensacolabeachliving.com. Aerial shots of the overall area. I found my house on Navarre Beach on it and I live in KS.

There are 250-300, (T-34C, H57 and T-39) aircraft at Millington Airport (former NAS Memphis). These aircraft arrived last Tuesday (9/14) and are still here.

I understand all of these aircraft are from Whiting Field and Pensacola.

Millington Airport

Wondered where te aircraft went. I was told they were moved, but nobody knew where. Would be great to get some photos of all of them in Memphis (Millington) for us old folks. Anyone close by able to do that??
Sempe Fi
Joe

MIllington Pictures

My son posted 3 pictures of H-57's parked at Millington.

go to www.jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?userid=1630

I know he took more than 3 pictures, I'll try to get him to post more photos this weekend

Museum Overhead Photo

Here is a link to a rather LARGE photo showing the detail of the NMNA Museum flight line and the museum, along with the Blue Angel's flight line after IVAN.

If you are doing Dial Up it will take a long time, but if you want detail, it's worth it. Root back on the URL and find lots of NOAA photos of the area.

Regards
Steve Hornberger

Just spoke with Frenchy LaFountaine

I just spoke with Frenchy (Thursday 9/23), his power is partially restored, still no phone service other than cell. He reports 70% loss of everything on Pensacola Beach, severe devestation. Everything pretty much south of I-10 hit hard. He's busy helping others, items in need are chain saws and generators primarily. They're looking for truck loads. Frenchy is still waiting to hear from a few other Marines who lived on the beach, no word yet. He says to tell everybody he survived!

Pensacola Photo

Great photo! Wonder where the Helos are? Guess they were able to move them inside, since they aren't on the flight line anywhere. Can't remember from the 2002 reunion if the aircraft were all in about the same position or not, but it seems that most are. Glad the Museum at least suffered minimumly, at least compared to other Pensacola areas.
We're preparing for another one in West Palm Beach as I write this. Jeanne turned around on us and will be here Sunday, it seems. Just got power back to everyone in the area last week-end, but compared to Pensacola, it's a walk in the park.
Semper Fi
Joe

Regarding Pensacola

I received the following e-mail from one of our HMM-263 members. Thought you might be interested.

S/F Gary Alls
HMM-263
Class of '66-'67

Subject: NAS P'COLA & YL-42 SITREP

Folks
Please pass this eyewitness survey thru your contact loops.

Don Ferguson, ( Ugly crew chief ' 69 )owner of Ferguson Airport, (about 3miles from NAS, back gate ) and I, went to see what was to be the fate of YL-42, and, whatever else we could see.

First, the back gate is secured, with no guards.
We had to drive all the way around to Navy Blvd, from Blue Angel Pkwy to access the main gate.
DOD cops waved us thru.
We drove straight thru to the NATTC area to check out MATSG offices to see if CO Col David "Cubby" Baraclaugh might be in his office in the Gen Marion Carl Bldg.

The base was a ghost town.
Trees down, wires, buildings with gaping holes, whole sides of buildings pushed in from a tidal surge.
These are NOT your average NW FL redneck mobile home constructed buildings.
We're talking steel framed, block & brick, that looked like the first little pigs house when the wolf got done!
We drove around the base, encountering only a scant working party of about 40 Marines emptying offices onto sidewalks and piling debri.
There are a number of contractors working clearing trees & debri.
It was ground zero for 135 to 150 MPH winds with tidal surge.
Many of these buildings are 1 to 300 meters from the docks.
The Sound is less than a mile across, then the open Gulf.
Tornadoes were also evident all over the base.
Back to the Gen Marion Carl Bldg.
This is Marine Air Trng Support/Schools Group (I Think).
Anyway, you can see THROUGH a complete empty bldg.
Cubby's office looks like a bombed out 7-11 convenience store after the Watts riot.
My concern is, that there was a major collection of memorabelia from the career of Gen Carl, including uniforms, decorations, etc, on disply on the quarterdeck entrance to the bldg.
I would hate to think that all those personal momentos of his, got trashed.
I THINK they would have evaced the "stuff" before the storm. The empty cases were in piles outside on the sidewalk.

On to the Museum.
Outwardly, the museum fared extremely well!
Little noticable damage.
Again, base, and what is usually touristville, is desolate!
We drove around back to the hangars where restoration is done, and found an open door and a small crew.
The old hangars were showing no visible signs of what the rest of the base had suffered.
Guess the oldest stuff was built the best.
We cut through the hangar to the flight line, expecting to see the Marble Mountain A/C boneyard, but to our great surprise and joy, most of the A/C escaped serious damage.

AND, YES, Old YL-42 survived the Ivan Offensive!
She has a small bit of skin damage on the rear,starboard side, near the tie down ring, in front of the tail wheel.
We think (KNOW) a moving crew did the damage, putting her inside the hangar.
Other than that, she needs paint & markings.
The age old corrosion that was under the Mary Kay pink paint job that we painted over, is lifting off the urethane paint, that still looks great.
SOMETHING will have to be done, cosmetically, but the good news is, we still have a complete H-34 !!

Don Ferguson has offered to let our resto crews use his airport facilities to do whatever
floosieing up we want to do if the museum will let us bring her over there.
Don has the equip & means to get her there.
PLUS there are 2 very active, and skilled, EAA Chapters on his field with folks that would love to help out.
Again, the Angels are blessed!

In the next 2 weeks, if you feel you need a Florida vacation, c'mon down.
We'll be clearing away the old hangar, and T-Hangars at Ferguson Airport, to make way for the new.
Don & Dee can use all the help they can get!

More as developements develope!

Semper Fi!

Frenchy & Don

O'Tooles

Anyone heard how Tim and Teresa O'Toole made out? They had just moved to Pensacola.