Museum volunteer Clayton Hively catches up on some off-season maintenance on the Museum’s Nimitz-Class parade aircraft carrier. This is quite an undertaking and anyone with wood building skills is invited to join us as a volunteer to help complete the project. Photo by George Love
Our most sincere appreciation to Matson Navigation for their generous donation of $1,000 to the PBY Memorial Foundation. They are our newest business partner.
Longtime Museum volunteer and Navy veteran Richard Rezabek represented the Museum in the Oak Harbor drive-by Christmas parade.
We mourn the passing of Fred Owen, another victim of the COVID-19 virus. Owen was the premier PBY pilot in the United States and one of only a few qualified to certify PBY pilots for the FAA. He was a friend and supporter of the PBY Memorial Foundation since its inception.
Owen was deeply involved in plans to develop collaborative efforts among Pacific Flying Boats, the “Soaring by the Sea Foundation” and John Sterling, a museum collaborater with a goal of bringing multiple PBYs to airshows on the West Coast and maybe farther afield. […]
WOW! What a response from you, our supporters. In just over a week, you delivered nearly $12,000 and propelled the donation plane through $55,000. Most important, we blew by the $15,000 match by nearly $5000.
With the $15,000 match, the total for the appeal will be just over $70,000 – right in the middle of our target range. If your check is in the mail or you did not want to overload the Post Office, your donation will help push the museum toward the top range of our goal; $80,000. Reaching the top will almost restore the hole in our […]
A group of volunteers gathered recently to help clean up the Museum’s Aircraft Display Area. Wayne Hastriter hoses down the 1946 Ford 4-door sedan to remove debris built up over the summer months. Other volunteers included Scott Hornung, John Hughes, John Love, Bryan Powell, Sonny Starks and Bill Young.
Quoting the title of an old Bee Gees song, your Pacific Northwest Naval Air Museum has been “Stayin’ Alive!” Many of you have stepped up to support the museum through the Mid-year Appeal fundraiser. Our quest to obtain land continues with unexpected twists and turns.
After just over two months, the museum re-opened on 24 June with a “new normal” in place. Volunteers worked diligently to ensure compliance with COVID 19 safety restrictions including floor marking, protective shielding at the cashier’s counter, systematic sanitizing of high touch areas, mask wearing, etc. etc. Visitors come in every day but in smaller […]
Editor,
I recently read the Cat Chat Newsletter and enjoyed it as usual, especially the “Quarter in History” concerning VP-62. As a former member of VP-62, I am offering a bit of supplemental information, some of which may be of interest to some members.
I came to NAS Whidbey 2 weeks after the Japanese surrender in September, 1945 and was attached to VP-62 and assigned as second radioman in the crew of the new C.O.,Lt.Cmdr. Withrow. He had been the XO, and had taken command after the previous C.O. crashed into a mountain at Kodiak […]
Thank you to our faithful Museum donors and members who have supported us throughout the year. And welcome to our newest members: from Washington, Valerie Garstin and Yara Heinks, and from Oregon, Julie Havelka. Also, from Oregon, aviation enthusiast, CDR Philip R. Rossi, SC, USN (Ret) who joined as a Life member.
With the holidays coming, a Museum membership makes a great gift. Also, find gift ideas in the Ship’s Store and on our website.
Wishing you all a safe ending to 2020.
-Onee Hedeen
I miss days at the Museum as lately my volunteer work has […]
“Resilience” and “Belief”
Well… time has passed and we still are dealing with that old enemy: COVID-19. It permeates our everyday activities whether it be work or play. Most of us now have a personal acquaintance with this plague; a friend, a relative, a neighbor or even ourselves. It truly is serious.
Our response to it really defines who we are: do we accept it, fight it or deal with it in some other manner? A plague has no conscience, no goals or feelings of any kind…We do!
Most of our friends and co-workers at the Pacific Northwest Naval Air Museum have […]
