Index

100531 - Taps Dete Aylsworth
100531 - Final 55FG Reunion
100529 - 55Memorial Update... JKovacs
100515 - book signing .. Wolf Samuel
100505 John King Interchange..

 

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from:    Regis Urschler <thegunfighter@cox.net> date:    Mon, May 31, 2010 at 9:20 PM subject:   TAPS ALL: RECEIVED AN E-MAIL FROM WARREN AYLSWORTH’S DAUGHTER BARB ADVISING ME DETE HAD PASSED ON 27 MAY, NO OTHER DETAILS PROVIDED. HER E-MAIL ADDRESS IN MICHIGAN IS barb1erik1@chartermi.net SHOULD YOU WISH TO COORDINATE AND SEND AN INQUIRY. VO REG

from:  Regis Urschler <thegunfighter@cox.net> to: jim@maloney.com, date:   Mon, May 31, 2010 at 5:54 PM subject:    FW: FINAL 55TH FG 2010 Reunion ........................... From: Shanahan, John BrigGen USAF ACC 55 WG/CC [mailto:John.Shanahan@offutt.af.mil] Sent: Saturday, May 15, 2010 4:12 PM To: 'EBGandMFG@aol.com' Cc: 'The Gunfighter' Subject: 2010 Reunion General Giller, I hope this note finds you and Mrs Giller in good health and fine spirits. I wish I could join you next week for the reunion in Albuquerque, but between my Operations Group change of command and a mandatory trek up to Capitol Hill, I cannot find even one day to break away. That said, I would consider it a great privilege if you would be willing to read the note below to the assembled crowd. It is the very least I can do as the sitting 55th Wing Commander. I understand this may be the last reunion for the 55th Fighter Group and 442nd Air Service Group. I trust that the occasion will be a memorable and joyful one, not a sad one. Thanks so much for your service to the 55th and the nation! With warmest regards, Jack ***************           To the Airmen and spouses of the 55th Fighter Group and 442nd Air Service Group Association: on behalf of the almost 8,000 Airmen of the Fightin’ Fifty-Fifth at Offutt Air Force Base and across the globe, I want to extend my heartiest welcome to all of you. I am deeply honored by the opportunity to pass on a few words to all of you, gathered here in Albuquerque for what could be your final reunion. I wish I could be there in person to join you! I tried so hard to make it down south, but I just could not break away for even one day. My message to you is a relatively simple one: all of the Airmen in the Fightin’ Fifty-Fifth today owe you an enduring debt of gratitude for everything you did to serve our nation during a period that was defined by the most horrific and far-reaching conflict of the last century; though a conflict that was, in terms of its goals and ultimate achievements, also an honorable one. Your efforts in that war paved the way for the wing as it exists today. As I said at our recent Birthday Ball (an annual event that exists today only because the sheer force of Brig Gen Reg Urschler’s personality!), the only way we can understand where we are today and where we need to go in the future is by understanding where we came from. The path to the future runs through the past. It runs through all of you. A lot has changed since the earliest days of the 55th Pursuit Group and Fighter Group flying P-38s and P-51s in combat in the European Theater. Today the wing owns nine different kinds of airframes, not only the many variants of the venerable RC-135 but also the E-4B National Airborne Operations Center and the EC-130H Compass Call. There is a reason we say “The Sun Never Sets on the Fightin’ Fifty-Fifth”: we continue to fly missions around the world in peacetime and in combat every day of the year, every hour of the day, taking the fight to the enemies in Afghanistan and Iraq. While “Clobber College” and Operation ENDURING FREEDOM are separated by six decades, what has NOT changed, however, is the fighting spirit and warrior attitude that is part and parcel of the 55th Wing’s DNA. You passed it down through many generations. I assure you the process of evolution has only improved and strengthened that warrior strand of our collective wing DNA! The threat has changed, but the results are the same now as they were back in 1944: fewer enemies on the battlefield, and success for our nation and our allies. Let me repeat a paragraph I wrote for the back of a pamphlet we hand out to all wing Airmen to help them understand the wing mission. I think you will agree with the message: “The Fightin’ Fifty-Fifth has a long and distinguished heritage. It is a legacy formed on the shoulders of the tens of thousands of Airmen who have gone before us, and who will continue the march to greatness long after we have departed. As former 55th Wing Commander Brigadier General Reg Urschler said, ‘great units exist only because the people within them work as a team, with pride, esprit-de-corps, high morale, determination, patience, and dedication’.” The Fifty-Fifth Wing *is* a great unit. But it did not become great by accident. Its greatness can be traced directly to its origins with all of you---forged in the arena of combat in World War II and continuing through Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War, Desert Storm, Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom, and hundreds of operations in between. We owe our success today to what you started over 60 years ago. As you pass the guidon and the battle streamers to the next generation of Fightin’ Fifty-Fifth Airmen, rest assured that we will carry them proudly. With a spring in our step, a gleam in our eye, and the confidence that we will make all of you proud to be our comrades in arms. Thank you for all you did. Thank you for charting the course to greatness. Thank you for setting the standard. Thank you for standing tall when it counted. We will not let you down. We will not forget our origins. We will ensure the lineage remains unbroken. And we will hoist the flag high. God Bless America. Videmus Omnia. Brigadier General Jack Shanahan Commander, 55th Wing

from:    J1a2c3k@aol.com date:    Sat, May 29, 2010 at 2:53 PM subject:    55th Memorial status          I visited the memorial this morning and found it somewhat shabby, due to the winter as well as the wet spring here. Will have to spend some time out there working, again, on the moss between the brick, ant hills which have spread some sand around as the little buggers do, and a few scrawny weeds popping up between the brick. Nothing a broom or leaf blower can't take care of, with some sneaky weed-b-gone and ant killer. Other than that I didn't notice any negative effects from the past winter, but will inspect it closer when I go out there again. As you can see in the picture, our Blue spruce tree is looking very healthy, with lots of growth coming out and filling in the gaps. Jack near Dayton, Ohio

From: marilynking2@yahoo.com Sent: 5/5/2010 10:07:20 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time Subj: Fw: John King Int. Ground Breaking 5/10 Could you send this out to the 55th? ******************************************************************** top

From: "Wolfgang Samuel" <wolfsamuel@msn.com> To: <wolfsamuel@msn.com> Date: Sat, 15 May 2010 10:21:20 -0400 Subject: Meeting America in the Air and Space Museum Yesterday I did a book signing at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in downtown Washington; not my first, and hopefully not my last. The books on the table while I sit watching America walk past, are I Always Wanted to Fly and Glory Days. Books about men who fought for America's, for our, safety and security - books about ordinary Americans who accomplished extraordinary things. In front of me, while there for three hours on an early Friday afternoon, passed young and old from all 50 states, and from many countries near and far. I find it to be an extraordinary education, like taking the pulse of what we call our country. So, who stops and buys my books? A Russian and his family visiting from Moscow who wanted to learn more about American and British overflights of the Soviet Union. I talked to him about Hal Austin and his extraordinary flight, and he talked to me about someone in his family flying the MiG 15 and facing F-86 Sabres over Manchuria; a nine year old Canadian boy told me all about his grandfather, 'a private, not a high ranking officer like you' he said to me. He wanted to learn more about the time when his grandfather went to England, and he told me all about his collection of WWII memorabilia - a nine year old! There was the Florida motorcycle policeman whose father flew the P-47 in WWII and who later flew for American Airlines, including an aircraft displayed in the museum. The son of a Bell Aircraft test pilot stopped to talk and pick up a book. His father flew the Bell P-59 Aircomet, our first jet, one hanging high over the crowds at the main entrance to the museum. There was a little ten year old girl, a redhead, who kept coming back - the third time around she had her dad and older brother in tow with her and she finally got the book that captured her imagination. 'My brother wants to be a pilot' she said. I told her that maybe she was the one who wanted to become a pilot. There was the father who wanted a book inscribed for his son who was waiting to leave for Colorado Springs and the Air Force Academy; and the Navy cadet worried that the F-18 would be phased out before he got a chance to complete pilot training. A 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing veteran and his family stopped by - we both flew in the same wing at the same time but didn't know each other, since most of us were gone, flying then secret reconnaissance missions, more times than we were at home. A boy and his father visiting from India stopped to talk and buy a book, and many a woman who wanted to share with me their father's or grandfather's experiences in bombers over Europe or slogging through the snow in the bitter winter of '44 to '45 in Europe. All of course wanted their books signed, often with a special comment about or for someone; many had their picture taken with me, and many more came by just to shake my hand and thank me for my service to our country. Some come to the Air and Space museum just to look and pass the time, but many come to meet their heritage, to better understand what their fathers and grandfathers accomplished. When they come and shake my hand and thank me for my service, it is not just me they are thanking - they want to bond with someone who was there, when one of their own faced similar times and circumstances. They know that we have men and women serving in distant wars - and when they shake my hand they are saying 'we know and we appreciate what they are doing.' When they shake my hand and say ' thank you for your service' - they are saying that to all who served and who are still serving. America has a conscience and I learned our people do not forget, but are proud of our achievements and sacrifices. So, that's why I love to go out to the Air and Space Museum to meet America's true heart. Wolfgang Samuel top

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