Early arrivals for flyers, May – 17, 18 and 19
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Tuesday 17 May.……………………….
Don Campbell, Ed Haerter, John Stewart -
Wednesday 18 May.…………………. Bob Gold, Gary Silence
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Thursday 19 May.……………………. Richard Graham
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Friday 20 May.……………………..
….. Bill Lynch, Joe Broker, Roger Root -
Saturday 21 May.…………………….. Bob Terbet
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Sunday 22 May.……………………..
…. AS REQUIRED
- Thursday, 19 May—Main guest arrivals. 1730 reception in Hilton Garden Inn banquet room. 1900 buffet dinner and lottery drawing
- Friday, 20 May—Complimentary breakfast. Rides, viewing, and photos with F-100. Golf available at the Ft.Wayne Country Club. Casual outdoor dinner at the Joseph Decuis Farm.
- Saturday, 21 May—Complimentary breakfast. Rides, viewing and photos with F-100. Golf available. Tours at A-10 Air Guard Wing.
- The Saturday Relaxed Dining Out Affair (82 attending) starts at 6PM at the Ft. Wayne Country Club . The dinner will be Lobster and Filet Mignon with wine provided at cost by SSS member, Lanny Lancaster.
- Sunday 22 May— Complimentary breakfast. Last F-100 rides and photo’s. Guest departures.
About 80 SSS members and guests will meet at Ft. Wayne, IN, the home base of Dean “Cutter” Cutshall’s F-100F. While there, about 15 will go up for a “bucket list” ride and the rest of us will watch, smell and touch. With such a positive response from “for sure riders,” we realized that to fly 15 old Hun Drivers was quite a bit to expect in a three day stand, especially for our 70+ year-old IP! Accordingly, the flying schedule has been adjusted to begin on Tuesday, 17 May, and run through Sunday, 22 May. That works out to an average of three flights per day for Dean’s civilian operation and staff.
Travelers are staying at the Hilton Garden Inn and the Homewood Suites, which are located about 100’ from each other in Ft. Wayne. There will be a pay-as-you-go bar and a buffet dinner Thursday at 7PM. The highlight of the evening will be lottery drawings, at $100, to see who the lucky guys will be who win a ride in the F-100. They can then choose to fly on any of the next three days! This flexibility means the winners need NOT be at the drawing, assuming they can get to Ft. Wayne and make their flight by 22 May.
After a complimentary breakfast, the daytime agenda for 20 May will be to watch the riders, view and hug the airplane, and take lots of pictures. If you forget your camera, we’ve arranged for a photographer to document the entire event. He’ll be glad to take pictures of your own posing upon request, including trying to take a “now” hero picture of members that is similar to those “then” pictures we feature in The Way We Were Dept. of The Intake. You might bring a copy of your picture so the pose can be just as it was “way back when.”
In addition to these flightline activities, you’ll be free to visit local points of interest. For our avid golfers, that might be a round with a few SSS foursomes at the Ft. Wayne Country Club.
After a day on the flight line and/or the golf course, we’ll be bused in the evening to the renowned Joseph Decuis Farm, about 20 miles distant in Roanoke, where we’ll enjoy a gourmet cookout featuring the American equivalent of Kobe beef. Our host for this delectable dinner will be one of the Farm’s owners, Pete Eshelman, a good friend of Bill Gorton, the first President of our Society.
Our F-100 flying will continue Saturday 21 May) pretty much as it went on Friday. But as an added attraction, we’ll also have an opportunity to visit the 122nd FW Air Guard A-10 unit adjacent to the Fort Wayne Airport. There, we’ll learn about their mission, try their A-10 simulator and check out a real Warthog on static display.
Saturday evening we’ll have a “relaxed rules” dining starting at 6PM at the Ft. Wayne Country Club featuring speaker’s BGen Dave Brubaker and Col Mike “Stoli” Stohler . There will be a grog bowl for those who “misbehave” during the festivities. Dress ranges from formal civilian or military dress, suit or Jacket and tie. Ladies may dress accordingly.
Flying will continue on Sunday (22 May), if needed to finish up the flights for those who have signed up for or won a ride with “Cutter.” If the planned flying is all done by Saturday, enjoy your complimentary Sunday breakfast, say goodbye to friends and Ft. Wayne, and head for your next destinations—home for most of us, I expect—with a lot of new memories, now refreshed, about the F-100 and the men who flew her.