AIRFORCESFLYERSCLUB.NET
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Welcome to the AirForcesFlyersClub.net. This site is operated by and is the property of the members of this historic and patriotic group of people from all wars and all positions as airman from our historical wars. Should anyone who fits the requirements of this net, or thinks they do please contact : 

Commander Member 059 W6ORD Norm Friedman 96 Palomino Circle Palm Desert, CA 92211-3212 Phone is: 760-773-9901    Norm will provide any additional info you might need. Fill out form below and mail to Troy, WB0LMH.

We  have had this new web site up for a few months now and  have not had the participation that we anticipated in providng articles and pictures that depict your part in this esteemed group. We do ask each of you to send a jpeg image or images to me at
b.vanhorn@sbcglobal.net. If you dont have a jpeg image, just send me your pictures and I will scan them into the site. 

Norm Friedman W6ORD is  our commander and Paul Swearingen W9PJF is the deputy commander.


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National Commander- Norm Friedman W6ORD

Deputy Commander- Paul Swearingen W9PJF

Executive Officer- Everett Worell W4WJJ

Operations- Mel Crain W7YOF

Treasurer-Troy Hanson WB0LMH

Web Master-Boyd L. Van Horn W0BUW

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AFFC MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

Date _______________________ Member Number ____________________________

Last Name: _________________________ First: _______________________________
 
Handle: ____________________________

Address: ____________________________ City ___________ State ___ Zip _________

Telephone: ______________ Cell _______________ Other Family Hams? _______________

E-Mail Address: _________________________________________________________

Date of Birth: __________________ Employment: ______________________________

Hobbies: (RV, Aircraft, Pilot License, Other) ________________________________________________________________________

AMATEUR RADIO INFORMATION

Call Sign: ________________ Class of License:__________ Years as a HAM:_______

Xmtr/Rcvr:___________ Antenna:________ Packet:_________ Modes of Ops:_______

Net Control Experience? _______________ Would you volunteer for NC? ___________

Other Ham Info: _________________________________________________________________________

MILITARY INFORMATION

Service: (AAC,AAF,USAF Other) __________ Command or Unit: __________________

Last Group, Squadron or Unit:___________ Are you active, retired, separated?_______

Current, retired, or past rank? ______________ How many years? _________________

Air Crew – Type of Aircraft: _______________ Position on Aircraft: ________________

(Give Last Aircraft) _______________________

Ground Crew _________ give last aircraft supported: _____ Job on Team: _________

Support Personnel – give main specialty: ___________ Position in nit:_______________

Additional Military/HAM Information (optional – continue on back of page)

Dues: Initial dues $15.00; Annual Dues thereafter $12.00. Please make checks

payable to AFFC. Send this application and check to: Troy Hanson,

WB0LMH, 6547 N. Academy Blvd, #451, Colorado Springs, CO

80918. Questions? Call Troy 719 338 0810












 

 

 

 



AFFC NATIONAL NETS

DAYS    MONDAY THRU SATURDAY  1130 -1215 EASTERN TIME  14.290 MHZ  NET CONTROL ROTATED AS REQUIRED
 
DAY      SUNDAY     1100-1200  EASTER TIME    14.307  MHZ   NET CONTROL ROTATED

AFFC SQUADRON NETS

601ST SQUADRON NET  TUESDAY  FOLLOWING THE 14.290 NET    7.274 WEST COAST & CANADA

801ST SQUADRON NET  MONDAY   0800 CENTRAL TIME  7275 MHZ  CENTRAL, NORTHEAST AND CANADA.  NET CONTROL ROTATED
Boyd:
I have written a brief biography below.
 
Kenneth J. Kieck (SMSGT ret.)
I spent two years active duty in the USNR on the USS Colonial LSD-18 in 1967-1968 which included a 13-month WEST PAC cruise.  After separation I remained in the Navy Reserve for a total of 10-years and then transferred to the USCGR in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for a 4 year enlistment.  I then joined the Wisconsin Air National Guard severing the remainder of my career in the Civil Engineering Squadron as an Electrical Superintendent and Production Control Superintendent.  I retired after 26-years as SMSGT (E-8).
 
While serving in the reserve I worked as an electrician and continued my education using the GI Bill.  After finishing my bachelor degree I moved into management and went back to school evenings to earn a Masters degree in Project Management.  I retired in 2006 from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as Senior Vice President of Operations.
 
I was widowed in 2005 and enjoy motorcycle trips.  Have a HD 1996 Heritage Softail, 2002 Ultra Classic, and 1949 FL.  My other hobbies are ham radio and scuba diving.  I received my novice license in the 60's but let it expire.  My son and brother (both hams) have been after me for years and I successfully passed both the Technician and General exam in 2009.  I went back and asked for my old call under the vanity program and now am licensed as K9ZEY.  Finally, I took up scuba diving when I was 62 and in the past few years have dove Hawaii, Dominican Republic, Bonaire, Cozumel, and inland lakes including and ice dive in 2009.
Hope to hear you on the air,
Ken 



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WINGS

SUMMER 2008

Volume 20, Number 2


AIR FORCES FLYERS AMATUER RADIO CLUB NEWSLETTER




Howdy Fellow Members:


Welcome to our first attempt at an electronic newsletter. Postage rates have skyrocketed along with the price of gasoline. In an attempt to save some club money, we are sending this via email to members we have an address for. The others will get this via snail mail. If yours arrived via the USPS and you have email please send Troy WB0LMH, tha3336678@aol.com, your email address and we will send you the next letter electronically. The main problem with email is that we don’t know if you received it or not or if you could open it. Would you please reply to Troy to let him know that it all came through okay. Thanks.


We have some new members: #494 W4EHZ, Bob Danneman, 3150 NE 36th Ave., Ocala FL 34479; #495 KD7TZU, Harold (Hal) Phelps, P,O. Box 1186 Townsend MT 59644; and #496 W3PRB John (Johnny) Townsend, Jr. , 6532 79th Street, Cabin John MD 20818. We welcome our new members and hope that we have a chance to greet them on one of our nets.



 


WINGS

SPRING/SUMMER 2009

Volume 21 Number 1

 

AIR FORCES FLYERS AMATUER RADIO CLUB NEWSLETTER

Howdy Fellow Members:

Our Electronic Newsletter seems to be working well. Would you continue to advise our Finance Officer, Troy, WB0LMH, tha3336678@aol.com, that you received this okay? Also, send him any personal data changes. Thanks. For those who receive this via snail mail, please drop Troy a note only if you have changes. We have been receiving 2009 dues over the past months. Still have some unpaid from 2008 and earlier. This is one way of knowing who we have out there in ether land. We just had Member Number 498 assigned to W3XAF – Ken. His biography appears in this newsletter and we are going to try to feature our other members in future newsletters. Ken has a rich radio/AF Leadership background. I know you all will look forward to working him.AFFC WEB SITE

MEET OUR NEWEST MEMBER #498W3XAF, Ken Witkin CMSgt, USAF, Retired, is running a FT-1000MP MARK V to a 20 meter beam from his residence in Fort Washington, MD. He says he has 10 antennas so he must have a real farm with lots of space. Ken’s Biography is very interesting. Here are some of the highlights:

Born in 1938 in New York City

Enlisted in the USAF in 1958

First assignment was as an Airborne Radio Operator on C-47 and C-54 aircraft out of Keflavik Iceland. Ken received his Ham license while assigned to Keflavik.

Next assignment was to Mildenhall England where he was an airborne radio operator on WB-50 aircraft.

Then on to operating radios on C-47 aircraft flying the Berlin Corridor and Congo Airlift. Ken was a crewmember on the first American aircraft to fly over the Berlin Wall in August of 1961.

After spending 5 years overseas, Ken was assigned to fly as a radio operator on the EC-121D Radar Surveillance aircraft out of McClellan AFB in California. 1965 found Ken in Vietnam flying classified missions out of Saigon on C-47 aircraft. After Vietnam he was assigned to fly as a radio operator for the Commander-in-Chief Pacific’s Airborne Command Post and was upgraded to a Communications Team Chief working for Admiral Dudley Sharp, CINCPAC.

Back to South East Asia in 1970, Ken flew on the EC-121 Seventh Air Force Airborne Command Post. Ken left that assignment with 1300 combat hours and 100 combat missions over Laos. He was then assigned to Tactical Air Command in various staff positions. In 1977 he was selected for duty with the Special Missions Airlift Wing in Washington DC. He was now a Senior Master Sergeant supervising communications of VC-135B aircraft.

 

BIO FOR WALTER V. LAWRENCE, WA0FVX JAN. 2010

 

I was born in Kemah TX. A small town on Galveston Bay, half way between Houston and Galveston TX. Graduated from High School in 1941, just 7 months before Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese. Many of my Friends were being inducted in to the Army and others were joining. I had the opportunity to join the NYA, which was a Natl. Youth Org. with the idea of “On the job training” and was sent to Corpus Christi TX., to the Naval Air Station to learn Aircraft engine and fuselage maintenance and repair. Our room and board was part of the plan plus  $8.00 a month.. After working as a student for about 2 months I was hired by the Civil Service and on Sept. 26, 1942 I joined the US. AAF, and continued my training at Ellington Field, Tex., and Keesler Field MS. When I was sent to Gunnery School at Harlingen, TX., I realized that my mechanic days were probably over, and it was not long before I was placed on a crew as Asst. Engineer Gunner on a B-24, 4 engine bomber. We flew overseas from Topeka, Ks. To Fl. in Feb. 1944. Then down the coast of So America and across the Atlantic to Dakar Africa up to Merakesch Africa then landed in England.        

By April of 1944 our crew was assigned to the 44th Bomb Group in the 8th AAF, as replacements for those who were lost in action. We flew missions over occupied France & Germany bombing targets as designated by the 8th Air Force. I was on my 21st mission and two B-24 bombers from our squadron were hit by anti aircraft fire (often called Flak) and both exploded at 21,000 ft. altitude, that’s almost 4 miles high. 3 men got out of our B-24 and 6 out of the other one. Normally we had a 10 men crew, we were 1 man short that day. It took quite a while to get to the ground by parachute and naturally when we arrived the land watch people were waiting for us. We landed in a sugar beet field just next to a wheat field. And were captured immediately. I was transported by box car to Dulag Luft, near Frankfurt and after several days of interrogation was finally placed in a hospital at Holemark, then to Obermassfeldt and eventually was placed in a prisoner of war camp in Poland Stalag Luft 4 on the Baltic sea and was a prisoner for 10 months. Was placed on forced march on Feb. 6, 1945 and was on that march for 52 days arriving in Fallingbostel Germany, at Stalag 357. Was liberated on April 16, 1945 before the wars end by an English armored Division. Was flown back to England on the 21st and in the hospital at Oxford England for a while and released in time to be in London for VE. Day on May 8th of 1945, I arrived in New York harbor by boat on my 21st birthday. And was discharged on Oct 23, 1945. I served approx. 3 years & 1 mo. But when we enlisted it was for the duration however long that may have been.   

 You may be interested in the fact the most commodities during the war were rationed, including gasoline and most food items. Also 1 out of every ten persons in America were in uniform during wwii. That is quite a number of people, the rest were involved in the home front making the instruments of war, ships, of all kinds, airplanes guns, you name it, it took a real willingness to work together to do what we felt had to be done. Many years after the war, I saw an article in a magazine about a German boy in High School whose job it was to be the eyes and ears of a gun crew at Magdeburg ,Germany. Our mission that day to Magdeburg was the Krupp Aircraft factory. During an air raid, he was called out of school and ran to the Anti Aircraft guns to give the old soldiers WWI men operating the guns the information about how to aim their guns. He was 16 years old at the time. He mentioned the fact that he saw these two planes get shot down that day. So I wrote to the editor asking if he could forward a letter to the man, as I was in one of those bombers and survived. I received a letter back from him, listing all the times he had gone to the anti aircraft gun position and had researched where the bombers were coming from etc. I still have that letter and he said it well, “He congratulated me on being alive after the tragic event, but made this statement. “Let’s you and I do all we can to see that this never happens again”. That would be my advice also!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 












































 
We have just been notified of the passing of four of our members:
 
#489, K7AEA  Albert Anderson.  Albert was an active member on the 14.290 Net and was the Webmaster for our club.  He had flown RF4C aircraft in the USAF in England in the early 1970's.  He earned a Masters Degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and was employed by the Port of Moses Lake WA as the Ports Industrial Manager.  Albert was an Eagle Scout, Pilot, Photographer, Runner, Jeep Rubicon Trail Driver and Outdoor Enthusiast.  He never lost his love of flying and his quiet philanthropy helped many people. He became a Silent Key on May 17, 2009 of complications associated with mesotheliomic cancer.  His clear signal will be missed by his Brothers in Amateur Radio. Donations in lieu of flowers can be sent to The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University, P.O. Box 642520, Pullman, WA 99164.
 
Our recent AFFC News Letter brought responses from the families of these Silent Keys:
 
#317, KF4SP  Larry Jones.  Larry's widow advises that he passed away on 6 February 2009. no other information was provided. Larry lived in Longwood, FL at the time of his death.
 
#479, W8GGN, R.J. Bennett.  His Widow, Dianne, advises that he passed away in Rockford, MI in 2008.
 
#123, W4XB, Dick Vogel.  Dick was a pilot during the Berlin Airlift and was retired from the USAF as a Colonel.  A long time AFFC member he lost an 8 year battle with cancer on 07 December 2007. Dick lived in Virginia Beach, VA at the time of his death.
 
Our HAM ranks are thinning.  We pass our condolences to the families of these fine AFFC Club members.
 
 
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