HURRICANE
HUNTERS
NEWSLETTER
Publisher E.R. Eaton
Volume No. 10
From the President's Desk…
I want to wish one and all a Merry Christmas and
Happy New Year. May Santa fill your stocking with
Love, Joy, and Happiness. May the New Year bring
PEACE to the world.
At our 2015 Annual All Hands Business Meeting we
elected a slate of Board of Directors and Officers to
serve until 2020. The Board consists of Donald
Cone, J.D. Manion, and Paul Tilson. The Officers
are President: Ennis (E.R.) Eaton, Vice President:
Juan Blanco, Treasurer: Byron Biddle, and Secretary:
Arvid Nelson. Our Newsletter editor: Paul Tilson. I
believe this organization will be well served by those
so overwhelmingly elected.
A proposal was brought forth by Byron Biddle and
me that we no longer have an election as to where the
next year's reunion will be held. There is a greater
concentration of our members living in the
Jacksonville, Florida area than anywhere else. Our
Jacksonville reunions have a great attendance. Our
2015 reunion in Pensacola, Florida, was attended by
only 42 members. Normally, it is the most heavily
attended because it is also election of Board and
Officers time. I was really disappointed by the
turnout. The low attendance caused the organization
to lose money because of our contractual
obligations. The proposal that was carried says that
we will hold all future reunions at the Crown Plaza
on the Riverwalk in Jacksonville. I have since been
informed that the Crown Plaza has been bought out
by Hilton Doubletree. The Staff currently there is
the same as when we attended in 2013, and they
assure us we will have the same excellent service as
before. We are currently undertaking a multi-year
contract whereby our rates will not change from year
to year and save the membership some monies.
Speaking of low attendance.. I am asking each and
everyone of us to get in contact with one or two of
Issue No. 3
Winter 2015
your crew mates that you know that do not attend our
reunions on a regular basis and ask them to come on
board. I know that this is a organization that over
time has a decreasing membership. Time marches
on. We have over 220 paying members and only 42
showed up in 2015. At this rate, in 2020 we will not
have enough members attending to even hold a
reunion. That is something that I care not to
contemplate. Let us all make a concerted effort to get
our "lost" members back in the fold.
At the 2015 meeting our Treasurer made a passionate
plea for our members to at least get the annual dues
paid in the 1st quarter. Our by-lays says that they
(dues) are payable on January 01 of each year. I
know a lot of the members only pay their dues when
they send in their monies for the reunion
fees. Gentlemen, this organization has a lot of fiscal
responsibilities in the 1st quarter of each year. On
occasion we have had to dip into squadron monies to
pay these fees. It takes money out of our interest
bearing accounts, so we lose on both counts. I'm
asking that everyone please get your dues in by the
1st quarter, if not by January 15 of each year. It will
be greatly appreciated.
If any member has anything they want to get out to
the membership as a whole, please send it in an email to our Newsletter editor CAPT Paul Tilson. His
e-mail address is [email protected] Any and all
comments and letters are greatly appreciated.
I want to personally thank each and everyone for
having the confidence in me to re-elect me as
President of this fine organization. I always have the
best interest of you and this organization at
heart. Again, Thanks.
Fair Winds and Following Seas
Ennis R. Eaton
President
US Navy Hurricane Hunters.
PAGE 2 WINTER 2015 NEWSLETTER
Hurricane Hunters attending the 2015 Annual Hurricane Hunters’ Reunion.
The Hunters’ Ladies attending the 2015 Annual Hurricane Hunters’ Reunion.
TAPS
It is with a heavy heart that we report the passing of
our members that served so honorably.
AC2 Johnny H. Godfrey, Saturday, July 18,
2015. Johnny served in the Navy for 6 years as a
Hurricane Hunter in the CIC division.
Lt. James Schmidt, Wednesday, June 17,
2015. James flew as a pilot for the squadron. While
in civilian life he was an executive with Sears and
spent a great deal of his time with Hi-Tek Aviation,
mentoring At-Risk youth.
John F "Jack" Hanlon, Monday, June 22,
2015. Sent by his wife Dorothea Hanlon with no
other details.
Clarence L. Lack, Wednesday, August 5, 2015.
Sent by his wife Loretta Lack with no other details.
Lt. Donald Lee Kuck, Friday, July 3, 2015. Naval
Flight Officer served in the squadron 1963-1965 as a
Navigator
If any member knows of any other Hunter now on
eternal patrol, please contact E.R. Eaton at (770)
251-9088 or by e-mail at [email protected].
PAGE 3 WINTER 2015 NEWSLETTER
Editorial
from our treasury. Fortunately, we did not have to
pay for the unused rooms.
Recalling the ancient curse purported to be Chinese,
“May you live in interesting times,” our 2015
Annual Hurricane Hunters’ Reunion was certainly
“Interesting.”
As a result of the foregoing, your officers and board
members had long, soul-searching discussions over
what to do in the future. They finally concluded that
with the current and projected financial situation
with the government and the positions taken by the
current management of the Naval Aviation Museum,
it is not likely that we will be having our five-year
gala banquets in the Museum anytime in the
foreseeable future.
Our interesting times began last year when we were
informed by the Naval Aviation Museum that we
would not be allowed to hold our banquet there as in
previous years due to Sequestration and the lack of
funds to keep the building open beyond normal
working hours.
Our next interesting occurrence was when we were
informed by the Naval Aviation Museum that,
contrary to the Memorandum of Agreement between
the Museum and Hurricane Hunters, Inc. in which
we’d pay annual installments to cover the cost of the
paint and the Museum would paint the EC-121 they
were holding in their back lot using the paint scheme
and logos of VW-4, they would not paint the
“Connie” until the entire cost of paint “and labor”
was paid in full. At the price they were quoting and
the rate at which we could make payments to cover
it, all of us would be in the dust and the “Connie”
too.
We received more interesting news in the early
Spring when our reunion planning team contacted
the Crown Plaza Hotel in Pensacola to firm-up plans
for our reunion and were informed that the last week
in September that we had agreed to (oral agreement,
not in writing) had been given to another group who
“had money.” We had money too, but they didn’t
bother to ask us first. Water over the dam. So we
had to re-schedule for the third week in October.
As time for the reunion approached and much to the
dismay of our reunion planning team as well as our
officers and directors, it was looking like we would
not be able to meet the guaranteed minimum number
of rooms we had contracted for with the hotel. How
much more interesting could things get? At previous
Pensacola reunions we had occupied 75 to 80 hotel
rooms and so thought that the modest 40 rooms we
had guaranteed would easily be filled, even with the
change of dates, but that was not to be. Because
minimums were not met, certain things that would
have been given to us complimentary had to be paid
Studies of the demographics of our membership
show that the greatest concentration of members is in
the Jacksonville and central Florida area. The
officers and directors discussed previous reunions
and concluded that our best recent turnouts, had been
in Jacksonville. They decided to approach the
Crown Plaza management with a proposal that we
establish their hotel as the Navy Hurricane Hunters’
official home. We would not guarantee a set number
of rooms, but we would guarantee that we would
hold our annual banquet there, much like Kiwanis
and Rotary do at certain hotels.
The franchise has changed from Crown Plaza to
Hilton Doubletree (another interesting fact?), but the
management is the same, and they’ve agreed so we’ll
be seeing you all next year in Jacksonville.
HURRICANE HUNTERS, INC.
A non-profit Florida corporation 501.c.19
OFFICERS
PRESIDENT
VICE PRESIDENT
SECRETARY
TREASURER
DIRECTOR
DIRECTOR
DIRECTOR
NEWSLETTER EDITOR
E.R Eaton
Juan Blanco
James Evans
Byron Biddle
Donald Cone
J.D. Manion
Paul Tilson
Paul Tilson
Newsletter is published three times
annually. Association dues are
$25.00 annually payable on January
st
1 or thereafter.
Association address:
Hurricane Hunters, Inc.
P.O. Box 506
Vernon, Florida 32462
PAGE 4 WINTER 2015 NEWSLETTER