sfa spring 2015 newsletter
DESCRIPTION
Stealth Fighter Association Spring 2015 NewsletterTRANSCRIPT
Article Page Article Page
President’s Corner 1-2 F-117 Archives 5
SFA Board Meeting 3-4 Join The SFA 6
Volume 12 Issue 1
Spring 2015
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Inside This Issue
Stealth Fighter Association Newsletter
Reunion Planning Has Started!
As I sit and watch the Masters, I wish you all have a great and long-awaited Spring.
This past week, your board travelled to Las Vegas to evaluate the Suncoast Hotel as
a possible location for our next reunion celebration in June 2017. The Suncoast
was a suggestion of Tnle McCloskey, who has very graciously volunteered her pro-
fessional event planning services to help us with this reunion. I think I speak for
the board when I say that Tnle hit a home run with this hotel and her efforts thus far.
She has been negotiating very favorable rates and putting together a super suggested
program that we will continue to refine over the next year or so, but overall this ven-
ue is a real winner.
The casino is a casino…enough said there, but the ball room, the likely hospitality
suite, and the pool area are perfect for our organized events. We ate in a few of the
restaurants and were impressed. There is a beautiful golf course across the street
with two 18 hole courses to chose from, an excellent restaurant, and a very support-
ive staff that is looking forward to organizing a tournament for us. There are two
very nice shopping areas across the street in another direction, one is a brand new,
high-end outdoor mall and the other has the standards, indoors. We are planning on
offering outings to tourist locations as well as a shuttle to the strip. For those that
know Vegas, the hotel is located near Summerlin on the West/Northwest side.
As you can see, I am excited that we have found a great place for a party (and the
prices, which will be discussed in a later newsletter should impress as well). The
key to a great reunion though is, of course, people…we
need all of you to commit to attend and then do your best to
convince your friends to come. We need a multi and cross
-generational push from everyone to build excitement and
momentum. We have heard comments from some that the
reunions are “pilot” events…that is not the case. These
reunions are for all folks connected to the history of the F-
117A, from design to production to maintenance to opera-
President’s Corner
tions. Each of us comes from a particular genera-
tion of the program and a particular area of exper-
tise. I may be a pilot from 1990 to 2005 but across
that time there were literally hundreds or thousands
of folks that contributed to this program. We all
want a great reunion, we want everyone’s participa-
tion, and we want everyone’s stories of their time at
Tonopah, Burbank, Holloman, deployed locations,
or other places. We will shortly publish our
“theme” but it will be built on the idea that we want
everyone’s stories and participation. We will put
together a great party for this reunion but I ask all of
you to help us get max participation and involve-
ment..
Thank you and enjoy the Spring, even if you don’t
golf!
Andy
Andrew Papp,
President
Stealth Fighter Association
SFA Board of Directors
2012-2017
Andy Papp, President
Lou Gum, Vice President
Mary Burris, Secretary/Treasurer
Kent Burns, Board Member
Greg Meland, Board Member
Nighthawk Newsletter Team Editor: Greg Meland
Web Site: Dave Walker Graphics: Dave Walker
Newsletter: [email protected] Contact us
F-117 Stealth Fighter Association PO Box 151196
Ft Worth, TX 76108-1196
Web: www.f117sfa.org Info: [email protected]
President’s Corner (continued)
V O L U M E 1 2 I SS U E 1 Page 2
SFA Board of Directors
2012-2017
Andy Papp, President
Lou Gum, Vice President
Mary Burris, Secretary/Treasurer
Kent Burns, Board Member
Greg Meland, Board Member
Nighthawk Newsletter Team Editor: Greg Meland
Web Site: Dave Walker Graphics: Dave Walker
Newsletter: [email protected] Contact us
F-117 Stealth Fighter Association PO Box 151196
Ft Worth, TX 76108-1196
Web: www.f117sfa.org Info: [email protected]
Reunion News
V O L U M E 1 2 I SS U E 1 Page 3
Your Association Board of Directors held a Board meeting April 9 & 10 at the Sun Coast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The primary purpose of the meeting was to start the detailed planning for our 2017 reunion. The initial planning began several months ago. Your board decided that for maximum participation, we would be better off having the reunion in Las Vegas. Tnle McClos-key, former executive officer to the 49th OG, volun-teered to help us with the planning and to find a loca-tion that would be cost effective and offer us a quality venue. Our meeting began with a tour of the Sun Coast. It is a first class facility with all the amenities that any Vegas venue offers, plus they have a two golf cours-es, a bowling alley and movie theater on-site. Your board was very impressed and we think that you will be too.
SFA Board Meeting By Greg Meland
Reunion News
V O L U M E 1 2 I SS U E 1 Page 4
As with other reunions there will be a golf tournament for those that golf. We’re working on other activities, but as with past reunions, there will be an informal party at the pool on the Friday of the reunion weekend and of course the dinner with a guest speaker on Saturday. In the past we have had a large pool of readily available people to ‘draft’ into helping with the reunion planning and on-site activities. At the last reunion we paid for the services of a reunion planning organization. This time around – we don’t have those luxuries. We are scattered all over the country, so it will be a little more challeng-ing. But, we need volunteers to help us make the reun-ion the best one ever. We need people to volunteer for the following committees/jobs: Golf Tournament organization Hospitality Suite – Keep drinks and snacks stocked, moni-tor room Banquet set-up On-Site Registration? If you have experience with large group gatherings, ban-quet planning, golf tournaments, or just want to help out, we would appreciate your help. There will be a business meeting on Saturday during the reunion where we will elect the next Board of Direc-tors. We encourage you to attend and cast your vote. If you want to be a part of the board you must be present at the business meeting. To volunteer of if you have comments about the upcom-ing reunion, send an email to: [email protected] We’re looking forward to hearing from you.
F-117 Archives
Page 5 V O L U M E 1 2 I SS U E 1
1/19/81 - Ben Rich was awarded the Defense Department's Distinguished Service Medal in a secret ceremony at the Office
of the Secretary of Defense Harold Brown.
3/1/81 - The $79 million construction program to build facilities for the 4450th Tactical Group began.
3/22/82 - Aircraft 79-784 made its first flight.
3/27/82 - The first production aircraft (80-785) was delivered to the test site.
1/2/86 - Aircraft 79-0792 completed the first 300 hour maintenance inspection for the F-117 fleet.
2/1/88 - A lengthy article published in Gung-Ho magazine gave many incorrect and correct facts about the Stealth fighter
program. Among the accurate info: "a multi-faceted outer-body surface." and "The stealth F-19 is rumored to be listed as
the F-117 Nighthawk.
1/19/90 - Aircraft 79-780 was delivered to Tonopah Test Range to be used as an Aircraft Battle Damage Repair trainer.
1/3/92 - Aircraft 84-0824 completed the climatic test at McKinley Climatic Lab, Eglin AFB, FL.
3/26/92 - The first test flight was flown at Lockheed's Palmdale facility.
2/17/98 - Six F-117s and the associated support personnel were deployed to al Jabr, air Base, Kuwait in support of Opera-
tion Southern Watch.
3/27/99 - Aircraft 82-0806 was shot down over Yugoslavia. This was the first combat loss for the F-117 aircraft.
3/11/03 - Six Aircraft from the 9th Fs deployed to Kunsan AB, Korea to participate exercise Foal Eagle.
3/20/03 - Two F-117s deployed to Qatar were the first to drop bombs on Bagdad, Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
3/21/03 - The F-117 struck five strategic targets in Baghdad, Iraq using the EGBU-27 munition in combat for the first time.
http://www.f117sfa.org
Web Site Info
Join The Stealth Fighter Association
Page 6
For those folks reading this
Newsletter who are not current
members of the SFA, membership is
open to all personnel, civilian or
military, who at some time in their
career were associated with the F-117
Stealth Fighter Aircraft program.
Additional info is available on the
SFA web site, and hard copies of this
newsletter are available for mailing to
interested folks. Please ask a member
or drop a line to:
Stealth Fighter Association PO Box 151196
Ft Worth, TX 76108-1196
V O L U M E 1 2 I SS U E 1
Stealth Fighter Association Mission
Statement
The Stealth Fighter Association is an
affiliation of individuals brought to-
gether by the common bond of asso-
ciation with the world’s first stealth
fighter, the Lockheed Martin F-117,
produced by the Lockheed Martin
Skunk Works for the United States
Air Force. Our mission is to preserve
the memory of our struggles to attain
a stealth combat capability second to
none, maintain the legacy of the F-
117 “Nighthawk,” maintain the
bonds of brother and sisterhood be-
tween those who contributed to make
the awesome combat capability of
stealth a reality, and act as a govern-
ing board to oversee the planning and
execution of periodic reunions at ei-
ther five or ten year cycles.
You can reach us at: