Greetings to all Savage Son’s, Family and Friends….

As promised, here is the reunion After Action Report (AAR). On Sept 30, 2017, forty (40) Savage Son’s accompanied by family and friends gathered at the Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola to celebrate the decommissioning of RVAH-5. There was a great gathering of many at the Pensacola Grand Hotel the night before (Sept 29). Not sure why, but H5 personnel appeared to acclimate to the lobby bar area without too much difficulty. Could have been past practice, adaptability, seamanship, BS, or any combination there- of??? Lolololololololol On a more personal note my better half (Debi) would like to say “thank you” to all who wished her a happy 63rd birthday during the festivities there at the Grand Hotel.

I’ve updated the Heavy 5 attendee list (shown below) denoting those who were able to make the trip. Those names highlighted in green answered the roll call when we all mustered in the museum small theatre room.

Last First Member Alleman Joseph 75 - 77 Baldwin Jerry 69 - 73Biel Dave 75 - 76Brestle Harvy "Pete" 63 - 66Briney Joe 63 - 65Brumbaugh Don 71 - 75Carr James 67 - 70 Cater Richard 67 - 71Challis Harold 68 - 71 Ciffone John 67 - 71Colquitt Kenneth 74 - 75Crabtree Freddy 66 - 68DiCosimo Al "cos" 70 - 73Drake Joseph 70-73, 76-77Ferrell Jim 73 - 77Fiack Dave 63 - 66Frameli Donald 60 - 63Frederking Don 63 - 64Garrick Martin Gillion Tom 72 - 75Hill David Hobbs Joe 61 - 64Hoel Dennis 65 - 68

Hughes John 75 - 77Kilbride Gary 57 - 60Kilkenny Jim 63 - 66Keller Jim 75 - 76Knowlton Mark 70 - 71Langley James "Jay" 66 - 69Lauderbaugh Fred 72 - 75Livingston Larry 71 - 74Long Joe 66 - 67Malboeuf James 63 - 66Marques Jack 67 - 71Mason Mike 73 - 77Mcclellan Joseph 60 - 65McComas David 67 - 71Minniti Tony 63 - 66Murray William "Buddy" Olson Walter "Chip" Pruitt Kevin 74 - 77Rassler Ed 68 - 71Rice Ronald 75 - 77Rothenbach Peter 68 - 70Schafer Bob 66 - 69Sena Mike 74 - 77Shattuck George 73 - 75Shimkus Al 64 - 66Sommers Barry 75 - 76Songer John 69 - 70Steil George "Bud" 70 - 73Thompson David "Dave" 66 - 69Tubbs Dusty 72 - 76Turner III Cleve 66 - 68Vanzant Larry 64 - 65Wilbanks Michael 70 - 73Wood Gilbert "Woody" 74 - 77Woodside David 68 - 71Yeager Kenneth 57 - 60Zadareky Bob "Zad" 65 - 67

The group picture of Savage Son’s beside the only RA5C at the Naval Aviation Museum. A small administrative comment regarding the picture not all attendees ventured outside. Thirty two (32) of the forty (40) members were in this photo.

The quick and easy way for us to identify all in the photo was to assign each person a number starting from the left as No 1, George Steil and ending up at the right at No 32, Dusty Tubbs. God willing and the river don’t rise we were able to get everyone’s correct position noted. If by chance there is an error please let me know so we can get the correct number assigned. We tried to get everyone their number before everyone started moving and breaking up after the pic..... You can copy the picture, save it to another file, desk top, etc... so you can enlarge it for better viewing.

Last FirstPic

PositionSteil George "Bud" 1 Brestle Harvy "Pete" 2Zadareky Bob "Zad" 3Hughes John 4Hoel Dennis 5Biel Dave 6Knowlton Mark 7Briney Joe 8Long Joe 9Wilbanks Michael 10Ferrell Jim 11Lauderbaugh Fred 12Hobbs Joe 13

Kilkenny Jim 14Malboeuf James 15Fiack Dave 16Rice Ronald 17Sommers Barry 18Sena Mike 19Colquitt Kenneth 21Turner III Cleve 22Rassler Ed 24Garrick Martin 25Gillion Tom 26Livingston Larry 27Crabtree Freddy 28Schafer Bob 29Yeager Kenneth 30Alleman Joseph 31Tubbs Dusty 32

Apologies for the lengthy listing but the spreadsheet made it very easy and quick –vs- a lot of typing.

Two prestigious awards were handed out at the Reunion. The Eldest Savage Son Award going to the individual who served in the earliest years of Heavy Five and the Traveling Award going to the individual who traveled the most miles to attend the reunion.

Eldest Savage Son Award goes to Ken Yeager. Ken was attached to H5 from 1957 - 1960. VAH-5 was established in 1956 the year the Navy established all Heavy squadrons. I like how Ken modified his Reunion T to illustrate VAH-5!! It was a pleasure to finally meet this young man in person. After spending a bit of time talking to him I thought if he ever wrote a book about his life experiences I would buy it. However, my wife said to me “he does not have time to write a book, he’s too busy doing things and living life”. Hope to see him at the next H5 reunion so he can buy me a beer !! In the interest of saving time & space I awarded myself the Youngest Savage Son Award.

The RVAH-5 Traveling Award was given to Dusty Tubbs. Dusty was assigned to H5 from 1972 – 1976. Dusty and his wife made the trip to the reunion all the way from Panama (where the canal is, not Florida), wow!! Dusty and I made the ’76 Bicentennial WESTPAC cruise on the Ranger. We’re both AT’s who worked RECON. I worked flight line level maintenance and Dusty worked AIMD level maintenance. On the ’76 Ranger cruise Dusty started and ran a soda mess. One of the best investments I ever had. Could not even try to imagine how many “cases” of soda we sold during the whole deployment??? Many, many thousands of cases....... When the trip started in San Diego we bought and sold a few hundred cases of soda. By the time we were mid way through the deployment we were buying and selling thousands of cases a soda each time the ship left port. By the end of the cruise we even had the Ranger MWR folks buying their ships supply of soda from our mess. I bet Dusty is still living large from this investment. All at .25 cents a can, WOW !! I’m hoping the next time we get together for the next H5 reunion Dusty can afford to buy me a beer or two......

A big THANK YOU to Mike Mason (72 – 76); Mike manages a Gear Locker for the RVAHNAVY folks. Mike presented RVAH Gear to each of the awardees (Ken & Dusty). Mike also helped me out with some timely guidance & direction in the reunion planning. Shown in this picture is one of the original H5 squadron flags (circa 1962), some reunion coffee mugs and a dog bone. I cannot go into any details of how the squadron flag was obtained. I don’t wish to get anyone in trouble and investigated by NCIS, lololololol.

Many attendees talked about gathering again (I’m for it) and asked me if I plan to arrange another reunion. Don’t know when the right time would be to have another reunion?? Every year ?? Every other year ?? But I have given it some thought. RVAH-7 was disestablished as the last remaining Fleet RVAH squadron at NAS Key West on 28 September 1979. Maybe in Sept 2019 ALL squadrons (CRAW 1) could meet to mark the end of a Naval Aviation Era. Many Heavy Sailors did tours in more than one squadron. Being able to see fellow Savage Son’s plus shipmates from other heavy squadrons would be a hoot of a time (no reference to H9, lolol).

In closing I would tell anyone and everyone who asked me about the H5 Reunion “it was truly a great time in my life”. The joy of seeing some of my best friends from years back and being able to meet those Savage Sons who served before me made for a great & worldly experience.Joe Alleman, RVAH-5, 1975 – 1977josephaalleman@gmail.com

“No Slack In Heavy Attack”