The Rearick Family

In May 2009 with Memorial Day coming up, Dad sent all his children a quick account of his service in the Navy It was entitled : "Lest you forget -- or really didn't know -- your father IS a Military Veteran!"

To avoid being drafted into the Army during the Korean War and to fulfill a long time dream of someday being a Navy Pilot your father applied for Navy Flight Training and was accepted and ordered to report for training in early October, 1950. (I was working for the FBI as a support employee and attending Law School at night, at the time!)

Unknown to your father, who was then still in his early stages of pre-flight training, a plane from his eventual squadron (VP-26) was shot down by the Russians (basically in cold blood) over the Baltic Sea and all ten crew members were killed. Eventually a number of my cadet company (but fortunately none of my close friends) were killed in training accidents and some later died (I heard) while flying combat missions over Korea. I was one of (if not the first) graduate to go to the Atlantic Fleet rather than the Pacific--since the Korean war had started in 1950. (When I reported to Fleet Air Command in Norfolk in early 1952 to await further orders, I heard some remarks that sounded like: "Oh look, an Ensign!!!")

Just a couple weeks before I reported to VP-26 as ordered (after meeting you "mother to be" while en route) one of my new squadron's planes lost an engine in bad weather and crashed off the end of the runway at Brunswick, Naval Air Station (NAS), while attempting to land.. Five crew men were killed, including the copilot. (My frequent position) So when I arrived, due to the tension and the usual Maine weather; and frequent mechanical problems due to the new planes issued to the squadron, no new Ensign was getting much flying time in those days -- but I "flew" down to ENC in my 1940 LaSalle (with no heater) all that early Spring, and later to Cape Cod during the summer where Ann was working as a waitress -- every weekend possible.

I did get stuck in Bermuda for a week on a training flight one time when we had trouble with the landing gear and had to wait for parts to be flown in. I later learned that the Squadron Commander was furious and suspected we were malingering.

My first ever Christmas away from my home was a 4 month tour in Iceland (1952-53). [I left a diamond ring and my car with your mother just to mark my territory] There we lost a plane that skidded off the runway when making a single engine landing and burned completely. (The fire engine crew could not get their foam to spray on the wreck due to the wind!) All the crew escaped without "physical" injury -- although some admitted to some severe nightmares for some time.

(Our usual patrol was 5 to 6+ hours long, flying from Keflavik to the coast of Greenland, north to Jan Mayen Island, south off the east side of Iceland, and then back west to Keflavik.) They estimated that if you went down in that Arctic water you had about 20 minutes of life even if you survived the crash -- due to the extremely cold water! At that time we did not even carry functional survival suits!

On one patrol out of Iceland and were headed toward Greenland. I was serving as Navigator (we copilots took turns) and we came within a split second of flying into a iceberg. The pilot swerved in just the "nick" of time! I didn't see how close we came but some who did could not even speak for quite a while. We "later" learned that ice absorbs radar and thus gives a much smaller reflection that to our radar operator resembled a small (possibly Russian) fishing boat -- which is what we were expected to investigate!.

We climbed and circled that iceberg and it was like a huge multicolored jewel floating in the ocean. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me! (In 1960 a plane while flying that same basic patrol pattern course toward Greenland, the pilots apparently lost their directional instruments and while lost in a low fog flew into a glacier in Greenland. The wreckage was not found until some years later by exploring glacier scientists.. Of course there were no survivors!) In our case, we very well could/would have simply vanished and would never been found!

Our second 4 month overseas deployment in 1953-54 also extended over Christmas and was after your mother and I were married. We were sent to Port Lyautey in what was then French Morocco, N. Africa. It was a much more pleasant deployment than Iceland. Your mother liked to say (still does) that she shoveled snow in Maine and taught High School Math while I played tennis in Africa.

However after one of our military "Exercises" in the Mediterranean we flew all the way from Sicily to French Morocco with one engine that threatened to quit. When they pulled that engine off there was so much ground up metal inside that they could not drain the oil. It was during this deployment that I started to fly more as the command pilot but never was certified as a Patrol Plane Commander due mainly to the fact that after our return to the States I ended up in the Portsmouth, Naval Hospital with acute appendicitis -- which in effect ended my career as a Naval Aviator. They did not assign me any more qualifying flights when I returned to full duty because I was such a "short timer."

So I was released from Active Duty in the Navy and reported for training as a Special Agent with the FBI, two weeks later. Overall i would say that was a much safer job with a lot less risk!.

Dad's Navy Base Closed in 2009 See Portland Press Article <http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=279558&ac=PHnws>

enlarge John Patriquin/Staff Photographer

Retired Adm. Oakley Osborn, who served as Wing Five commodore from 1978 to 1980, shares a light moment with another former commodore, Capt. John Evans, while wearing a Wing Five lobster patch cap after the farewell ceremony.

enlarge John Patriquin/Staff Photographer

Against the backdrop of a P-3 Orion, a color guard stands ready Thursday at the farewell ceremony for Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing Five. The event drew admirals, lawmakers, former Wing Five commodores and other sailors who had been based at BNAS.

BRUNSWICK — The pennant for Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing Five won't be lowered for months, but Thursday was the time to bid farewell to the unit of submarine-hunting P-3 Orion squadrons that has been flying out of the Brunswick Naval Air Station for decades.

Only one patrol squadron – VP-26 – remains at the base, which is due to shut down in 2011. The squadron, nicknamed the Tridents, will deploy to the Middle East in December. After that, it will be based in Jacksonville, Fla., along with two other squadrons that had been in Maine.

More than 400 people attended Thursday's farewell ceremony for Wing Five, held in a giant hangar. The event drew admirals, lawmakers, former Wing Five commodores and other sailors who had been based in Brunswick since the unit was established in 1974.

The ceremony marked the end of Wing Five's tactical mission, although work remains in the coming months, said Capt. Jim Hoke, the current commodore.

The airfield will close in January, and the official disestablishment of Wing Five, marked by the final lowering of the unit's pennant at headquarters, will take place March 31.

It was a bittersweet time as Wing Five sailors remembered the history of the unit and said goodbye to each other and the community that's been their home.

Hoke choked up a bit as he told the audience that by the end of this tour – his third at Brunswick – he will have spent more time in Maine than anywhere else in his life.

"There is a reason I keep coming back, and it is due to this great local community," he said. "You accept us, you make us feel at home. When we are deployed, you make sure our families are taken care of."

The civilian speakers were equally enthusiastic about the men and women stationed at the base.

State Sen. Stanley Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick, said that redevelopment will help the area replace the jobs and spending power represented by the base, but not everything can be replaced.

"We will miss you far more than you will ever know," he said. "We will never be able to replace the warmth, the service and the dedication you have brought."

During the Cold War, Brunswick was a first line of defense as aircraft from the base chased Soviet submarines. Brunswick-based squadrons have since participated in operations around the Persian Gulf, the former Yugoslavia, Japan and the Atlantic coast.

Retired Adm. Oakley Osborn recalled how hard the squadrons worked to keep track of Soviet subs when he was commodore from 1978 to 1980. Osborn, who now lives in Winthrop, said it's difficult to watch the disappearance of the air station.

"It's really sad to drive around the base and see so little activity," he said.

Airman Stephanie Wells of West Virginia said there has been a mix of emotions in the six months she has been stationed in Brunswick.

"There's been a lot of squadrons that come on this base. It's kind of heartwarming to see them off," said Wells, who works with survival gear for the planes.

Only 655 people are working at the base these days, compared with a high of about 5,200 a decade ago. Just three airplanes are based in Brunswick now, although several others that carried sailors to the event were on the airfield Thursday.

Cmdr. Mark Hamilton arrived on one of those P-3 Orions, along with about a dozen others from Washington state. He chatted after the ceremony with Cmdr. John Stuhlfire, who flew in on a commercial flight from Dallas. Both men were part of VP-8 – the Tigers – when they were stationed in Brunswick.

"It's important to come back, share in the nostalgia," Hamilton said.

While it's logical that a wing could be disestablished and squadrons could be absorbed elsewhere, strong personal connections can make the changes sad, said Stuhlfire, a test pilot who was also part of VP-26.

"From our perspective," he said, "it was such an important time in our lives."

Staff Writer Ann S. Kim can be contacted at 791-6383 or at:

akim@pressherald.com