A BIT OF HISTORY: "...Circa 1953..." Contributed by Fred Lochner flochner@yahoo.com [05OCT99]

A BIT OF HISTORY: "...Circa 1953..." Contributed by Fred Lochner flochner@yahoo.com [05OCT99]

A BIT OF HISTORY: "...1953-1955--Our skippers during that period were CDR Paxton and CDR Kooy who had been trained as pilots prior to World War II. In 1953, we were stationed at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland flying PB4Y2's and deployed to NAS Argentia, Newfoundland, Canada from November 1953 to May 1954. The missions on that deployment were to fly recon on ice flows in the Baffin Bay for the Navy Hydographic Office, track shipping in the North Atlantic, and search oLT contacts of unidentified subs. Unfortunately, we lost one aircraft on that deployment in the Baffin Bay area (LT W.C. Kuerten, LT H.R. Summers, ENS D.B. Sparks and a crew of fine men). After returning to NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, the planes were flown to the French in Vietnam and we received 12 new P2V6's. During the summer of 1954, the squadron was relocated to NAS Chincoteague, Virginia spending the next six months training in operating the new aircraft. In November 1954, the squadron deployed to the Mediterranean staying two months at NAF Port Lyautey, Morocco before moving to the Royal Naval Air Station at Halfar, Malta for four months. This tour gave us the opportunity to make familiarization flights to all the major cities on the rim of the Med. On our return to the States in May 1955..." Contributed by Neal Moerschel moerschel@hotmail.com [30MAY2000]

A BIT OF HISTORY: "00XXX53--We were still flying the PB4Y, the last squadron to be so equiped I believe. Our deployment that year was to Argentia, Newfoundland. The following year we graduated to P2V (-6, I think) and deployed to Malta..." Contributed by Fred Lochner flochner@yahoo.com

"VP-24 History Summary Page"

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