I am still a part of the 39th Fighter Squadron reunion group.  I don’t go to the reunions very much now.  Only one other guy that I flew with, my tent mate is still alive out of the original seven of us who went over together.  And the group is going to have their reunion out in Reno, Nevada this year, so they are still active but there are not many guys from my era there still.

I am a member of the Fighter Ace Association.  They were based there in Arizona. About two years ago I was out there for one of their reunions.  Now, they are moving out to Washington State.  They had a box of my things there at the museum,  I asked the Col. there if I could have my box of things back.  Well, he got the keys to the display case, and gave me the box of things.  Well, low and behold, inside were some of my flying suits, winter and summer flying gear, one even had my service ribbons on it!  And, a pair of goggle I had from the war!  The rubber around them was gone, but they were the goggles.  Also, a Japanese knife I had.  The tip was broken off – probably from prying open a can of SPAM or something.  And one of my log books.  So, I have all those things now.  They kept some stuff, but I wanted that back, as you could imagine.  Also, recently up at the Air Force academy, I donated a scrapbook that my parents had kept – with all the articles in the states they had saved about me, and my squadron.  So, there is a lot of information out there.

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