Ex-airmen recall their
days at Otis
COLD
WARRIORS: Floyd I. Shank of Plymouth recently returned
from Day-ton, Ohio, where he and co-chairman Jim Collins of North
Dartmouth oversaw a reunion
of former members of the 551st Airborne Early Warning & Control Wing, which
flew patrol missions out of Otis Air Force Base from 1954 to 1969. More than 300
former
"flyboys" and their guests trekked to Dayton for the three-day event,
which included a chance
to
board and view the Air Force Museum's "Triple Nickel," a fully
re-stored EC-121D Warning
Star, the same type of air-craft that the 551st flew on its active air defense
missions off the East Coast. There was also a plaque dedication at the Air
Force Museum, honoring
the men and women of the 551st who made the ultimate sacrifice. This ceremony
included a flyover by an
E-3 AWACS aircraft from Tinker Air Force Base, Okla. The
E-3 is
the plane that assumed the mission of
the
EC-121D, when that aircraft was retired
in the
early 1970s. Shank is now completing
details
for a "wreath drop" Nov. 15 off Nantucket. Three wreaths will be
dropped from a
C-45
carrying former 551st members, honoring the 50 crewmen who were
lost when their
EC-121Ds
ditched in the Atlantic in three
separate accidents from 1965 to 1967. Only
four airmen survived.