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Thursday, October 1, 2009
A PBY-6A Catalina aircraft recently concluded a week-long visit
to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island and Oak Harbor, Sept. 25.
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PBY-6A Catalina drops a load
of water from its bomb-bay doors over Crescent Harbor, Sept.
25. The aircraft’s departure marked the end of a week-long
visit to NAS Whidbey Island and Oak Harbor which coincided with
the base’s 67th anniversary Sept. 21 and the 11th anniversary
of the PBY Memorial Foundation, located on the Seaplane Base,
Sept. 22
(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication
Specialist 2nd Class Tucker M. Yates/Released) 090925-N-9860Y-006
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The aircraft landed in Crescent
Harbor Sept. 18 and taxied up the seaplane ramp onto the NAS
Whidbey Island Seaplane Base in front of a crowd of over a thousand.
The event marked the first time in over 60 years this has been
witnessed at the location.
The visit coincided with both
NAS Whidbey Island’s 67th anniversary Sept. 21 and the 11th
anniversary of the PBY Memorial Foundation (PBYMF) Sept. 22.
“We worked on this for
some time and we found that the owner (Bud Rude, of Deer Park,
Wash.) was favorable to letting the plane come over here. We
told him about our anniversary, then we got the Navy involved
and Capt. (Gerral) David (NAS Whidbey Island commanding officer)
really pushed to get this working,” said Win Stites, of
the PBY Memorial Foundation.
The PBY is a World War II-era
aircraft that was produced by Consolidated Aircraft in the 1930s
and 1940s which fulfilled an array of maritime operations including
antisubmarine warfare, search and rescue and protecting convoys.
“My dad was a flight engineer
on these airplanes in the war,” said Adolph Meisch, Jr.,
PBYMF member. “One story he’d like to tell us is that
one day (during WWII) there was a PBY sitting on the base and
there was a solitary soldier guarding it. Dad walked up to the
guard and said ‘Isn’t that the ugliest airplane you
ever saw?’ The guard pointed his gun at him and said ‘Don’t
you ever talk about this airplane like that again! This is the
same airplane that rescued me and my crew from the sea.’
He was making sure that airplane was safe because it saved his
life.”
This particular Catalina is
currently serving as a firefighting plane in Eastern Washington.
According to Fred Owens, the aircraft’s pilot who has been
flying it since 2002, the plane can load up with up to 1700 gallons
of water and be in the air in approximately 12 minutes after
receiving a call.
The PBYMF has a display open
to the general public on the Seaplane Base in building 12. Visitors
can see a cut-away Catalina engine, vintage uniforms, aircraft
models, and a Catalina “skeleton” wing at the display.
The PBYMF plans to one day acquire one of the historic aircraft
to preserve history according to Stites.
“A lot of men lost their
lives in these planes in the early part of the war; mostly due
to weather in Aleutians. We need to memorialize what they’ve
done to keep us free, said Stites.
© 2009 Sound Publishing,
Inc.
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HaroldNet
Oak Harbor museum hoping for historic seaplane
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
By Kristi O'Harran, Herald Columnist
The wartime exhibits in Oak Harbor that
would fit inside a typical three-bedroom rambler may be lean
of space.
But they’re huge of heart.
Veterans, spouses and those interested
in military history are fashioning a place to reminisce about
combat from World War II through Iraq.
When you walk into the historic building
on the Naval Station Whidbey seaplane base, there is a USO-type
canteen. A Nat King Cole tune played on a 1940 Wurlitzer jukebox.
Joyce Tighe greeted visitors at the front
door like cherished uncles at Thanksgiving. The widow’s
husband, Don Tighe, was a radioman in Korea and Vietnam.
She guided folks past a replica of the
USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii.
“Come into World War II,” she
beckoned.
Tighe knew all the wonders at the PBY
Memorial Foundation Historical Display in Oak Harbor.
The display features information on the
PBY, an amphibian aircraft flown by the U.S. Navy, Army and Coast
Guard in the 1940s. It was known as “Dumbo,” and served
as a rescue craft, anti-submarine weapon, minelayer and transport
for people and materials.
The first PBY came to the seaplane base
on Whidbey Island in 1942, piloted by Lt. J.A. Morrison. He made
several sweeps before landing because there were too many logs
in the harbor.
There is a picture at the Oak Harbor
display of that first crew and pilot. Visitors can also see rooms
dedicated to eras in history, a PBY nose turret and wing, flight
goggles, vintage crew clothing, aircraft models, a flight simulator,
library and gift shop.
Visitors can even take some time to listen
to oral histories on tape.
It seemed odd there was no PBY hanging
from the rafters or tethered in the parking lot. Acquiring a
PBY is all part of a dream for the foundation.
The hold up?
They need about $250,000 to make a purchase.
Members hope to surround a plane in a memorial hangar with dioramas,
crew documentaries, a video theater, lecture hall and children’s
center.
To become a member, mail $25 to PBY Memorial
Foundation, Box 941, Oak Harbor, WA, 98277-0941.
In celebration of the 67th anniversary
of the seaplane base, a PBY flew in Friday and folks may see
it today and Thursday. Drop by the seaplane base during daylight
hours. It might leave at noon Friday, but the time isn’t
firm, said Richard Rezabek, who served in the Navy for 33 years
and is chairman of the board of directors for the PBY group.
Rezabek said he enjoys putting exhibits
together at the display on Pioneer Way in Oak Harbor.
If you make a visit, any of the volunteers
will be fine guides. You’ll hear personal stories from warm
hearts that admire those who served our country and the equipment
they favored.
“I think it’s important to
keep the history of every airplane alive,” Tighe said. “People
who flew the PBY are getting fewer and fewer.”
Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451,
oharran@heraldnet.com
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Oct 06 2009, 2:02 PM
The PBY Catalina fly-in to the Naval
Air Station Whidbey Island Seaplane Base on Friday, Sept. 18,
was a thrill to many who had never seen such an aircraft fly
except in movies or on the History Channel. This plane and the
crews that served her are the stuff of history.
The PBY Memorial Foundation required
a great deal of effort to bring this plane to Whidbey Island.
With gratitude the PBYMF thanks the U.S. Navy Command at Naval
Air Station Whidbey Island for all of the help and cooperation
given by the Navy as well as naval contractors who made this
fly-in possible.
Of special note is the herculean effort
given by the firefighters of Oak Harbor and NAS Whidbey. Their
contributions were many, including site preparation, displays
of equipment, wash-down of the aircraft (salt water corrodes
aluminum), locational and advertising signage and a great deal
more.
Our local firefighters volunteer to put
their health and lives on the line to protect us and the things
we value. Many people do not think about them until they need
them … and then, they really need them!
We hated to see the PBY leave, but it
has places to go and things to do while the fire season continues.
We hope to see it back here soon.
The firefighters will not be leaving,
and we can thank God for that. They are such an invisible (usually)
part of our community that we often take them for granted.
The PBYMF and the City of Oak Harbor
owe them a huge debt of gratitude.
Jim Siggens
Oak Harbor
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Whidbey News Times
PBY Catalina
turns into time machine: Oak Harbor sees 60 years into the past
By LIZ BURLINGAME
Whidbey News Times Reporter
Sep 18 2009, 4:35 PM
Photos by Nathan Whalen/Whidbey News-Times
Click here to view photos of the event.
A huge Oak Harbor crowd Tuesday afternoon
welcomed the return of the legendary PBY Catalina the Seaplane
Base after an absence of six decades.
At 12:48 p.m., just 12 minutes shy of
its landing, the PBY Catalina made a sweep over the base as the
multitude craned their necks to get a glimpse at it.
"The old cat looks the same,"
Win Stites, PBY Memorial Foundation president, said, standing
among the throng anxious to renew their acquaintance with the
beloved flying and floating warhorse.
Stites patrolled the North Pacific for
a year and a half as a flight engineer, and was one of many at
the fly-in ceremony with memories of the old, flying boats.
The aircraft made its landing in Crescent
Harbor and it's one of only 21 remaining airworthy PBY Catalinas.
It will remain on the Seaplane Base for
the next week, open for public view.
Oak Harbor resident Beverly Souza says
she remembers the planes as a child, when she was a part of the
"waterfront gang." Kids were allowed to play around
the airplanes on the Seaplane Base and even crawl on them, she
said.
"We would pick up driftwood and
pretend to shoot at them," Souza said. "It was an exciting
time to be a kid here."
The Seaplane Base saw its first Catalina
in Dec. 1942 and the population in Oak Harbor soon tripled. There
were 16 squadrons in Oak Harbor, Stites said, and there were
20 to 30 seaplanes tied to the ramps at a time.
In World War II, PBYs were used in patrol
bombing, convoy escorts and search and rescue missions, among
others.
Oak Harbor residents became accustomed
to PBY planes training for missions in the Aleutian Islands,
Stites said, where Japanese forces had attacked.
During Friday's landing, base security
asked the crowd to move behind fire trucks after the plane touched
the water and pulled in. The nose wheel didn't lock into place
as it came up the ramp, so the plane backed up for a second attempt.
The crowd quickly swarmed the Catalina
for a closer inspection.
"In the past, guys in wet suits
would attach the wheels and a tractor would pull it up,"
Stites said.
Stites described the Catalina as the
"finest example of the remaining planes." It's owned
by Bud Rude of Spanaway and piloted by Fred Owens and Craig Haws.
The PBY landing followed a National Prisoners
of War/Missing in Action Recognition Day service at the Memorial
Fountain.
The guest speaker Lt. Cmdr. Brian Danielson,
a member of the National League of Families for POW/MIAs whose
father was shot down over Laos in 1965.
Danielson joined an expedition in 2006
to search for his father's remains. The team found a DNA match,
and his family was able to hold a memorial in 2007, nearly 37
years after his death in combat during the Vietnam war.
"One of the amazing aspects was
to see 250 motorcycles show up and form a perimeter of flags
around the whole church," Danielson said.
The Brothers in Arms Motorcycle Club
donated a POW/MIA flag for the afternoon ceremony.
"We hope these ceremonies can go
on," Chris Gomes, president of the motorcyle club said.
"We can't forget until all of them come home."
Butch Larsen, a four-year prisoner of
the Japanese, helped raise the POW/MIA flag as the Electronic
Attack Squadron 129 performed a formation fly-by.
Members of the Oak Harbor High School
band opened the ceremony with the "Star Spangled Banner."
Whidbey News Times Reporter Liz Burlingame
can be reached at eburlingame@whidbeynewstimes.com or 360-675-6611.
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 Sep 16 2009
by Jenny Manning
reporter
The age of the PBY Catalina flying boats
has been just a distant memory of an aging Navy community in
Oak Harbor.
But that’ll all changing on Friday.
Fresh memories will form as one of the
21 remaining airworthy PBY Catalina aircraft descends upon the
waters of Crescent Harbor at about 1 p.m., a sight unseen for
approximately six decades.
“We’ve been on it for 11 years,”
said Win Stites, PBY Memorial Foundation president and founding
member, of the fly-in project. Stites led the dedicated group
of foundation volunteers who made this rare vision a reality
and praised Whidbey Island Naval Air Station commanding officer
Capt. Gerral David for his help to get a PBY on the Seaplane
Base for a one-week stay.
Stites knows the PBY inside and out.
He patrolled the North Pacific for a year and a half as a flight
engineer. While on tour he controlled the raising and lowering
of wingtip floats and engine gear and monitored fuel consumption,
oil pressure and engine instrumentation.
Stites describes the famed PBY Catalinas
as the “workhorse of the beginning of World War II.”
After the Navy lost most of its fleet
at Pearl Harbor, it turned to the PBY, he said.
Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, Calif.,
and Navy factories in Philadelphia and New Orleans produced most
of the 3,272 PBYs, and a small number of “Cats” originated
from the Boeing facility in Vancouver, B.C.
The PBY may be one of the most versatile
aircraft to grace the skies, said Jim Siggens, PBY Memorial Foundation
member. The Marine Corps rigged bombs under the PBY’s wings,
converting the seaplanes into bombers for the battle of Guadalcanal,
and the U.S. Army Air Corps used the PBY to ferry “some
of the top brass” from island to island before the Seebees
constructed airstrips.
“This plane has been used by everybody
for pretty much everything,” he said.
Siggens and a NAS Whidbey film specialist
will be in the air filming the PBY’s arrival. The members
of the PBY Memorial Foundation hope to use the footage for a
documentary video.
The plane’s owner, Bud Rude of Spanaway,
said these special “amphibian” airplanes continue to
provide important services today. They fly passengers into remote
destinations and drop water on forest fires.
“It’s very, very unique unto
its own,” he said.
Rude earned his wings as a commercial
pilot in 1948, but is wasn’t until much later that he learned
to fly the PBY from retired Navy pilot Pat Cozier.
“It’s an airplane and a boat
all tangled up in one,” he said with admiration. “To
operate in the open sea - as they call it - there’s very
few planes that can do that. It’s one of the ruggedest planes
every built.”
The PBY-6A that will fly into Oak Harbor
Friday was one of the last PBYs to roll off the production line,
Rude said.
Built in 1945, the last year of PBY production,
it served the Navy until 1956. Leo Demars bought the retired
plane and used it to fight forest fires along the West Coast,
according to “Consolidated PBY Catalina, the Peacetime Record,”
by David Legg.
Rude purchased the PBY “N 85 U”
in 1983 for his company, Flying Fireman, Ltd., based out of Victoria,
B.C. Two years later, he moved the plane to Washington, where
it’s been used to fight fires ever since.
“In 15 years it’s never missed
a fire,” he said of the plane’s impeccable safety record.
Fred Owen, Rude’s longtime friend,
will pilot the PBY during its flight into Crescent Harbor Friday.
“It’s really an honor to fly
it,” Owen said. “It’s full of history.”
Owen never flew the PBY during wartime
combat, but he’s spent thousands of flight hours in the
air as a commercial pilot and battling fires in eastern Washington.
 “I’ve
come full circle,” he said of his aviation career, which
began at the age of 17 when he went to work for Rude as an air
service pilot in Alaska. Owen eventually turned to commercial
planes, but now he’s back to working for Rude as a PBY water
bomber.
The airplane requires a crew of two for
“fire combat,” Owen said, and carries up to 1,700 gallons
of water.
“In many cases, if the fire is close
to the water source, we can make drops every four to six minutes,”
he said. “Land-based planes can’t do that.”
This particular plane may return to the
Seaplane Base for good if the PBY Memorial Foundation can raise
enough money to purchase it. Rude said the plane is for sale,
at a price tag of just under $0.5 million.
The PBY Memorial Foundation has its eye
on this and other PBYs, said Stites, but the major hurdle is
funding.
The foundation has already secured three
historical education grants and is in the application process
for a fourth, he said.
“Historic education is badly needed,”
Stites said. “You don’t think about saving wartime
equipment until it’s too late.”
Stites said the foundation has also searched
for a PBM or PB5M — two other planes that later flew out
of the seaplane base — but there’s none left.
The foundation’s greatest aspiration
is to have a PBY on permanent display to serve as a memorial
to the Seaplane Base and all the crewmen who served on the PBY
from WWII and beyond. It’ll be an honor to have such a display
at NAS Whidbey, he said.
“It’s my old base and it feels
like home.”
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Whidbey News Times
Editorial: History
flies into Oak Harbor Friday
Sep 16
2009, 8:01 AM
Whidbey Islanders won’t want to
miss a piece of flying history Friday.
Look down Saratoga Passage at about 1
p.m., and go back in time approximately 65 years when the PBY
Catalina was a common sight, flying in and out of the Whidbey
Island Naval Air Station Seaplane Base.
The old base property is now a popular
destination for its city boat marina and the Navy Exchange. But
the broad seaplane ramp is still intact, and it will be used
once again as this particular Catalina rolls up onto dry ground
for a few days of public display.
 Arranged
by the PBY Memorial Foundation
with assistance from the Navy, the flying boat called the Catalina
will no doubt bring tears to the eyes of aging islanders who
manned the airplanes on their long, dangerous patrols during
World War II.
The Catalina was responsible for Oak
Harbor’s transition from a hardscrabble farm town to a thriving
Navy town. Farm families went to work building the base and working
in the myriad civilian jobs suddenly available, including keeping
Oak Harbor Bay clear of driftwood as the Catalinas came in for
a watery landing.
To see the sight of a flying Catalina,
and hear the roar that oldtimers still talk about, will be an
historic occasion in Oak Harbor, serving to unite the generations
in a common interest. The airplane is owned by Bud Rude of Deer
Park, and fittingly, it’s still a working aircraft, involved
in putting out forest fires.
The public should particularly appreciate
the PBY Memorial Association, which has done admirable work with
scant resources in recent years, from building a memorial to
the PBY crews to opening a museum at Building 12 on the Seaplane
Base. This event will give the association some well-deserved
attention and boost its efforts to eventually put a PBY Catalina
on permanent display.
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Whidbey News Times
PBY Catalina
to fly into Oak Harbor, land on Crescent Harbor
Sep 08 2009, 3:30 PM
Veteran pilots, crewmen of World War
II, Oak Harbor oldtimers and aviation history buffs will have
“eyes on the sky” over Crescent Harbor at 1 p.m. on
Friday, Sept. 18, as a familiar silhouette emerges from Saratoga
Passage.
A 1940s-vintage PBY Catalina will arrive
and land in Crescent Harbor then taxi up to the Navy Seaplane
Base for the first time in about 65 years.
The 6A model of the PBY is one of the
last flying “Cats” and is in “factory fresh condition”
according to Win Stites, a founder of the PBY Memorial Foundation
in Oak Harbor.
The Catalina is owned by Bud Rude of
Deer Park, Wash. He has piloted PBYs and a wide variety of aircraft
in his lifetime. This particular Catalina has logged an incredible
record in military and private operations, and is currently employed
as a fire fighter, scooping up water from nearby lakes and dropping
its 1,700-gallon “water bomb” on its enemy – the
forest fire.
“The visiting aircraft is truly
a living, flying piece of history,” Stites said. “The
timing of the Catalina fly-in couldn’t be better as it coincides
with the 67th anniversary of NAS Whidbey Island’s commissioning
on Sept. 21, 1942.”
PBY Catalinas were developed in the mid
1930s and produced until 1945 for a total of 3,272 planes; more
than any other Navy seaplane. They were recognized for their
versatility. Accomplishments included protecting convoys on the
Atlantic, spotting the Battleship Bismarck, locating the Japanese
fleet on the way to Midway on June 1942 and rescuing hundreds
of shipwrecked seamen and downed aviators during the dark days
of WWII.
The PBY-6A was the last model produced
by Consolidated Aircraft in San Diego. Modifications to convert
the PBY-6A from a combat seaplane to peacetime firefighting machine,
have allowed it to continue to honorably serve national and state
forestry agencies in the work of saving lives, trees and homes.
The public is invited to attend this
historic event. Once the plane has landed, it will be towed up
the ramp and tied down near the old seaplane hangar, known today
as the Navy Exchange, where it will remain for a few days.
The event, made possible with the help
of the City of Oak Harbor and the Navy, is sponsored by the PBY
Memorial Foundation. Their offices and aviation historical displays
are headquartered at building 12 on the Seaplane Base. The PBY
Memorial Foundation’s goal is to have a PBY Catalina permanently
on display to preserve the legacy of the air station and all
who have flown this aircraft.
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Sep 01 2009
My husband and I visited
the PBY Museum when vacationing at Whidbey Island. We had difficulty
finding their location, and we were so happy this event was part
of our vacation! Speaking with Adolph and Bob and hearing firsthand
insights was truly a highlight of our vacation to Whidbey Island.
Luckily in an outdated
chamber of commerce brochure the phone number for PBY Museum
was listed. They phoned us back and gave us directions.
The PBY Museum will be
our main reason for returning to Whidbey Island with our teenagers
in the future. We are also sharing our experience with friends
and family who are planning to visit also.
Adding to the PBY Museum
to your future brochures will attract services, citizens interested
in history, and patriots alike!
Dottie Abston
Vancouver, Wash.
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