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VMB-613 Squadron Insignia

Marine Bombing Squadron Six-Thirteen

 

MARINE BOMBING SQUADRON SIX-THIRTEEN ASSOCIATION

45 Verano Loop

Santa Fe, NM 87508-3151

(505) 466-6549

Front View of PBJ

5 February 2007

Memo To: All The Late Season Snow Shovellers

Many thanks for the Holiday Greeting cards that were received during the Christmas Season.

NOTES FROM MEMBERS

Doc Protheroe says hello to all.  He gave Lester "Robbie" Robinson a call in December and reported that he sounded much improved compared to the time he spoke with him several months ago.  A year ago January he had a two week stay in the hospital and then two weeks of therapy.  At present he is slow getting around but much improved physically.

Doc also offered some data on the Parris Island platoon photos.  Many years ago countless recruit photos were destroyed in a fire on the island.  Although he did check several times to confirm dates that were missing he cannot at this time remember them.  So if anyone endeavors to get a platoon picture and they tell you that they don't have it, the fire probably took care of it.

Doc also mentioned that thanks to the good work of Robert Yanacek, Bill Semple's son and daughter were able to find a picture of their father's air crew which they had never seen before.  Will Semple, the son, followed the photo back to our Web Site and he had the thrill to find the squadron's history.

Bill Barber sends his Christmas Greetings to all.  All is going well with him and he sent along his e mail address which has been added to our list that appears in the newsletter.

Homer Anderson reports that all is well in the Anderson household and he sent greetings to the gang.

Frank Carthey sends his best wishes for a great '07!  They had a Marine Corps Birthday event in his area which was the first one they have had in many years.

They did have a decent turnout of 23 Marines but only two of World War II vintage.  Some of the attendees were active duty Marines (3), plus two fathers whose sons are fighting in Iraq.

The local Recruiters from a nearby town contributed a box of favors, including t-shirts, lanyard and traveling mugs all with the Marine Corps emblem.

The County Veteran's Service Officer gave them a list of 30 names of Marines that no one on the current committee knew about.  They will be invited to the affair next year.

Frank said that a good time was had by all and plans are to make sure that it develops into a yearly party.

Received a letter from Joel and Eric York who reported that they had made the move to Salt Lake City.  This move allows them to be closer to their two sons.  They are now living in a Senior Citizen complex which they enjoy.

After living in their home in Napa, CA for over 47 seven years they found that they had a lot of furniture plus miscellaneous household and gardening items that they had to dispose of.  This took some time and they were able to dispose of it by sale and outright gifts to neighbors.  Then they made their move.  They send their best regards to all.

Tom Honan sent a Happy New Year to all of the VMB 613'ers.  He reported that all is well with the Honan family.  He said that he was sorry that he was unable to attend the recent reunion but he hopes to make the next one.  Their oldest grandson got married and they had to attend the ceremonies.

John and Dotti Roberson send their regards to all.

Bob Longenberger sends greetings to all 613'ers.  Things have been going well with him especially since the weather has been in the 50/60 degree range, an early spring for a few weeks anyway.

Rose Marie has been having some medical problems which has caused a few hospital trips.  She is again starting to feel up beat so they hope that all that has been bothering her system has been medically overcome.

Received a call from Carmine Nasta who sends his best to all.  He called because he heard that we had some snow in my area and he wanted to know how much came down.  I gave him the varied depths in the neighborhood which averaged out to be about 31 inches.

He said that he had just returned from making a blood donation which he does on a scheduled basis on Staten Island.  He prefers that location rather than going mainland into the city, less confusion.

His area of Staten Island is presently in a heat wave which is really unusual for his area.  So unusual that wild turkeys have made it from the wilderness into civilization.  Not to be undone,  deer, raccoons and even black bears have made it into civilization all looking for food.

He reported that he saw some animals that he never saw before and was going to have check some animal books to endeavor to identify them.

From the wild animals we went on to 613 members whose names just came forth like a computer turned loose.  His memory was really outstanding as he recalled where they worked and then meeting a lot of them at the different reunions.

I received an e mail from my daughter in Rhode Island and she was perplexed about the early summer they were having, temperatures in the 70's, flowers blooming et al.  That reminded me of Doc Protheroe at the other end of the east coast in Florida and his past weather problems.

I called him to see how they were doing and if they anticipated any severe  weather problems this year.  He said that all was well with them and the weather bureau hadn't come out with any hurricane predictions for them to review.

Doc says hello and regards to all.

Foster Cummings sends his regards to all.  He contacted DC Clay after the reunion and found out he had returned home safe and sound.  DC did have some automotive problems on the way home.  He went to the correct dealership and they fixed the problem only to have it reoccur a few hundred miles later.  The second dealer determined that the first dealer didn't complete the repair properly which necessitated the second repair.  The second repair was completed properly and this dealer was going to bill the first dealership for improperly repairing, left a part out, in his haste to complete.

DC's family were happy to see him show up safe and sound after a short delay on the way home.

Foster has also heard from Joe McDonald and Rita and they are both moving about OK.  Rita has been able to get out which makes them extra happy.

Cliff Willis called and said regards to all.  His area of Iowa hasn't had any snow but a lot of severe cold weather.

In the last news letter we had some pictures of El Toro activities which brought memories to him.  His destination after we returned from Kwaj was El Toro where he spent three months on special assignments.

One of the assignments was at the Link Trainer facility where he had to monitor the activities of the students to make sure that they properly performed the assignments.  He did find some deviations and had to report them, but most of the students performed as required.

Heard from John Aymen who sends his regards to all.  He was recently released from the hospital again and is endeavoring to regain a full recovery.  At present he has trouble walking so things go slowly.  He is fighting an infection that doesn't want to go away.

Joe Yakawich says hello and regards to all.  He said he is still hanging in there and has been out walking the dog for some exercise.

He has deferred some of his winter ice fishing due to slipping and falling and injuring his shoulder which is another reason for walking the dog.

His art show is Billings, MT was a great success.  Visitors came from other states such as North Dakota and Wyoming to review his works of art.

He has been to two of his grandsons weddings in fact he had just returned from one when we talked.

New people who saw and liked his artwork, and requested that he paint certain pictures for them which he now does on a scheduled basis so as to maintain the required quality they are looking for.

He also finds time to work on his model airplanes.  He has finished fourteen and still has plans to continue on some new models that he hasn't made before.

The family is OK and doing well, but the weather isn't cooperating.  The temperature keeps falling and they have been warned that it will be 15- 20 degrees below zero the night of the day we spoke.  This means a higher gas bill he said.  Other than that every thing is fine.

Willie Roose send his best to all.  He sent me a picture of Waxie Prankard in full color and I will have to get it touched up for reproduction to all hands in the newsletter.

Willie says that he remains in touch with John Peterson as well as Waxie.  An opportunity to go back a few years on different events that they still remember.

Heard from Jim Packard who says hello and regards to all.  Jim remembered that I was looking for the name of a squadron member and he finally remembered it and sent it along.  The name of the squadron member was Horvath, a squadron Cook, who used to serve them special delicacies (at least when on the island) when  they were assigned to the last Duty Shift of the day.  Just like eating up town he said.

Bob Litzau sends his regards to all.  He has heard from GI Feid and will be writing back to him real soon.  He sent me GI's mail address just to make sure that my records were up to date.

The year 2006 was a very difficult and trying time for the family.  His daughter passed away the Saturday after Thanksgiving after a fifteen month battle with leukemia. 

He said that he would really miss her Marine Corps spirit especially when she sang the Marine Corps Hymn.  She was proud to be the daughter of a Maine and during high school she wore his wigs on her high school sweater.

One of his grandchildren found the VMB 613 Web Page and became fascinated with it.  They found his airplane and have been bombarding him with questions about World War II.  He said that he really enjoyed responding to their questions and  they have continued to come up with real interesting subjects to which he gave a lot of thought in responding.

Heard from Bob Polakowski who says hello and regards to all.  Nothing too new in Wisconsin so far.  The winter weather has been slow in arriving and everyone is waiting for the snow to arrive.  Their temperatures have been high though in comparison to normal winters.  Everyone is waiting for the usual minus zero temperatures to arrive.

To maintain his good health he has been going to the local Mall and walking about a mile and one half a day.  He said that walking inside at this time of year is much better than walking outside.

Vern Beggs sent me an interesting e mail regarding Kwajalein today. Included therewith was some information regarding job opportunities at Kwaj.

Pull down the following address and using your computer knowledge you should be able to get to the listing of jobs available: http://www.krsjv.com/job_ops.html


IN MEMORIAM

Condolences from squadron members:

To the family of James Lewis who died on Tuesday, December 12, 2006.  Jim had been recovering from surgery for several months and appeared to be making some headway in recovering but just couldn't hold on long enough to make the complete recovery.

To the family of Harlan Jason who died on Thursday January 4, 2007.  Harlan had suffered from different ailments during the last ten years, but he spent a very happy last year at the MN Veterans Home in Minneapolis where he passed away peacefully in his sleep.


HEALTH REPORT

Received an update on Stan Richardson who continues in rehab due to his health problems.  He is continuing to hold his own and remains alert which means that he doing pretty good. 

Stan is still physically limited to how far he can walk and really has to watch it so that he can maintain his breath.

He continues to feel stronger and endeavors to try physical activity such as walking by himself (again paying close attention to the walking distance).  A guide remains in contact to assure that he doesn't lose his balance etc.

I am sure that he would like to hear from you folks, his address is as follows:

Stan Richardson

Westchester Gardens Rehabilitation & Care Center

Clearwater, Florida 33761

1-727-789-5143


Don't forget our "MYSTERY PICTURE."  I am still waiting to hear from a few more members who are reviewing the picture.  Several members did respond to my most recent special mailing and they reported that they couldn't recognize the location of where the picture might have been taken.  They also said that they checked their own albums but couldn't establish any connection to the picture.

Could this picture have been taken in Hawaii?  I ask this of pilots because the Squadron War Diary refers to the fact that all pilots received additional training in survival and resisting interrogation while they were at Hawaii.

Please check your memory banks and see if they fit in with the picture.

I did receive a short note from one of the members who found another envelope of notes and some pictures and have been informed that members are still searching their files to see if they can locate any information on the picture.

Thomas Stone Mystery Photograph


WEB NEWS

Robert Yanacek, our Webmaster reported that our website received it's 3-millionith hit in early January.  The amount of visitors viewing our website on a daily basis continues to increase.  It took over a year to attain our first million hits, but at our present rate we project to be at million by the middle of this summer.

Our Webmaster also received inquiries concerning two squadron members.  The first was Timmie Wiltshire who was a friend of VMB 613 navigator Marshall Suther.  Timmie was looking to get in touch with Marshall, unfortunately he passed away a number of years ago.  Any of Marshall's buddies can get in contact with Timmie via e mail at: timmiewiltshire@yahoo.com

Robert also received correspondence from Nancy Tanksley, daughter of deceased member, Alva Mattox.  Nancy wrote inquiring to see if we had any photographs of the type of aircraft in which her father flew.  Robert directed to a number of pages showing what our PBJs looked like, then he assisted her in locating the photograph of her Dad in the photograph.  She was really amazed and deeply moved by out on-line tribute to the members of VMB 613.

Lastly, our Webmaster reported that while conducting research, he discovered a living relative of deceased squadron member John Sintich.  Sintich was our Ordnance Marine that was killed in January 1944 at Cherry Point when he was struck by the propeller of a taxing aircraft.  Robert located John Sintich's niece, Kathryn Wyda of Uniontown, PA who had posted a memorial to her uncle on the National World II website.  Although he has not spoken to Kathryn it is only a matter of time before she discovers the photograph of her uncle on our Website.


Remember that our new fiscal year started in January 2007.  If there isn't an (07) or higher two digit number appearing after your name on the mailing label on your envelope you should mail a check to us made out to VMB 613 in the amount of $20.00 for payment of dues.

Note: (06) denotes 2006, (07) denotes 2007.  Many thanks to the members who have already sent in their dues checks.


SQUADRON MEMORABILIA

THE LIMITED EDITION COLLECTORS ITEM, the squadron logo hat pin is still available for VMB 613 members and friends.  This pin is an inch in diameter and comes in a pewter finish or gold plated with a hand painted finish.  The colors are similar to the colored logo that was mailed out several months ago. Marine Corps Scarlet Red background, Gold Wings, Black Cannon and Maces.  Plus it is made in America.

Pewter finish logo hat pin - $4.50

Hand painted finish logo hat pin - $5.50

A new item is the license plate frame.  It is a composition material (special plastic) with a red background and gold lettering. The top of the frame has U.S. MARINES and the bottom VMB 613 WWII.  The cost is $5.00 INCLUDING PACKING AND SHIPPING.

USMC Heat Transfer Kit.  Has 6 large insignias and 6 small insignias.  Can use on caps, T shirts or any other cloth item.  These kits are $3.95 each.     

We still have the small VMB 613 number plate for the rear window at $5.00 each.  These now can be ordered with either a WHITE or RED background. 

The regular size VMB 613 license plate complete with mounting hardware is now available on special order for $20.00.

We have a limited number of Red VMB 613 caps, the cost is $10.00 each and are being sold on a first-order, first-serve basis.

These memorabilia items can be ordered from Charlie Knapp.

Here is a VMB 613 Special from McGrogan's Patch Design.  A cloth patch five inches in diameter which is the standard WWII size.  This is the VMB 613 squadron logo patch in color.  The cost to VMB 613 members is $3.50 per patch.  Order direct from the following address:

      McGrogran's Patch Design

PO Box 2254

Hayden, ID 83835

Website: http://www.mcgrogans.com

Please continue the notes or letters all of which help to make the monthly letter more interesting. 

This is all for now.  Stay healthy.

Semper Fi,

Signature of Charles Knapp

Charlie 


ROSTER CHANGES

For security reasons, changes to the roster are not available on-line.  Please contact Charlie Knapp for address information.


VMB 613 E-MAIL DIRECTORY LISTING

A directory of e-mail addresses for members is available on-line in a password protected area of the site.  Please contact our webmaster to obtain your password. 

Note: Please check your address on the listing and let me know of any required corrections.  Some messages have been returned with a comment "unknown address."

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