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P.O. Box 5344, Petaluma, CA. 94955
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Our April 4, 2026 meeting was held at Don Giovanni's in Mountain View
"World War I Ace Frank Luke Jr."
Presented by JR Williams
Frank Luke Jr. was a U.S. Army Air Service pilot in World War I and he received the Medal of Honor for acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty.
Luke ranks among the top U.S. Army Air Service pilots, second only to Captain Eddie Rickenbacker.
Rickenbacker was credited with 26 victories while Luke's official score was 18.
Williams shared Luke's story in words and pictures from historical documents and books in addition to field research in France and Germany. Luke was born in 1897 to German immigrants
in Phoenix, Arizona. He enlisted in the U.S. Signal Corps in 1917 when he was 20 years old, just five months after
the start of World War I. He received pilot training in Texas and California, and deployed to France for service. Luke had standing orders to
destroy German observation balloons. Luke died six miles behind enemy lines in France on September 29, 1918, and Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix is named in his honor.
Our February 7, 2026 meeting was held at the Moffett Field Museum
"The Improbable Rescue of P-3 Alfa Foxtrot 586"
Speakers Loreen and Matt Gibbons, with SAH President Byron May
Alfa Foxtrot 586, a P-3 Orion turboprop, was conducting a sensitive Cold War mission off the Kamchatka Peninsula on October 26, 1978, when a propeller malfunction
turned into four engine fires and the pilot-Loreen Grigsby's husband, Jerry was forced to ditch into remote, mountainous seas churned by a frigid North Pacific
storm. The aircraft sank within ninety seconds, taking one of the three rafts with it, which left thirteen men to huddle together in the remaining two rafts,
the smaller of which soon began to leak.
The rescue of the crew is nothing short of a miracle, with U.S. aviation assets locating the survivors in rafts, then directing a Soviet fishing trawler to the
location. However, five men, including Jerry Grigsby, perished in the ditching. In the years following Jerry's death, Loreen discovers her inner strength,
resilience, and even new love with one of the accident survivors, Matt Gibbons.
Together, Loreen and Matt Gibbons presented the story of Jerry Grigsby, P-3 Alfa Foxtrot 586, and her remarkable post-accident story along with Matt's story
of survival and his bond with Loreen.
Your 2026 board members as shown here are: Ron Close - Secretary, Michael Stein, Nick Veronico, Roger Cain, Dan Morgan - Treasurer, Byron May - President,
John Jenkins, and Dave Osgood - V.P. (missing was Alice Hendricks)
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