From the Chairman: Hot Topics

As I start to write this article, we are wrapping up Hook 2000 at the Nugget Hotel in Sparks, Nev. It was an absolutely terrific weekend! Unofficial estimates of the number attending is 2,500, with about double the numbers from the previous year attending nearly all events. We stopped counting at 2,000 attendees at the “Bug” Roach Mixer, the majority of whom were in flight suits. ADM Jim Ellis’s keynote speech at the banquet was eloquent and inspiring, the best of its kind I’ve ever heard. You’ll find additional details in Barrett Tillman and Rick Morgan’s report on Hook 2K on Page 61 of this issue.

As previously announced, your President, Lonny McClung, and I are at the end of our second terms and are stepping aside. RADM Fred Lewis is your new Chairman of the Board, and we expect Lonny’s replacement to be confirmed prior to the end of the year. I am confident that our new leaders will provide the sort of leadership our Association needs as we continue to provide the best possible support for carrier and other sea-based Naval Aviation.

Also announced at Hook 2000 was the election of two new board members and the re-election of several others. Re-elected for three-year terms are CAPT Bob “Bullet” Canepa, CAPT Tom Leonard and CAPT Robert “Bubbles” Nordgren. We’re glad to have their experience and talents working for us in the coming years. We welcome RADM Jay B. Yakeley and Marine COL Harry C. Spies, and wish them Godspeed during their three-year term.

A few days ago I received a fine e-mail from CVW-7, CAPT George Dom, in which he said he learned a lifelong lesson from watching the Tailhook Association as it stayed the course and sailed proudly from under the storm clouds into the sunlight. I heartily agree with CAG Dom that there is a powerful lesson here. It’s not really difficult though, especially when you know you are on the right course.

As Lonny said in the Summer 2000 issue (Page 8), we have accomplished our goal of putting the Tailhook Association back on track so as to pass it along to the next generation of active-duty Tailhookers and other sea-based Naval Aviators. We have completed Phase I. But there is still unfinished business. Our Board has voted unanimously to commence Phase II to seek exoneration and to clear the official U.S. Navy records of those unjustly disciplined for the events that occurred at the Hook ’91 convention. Look for more on this topic in coming issues of The Hook.

Thanks to all for your support. It was “flat outstanding,” or in the vernacular, “awesome.” Lonny and I salute you, and we’re very proud to be on the same team with you.

Keep charging, safely.