In July of 1984 while Don Stowe was visiting his brother, John "Herbie" in Angola, Indiana, they drove over to Logansport to "muster-in" with Bob "Sam" Hurley and hoist a few. Arriving back at Herbie's place that evening, they received a phone call from Jack and Jane Farr advising they were coming through in their RV and wanted to stop for a visit. Don and Herbie then invited "Sam Hurley and his wife down for a mini-reunion of VP-8 alumnus and the subject was brought up how nice it would be to hold a big reunion. By Don's third or fourth V.O. and water with a twist, he somehow volunteered to get some action started.
Upon returning to Rhode Island, he wrote eleven alumni; Hank Bostick, George Brantley, Jack Farr, "Sam" Hurley, T.W. Lutze, Cliff Nelson, Claude Slauta, Paul Sonnenberg, Herbie Stowe, Bill Sykes and E.P. Waszkiewicz calling the first meeting on October 19th, 1985 to be held at the Fleet Reserve Branch #42, Davisville, RI. These men flew and drove in from around the country, and from that nucleus was received more names and addresses, and at the next meeting the folwing attended: Jim Curtin, RI, George Brantley, RI, Wally Harmon, FL, Fred Dyrdal RI, Dave Brundage MA, Ed Harrington MA, Rolland "Frenchie" Poirier MA, Claude Slaua RI, Bill Sykes FL, Herbie Stowe IN, Paul Sonnenberg MA, Don Stowe RI, Louis Richard RI, Frank Smashe RI, and Chester Sampson PA. Chester Sampson was designated Interim President, and Don Stowe as Secretary/Teasurer. The site for the reunion was decided somewhere near Quonset Point, RI. From this nucleus, Don received more names and addrsses until by 1986, he had approximately 125 names. The dues for the year were decided at $5 per member to help defray postage and copyng expenses.
With much help from the local members, this group pulled off a short, but fun-filled reunion the third week of September 1986. Eighty-six alumni and/or spouses attended this reunion coming from as far away as Oregon and California.
Starting in mid-afternoon on Friday with a cocktail reception; dinner/dance tht evening. Warwick's Mayor gave a short speech of welcome and presented us with a Declaration tht September 22nd was hereby designated VP-8 Day in the City of Warwick. The business meeting was held Saturday morning and the site of Jacksonville, Florida was chosen for the next reunion two years hence as so many attendees were from that area. Cliff Nelson was elected President, Al Shiller Treasurer and Beth Perry, Secretary.
Henry F. "Hank" Lloyd, Capt. USN/ret, a former VP-8 Commanding Officer gave a talk on history of the squadron and showed a film on patrol planes.
Two buses took the attendees on a tour around the old Quonset Point Naval Base area, Wickford, Jamestown, Newport, and on back around Narragansett Bay to Warwick's Howard Johnson's Hotel where the reunion took place. Although the reunion lasted a short twenty-six hours, everyone had a happy time. Hank Lloyd brought neckties with P3's on them as well as P3 tie-tacks for everyone. Caps were sold and a 24" x 36" watercolor painting of a P2V donated and painted by Beth Perry was raffled off along with a few other things that were donated, including a genuine 1950 bottle of Canadian Club from Newfoundland. These monies not only paid off any debts incurred for the reunion, but left a good balance to turn over to the new administration for their use in expenses for the newsletters and putting on the next reunion.
