The guestbook is dedicated to those who served with VP-22 from the end of 1965 through the beginning of 1968.  It includes the return to Barber's Point NAS from the Philippines in 1965, the deployment to Adak from December 1966 to June 1967 and return to the home base in Hawaii thereafter.  The term alumni is used because it's obvious to those who served that our tour during that period was a high level educational experience for us all - many of the comments at the VP Navy web site emphasize this point.

A lot happened during those years, including:

  • the Personnel Office was reorganized to the point where our high admin inspection scores matched those of the rest of the squadron sufficiently to win Patrol Squadron 22 the Navy E in 1966 and the hashmark in 1967;

  • the pride and role modeling our squadron exhibited by creating and leaving a fully functioning slot car race track recreation venue in Adak for other VP crews to enjoy during their six month deployments in that desolate region of God's otherwise green earth;

  • the Six Day Arab-Israel War, which took place as our squadron was returning from the six month Adak deployment in early June 1967.  The entire war could be gleaned from the headlines of the morning newspapers greeting the advance deployment crew as they reported to work in the hangar each morning;

  • in order to staunch the hemorrhaging of career personnel declining to re-enlist, the Navy instituted the new policy of reimbursing single NCOs for food and housing while living in civilian accomodations offbase.  Many of us took advantage of that program during the last six months of 1967 - quite a few of us living in apartments in different buildings of a hillside complex just outside Waipahu;

  • the beginnings of the change in the mood of the public in Hawaii and throughout the rest of the country from pro- to anti-military as a result of what was becoming the quagmire of Vietnam - the tourists and entertainers in Waikiki were friendly before Adak (Dec '66 ~ Jun '67) and not so after we returned to Oahu;

  • finally, at the end of 1967, President Johnson decided to discharge early all military personnel who were scheduled to get out over a several month period - all at the same time in December -- most likely in order to find more money for Vietnam.  A pay raise became effective on December 18th.  The more than a dozen of us discharged on the 18th received the higher rate of pay for the unused leave we sold upon leaving the Navy.  Those discharged before the 18th didn't receive that extra money.  [ It was the attention to details such as those which allowed the Personel Office, under the leadership of Lieutenants Shea, Jordan and Hart and the organizational skills of PN2 Ciriacks, to garner the high marks needed to match the scores of the various flight crews and their ground support teams to enable the entire squadron to attain the Navy E for Efficiency in 1966 and 1967.  Remember all that efficiency and esprit de corps?! ]


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Website link/location/URL: http://VP-22.Jamrent.org