- By admin
- In Chapter News, News
VAHS NNMP Members June Updates
VAHS NNMP Members,
The monthly luncheon for our Chapter this week, 17th, is canceled. However, it seems that conditions are changing and we are planning to resume our meetings in July. As usual, I will send updates each month regarding our meetings.
Please see the attached letter (below) from our Chapter member and VAHS Board Member Nancy Miller.
I hope to see you all soon. Please be careful, wear a mask if you are not vaccinated , and follow the distancing guidance.
GA
—
June 2021
Greetings to the VAHS NN-MP Chapter E-list!
We have just celebrated the Memorial Day weekend, and I’m pleased to inform you that the Mathews County Rotary Club created a project that allows individuals/groups to recognize their heroes by sponsoring a flag among a field of large American Flags located on Main Street, near Moughons Hardware. A beautiful and patriotic display. On behalf of our Northern Neck-Middle Peninsula VAHS Chapter, using personal funds (not VAHS), I have secured one of the flags to honor Mathews residents Al and Carolyn Carpenter. Al was a Navy pilot during the Vietnam war, and was a “guest” in the “Hanoi Hilton” for well over 6 years. It takes no imagination at all to appreciate that when one of our military serves time as a POW (prisoner of war) their whole family pays the toll.
While it is difficult to write those lines above, it is gratifying to relate that Al returned home to build a life celebrating two anniversaries with Carolyn in March each year—the second being the date of his return from Vietnam. Many in our Chapter will recall seeing Al at our Chapter meetings, and hearing about his years piloting ultralights and his support of the Mathews Sherriff’s Department with a twin-engine Air Cam. Among many other personal aviation projects Al has also flown the Dragon Run, a unique forested swamp that bisects the Middle Peninsula and forms the headwaters of the Piankatank River, allowing Teta Kain (active member of the Friends of Dragon Run) to collect one-of-a-kind aerial photos of this nearly inaccessible ecological gem. When we resume our regular Chapter meetings I hope to persuade Al to provide a program with Teta Kain, showing and telling us about their flight capturing the beauty and the mystery of the Dragon Run.
In closing, I want to invite you to join me in supporting the VAHS at the Sustaining Members level. This enhanced tier of membership provides critical resources to the VAHS at a time when the organization is working hard to survive and fulfill its vision “… [the] preservation, education and appreciation of Virginia air and space history for current and future generations.” (Please note: While the latest issue of Virginia Eagles omitted my name from the Sustaining Members list, located just inside the front cover, I have been and remain a Sustaining Member and the next issue will restore those names inadvertently left out.)
VAHS Contact Info: email—vahsonline@gmail.com; on the web—VirginiaAviationHistory.org; and, phone—(540) 376-3265