Executive Director’s Report:
San Diego Area Tailhook Ready Room Commissioned
by CAPT J.R. Davis, USN(Ret)
by CAPT J.R. Davis, USN(Ret)
The newest Tailhook Ready Room was established on 19 November at the Tailhook Headquarters as 122 San Diego-area Tailhookers gathered for kickoff activities. The San Diego Tailhook Ready Room joins similar organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington D.C., and NAS Oceana. Taillhookers Jim “Slug” Kidrick, Dave “Possum” Cully, Tom “Bart” Bauer and Tim “Spike” Prendergast presently serve as the group’s interim officers until a formal leadership structure can be put into place.
The San Diego Ready Room has announced that its goal is to stage a number of social events for San Diego-area members throughout the year. The group also plans to sponsor a Tailhook Educational Foundation annual scholarship.
In reflecting on the Ready Room’s initial gathering, Kidrick remarked that there seems to be a lot of support for such an organization in San Diego. “Our first gathering brought together many who support our goals. We hope that Tailhookers from Southern California will check out our program and plans, and join us at future gatherings.”
For further information or to pass along ideas for new ready room activities or events, contact:
Spike Prendergast at timothy.prendergast@lmco.com
or Jim Kidrick at james.kidrick@titan.com
If you’re interested in establishing a ready room near you, Tailhook headquarters can help you get started. Contact any member of the Tailhook staff at (800) 322-4665 for further information.
Though Tailhook 2004 was a huge success and grew in attendance by about 15 percent over the previous years’ gatherings, we continue to plan improvements to the program and its support. One suggestion for improvement was to cut down on the length of lines for food and bar service during the “Bug” Roach Flight Deck Mixer. Close behind in the number of comments received was simplifying the process for table selection at the banquet.
For the coming reunion we will add several self-serve stations to the mix for the “Bug” Roach event. All stations will be marked with colored balloons to help identify the type of service offered.
Additionally, we will plan the banquet table arrangement much earlier, which will allow all preregistrants to visit our Web site and select a table and group of people to sit with.
If you are planning a unit gathering, please consider the advantages of staging your reunion at Tailhook 2005 in Reno. Many organizations have done so in the past and report that it’s “the only way to go.”
The following groups have already committed to meet with us for the coming reunion:
In our continuing effort to improve our reunion, we have recruited a volunteer to include a meaningful program for the spouses attending. Activities might include a golf tournament, a shopping tour or a fashion show for new military fashions, sportswear and street wear. Spouses attending the reunion with other ideas or suggestions are invited to contact: Jan Osterholm, Show Low, Arizona, (928) 537-8521; janoster39@hotmail.com
Our membership increased from 11,349 in January 2004 to the current total of 11,524 as a result of increased active-duty participation and the Tailhook Educational Foundation’s support of 584 NJROTC school memberships. As always, the key to our continued growth is for each member to bring in a new member or “reenlist” one of your buddies who has dropped off the membership rolls. With your help we can achieve our goal of 13,000 members by 2009.
Hook 2005 Reunion Coordinator (Marc Ostertag): (800) 322-4665
Tailhook Educational Foundation (CFC #2965): (800) 269-8267
The Tailhook Ship’s Store: (800) 322-4665
Tailhook Web site: http://www.tailhook.org or http://www.tailhook.net
e-mail: thookassn@aol.com