We are sorry to report that Rear Admiral Earl Preston “Buddy” Yates, the first commanding officer of the USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67), died on September 13, 2021, at the age of 97 at his long-time home in Virginia Beach, Virginia. As his obituary states, ‘While he loved every command, the highlight of his career…
The RI Aviation Hall of Fame community is saddened by the deaths of two of our honorees within two weeks of each other: 2009 inductee Retired Navy LCDR Paul Gurnon and 2008 inductee Eugene Bielecki.
On a cool and rainy April morning at the RI Veterans Cemetery, family and friends said goodbye to dedicated volunteer Stan Essex. Virtually single-handedly, Stan restored our “Ted Williams Airplane”, a Korean War era F9F Panther. Earlier, he restored the Hellcat for the Quonset Air Museum. More details of his life and a detailed article…
JFK project leadership and volunteers join the rest of Rhode Island in mourning the July 21st death of former Governor Bruce Sundlun, whose last major project commitment was to lead the local fundraising effort to bring USS John F. Kennedy to Narragansett Bay. Sundlun, a WWII B-17 bomber pilot, was a member of the inaugural…
Retired Navy Captain John Mitchell was the seventh Commanding Officer of USS John F. Kennedy, from November of 1975 to May of 1977. He passed away in Virginia Beach, VA on Memorial Day, May 30. Our sincere condolences go out to his family. Link to his full obituary and the guest book here.
Malcolm Craig was born in Charlotte, Maine and enlisted in the Navy in 1943 at age 16. After receiving navigation training he became a Loran (Long Range Navigation) specialist. (Loran is an accurate radio navigational system used by a ship or aircraft to confirm or to determine its geographical position.) By the time he retired…
