USAFE's Cold War Recce 2011 Reunion, 23-25 Sep 2011, Fairborn, Ohio, a Success

The Berlin For Lunch Bunch (the 7405th/7580th people 1976-1990 - led by Mike Hushion and Gene Trosterud) hosted the 2011 USAFE Berlin For Lunch Bunch Reunion (all ex-USAFE recce personnel, 1946-1990) from 23-25 September, at the [Dayton] Fairborn/Beavercreek Holiday Inn (same location as the 2008 and 2009 reunion). A great time was had by all of the 56 attendees.

Activities began Saturday with an exceptional buffet breakfast from 0800 to 1030. Slightly overlapping, our unit historian, John Bessette, briefed us on our detailed history from 1946 to 1990 including aircraft from the B-17 and B-50 through the F-100, B-57, C-54, C-118, B-26, C-47, L-20, RB-46, CT-29, C-97, C-7 and finally the C-130. We overtly and covertly collected and reported PHOTINT, IR, ELINT and COMINT individually and, finally, integrated and coordinated. There were Air Medals for individuals and Outstanding Unit Awards. The audience chimed in with their additions and details that lasted for a full and rewarding two hours.

Many of the reunion crowd then drove to the National Museum of the United States Air Force to see the internal and external exhibits and the adjacent World War I Dawn Patrol Rendezvous. This was a bi-annual, magnificent display of uniformed WWI enthusiasts/re-enactors and their flying rebuilt and replica WWI-era mono- and bi-planes, and period automobiles.

Then began the arranged bus service to/from the hotel to the Dayton Art Institute's Oktoberfest with its numerous food stalls (from German bratwurst to Chinese noodles) and both oom-pa and rock bands. (The Dayton Art Museum was also available for a walk through of their remarkable and most representative exhibits.)

That night, John Bessette presented a briefing recently retreived from the British Medmenham Collection. This group are our British counterparts who flew covert aircraft intelligence collection in the Berlin Corridors and Berlin Circle between 1945 and 1990. The briefing included facinating imagery from that era that highlighted the use that the British government made of the exceptional collected intelligence.

The reunion concluded with a final breakfast on Sunday morning. Best of all, Gene Trosterud offered to host the next reunion in 2013 in the southwest (Albuquerque most likely). Plan ahead and plan to come. It's worth your time.