The Museum hosted a reunion for members of squadron VA-34, known as the “Blue Blasters,” on Saturday, September 19, 2015. This squadron flew from Intrepid while stationed in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1967, during the Vietnam War.

Reunion guests toured the Museum, enjoyed a lunch reception in the Great Hall and received a behind-the-scenes tour of the Museum’s collections storage facility, where they viewed many items and photographs from their time on board Intrepid.

Among the items viewed by the squadron members was the Triple Stix Log, a diary kept by pilots Bernard Fipp, Brian Walker, Ben Heald (deceased) and Jim VanLiere. These four men shared stateroom 0111 on Intrepid, and the diary recounts their stories of daily life on the ship.

Triple Stix pilots Bernard Fipp, Brian Walker and Jim VanLiere view their old diary with fellow squadron member Dan Snavely.  

Also joining the reunion was Wilson Denver “Denny” Key, whose plane was shot down on November 17, 1967. Key spent six years as a prisoner of war. Key’s oral history interview will be highlighted in the Museum’s upcoming exhibition On the Line: Intrepid and the Vietnam War, opening October 16.

Museum staff had the chance to talk with squadron members and record several oral histories for the Museum’s Oral History Project. Thank you to all the members of VA-34 for their service, and for taking the time to visit the Museum.