A BIT OF HISTORY: "...I was a PPC in VPB-25 when I returned from service in the Philippines....We had arrived at Tacloban to relieve a PBY squadron a week or so after MacArthur and spent some time, as you are, probably, aware, in several areas before our final work from western Luzon "black catting" to Amoy and the Pescadores...When we were doing daylight patrols to Indo-China from Mindoro, we lost Lt. Stevenson and his crew to what, I believe, was a mechanical misfunction at the extreme western point of his flight, when my crew, inder Tom Perkins, was on another adjacent leg, but too distant at the time of the incident...and with insufficient fuel to return to base...to be able to go their aid...The following story...a really ironic tragedy, if true...was given me by two of my crew almost a year after we had all returned to civilian life when I hosted a small reuion for those of us in the Northeast...all but myself enlisted men. I was told that all of Stevenson's crew except for three enlisted men went to the mainland. The three others were rescued and transported by submarine to Aus-tralia. To be as brief as possible, sometime after the end of the conflict, these three somehow united for a New Year's Eve party near Boston and, here's the irony, were all killed together in an automobile accident that night...As an author, this story has haunted me for years (I was successor to Stevenson as Squadron Communications Oficer), and I have conceived of a fictional representation as being not only dramatic, but, who knows, worth developing for TV, etc.,etc...I do, however, have no knowledge of the adventure(sic), true or not, of the main body of the crew that went into Indo-Chona and, though I would have to do much research on that area myself, thought there might be some starting point available to me already on record...I am deeply grateful for any assistance, even though, frankly, at my age question whether I have yet enough years remaining to complete this task...." Contributed by Maurice Goodman, Jr., Lt., USNR(ret) RiceGood21@aol.com [03APR98]

"VP-25 History Summary Page"

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